Buyer blames Ebay Technical Issues for purchase, demands refund :)

[ads*and*ends]

Today was a first for me...I've heard "my kid made this purchase" or variations of "I bought this thinking it was something else" before but today I learned eBay is apparently having "technical issues" that is causing buyers to get charged for an item they never purchased! 

Purchase was made on Monday evening at 10:30. I printed label today (Tuesday) afternoon at around 3:30pm, dropped off at PO within the hour. An hour after dropping it off (and the post office was closed), I get a swarm of messages in a span of 5 minutes demanding a full refund because they didn't purchase it, it's an item they were listing for sale. The last message stated "eBay has a lot of technical issues lately" as to the reason it appeared as purchased.  Zero acknowledgement of personal responsibility.

I immediately profiled them (very low feedback, does sell items, and yes, they did list the exact same item the prior evening)...yet...I immediately concluded that this is not someone (to put it mildly) who knows what they are doing generally in life. I did not respond to them. I'm not at all a newbie here, and I do take the privilege of selling on this site so extremely seriously. Of course I blocked, but the most important thing one can ever do is report in the hopes that it will help prevent it from happening to another seller. I have dealt with the matter. I did all the right things (for me, in the manner I usually handle this sort of thing).

I guess I'm just curious how others typically handle such an issue.  

LOL just realized I should probably be posting this in the technical issues page! 🙂   

(that's a joke, btw!) 

[titipeo]

Item is shipped, not much you can do. They have to wait to file a claim, let the process go its way. Downside is they can easily do a chargeback and get their money. Is the item a valuable one?

[redmodelt]

If it went USPS and has not been delivered, do a call back, which is around $17 if that would pencil out being less costly. The give them a refund and be done with it. 

[ads*and*ends]

It's not a valuable item at all. I don't want or expect a return. I did refund, the issue was settled as far as I'm concerned. I never even responded to their insane messages. My response was in the report I filed about the buyer. 

I'm just curious if there are better options for such a scenario in the future. This issue has been settled, but for future reference...I wanted to seek out other opinions. When you know you're in the right, do you let it escalate to an eBay claim? I have done that in the past and successfully won, because their claim was provably false. Technically, so is this person's claim today. Yet I decided to lose 10 bucks over ever having to find them in my inbox again. Even though I feel I could have just let it escalate. It was just humorous to me, the excuse they gave.

I'm not new at this, I've had random issues before and deal with according...just seeking if there are better, more reasonable options that actually do not end up causing more harm than good.  🙂 

[downunder-61]

Buyers will come up with anything, it's hard to take them seriously LOL.

I have a doc with cut and paste replies for answering on the boards for some topics - for the Accidentally Bid/Bought/Paid I have it filed under:

My kid/bird/cat/dog BID on item

[itscalledapostingid]

....never mind.........

[dbfolks166mt]

     Personally I would never have unilaterally refunded the buyer. You could have told them to refuse the shipment when it arrived and had it returned to you then refunded. Hopefully your actions did not give the buyer the impression that this is a good way to get free stuff. 

     There is also the possibility that the buyer is trying out drop shipping and ordered your item to fill the order for the listing they created the night before. Their account could also have been hacked but most likely it's a new seller than is not 100% sure of what they are doing as a buyer and/or seller. 

[pennysdream]

hehehhehe, Thanks for todays smiles..  

I don't know what happened.  I expect that the buyer used your listing as "sell similar" and clicked to many buttons.  Not realizing what was theirs and what was yours.  I know it seems farfetched. 

[luckythewinner]

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@ads*and*ends wrote:

It's not a valuable item at all. I don't want or expect a return. I did refund, the issue was settled as far as I'm concerned.

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Maybe your buyer is not insane.

a) list your item for sale

b) buy your item

c) get a refund from you

d) ship your item to their buyer 🙂

[sextons-sweet-deals]

I would have not refunded. I would have made them work for it especially since you stated this buyer has listed the same item the night before. Did they also copy your photos?

Another thing that stuck out was after tracking probably showed that the package was in the hands of USPS, they started bombing you with e-mails. 

That is the problem with society today. Thieves and liars! 

People stealing from stores (and on-line) because they know the store employees are told not to stop / confront the person. I understand the store rule, but you just can't let keep happening and then raise the prices claiming you have to due to theft. Hire an off-duty officer. They like making a little money on the side. Just the presence of one, will detour shoplifters. I'm sure the cost of the officer will be cheaper than the losses the stores are hit with by theft, and it will also give the customers a good feeling of security and maybe even spend more time shopping.$$$

I believe eBay and C.C. companies are fighting back on people trying to claim chargebacks. I have a current case and eBay says no worries, we have you covered. There is nothing I need to do. 

[ms.rodriguez*]

You should have told the buyer to accept the package.  Then marked it RETURN to sender without opening it.  Once they ship, and you get an acceptance scan that it's going back to you, you will completely refund.   This is what I did that last time I had a buyer that did not want the item after I shipped it.  At least, they did not lie to me.  Once I saw the tracking coming back to me, I refunded everything except the shipping fee.   In the posters situation, I would have given a full refund because they sound like a pain in the butt buyer.  This buyer needs to be blocked.