Attention Thieves, Scammers and other low lifes A new SCAM! Yay?!

[pius558]

Hope my clickbait worked... Get this, Ebay changed the new feedback extortion policy.. If a buyer says " if you refund me, i won't leave negative feedback"   this now does not count as feedback extortion. I deal in a lot of little wanna be thug kid clothing products, they love to buy the products...then claim random reasons why they don't want it, from either being "fake" etc.. And they always try to scam me. They tell me if i refund them and they don't need to hassle with returning it, they won't leave me negative feedback(because they don't really want to return it, they are fishing for free stuff). I brought this to the attention of the CS reps on twitter.. and here is what they said basically... Unless the buyer requests for something MORE than what they would normally receive in a refund of their purchase price, it's not considered a violation of the feedback extortion policy. I should report them still, but it doesn't warrant a violation and the feedback is not removable. I then had the rep tell me that not to worry about it, feedback isn't important anymore like it used to be, and their seller metrics on best match etc... have nothing to do with seller feedback, so don't panic about it. 

What a load of cra p . 

[ted_200]

Well... I think they're wrong, because a refund without returning anything is something beyond what was offered in your listing. 

In a way, they might have a point though.  Feedback isn't used as anything bad as far as eBay is concerned, and if you refuse these "buyers" and tell them they must return to get a refund, they might return it, they might not (and won't get the money back), and if they neg. you, you can reply that they wanted a refund with no return and you can't do that.  It could serve as a message to future "buyers" that the free item deal isn't operative with you. 

[pius558]

The last time, the moron opened a return request and left it open... i immediately had it escalated in my favor when they didn't return it, and the feedback was removed. hehe

[18704d]

I assume you believe a negative feedback is a Bad thing?

It doesn't have to be, at least not in your scenario.

A seller in such a position can Refuse to get scammed.

And when they get the Neg, Respond to it, like this:

"Im sorry, but I Never Give Refunds Unless the Item is Returned"

Your response to a Neg or two, can be beneficial.

It will Warn future scammers, that you dont' cave in.

jmtcw,

Lynn

[lewisburggold]

Feed back may not matter to ebay anymore and thats fine but it still matters to the buyer that reads them to decide if a seller is worth messing with.  We dont understand why ebay is opening the door for the scammers, all its doing is giving ebay a reputation of a scammer heaven.  Unfortunately that passes on to anyone that does work here and also clears a path to have to deal with these scammers on a day to day basis.  Best regards

[muttlymob]

---

@pius558 wrote:

They tell me if i refund them and they don't need to hassle with returning it, they won't leave me negative feedback(because they don't really want to return it, they are fishing for free stuff). I brought this to the attention of the CS reps on twitter.. and here is what they said basically... Unless the buyer requests for something MORE than what they would normally receive in a refund of their purchase price, it's not considered a violation of the feedback extortion policy. I should report them still, but it doesn't warrant a violation and the feedback is not removable.

---

The actual policy says otherwise.

One of the Not Allowed examples of feedback extortion written into the policy is this:

Refund payment before the buyer ships the item back to the seller.

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/feedback-policies/feedback-extortion-policy?id=4230

[ted_200]

The actual policy says otherwise.

eBay has some "that's what the policy says, but that's not what the policy means" problems.  Is this just a single CS rep. "winging it", or is this an "unwritten policy"...

[doubledz-a2z]

---

@lewisburggold wrote:

Feed back may not matter to ebay anymore and thats fine but it still matters to the buyer 

I don't think most buyers have a clue about feedback.....when they want to make an offer they are quick to point out that they have 100% feedback.  Do they not know they can't have anything else?

---

[hillbillymedia]

---

@muttlymob wrote:

---

@pius558 wrote:

They tell me if i refund them and they don't need to hassle with returning it, they won't leave me negative feedback(because they don't really want to return it, they are fishing for free stuff). I brought this to the attention of the CS reps on twitter.. and here is what they said basically... Unless the buyer requests for something MORE than what they would normally receive in a refund of their purchase price, it's not considered a violation of the feedback extortion policy. I should report them still, but it doesn't warrant a violation and the feedback is not removable.

---

The actual policy says otherwise.

One of the Not Allowed examples of feedback extortion written into the policy is this:

Refund payment before the buyer ships the item back to the seller.

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/feedback-policies/feedback-extortion-policy?id=4230

---

Not to be a "Danny Downer" but what good are ebay policies when ebay decides if, when and for who they choose to enforce them?

[muttlymob]

---

@hillbillymedia wrote:

---

---

Not to be a "Danny Downer" but what good are ebay policies when ebay decides if, when and for who they choose to enforce them?

---

Hi Danny D.!  Nice to meet you.

You and Ted make valid points.  My post wasn't a value judgment, just statement of current written policy.  Well, maybe a little judgmental, by illustrating that what some are told by customer service does not match up with written policy.

[hillbillymedia]

---

@muttlymob wrote:

---

@hillbillymedia wrote:

---

---

Not to be a "Danny Downer" but what good are ebay policies when ebay decides if, when and for who they choose to enforce them?

---

Hi Danny D.!  Nice to meet you.

You and Ted make valid points.  My post wasn't a value judgment, just statement of current written policy.  Well, maybe a little judgmental, by illustrating that what some are told by customer service does not match up with written policy.

---

I know it. It`s become insanity. At the present, I have a customer that filed an INR that tracking has shown delivered. I know "policy" says I`m covered and what "should" happen is that I can click "ask ebay to step in and help" and the INR should get closed in my favor but.....I`m scared to click the button! LOL Maybe I`m just paranoid. I don`t want to have to call CS.

It`s a shame that we have clearly written policies like you posted and we can advise the OP of these policies yet CS is shutting it down and the ONLY thing we can further advise is to keep calling CS.