Fraudulent buyer scammed by business for a few thousand

[minttech]

I own a small business that sells mostly electronics. We had a buyer saying that a ton of items he purchased were not as described 40 days after delivery. While we did not accept returns, I accepted 14 returns from the same buyer after 40 days as a courtesy. The buyer ended up shipping 10 packages back. Anyway the buyer stole all my items and returned a bunch of worthless iPhone 7. We are talking about receiving 1 x iPhone 7 back instead of an order of 3x iPhone 12 and one iPhone 7 back instead of 2 x iPhone 13, etc. All 10 packages were worthless junk. I am out a bunch of iPhone 12 and 13 and need help. I am down over $4000 and my business can not suffer these losses. Any help will be appreciated and this has never happened to me before so please any guidance. Ebay is not willing to help me even though i showed multiple evidence that I have been robbed.

[sin-n-dex]

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@minttech wrote:

Ebay forced the refund, according to eBay, they do provide courtesy refunds but it comes out of their pocket. They said they can not approve more than one case a year and since there was 10 transactions, they can not do much (not sure if that is accurate but that is what I was told, seems unrealistic). Anyone have any luck with small claims court or US Postal Inspection. 

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If eBay forced the refund, check and keep an eye on your Performance Ratings. You may find a bunch of "cases closed without resolution" which you'll need to deal with to be able to keep selling.

I'm not trying to add insult to injury, but the monetary loss might not be the only bad thing that happened as a result of this fraud.

C.

[reallynicestamps]

Post Office Box?

Mail fraud?

[titipeo]

Have you google the address, what does it look like?

This has the premise of one of those investigative tv shows. 

[minttech]

Address is 175 N Chestnut in Bath PA which is a post office. Thats all. No Po Box number but i assumed it must be a po box as that address is a post office. 

[stephenmorgan]

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@minttech wrote:

Ebay forced the refund, according to eBay, they do provide courtesy refunds but it comes out of their pocket. They said they can not approve more than one case a year and since there was 10 transactions, they can not do much (not sure if that is accurate but that is what I was told, seems unrealistic). Anyone have any luck with small claims court or US Postal Inspection. 

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Since you did not get the items back it seems as though eBay provided 10 courtesy refunds out of your account and then reimbursed you for one.

If eBay decided after you advised them of the fraud to refund the buyer anyway then you may be able to get your money back.   

You mentioned the eBay employee said they could only do one courtesy refund a year.  I don't doubt this to be true because at their level this is all the responsibility they have been allowed.  You must take it above their head and unfortunately, they may not have informed you of this.  This is typical of many companies not to advise you of their appeal process, and you may think there is nothing more that can be done, not true. 

Normally your legal rights are contained in the User Agreement or Terms of Use Agreements, so this is your responsibility to understand you rights.

I would make Police and USPS complaints.  Once I have the reports, I would file a Notice of Dispute to eBay and if not resolved within the allotted time (30 days) I would continue with either a Small Claims Court Hearing or an Arbitration Hearing.

Is there anything else that can demonstrate that you did not receive back the items that were refunded?

The majority of eBay Arbitration Hearings request with the American Arbitration Association are settled without a Hearing.  The reason is because your complaint will get to someone of competent authority within eBay who can and will evaluate the entire set of circumstances and if possible, will reach an agreement with you.

Even if an agreement is not reached you still have the Small Claims Court or Arbitration Hearing to appeal to.

Read about Legal Disputes and Notice of Dispute.

18 Legal Disputes User Agreement | eBay

Notice_of_Dispute.pdf

[lakefor94]

Too bad you were such a nice guy. The scammers usually don't wait until after the 30 day return window. I would bet they maxed out their Credit Card chargeback allotment as well and could not do a chargeback. Actually sounds like sloppy work for a crook.

Your only real move might be small claims court.

The eBay courtesy refund of once a year sounds about right from what I have read here in the past.

[minttech]

Wow, thank you for your time and helping me out. So all the iphone 7 i got back were actually ones i sold the same buyer for $20-$30. In the iPhone 7 listings the serial numbers are displayed in the listing photos. Those items were delivered to the buyer and there was never a return filed for them. The same buyer also bought a ton of iPhone 12s and 13s from me. When shipping back the returns for the iPhone 12 and 13, he returned the iPhone 7s he bought from me instead of the expensive devices. I notified eBay that there is no way I will have the same iPhone 7s i sold him unless he shipped them back instead of my iPhone 12 and 13.

[stephenmorgan]

A Post Office Address without having a Post Office Box, maybe they work at the Post Office or maybe they are using the Post Office to hold mail and they pick it up from the clerk.  Was it sent  General Delivery?  

https://faq.usps.com/s/article/What-is-General-Delivery

What is General Delivery?

General Delivery is a mail service for those without a permanent address, often used as a temporary mailing address.

Jul 14, 2023•Knowledge

Article Number

000006989

Customer Information

General Delivery is a mail service for those without a permanent address, often used as a temporary mailing address. General Delivery is intended to be used for:

• Post Office™ locations without city carrier delivery service.
• Non-city delivery offices for those who prefer not to use Post Office Box service and for whom use of Post Office box, Caller Service, or delivery by letter carrier, would be an unreasonable inconvenience.
• A participating Post Office to serve transients (people who travel extensively) and those without a permanent address.
• Anyone who wants Post Office box service when Post Office boxes are unavailable.

[carolynnq]

Yes, work with the buyer's police department. Depending on what the police do or don't do, you could also sue the buyer in small claims court. For me, for that amount of money, I'd put out the money to pay for an airline ticket to go to the buyer's location.

[minttech]

Yes it is a General Delivery.

[stephenmorgan]

Sounds like you have some good evidence with those serial numbers.  The Listings on eBay are removed after 90 days.  I would now before the Listing is removed print out the entire Listing (web page) that shows all the serial numbers you sold to them previously to demonstrate these are not the phones they were refunded for. 

Did they leave feed backs for the first set of phones?  If so, print these out also.

Along with the Police Report, USPS Report I would include the eBay listing showing the serial numbers of the incorrect phones that were returned and I would take a photo of the phones received back with the serial numbers visible beside something like a News Paper showing the current date.

Since there was two different purchases maybe this was a accident where the buyer selected the wrong listing to request the return and did not realize they would be refunded for the more expensive phones?

I do not know but maybe if you refunded the cost of the cheaper phones they would have been ok with this?  I am not sure?

[minttech]

That was not an issue, i didn't mind refunding the $20 bucks they paid on the iPhone 7 but I don't think a person will make a return for an iPhone 13 and send back an iPhone 7 on different occasions. Some items were sold as lots even such as lot of 2 x iPhone 12 in which i got back a iPhone 7. Lets see what happens, i will update the forum as soon as I have any updates. 

[stephenmorgan]

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@minttech wrote:

Yes it is a General Delivery.

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Wow that makes it more difficult to catch a criminal.  

Long, long before the Internet P.O. Boxes were well known for the massive amount of fraud that occurred with them.  Because of the many scams many Mail Order Business would advertise We Do Not Ship to Post Office Boxes.

The fear of the P.O. Box scams are still with us and eBay recognizes it enough that they will allow you to not ship to Post Office Boxes if you choose.  There is a specific setting in your shipping to select this option.

[stephenmorgan]

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@minttech wrote:

That was not an issue, i didn't mind refunding the $20 bucks they paid on the iPhone 7 but I don't think a person will make a return for an iPhone 13 and send back an iPhone 7 on different occasions. Some items were sold as lots even such as lot of 2 x iPhone 12 in which i got back a iPhone 7. Lets see what happens, i will update the forum as soon as I have any updates. 

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I am just trying to be positive and hopeful, but will all that you have provide so far it seems like this was a well thought out scheme to defraud you. 

It is just too bad eBay just jumps to conclusions and does not allow enough time for seller to demonstrate the fraud.  If you show that you are reporting this as a crime why not put the case on hold for a longer time to allow you to do this?

[minttech]

Thats true and my account has been around for more than 5 years, over 10,000 transactions so i think its pretty obvious I am not on eBay to do any funny business. I am very worried but I will definitely fight this one through.