eBay

ravenwolfe84 · ‎10-19-2017

I sold an item a couple of days ago to someone who paid with an echeck. I messaged them letting them know that I would ship once the check cleared. They messaged me yesterday asking me to refund them. Obviously I do not have the money yet so I cannot refund. Once the money clears, I will be glad to go through the return process. I have a few questions. First of all, the reason for the return was that she thought she was buying something else. The item she thought she was getting looks completely different from the one she got plus the names are absolutely not similar. I suspect she is having buyers remorse. That's fine but now I am in a pickle. I have a 20% restocking fee on all of my listings to cover my returns when they happen. Would it be wrong to charge that to her? I will have had to hold this item for her for over a week until this situation is cleared up which means I can't sell it in the mean time. It's a bit of a loss. My other question is can she leave me negative feedback once I do the return even though she never had the item in hand and returned prior to shipping? I have a feeling she is going to see the delay in return as my fault even though she paid with a check and my hands are literally tied. I am just a little miffed about the whole thing. I'd hate to get a negative over a non-transaction. Is there any way to avoid her feedback? Any help and advice would be most appreciated.

siayan · ‎10-20-2017

@penguins_dont_fly wrote:
@siayan wrote:
@ryanrobyn wrote:
Feedback doesn't count at all any more so no worries, Every seller and buyer out there know that everyone's perception of things is different and that the whole feedback system is totally unfair when sellers HAVE to leave positive feedback and the buyer doesn't have to. IF you ever get a negative just pass it off as Ebay's fault. Obviously you are a very concerned for your buyers seller.
This is a little bit of a misconception about feedback not counting anymore. When eBay does best match searches one this that is taken into accoung is the sellers track record. What that consists of we don't know but I would bet feedback is in there. So while feedback doesn't affest seller standards it does affect something.

Some may say hogwash but know what else is may in there? Late payments to eBay, star ratings, returns, defects and I am just guessing here (my wild conspiracy theory) but removed feedback.
I agree. Cassini is 5% Keyword Search, 95% Secret Sauce.

They have been altering it since they started it ... And the original developer quit a long time ago. I think that a lot of the "legacy" stuff is still in there (DSRs and Feedback, e.g.)

The other reason why it is still relevant is ... even though it may not be part of the Seller Standards anymore, it is still a seller's public reputation.

We always tell newbie buyers to vet their sellers by looking at feedback ....

But 1 neg not going to prevent me from buying from an otherwise great feedback seller 🙂

They constntly revise it so no one can get an edge on it. One of the interesting things that may affect it is sales. If you ever noticed when you get a sale usualy another one or two follws it. So what is the time frame of sales that affects it. I think it is not months or days but hours.

____________________________________________________________________
Prov 20:14 It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.

starroute-us · ‎10-20-2017

Cancel as buyer requested via ebay and the echeck will be stopped when you select refund.

PP will not/can not refund the buyer twice, as the payment/echeck is tied to the transaction number that has not cleared.
The buyer might have a couple days wait for the echeck cancel to process.

Buyers can not cancel payments, only the buyer can or PP if the echeck bounces twice.
If buyers could cancel payments on purchases that would open a whole can of *worms* to scammers:(

jonathankirkland · ‎10-20-2017

It's very sweet of you to assume this is not a scam but I would say 99.9% chance it is a scam, or at least was an ATTEMPTED scam and now that the buyer realizes you are not naive enough to fall for it they are playing the "innocent mistake" game in order to avoid being on anyone's radar.

Out of curiousity, is this a new account with low or no feedback? Or if they do have feedback, have you looked at it? While it is against ebay policy for sellers to leave buyers negative feedback, and against policy to leave a negative or disparaging remark even as a "positive" feedback, inexperienced sellers who have fallen victims to scams of these unscrupulous buyers still do it all the time. Sometimes you can get a clue from their feedback or if it is a brand new account without any feedback yet.

Additionally, you need to BLOCK this buyer so they cannot simply attempt this again or some other kind of scam with you now that they have your email address.

And just as a note, always be sure to check that the payment has cleared by logging in to Paypal, do not simply go by any message you are sent via email or even what is indicated in ebay.

Good luck!

penguins_dont_fly · ‎10-20-2017

@siayan wrote:
@penguins_dont_fly wrote:
@siayan wrote:
This is a little bit of a misconception about feedback not counting anymore. When eBay does best match searches one this that is taken into accoung is the sellers track record. What that consists of we don't know but I would bet feedback is in there. So while feedback doesn't affest seller standards it does affect something.

Some may say hogwash but know what else is may in there? Late payments to eBay, star ratings, returns, defects and I am just guessing here (my wild conspiracy theory) but removed feedback.
I agree. Cassini is 5% Keyword Search, 95% Secret Sauce.

They have been altering it since they started it ... And the original developer quit a long time ago. I think that a lot of the "legacy" stuff is still in there (DSRs and Feedback, e.g.)

The other reason why it is still relevant is ... even though it may not be part of the Seller Standards anymore, it is still a seller's public reputation.

We always tell newbie buyers to vet their sellers by looking at feedback ....

But 1 neg not going to prevent me from buying from an otherwise great feedback seller 🙂
They constntly revise it so no one can get an edge on it. One of the interesting things that may affect it is sales. If you ever noticed when you get a sale usualy another one or two follws it. So what is the time frame of sales that affects it. I think it is not months or days but hours.

Yep. When I am "on", I am "on" LOL

One sale usually means at least one more within a 2 hour period 🙂

Ex. A set of higher end china (multi qty, separate listings by piece) that has been listed for a while. Most definitely not a "new and hot" item 😉

This actually happened a few months ago:

At 10 AM, a buyer purchases 4 Dinner Plates and 4 Salad Plates.

At 10:45 A different buyer purchases the other 4 Salads and the creamer and sugar.

At 1PM A 3rd buyer purchases the Gravy Boat.

penguins_dont_fly is a Volunteer Community Mentor
Buying and Selling since 2013

dtexley3 · ‎10-20-2017

@ravenwolfe84 wrote:
It does for top rated seller status, unfortunately.
@ryanrobyn wrote:
Feedback doesn't count at all any more so no worries,

No, feedback no longer counts towards top rated seller status.

Member of the Grumpy Old Man crew

ravenwolfe84 · ‎10-20-2017

@dtexley3 wrote:
@ravenwolfe84 wrote:
It does for top rated seller status, unfortunately.
@ryanrobyn wrote:
Feedback doesn't count at all any more so no worries,

No, feedback no longer counts towards top rated seller status.

Thanks! That's good to know!

ravenwolfe84 · ‎10-20-2017

@jonathankirkland wrote:
It's very sweet of you to assume this is not a scam but I would say 99.9% chance it is a scam, or at least was an ATTEMPTED scam and now that the buyer realizes you are not naive enough to fall for it they are playing the "innocent mistake" game in order to avoid being on anyone's radar.

Out of curiousity, is this a new account with low or no feedback? Or if they do have feedback, have you looked at it? While it is against ebay policy for sellers to leave buyers negative feedback, and against policy to leave a negative or disparaging remark even as a "positive" feedback, inexperienced sellers who have fallen victims to scams of these unscrupulous buyers still do it all the time. Sometimes you can get a clue from their feedback or if it is a brand new account without any feedback yet.

Additionally, you need to BLOCK this buyer so they cannot simply attempt this again or some other kind of scam with you now that they have your email address.

And just as a note, always be sure to check that the payment has cleared by logging in to Paypal, do not simply go by any message you are sent via email or even what is indicated in ebay.

Good luck!

That is very possible. But for less than $50? I just don't see that as being worth it at all. I guess to some it is. Ebay can be so scary! lol

ravenwolfe84 · ‎10-20-2017

@penguins_dont_fly wrote:
@ravenwolfe84 wrote:
It felt scammy at first but I honestly think they just didn't want the item any more. They were willing to wait for the check to clear before we did a return. It's possible that the check will never clear. I am pretty sure it's not a scam at this point though.
@ravenwolfe84

You keep using the word "Return".

Sorry! Semantics. I am new to the terminology but I went through the process correctly. 🙂

tunicaslot · ‎10-20-2017

This is not a scam - it would be very easy for a buyer to have two items on their watch list that are similar and inadvertantly buy the wrong one.

Please folks - not everything is a scam here - people do make mistakes - sellers and buyers alike.

ryanrobyn · ‎10-20-2017

Message said:
When eBay does best match searches one this that is taken into account is the sellers track record. What that consists of we don't know but I would bet feedback is in there. So while feedback doesn't affest seller standards it does affect something.
My response: Does the search ever work appropriately anyway. If so then why are so many Chinese items usually shown first shown and often are not shown at all. I have NEVER talked to anyone who uses Best Match. They usually check the lowest price first as Best Match often has very expensive items in it.

I also mentioned that the feedback should not phase the seller so much. What is really important is IF the problem is quickly handled and effectively by the seller. so if even negative be sure to write a rebuttal. So, repeating myself, NOT every buyer has the SAME PERCEPTION OF CONDITION.
I also just called Ebay and spoke to 2 different people who both verified that feedback does not count any more.
LET'S JUST FACE THE FACT THAT EBAY HAS SOME MAJOR PROBLEMS AND FAVORS THE BUYERS.

1786davycrockett · ‎10-20-2017

"But for less than $50? I just don't see that as being worth it at all. I guess to some it is."

The cheapest scam that has happened to me was for only $6.95 -- another one was for only $7.50. There is NO minimum, when it comes to the scammers -- they KNOW that they can get away with it, because eBay does NOT provide sellers with the weapons to protect sellers from scamming. That's why you will NEVER see a buyer with negative feedback -- sellers are FORBIDDEN by eBay to expose scam artists who steal our goods and money!

ravenwolfe84 · ‎10-23-2017

Update:
I initiated a cancelation on last Thursday but the buyer never accepted. The funds just went through today but the buyer has not been in contact with me at all about anything. My new question is since I have a pending cancelation, I am safe to not ship, correct? I have 1 day processing but since the cancelation process has started, I obviously can't ship. I just wait it out, correct? What a horrible buyer this person has been. UGH! I wish they let us negative buyers. This person is literally the definition of a waste of time and space on ebay. 😕

ravenwolfe84 · ‎10-23-2017

PS: Ebay customer service people lied to me no less than 3 times when I called about this. They are literally useless.

castlemagicmemories · ‎10-23-2017

@ravenwolfe84 wrote:
Ok I went in and initiated the return like you suggested. Hopefully this clears it up so that she can get her money back fast and I can relist my item. I just don't want this to tarnish my 100% feedback. That would be really disappointing.

It's not a return; it is a cancellation.

Buyer's request.