Buyers abusing returns - I don't know what to do.

[eddys-electronics-store]

I keep losing money on laptops. Buyers receive the item and they start changing parts or returning the same laptop model but defective (Some even change parts and put it back again).

I lost part of my selling privileges due to this issue and at this point I'm just desperate to find a solution to this. Every time a buyer open a request and I check that it was actually the case that the buyer opened the laptop or a part was changed, I lose every case and a lot of money as well.

I don't know what to do and this has been going on for months, please help!

:'(

[klhmdg]

You are selling a high scam item.

The only thing I can offer is to never have eBay step in.

You will loose.

I personally would not sell laptops here.

[dippitydoo]

Sorry to hear you are having such a bum run on Ebay customers!  My advise is to not sell Laptops because they are notorious for scams/returns, etc.  I see that this seems the only item you sell, currently.  Selling a risky item means that a high percentage of your sales are going to be trouble, and as you've learned, Ebay will reprimand you for a high percentage of any of their metrics.   Sorry I don't have any better advice!  Good luck!

-Dippitydoo

[rugerskick]

Heres the reality.

You are getting scammed selling laptops on Ebay.

Ebay won't stop the scammers, or have your back.

The only current solution where you don't get scammed and lose money/altered machines, is to stop selling laptops on Ebay.

I am not happy telling you this for many reasons.  Its the only thing that will work for you.  Sell them locally right now.

[broto_64]

Price them higher, a lot.

[isaiah53-57]

Dude, the writing is on the wall - Seems to me theft is a problem of epic proportion here, especially on items like the ones you sell - Best of luck to you

[eddys-electronics-store]

Thanks a lot for the feedback, I guess I will have to stop completely. I've sold in the past and very successful, specially last year, but this yea it's been really rough. I will give it a try until the end of the year and if doesn't work, I will just stop selling laptops here.

Before it wasn't like this, one or another buyer would just return the item and I was ok since it was inside of the norm for the number of laptops returned, but how It's just painful. 

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice, not what I was expecting but seems like that must be the way to go.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Marketplaces which have had more liberal return policies have had this problem for years. And they have closed buyer accounts when buyer histories have made abuses clear.

Ebay has tilted to the buyers more recently, and has shown no evidence that it is tracking scummy buyers yet.

Laptops are heavily abused, and that is why there are limits on carrier insurance for laptops.

When I sold used electronics on Ebay which had serial numbers, I used a separate listing for each item with the serial number in the listing. I don't know if it repelled scammers but I did not have the substitution problem. Some sellers have security seals on their products and the listings say no returns with a broken security seal.

Whether it helps with keeping the process honest or tells the scammer to buy something else, it can work.

[dbfolks166mt]

     As others mentioned you are selling scam magnet items. There are a LOT better forums to move items like this. You are also located in a large metropolitan area and very close to several others. Based on your feedback I am not sure what your seller metrics look like but your account and seller rating may also be at risk. Look for alternative methods to sell these items there are plenty of other options with less risk. 

[mam98031]

What exactly did the email from Ebay say to you?  Are you sure you got sanctioned for too many INADs?  Reviewing your feedback it appears you also have an issue shipping things out on time.  

I see that for some you responded to you were saying you were away on vaca and didn't put a hold on your sales for the time you would be gone.  The Time Away program does allow you to do that, so it appears you overlooked that setting.

I'm only bringing this up because in order to help you we have to know what the source of the problem is.  I'm not trying to insult you.  Just locate the core problem so you can work on that.

As the others have said, you are selling in a very high risk category, but unfortunately you have found this out the hardway.

Look at your Seller Dashboard.  What are your numbers?

If you wouldn't mind copying the email you got from Ebay into the thread, blacking out any personal information, that would really help.

[gamersbaystore]

I get your frustrations with ebay, but you have buyer after buyer leaving negative feedback stating their items never shipped, were received a month late or not at all, were totally defective,  and claims you refuse to communicate at all.

The reality is you're providing terrible service to your customers and ebay isn't going to tolerate that. You're lucky you still have listings up, as ebay typically terminates your selling privileges over issues like this.

Once you're below standard, you have to get your account back above standard within the allotted time ebay provides, if not, you wont be selling anything here in the future.

I'm aware this platform is loaded with scammers galore, always has been, but ebay is unlikely to help or make exceptions if you're intentionally providing bad service to begin with.

[gamersbaystore]

ebay does eventually take action on problematic buyers, but its usually not until after they've already ripped off and caused nightmares for tons of sellers.

They need to start actively investigating complaints and taking action to stop the behavior when it starts. Buyers who open cases on everything they order should be an obvious red flag.

[aeparts1]

You have some pretty bad negative feedback. You might want to work on preventing shipping delays & improve communication if you want to continue selling on eBay.

I would guess scammers see your negatives & see you as someone they can play games with.

[eddys-electronics-store]

Hi, yes we did solve this issue, but it was a one time occurrence. But yes, we were selling also laptop replacement parts, around 3000 listings all gone due to our selling limits severely reduced. The only solution we have at the moment is to endure this until they decide to increase our limits.

[eddys-electronics-store]

We used to sell replacement parts for laptops that are really hard to find (For example a defective laptop, we found the issue and sold the parts), it's hard to test every part if for example a laptop motherboard is not working. And at those points we noticed the customers even from very high volume of buyers like actual repair stores they would return the defective part starting it was our part that was defective when they just sent us their defective part. We seen motherboards swapped, logic boards, even screen, fans, and cables. We know this because of the photos, and obviously eBay still sided with the buyer regardless of any proof or reason that it is evident or not.

We did have an issue 1 month where our vacation setting did not activate due to our fault or eBay one (we still are not sure why it happened but until today we believe we did what we had to) and regrettably had a lot of orders not shipped. 

It does really upset us a bit saying the reality is we are providing a bad service to customers. We have done partial refunds, shipped additional chargers, provided repair outside of the return windows and even refund outside of the return windows on case by case basis, besides the low prices.

At this point sadly we just accept that this will happen as long as we sell here and at some point we might stop selling just because eBay just want to retain customers and nothing more. That's why we are working on other channels and marketplaces to sell but sad to feel this way with eBay.

We know there are very good customers and well as sellers, but I just hate eBay when a customer can get away with anything and they would not care to do anything unless that customer gets a lot of reports from different sellers. Where a buyer just get a new account and keep scamming if wanted.

We always cared for those who buy from us (And funny enough It feels they are more customers to eBay than us) and sadly, it feels getting items swapped or tampered with, is a trend that will keep going up until something is done.