eBay

texasbusybees · ‎10-15-2017

Pretty sure I have a scammer buyer.

Just started selling again on ebay, on a regular basis, about 6 months ago.

My "other half" listed a 3 book set for $49 + almost $10 for shipping, or about a third of what other sellers are selling the set for here and on the big A site. I probably wouldn't have put it quite that low, but it's not current info (out of date), a slow mover (would take forever, if ever, to sell at a price near the others), and we could use the money.

The set sold yesterday morning while we were in the process of packing and shipping other sold items. Other half wanted to ship it out right away. Wondering if the buyer was a reseller, I decided to look at their feedback first. So glad I did and I told my other half that we weren't shipping right away in case they cancelled (if only they would).

At that time yesterday, the buyer's most recent 3 feedbacks in a row to others were soft or false positives that said, "Had an issue with the order, but the seller properly handled it."

I just looked again and, to my horror, it now shows that same feedback for the first 9 feedbacks. #10, another soft positive says "Canceled". The next 3 are the same as the first 9 "Had an issue with the order, but the seller properly handled it." (What are the odds that an honest buyer has that many problems with that many sellers in a row?)

Buyer does beaucoups (much) more buying than selling and since they've left over 22,000 feedbacks, I was only able to see some of their neuts and negs on the Toolhaus site. Looks like they give negs for sellers that cancel. They claim item not received a lot and counterfeit a lot.

I was going to ship tomorrow and use Signature Confirmation. Now I'm wondering if I should even ship at all.

Seems to be one of those darned if you do and darned if you don't situations. False positives with major star dings or neutral or a negative no matter if I ship or don't ship. Actually not worried about the feedback. If we get our first neg from this, I'd wear it with pride.

Trying to decide which is better or worse: to lose the item and my money or risk my ebay account with a cancellation?

How bad does it effect your account if you cancel and don't ship an item?

What would you do?

getitright1234 · ‎10-15-2017

@itsjustasprain wrote:
@themagicmountain wrote:
I have a problem with people trying to bully you into shipping
Nonsense. No one is bullying the OP into anything.

@themagicmountain wrote:

One cancellation among all your transactions would not hurt you

Of course it would. Its rediculous to earn yourself a totally self inflicted defect. The next time you get a similar buyer what are you going to do then - ANOTHER bogus cancellation? So that gets you another defect - the next bogus cancellation may be your last.

@themagicmountain wrote:

losing money to a problem buyer would
There are ways to handle slippery buyers and several posters here have already explained it. You can sit here and play what if games all day long but it will acheive nothing.

If the buyer has paid then pack the books really well and ship. If the buyer has a problem with them then tell them they can ship back for a refund. Do not accept partial refund demands. Come back here if the buyer starts complaining about something.

And "this" buyer will have a problem, based on his history, AND the seller will be out the original and return shipping cost.

Do you think, even if this buyer gets the books in as described condition and is forced to open a return because the OP will not do a partial that this buyer will open case of : Does not Fit or I changed my Mine, or I found a better price (all of which would have left him holding the shipping cost.) No, this buyer will go for the Not As Described angle and that means, no lost for this buyer, but a lose for this seller.

itsjustasprain · ‎10-15-2017

getitright1234 wrote:
And "this" buyer will have a problem, based on his history, AND the seller will be out the original and return shipping cost.

This buyer might have aproblem - yes. The seller might be out shipping costs - yes. MIGHT. Your advice to send the buyer a 'package' containing a note saying that you dont want to do business with him - hoping he will file a SNAD for that for that and then take a refund so you keep the books is both ridiculous and underhanded. A few bad feedbacks & buyer complaints & the seller is the one who might not be here anymore.

Seller has a choice between MAYBE gettign a buyer complaint if the books ARE shipped properly - or GAURANTEED to get a dispute & bad feedback & maybe a defect if the books are not shipped.

getitright1234 · ‎10-15-2017

@itsjustasprain wrote:
getitright1234 wrote:
And "this" buyer will have a problem, based on his history, AND the seller will be out the original and return shipping cost.
This buyer might have aproblem - yes. The seller might be out shipping costs - yes. MIGHT. Your advice to send the buyer a 'package' containing a note saying that you dont want to do business with him - hoping he will file a SNAD for that for that and then take a refund so you keep the books is both ridiculous and underhanded. A few bad feedbacks & buyer complaints & the seller is the one who might not be here anymore.

Seller has a choice between MAYBE gettign a buyer complaint if the books ARE shipped properly - or GAURANTEED to get a dispute & bad feedback & maybe a defect if the books are not shipped.

Please re-READ The OP's Title of this Post:

Title: " Buyer's last 13 Feedbacks to Sellers shows Scamming. Should I Ship My Item?"

After reading this title: Might nor MayBe would have never been part of your vocabulary! Its Guaranteed.

itsjustasprain · ‎10-15-2017

getitright1234 wrote:
After reading this title: Might nor MayBe would have never been part of your vocabulary! Its Guaranteed.

The only thing guaranteed would be a defect AND a neg if the OP follows that ridiculous advice of not shipping & instead trying to weasel out of the whole deal. They pay, you ship. IF or WHEN theres a problem then the OP should come back here first.

If the OP doesnt ship and tries to cancel instead then there WILL be a problem and it will be all the OPs problem and the buyer will look like the victim here. It is impossible to follow that ludicrous advice WITHOUT getting into trouble. Why would you want to do that?

getitright1234 · ‎10-15-2017

Oh, the buyer would get his shipment.

themagicmountain · ‎10-17-2017

Threatening the Op that the sky will fall if they cancel a sale is not accurate and is nonsense.

peole post here after losing money and having no options every day

Denying that is just silly. there are often no solutions to some of the scammers tricks and none of the soltions anyone posted here will help when dealing with an experienced scammer who knows the loopholes

Some of the advice here actually will ensure problems, or is incorrect, which seems common

themagicmountain · ‎10-17-2017

packing the books really well and doing everything right does nothing if you are dealing with someone who is willing to lie to get what they want, and exploits loopholes

themagicmountain · ‎10-17-2017

There are people posting advice on boards that seem dedicated to bullying sellers into being victims instead of solving the actual problem lol

themagicmountain · ‎10-17-2017

You seem to find it to be very important to push this seller into being another victim of a scammer

Why

getitright1234 · ‎10-17-2017

@getitright1234 wrote:
Better yet, OP go ahead and send your books to a well documented scammer, lose your item, and your money. And feel good, you have made scamming great again!

OP, answer this question:

1. You are going parchutting, you are the 14th jumper in line, you watch in horror as all 13 preceeding jumpers parchutts' fail to open: Will you jump, hoping yours will open?

Remember, your title: Re: Buyer's last 13 Feedbacks to Sellers shows Scamming. Should I Ship My Item?

Now in all honesty, $49 is less risky than $1000, $2000, $3000. "You" make the decision, just what is too risky for you.

getitright1234 · ‎10-17-2017

I had a buyer message me about an item. Thank God, he messaged me before buying, his feedback was: Horrible. I couldn't get my hands to move fast enough to Block him. Now, had he not have messaged me, I would have felt just as trapped as you. My item was listed at $150, and I too needed my money rather than a headache.

I would have called eBay and asked what were my options. "This" is why we need eBay to better protect its sellers. Your buyer like my buyer had scammer written/tatooed all over him.

texasbusybees · ‎10-17-2017

Well, we mailed out the books yesterday. Had a problem with the address and changing it for an ebay label, a paypal label connected to the ebay order, and also trying to do a stand alone, unconnected paypal label.

Buyer happens to live in the same huge apartment complex (huge midwestern city) that another buyer from 2 mos ago lives. The spelling of the street got condensed, abbreviated when entered on ebay.

I had assumed that was my previous buyer's doing, but have since changed my mind. On the 2 mos ago order, I left the address as it showed since it showed up as valid on the USPS website, zip code (address) look-up. That book got to the right p.o., but was deemed as an undeliverable address. I phoned the usps 800# and through the automated call system, got them to try to re-deliver it again. It didn't work. I called the 800# again to speak to a live customer service rep. (Trying to speak to get connected to a live person is almost impossible.) The rep I spoke to made a statement to the effect that the carriers are trained to not make guesses on addresses, that if not 100% sure, to not deliver.

Anyway, since that street name and experience is committed to memory, I recognized it immediately when I saw it on the 3 book set order. So, I first attempted a paypal label and edited the address with the street name spelled out. The ship button wasn't there after I did that, only the calculate button was there. Once I hit calculate, the original address setting was back in place with the abbreviated street name. I then tried to print a paypal label, not connecting it to the ebay order, but had the same results. So, next I then tried doing an ebay label. I changed the address, but got the same results with the address reverting back, or perhaps it synchronized with the USPS standardization.

I used to use an outside postage program that would allow you to keep an address from "standardizing". Since I don't have that anymore, I felt forced to print a "label" using MS Word and taking it to the usps counter and paying the postage in person.

The abbreviated street address/carrier refusing to "guess" on delivery problem is might be why the buyer doesn't get a bunch of the stuff he/she orders (has left some negs for item not received). Unless another possible theory about the order is correct.

(Other half says it's possible the buyer is a mega dealer that dropships - lists items they don't have with descriptions that don't say much. Then when items sell, they buy from a seller with a cheaper price, having that seller to ship to their customer. This could explain all of the soft/negative positives - say a buyer complains about the condition not being as the seller advertised, then the seller would contact the seller he/she bought it from to complain and ask for a partial or full refund. These sellers really don't care about matching condition when they go to buy from someone else and have it dropshipped to their buyer. If this theory is true, then this buyer is taking it further with ~~asking~~ demanding for partial/full refunds.)

texasbusybees · ‎10-17-2017

"1. You are going parchutting, you are the 14th jumper in line, you watch in horror as all 13 preceeding jumpers parchutts' fail to open: Will you jump, hoping yours will open?"

That's not an accurate, or fair comparison. In your example, a person is obviously risking death. When shipping ebay orders, it's not a life or death risk. Besides, I would think that jumpers # 3 - 13 and probably also jumper # 2 would not have risked jumping after jumper #1's chute didn't open. And another thing - Perhaps I didn't make it clear that this buyer has left a ton of normal positive feedbacks. If I'd only seen soft/false positives (as well as neuts and negs), I wouldn't have shipped.

Yes, we've taken a bigger risk than usual in shipping to this buyer.

I will provide an update, if/when the buyer leaves feedback, or does anything else.

mg152 · ‎10-17-2017

To add to this, do not send any freebies! Many sellers send freebies & that’s a recipe for disaster. There was a post recently where a buyer hated a freebie sent with their order & started a return. Cost the seller time & money over a free item.

Patricia
eBay member for 25 years