eBay

mdign · ‎07-20-2021

Hello, I made a thread about a week ago where I sold a VR headset and the buyer made a false return claim. So I was forced to accept the return, and as you can guess he didn't return my headset. Here's what he put in the box...

What do I do here? I can't afford to lose $1k right now. How do I get my item or my money back?

ted_holland4pn4 · ‎07-21-2021

I'm so sorry this happened to you. It isn't right at all.

Not to be the bearer of bad tidings, but videos of you sealing and opening packages are worth nothing to Ebay or law enforcement. They are too easily faked, and even if not faked, still, nobody knows what actually happened in between the times the camera was on.

Again, I'm so sorry it happened to you.

mdign · ‎07-22-2021

So, good news and bad news.

Good news is eBay luckily decided in my favor and I got some of my money back minus what I lost in shipping the return label.

Bad news is, they also decided in the buyer's favor... So he now has my headset and $1k all free of charge no shipping or anything. This makes me very angry. I am not going to let it go. I will continue filing my complaint/reports with his local PD and I will be flying over to sue him in a small claims court at his city courthouse. I'll make it a vacation.

There are people that are in jail for less than what this man is doing. Based on the fact that he tried to make the weights match I can only assume he's a repeat offender. The only reason people like him keep doing this is because they think they can get away and no one is going to press charges against or go after them. If it means one more scammer in jail and off the market then I'll gladly take the loss of time and money to make sure this man sees the inside of a cell.

ittybitnot · ‎07-22-2021

So, good news and bad news.

@mdign

Thanks for the update. You have come out better than most sellers do, so that is something. Know that once eBay has refunded the buyer (from your proceeds) they have no mechanism for taking that money back. It is indeed unusual for eBay to provide a 'courtesy' credit for that large amount.

It would be interesting to see if your buyer's ID becomes "unregistered" as a result. Chances are that this is NOT their first rodeo. Despite eBay's stance of the 'buyer is always right' and 'we want all buyers, even if they are bad' they are starting to NARU the ones that are costing eBay money once in a while.

a_c_green · ‎07-22-2021

@mdign wrote:
Bad news is, they also decided in the buyer's favor... So he now has my headset and $1k all free of charge no shipping or anything. This makes me very angry. I am not going to let it go. I will continue filing my complaint/reports with his local PD and I will be flying over to sue him in a small claims court at his city courthouse. I'll make it a vacation.

I'm not an attorney, but I don't think he's going to get jail time by losing a civil suit in small claims court. Best you can hope for is to recover the remainder of your lost expenses on the sale.

But aside from that, keep us posted on how this goes. The boards are full of people threatening to sue someone else (or eBay 🙂) Real Soon Now, so please update us on what you have done, rather than what you are planning to do, but you do sound motivated, so good luck.

gjs_16 · ‎07-27-2021

@a_c_green wrote:
@mdign wrote:
Bad news is, they also decided in the buyer's favor... So he now has my headset and $1k all free of charge no shipping or anything. This makes me very angry. I am not going to let it go. I will continue filing my complaint/reports with his local PD and I will be flying over to sue him in a small claims court at his city courthouse. I'll make it a vacation.
I'm not an attorney, but I don't think he's going to get jail time by losing a civil suit in small claims court. Best you can hope for is to recover the remainder of your lost expenses on the sale.

That is correct, jail time can only come as a result of a criminal trial, not a civil one.

emerald1830 · ‎07-27-2021

OP..you have to let this thief know that you are not going to roll over..You need to let him know that you are filing every single report there is..let him feel some fear..it worked for us a zillion years ago when we were sellers. The buyer finally caved in and admitted they lied because they needed to resell and pay their rent.

I didn't care for his excuse..we even mailed copies of all the reports we did on him, including the police report..he apologised so many times and begged us not to pursue the matter..he mailed the rare poster we sold back in the same condition we had mailed it..

Make this scammer feel the upcoming wrath!