eBay

chenx711 · ‎01-26-2023

Just got this buyer's claim that he received two LED lemps instead of a pair of shoes. I NEVER IN MY LIFE have seen the LED lamps he posted pictures of.

My thought now is that if I have accurate USPS weight proof and ask the buyer to weigh the lemps probably it's a easy win.

Any idea?

ebooksdiva · ‎01-26-2023

The buyer filed an INR ? That’s an item not received . All you need to do is upload tracking in the case. Easy win for you.
If the buyer filed NAD (not as described) then you’ll be refunding. Easy win for buyer.

mtgraves7984 · ‎01-26-2023

No 'Not as Described' claim is an easy win. You might want to make sure your buyer hasn't confused you with another seller, first off. If so, they can close the Return.

ebooksdiva · ‎01-26-2023

OP said false INR. Not NAD.

chenx711 · ‎01-26-2023

Sorry I mean NAD (not as described)..

1786davycrockett · ‎01-26-2023

If the buyer filed a "NAD" claim, 99.999% of the time eBay will side with the buyer.

The buyer's NAD leaves the seller SOL.

chenx711 · ‎01-26-2023

He sent pictures of the shipping label which I even wrote the shoes name on. So he did not confuse.

Also, this afternoon he first sent message saying "I received a notice that my item was placed in my mailbox, but my mailbox is too small to put shoes in and nothing was delivered". I replied asking him to check with mailman and neighbours.

He then came back with pictures of the shipping label (wrinkled) on a smaller plastic pacaking bag and said "Here is the item that was delivered to my mail box. This has the same tracking number you gave me and it’s not the shoes. I want my money back, I will be notifying e bay of your scam. Very disappointed".

a_c_green · ‎01-26-2023

@chenx711 wrote:
My thought now is that if I have accurate USPS weight proof and ask the buyer to weigh the lamps probably it's a easy win.

Any idea?

That's not going to lead you anywhere useful, unfortunately, at least as far as an eBay Not As Described dispute is concerned. eBay's position is that they have no way of knowing what was actually sent or received, and so their solution is to enforce a refund, either with or without requiring the buyer to return the item first (seller's choice). If the buyer follows through on his claim, you will receive a pair of LED lamps in return, from what you've described.

If he really does do a return swap, you can still make a police report and mail fraud report (to the USPS), but this will probably not help your chances of avoiding a refund to the buyer.

To answer your question, yes, the USPS will have recorded your package weight and they can retrieve that from their intranet system. If you still have the receipt from the Acceptance scan of your package and it was done over the front counter at your PO, the package weight will be recorded there as well. I'm not sure if that will get you any traction with eBay; it will be more useful in small claims court where it's just you vs. your buyer, if things go that far.

At minimum, get your buyer to confirm that he's not confusing your sale with someone else's. If he's still determined to claim that your package arrived with a couple of cheap lights in it, respond to the dispute by asking him to ship the items back first, after which a refund will be made.

eBay will back you up on your return-for-refund requirement if that's what you choose. He might back down at that point, because returning those lamps instead of what you really sold him is the point where he does actually get into mail fraud. He might decide to just go silent at that point. Good luck.

m60driver · ‎01-26-2023

@chenx711 wrote:
Just got this buyer's claim that he received two LED lemps instead of a pair of shoes. I NEVER IN MY LIFE have seen the LED lamps he posted pictures of.

My thought now is that if I have accurate USPS weight proof and ask the buyer to weigh the lemps probably it's a easy win.

There are no ideas as the buyer would be under no obligation to weigh any items. You are being scammed and that is just part of selling things like shoes that are purchased by younger men. The good news is that your sales seem robust enough to take the inevitable loss. Your best bet will be to refund, block, and move on. Ebay will not help.

albertabrightalberta · ‎01-26-2023

@chenx711 wrote:
He sent pictures of the shipping label which I even wrote the shoes name on. So he did not confuse.

Also, this afternoon he first sent message saying "I received a notice that my item was placed in my mailbox, but my mailbox is too small to put shoes in and nothing was delivered". I replied asking him to check with mailman and neighbours.

He then came back with pictures of the shipping label (wrinkled) on a smaller plastic pacaking bag and said "Here is the item that was delivered to my mail box. This has the same tracking number you gave me and it’s not the shoes. I want my money back, I will be notifying e bay of your scam. Very disappointed".

You aren't saying that a case was opened. Did the buyer actually open a case or was the communication through messages?

If there's no case yet, I'd sit tight.

But if you want to, here's a suggestion for a message to send to the buyer. If he's a scammer, it might make him back off. (It has worked for me.)

Dear buyer,

I'm sorry you didn't receive the shoes I sent to you. If that's the case, there's been some postal fraud, something USPS takes very seriously as it's a federal crime to tamper with US mail. Someone would have switched my item for the LED lights you claim to have received in the package with the shipping label I sent.

Please hold on to all packing materials, shipping label and the item you received because I will open an investigation and the federal investigators will probably want to see those items. I will also give them your contact information as they will need to get speak to you.

Let me know when you want me to contact them to start their investigation.

Sincerely,

Seller

I've found that in the rare cases in which I've had to send similar messages, I either never hear anything again or I do get a "sorry, I made a mistake" message.

albertabrightalberta
Volunteer Community Mentor

chenx711 · ‎01-26-2023

That's very helpful. He did open a return request (I have no return policy) after he "found" it's the LED lights instead of the shoes.

chenx711 · ‎01-26-2023

I get all that "cost of doing business" thing but that's very unfortunate that scammers prevail over honest sellers...

I searched on this forum and saw that some sellers even went as far as going to court to defend themselves. I guess at that point it's not just for the money.

a_c_green · ‎01-26-2023

@chenx711 wrote:
That's very helpful. He did open a return request (I have no return policy) after he "found" it's the LED lights instead of the shoes.

Okay, so accept the return request, so that he has to actually ship... something... back to you in order to receive his refund. You may need to issue a return shipping label through eBay, though you will not be billed for it unless he uses it.

chenx711 · ‎01-26-2023

If he does send back the LED lights, I then report to eBay?

iamalwaysright · ‎01-26-2023

@mtgraves7984 wrote:
No 'Not as Described' claim is an easy win. You might want to make sure your buyer hasn't confused you with another seller, first off. If so, they can close the Return.

Yes this was my immediate thought. You have to hope that your buyer is not purposely scamming you, otherwise you’re toast. Politely ask the buyer for a photo of the outer packaging specifically the postage label. Basically see if it matches what you sent out. If it doesn’t, maybe your buyer will figure this out and admit to the mistake. I’ve had buyers do this before, they weren’t out to get me and honestly made a mistake. Or at least that was their alibi to make them sound innocent 😉

Either way, they backed off.

If they make an excuse of why they can’t provide the photo of the postage label, you can try a scare tactic by saying you’ll be filing a package tampered claim with USPS because that is definitely not what you shipped, so someone must have tampered with your package during delivery. USPS takes these claims VERY SERIOUSLY and they’ll need the buyers full name, email, and contact number and address. Tell them a claim rep will investigate and contact them for a testimony to verify and put their address on a list to make sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen to them again. USPS will monitor packages going to their address much more closely now.

They might back off here if they are intentionally scamming you because they don’t want to raise a flag with USPS.