Broken or Damaged Item Scam - Seller's Be Warned

[murnet]

If you are selling on eBay, heed this warning.

After many years of selling on eBay, I rarely utilize this platform anymore. I am highly selective on which items to sell due to the "Broken or Damaged Item Scam." It works like this.

A seller purchases an item from you that was correctly described and shipped accordingly. Upon receiving the said item, they need only report it as damaged or not working. In turn, eBay offers only two choices in this situation.

First, you can offer the buyer a refund. They usually request a full refund (including shipping), but they may only ask for fifty to seventy-five percent off on rare occasions. Second, the buyer can return the item, but you, as the seller, are now responsible for any fees, including shipping both ways. If you choose this option, at best, you will receive your original item that is now non-functioning or damaged. At worst, you will receive a complete or partial (parts missing, replaced or removed) substitute.

In response, and if they are caught, eBay may suspend or cancel the perpetrators account, but this does not stop them from creating a brand new one a few moments later.

After losing consumer confidence and, subsequently, significant market share, one would think that eBay would address the issues. After more than a decade of seeing this scam, sellers have been offered no additional protections.

Sellers, you have been warned. 

[katzrul15]

What you describe is not a "new" scam....but it seems to be farther spread across more categories, where before, trended heavily in only a few.

Most Buyers are honest.  Some are not.

Fraud is on an up-tick here and every selling platform.  It is the ugly under-belly to selling online.

Thank goodness most Buyers are honest.

[fab_finds4u]

If you're suspended you can't open another  account.

[divwido]

OK, I've been  warned.  This isn't new, this isn't noteworthy.  It isn't worth the board.

This is a online selling, in a nut shell and we know that.

[domin-tomas]

Sure you can. There is all sorts of ways to get around anything. You just have to be creative and improvise.

[d-k_treasures]

at best, you will receive your original item that is now non-functioning or damaged

At best, you will receive your original item that is still unopened and in perfect condition, because it's really buyers remorse but they didn't want to pay return shipping.

[calntom]

Same on every platform I have sold on.  This is online selling in the 21st century. 

I call them out on the partial refund requests. Sorry you are not pleased with your purchase, please return for refund.  I will only send that exact message twice on a transaction if they keep coming back with messages.   No other response is needed. 

[ryanrobyn]

been going for years but more obvious lately since the claim is now automatically approved by ebay

[kensgiftshop]

@murnet 

It also depends on what type of items you sell.

I like to stay away from any items that like to attract scammers and don't have any problems.

[chapeau-noir]

It would have saved you some writing if you'd actually searched the board on this topic - it's unfortunately nothing new.  In fact, it's not even confined to online sales - I remember people pulling this decades ago in stores.

[disneychristmas]

Will marking your item in a very discreet manner help IF a buyer claims broken and then substitutes your perfect item for their broken item via returns?  Would eBay still side with the fraud buyer?

[dhbookds]

---

@murnet wrote:

If you are selling on eBay, heed this warning.

After many years of selling on eBay, I rarely utilize this platform anymore. I am highly selective on which items to sell due to the "Broken or Damaged Item Scam." It works like this.

A seller purchases an item from you that was correctly described and shipped accordingly. Upon receiving the said item, they need only report it as damaged or not working. In turn, eBay offers only two choices in this situation.

First, you can offer the buyer a refund. They usually request a full refund (including shipping), but they may only ask for fifty to seventy-five percent off on rare occasions. Second, the buyer can return the item, but you, as the seller, are now responsible for any fees, including shipping both ways. If you choose this option, at best, you will receive your original item that is now non-functioning or damaged. At worst, you will receive a complete or partial (parts missing, replaced or removed) substitute.

In response, and if they are caught, eBay may suspend or cancel the perpetrators account, but this does not stop them from creating a brand new one a few moments later.

After losing consumer confidence and, subsequently, significant market share, one would think that eBay would address the issues. After more than a decade of seeing this scam, sellers have been offered no additional protections.

Sellers, you have been warned. 

---

Can it happen?         Yes

Does it happen          Yes

Does it happen enough to scare sellers off?.........probably some, but most of us view it as on line shoplifting which every B & M store has to contend with.....  a quarter in a jar on every GOOD sale will probably cover most of us for the few BAD sales........

[buyselljack2016]

@disneychristmas 

marking help? 

well, only against the inexperienced scammer. They may think you have it covered, but te experienced know that eBay does not care what the seller says.  Buyer says bad, returns whatever they wish, seller refunds, or eBay will do it for them, and apply a seller defect to the account to top it off.

eBay most often sides with the buyer.

[tibmarket]

maybe you can't but i can, it only take a couple minutes

[pargran3]

Thank you for giving a detailed report on how to scam a seller