Buyer sending back fake watch in place of the $175 watch that was shipped!

[gear-house]

Just wondering how everyone else deals with this garbage when buyers open a return and then sends back some fake junk to steal your item? I am just sick of it.

I sent a buyer a brand new Emporio Armani automatic watch, model AR1980, worth about $180, and he's showing a picture of some dirty fake watch on the return details page that I'm sure he's planning on sending back to me.

SO?? Now what?!? Buyers have always been successful with this in the past, has anything changed? Or is this just it? This is just how they can steal whatever they want whenever they want? 

Below are pictures of the return details, actual photos of the watch I sent him (they aren't stock photos), and his upload of the fake watch he's planning on sending back to me.

[luckythewinner]

On eBay, any buyer can steal any item from any seller at any time by filing a fraudulent dispute.

Unless the buyer makes a mistake in the process, he will likely get away with it.

[1tuna]

I ship 2000 watches and parts every year worth $150,000

the switcheroo is rare for me.in fact it has only happened once in 20 years

take 1% of what you sell every year and that is an acceptable loss rate

my loss rate is maybe half a percent nowadays

I used to lose plenty of international packages but the tracking is much better that it used to be

I dont even lose $1000 a year anymore

there is not much you can do as far as return trickery

half of my watches are purchased by 25% of my repeat customers who like to buy lots of used watches

sorry this has happened to you

@gear-house 

[gear-house]

Just an update, the watch returned isn't actually fake it's just a very old and very used watch of a different model. The buyer was sent Emporio Armani model AR1980, and he returned this very used AR0647. You can see he even transferred over the tag from the watch I sent him to this old used watch. 

[couturehomecollection]

That’s horrible. I’m so sorry this happened to you. The condition of the return makes it virtually worthless. I woud hope eBay would have your back on this. I’m sure scammers read the complaints in the forums to devise their trickery and to find out what they can get away with. It’s too bad there are so many bad stories of how eBay is not supporting their sellers and scammers are getting the upper hand across the platform. I despise lowly scammers. 😡🤬🫣 They may think they are getting ahead with this shortcut from honest and hard work. I truly believe it will come back on them tenfold. 

[gear-house]

So, here's the final outcome. I refunded the buyer 50% as was suggested, and within a minute the buyer immediately submitted the case to eBay's customer support (as if he was waiting for this today). It appears that eBay refunded the buyer the other half (so the scammer gets a full refund), and I refunded half. eBay says I was found "not at fault". It's just a bad situation but I appreciate eBay not charging me for the other 50%, that's helpful and it takes some of the sting out of the loss. It does seem that buyers can use this tactic at will to steal whatever they want, and I'm not sure what can be done about it 😞

[gear-house]

I agree, it's rare. It's actually surprising considering how successful scammers are with it. 

[wastingtime101]

"I want eBay to step in to stop the seller from filing any fraudulent cases"

😂

[gear-house]

Can't believe I already have another one of these scams, now from a buyer in Florida (like, where else). Doing the same switch and moving the tags from the watch I sent over to some used watch, saying "ARRIVED DAMAGED" as the reason for return. 

[needawatchnow]

eBay doesn't care either. I can spot many fake G-Shock watches by their pictures and almost always when I have them in my hand. I reported 7 sellers and 9 watches which they told me they would be taken down immediately. They took down one. The others are still up. They're also shipping them through the USPS which is another felony.  I began studying counterfeit G-Shock watches ever since I bought one off eBay unknowingly and knew it was counterfeit the second it was in my hand