eBay

numisnorway · ‎02-03-2021

Sold a $500 coin to a seller in the US.

At first he gave me several lowball offers which i declined, then he offered a slightly higher amount and requested that i send it to his parents in Germany.. which i obviously didn't.. i rejected that offer as well.

His reasoning for lowballing was "because of the condition of the coin" which was stated and clearly pictured in the listing.

Suddenly out of the blue he buys the coin for my buy it now price and i send it to him in the US.. which in retrospect i shouldn't considering the many red flags, but i had my money and i had a shipping address.

Coin got sent, arrived in the US and after probably not even five minutes after getting the coin he opens a "INAD" and want's to return the coin which i obviously have to accept. Another red flag is that he paid for return shipping himself.

The reason for the return? The coin was not perfect and the capsule had opened during transit.

This got me thinking i was being scammed because the coin was advertised as not being perfect in the listing so that is something he should know, especially after having gone as far as given me lowball offers because of the condition. This is a $1000 coin in mint condition mind you, I've sold several of these in the past.

Fast forward to today and i get the return in the post.

Suffice to say i will not be sticking this USB stick into my computer since i suspect it will have some sort of root-level access virus that will give the scammer control over my computer.

I don't expect eBay to give a **bleep** so i am venting here instead.

Been thinking a lot more about closing down my store lately.

ecohandzonline · ‎02-03-2021

I am not sure if CS will help you or not to you, but I am it sure sounds like keep it a trying

thanks

numisnorway · ‎02-03-2021

@sea_cow1 wrote:
Try requesting The Fraud and Protection department. Do a little research to see if he has done this to any other sellers. Just keep calling and requesting. I had a similar issue, it took a month to resolve for a $600 watch, but ebay made good on it. The specifics were a little different, the buyer claimed they received an empty box.

Google the address you sent it to, see if it was a mail forwarding company, or an actual address. You need evidence and try to find as much as you can. Search the Buyer, see if he has purchased any other high value coins and contact the other sellers to see if they had similar situations. No guarantee, but sometimes you can find someone on ebay that can help. Also try to use the ebay twitter page, they seem to dig in a bit more, or will tell you if you have any options.

Good luck, don't give up yet.

It's a private individual. Several people with the same name, account is 6 years old, little feedback and has only bought cheap items from what i can tell. I thought about it.. looked for other coin sellers in his history, but found none.

numisnorway · ‎02-03-2021

@donsdetour wrote:
Do report the buyer for returns abuse: nothing of course will happen that helps you: but these fools keep dong such and if it is on file with eBay; they eventually will lose that return privalage...

Already done, problem is that he probably has a bunch of other accounts from way back that he has built up to some credibility.

numisnorway · ‎02-03-2021

@johgrabski_0 wrote:
I don't get the point of these scams when the seller has an address and name that they can report to authorities

In international transactions there is little that can be done.

numisnorway · ‎02-03-2021

A representative from eBay came back to me and gave me the "need to file a police report" however what relevance does that have for somebody that is located in Norway and got scammed by a US citizen? Will the ebay representative be able to read what the report is about and will even the Norwegian Police acknowledge a crime that happened in the United States?

futuremarine2011 · ‎02-03-2021

sorry this happened to you. im of the adage, where theres smoke, theres fire. i would have blocked him as soon as he lowballed me on the coin. again, sorry

slippinjimmy · ‎02-03-2021

@numisnorway wrote:
A representative from eBay came back to me and gave me the "need to file a police report" however what relevance does that have for somebody that is located in Norway and got scammed by a US citizen? Will the ebay representative be able to read what the report is about and will even the Norwegian Police acknowledge a crime that happened in the United States?

eBay doesn't really read the report BUT it establishes credibility for you because in the US and I imagine Norway as well filing a false police report is a criminal offence. There is no law against lying to eBay so anyone, buyer or seller can do it with impunity.

In many places you can file these police reports online and you would be given a case number which would confirm you made a sworn statement. You can probably file one with the local police of the buyer.

*smedley* · ‎02-03-2021

@slippinjimmy wrote:

if your userid is IRT Mr. Goodman... loving it...

numisnorway · ‎02-03-2021

@slippinjimmy wrote:
eBay doesn't really read the report BUT it establishes credibility for you because in the US and I imagine Norway as well filing a false police report is a criminal offence. There is no law against lying to eBay so anyone, buyer or seller can do it with impunity.

Not in Norway.. or i can, but just not for these types of swindles. I can however report my bicycle stolen LOL, they even had a big box i could click on for that particular type crime.

No law against lying that is correct, however the seller does not have any benefit in doing so.

numisnorway · ‎02-03-2021

@futuremarine2011 wrote:
sorry this happened to you. im of the adage, where theres smoke, theres fire. i would have blocked him as soon as he lowballed me on the coin. again, sorry

Indeed i should have, but then again there are many strange personalities out there, but it was in a way a forewarning.

eizner23 · ‎02-04-2021

This IS getting out of control. Like others say eBay needs a facility to process and scrutinize returned items since they have this "no questions asked return it for whatever reason let local law enforcement handle mail fraud lose hours of time getting money back we cant help you- policy". We are not big box stores. eBay will turn into a dollar store nobody will want to risk losing high value items to these scammers.

dryophelia · ‎02-04-2021

@eizner23

How much more in fees would you be willing to pay for this service?

Will there be facilities across the world?

eBay IS a Big Business. By using the platform, we allow eBay to make the big decisions required of a big business.

No one asked, but I am looking forward to the day when having feedback default sorted by relevance seems right.

pokemoncatches · ‎02-04-2021

My consistent thought at this point is what does eBay offer for the additional fees over Shopify? The customer base obviously, but its nearing not being worth it with the mountain of obstacles to sell here. eBay is the worst business partner in ecommerce no doubt.