Buyer created a scam refund case and ebay went in his favor, Ebay supports scammers!

[migrantfleet]

I am lost for words on how ebay treats sellers. I have sent his guy a perfectly working laptop motherboard, all info was provided in the pictures, product codes and everything, so he decides to scam me by opening a a case where he states i have sent him a wrong motherboard. I declined the refund since all the info was provided perfectly and his claim was ridiculous. Ebay didnt bother to inform me of anything, or how the case was going, they just charged my paypal account, and gave him the money no questions asked. They never gave me any info on why they decided to give him a full refund even thou product description was absolutely correct with pictures with visible product codes. How they decided that it was not correct is beyond me, they never explained, never gave me any chance for defense.

So bottom line is:

My motherboard is gone

They took my money without explanation

They charged me all the fees

I am absolutely outraged, and i demand a deeper look into this case. Just look at this nonsense, i will propably never sell anything on Ebay again.

[tdumonde2014]

When a buyer opens a "Not as Described" case you have 2 choices, 1. Accept the return, send a return shipping label,  ans a full refund once you have the item back or 2. Refuse the return and ebay will refund the buyer using your funds and let the buyer keep the item. Take some time to familiarize yourself with ebay's Money-Back Guarantee. 

[this*old*attic]

You can’t refuse a not as described complaint.

To be honest..... I’m not a techie, but it sounds like you described a 402 but sent an E402. Your buyer suggests there was a discrepancy in your listing that he didn’t catch, and sounds perfectly polite and willing to work with you.

Sorry, this one is on you.

Describe items more carefully and learn the rules. 

[mtgraves7984]

Oh, yeah... I feel your pain. You should've jumped on his offer to return. The eBay MGB will always work in the buyer's favor... and 'No Returns' is not worth the energy to type it.

Experience is something you get just after you need it, no?

[kensgiftshop]

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@migrantfleet wrote:

I declined the refund

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When a buyer files an INAD, Ebay doesn't like it when sellers don't accept the return.

[fashunu4eeuh]

Thank you for sharing your experience. It will undoubtably help others avoid a major pitfall to selling on eBay. Though very sorry you had to learn the rules this way. eBay’s Money Back Guarantee can create problems like yours for sellers.

No Returns generally applies only to buyer’s remorse situations. It is often not in the seller’s best interest to deny a return request because of the way eBay has set up the returns process. It can be easy for a buyer to win a Not As Described case.

You did have a chance to defend yourself and to challenge eBay’s ruling thru the appeals process, but to prevail there is difficult. Providing evidence is often necessary. I’m afraid just restating one's position in denying the return is not enough. At the minimum, you would have needed to refute the buyer’s claim by providing receipts or other documents to bolster your position. It probably didn't help that you were having to negotiate this US system from an international location.

The main method eBay uses to communicate the rules is thru the User Agreement and policy pages. To protect oneself, having a working knowledge of such fine print is important, because eBay assumes each user has that knowledge and agrees to abide by those terms when listing their first item. Not knowing puts a seller at risk in an already risky undertaking. Selling online has its pitfalls and i’m afraid you walked right into a hazard zone.

[threshold.sales.group]

In the OP's defense, the fact that declining the return is even presented as a valid option to choose is unfair (imo).  There should only be two options shown for an SNAD claim - issue an immediate full refund or provide a return label and then issue a refund. 

[jaad_6732]

I try to stay away from technical items when selling online because the majority of people don't take the time to read the description. Its a lot harder to say a coffee mug doesn't work as apposed to a stick of ddr4 ram or a laptop. The best thing you can do as a seller is offer free returns. I was weary of it at first but the reality is you will have to accept 90% of returns back anyway and pay for the return shipping. But as soon as a customer wants to return a item I get on and approve it immediately or do the math to see if its more cost effective to just refund the purchase price or send a new item. Doing it like this will give your customers security in buying from you and increase your sales. In the end i made a lot more money because of repeat buyers and i'm almost positive it moves your listings up in search results. I've also been getting some of the greatest feedback from buyers that i have ever seen. If a buyer takes the time to leave a whole sentence saying how much they loved their product and dont use a autofill line you can rest assured they were exceptionally happy with the product and the service and will almost always come back. On your case the guy did seem polite and willing to work with you so even though it refunded him I would send him a message saying your sorry he was unhappy with his purchase and would like to send him a return label for the product. 99% of the time buyers are honest and as long as your polite they wont hesitate to try to help you out 🙂 

[this*old*attic]

@threshold.sales.group 

I can’t argue with that.

So many sellers get a nasty surprise because they don’t understand the rules.

The return process should just be honest:

Dear Seller,

Your customer has requested a SNAD return on Item xxxxxxx. Returns are automatically granted under these circumstances. Please choose one of the following.

1.) Send a return label and refund upon receipt.

2.) Refund and indicate the customer may keep the item.

Please note - Choice 1 allows you to examine the item. If you find the customer has abused the MBG you may file a report at this time. 

[jojitsusensei]

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@migrantfleet wrote:

I am lost for words on how ebay treats sellers. I have sent his guy a perfectly working laptop motherboard, all info was provided in the pictures, product codes and everything, so he decides to scam me by opening a a case where he states i have sent him a wrong motherboard. I declined the refund since all the info was provided perfectly and his claim was ridiculous. Ebay didnt bother to inform me of anything, or how the case was going, they just charged my paypal account, and gave him the money no questions asked. They never gave me any info on why they decided to give him a full refund even thou product description was absolutely correct with pictures with visible product codes. How they decided that it was not correct is beyond me, they never explained, never gave me any chance for defense.

So bottom line is:

My motherboard is gone

They took my money without explanation

They charged me all the fees

I am absolutely outraged, and i demand a deeper look into this case. Just look at this nonsense, i will propably never sell anything on Ebay again.

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Sorry to hear about your headaches,  a lot of people haven't woke up yet, but they're starting to.

At this rate there won't be any sellers left.

[lacey294]

You can try sending your buyer a message.  Apologize for the mix up and see why the listing was confusing.  Since they've received their refund you'd be grateful if they could send the motherboard back, and would be happy to send them a return label for it.

Your chances are about 50/50 if you have a forgiving buyer.  Doesn't matter if it was their screw up.  In the end, you messed up the return and are going to have to eat something bitter one way or the other.  Welcome to Ebay