Help Please! An international buyer opened a return for an item I sold, I accepted the return.

[vintagepl]

Now he closed the return & opened a payment dispute instead. Ebay is putting the funds on hold till I settle. This is after he left a positive feedback. Ebay gives 2 options 1. challenge the dispute & provide proof 2. accept the dispute. This was roughly a $400 item. The return is fine, I would have gotten item back. The dispute does not require him to send the item back. I think after all these years I may have been scammed. Any suggestions? Thank You!!

[ittybitnot]

@vintagepl 

What is the reason for the payment dispute?  Do you only get to upload one jpg file? 

[vintagepl]

not sure why he opened a payment dispute & closed the return. my guess is he keeps the item rather than return. He claims the boots had deep creases & marks on them. They were slightly used & I posted many pics. not sure what you mean by do i only get to upload one jpg file?

[inhawaii]

My opinion/what I would do.

Figure out what it's going to cost you to have the boots shipped back.

Then figure out if you want to spend that much or not.

If so, accept the return and pay for return shipping.

The buyer gets a refund when you get the boots back.

If not, refund the buyer and let him keep the boots.

In a case like this you might be better off giving the buyer a partial refund (if you both can agree on a amount).

Good luck.

[dbfolks166mt · Accepted solution]

     Did these by chance ship through the EIS program? If it is the following set of boots you may have another option. 

     Under the EIS program the seller is protected from NAD's as well as chargebacks and returns. If these sold through EIS this is eBay and the EIS contractors issue to deal with based on the policy. That is if they are standing behind it. Contact eBay customer support through the facebook or twitter connection. 

• When you ship internationally using eBay International Shipping, you're responsible for getting packages safely to the US shipping hub. If a buyer reports that an item was lost or damaged during international shipping or it is damaged at the hub, we'll work with the buyer to resolve the issue. You're protected from:
  • the obligation to refund the buyer
  • eBay Money Back Guarantee cases
  • payment disputes aka Chargebacks.
  • open ‘Not as described’ returns in your service metrics
• Any negative or neutral feedback related to item handling that can be attributed to the eBay International Shipping program during international transit will be removed

[vintagepl]

thank you, No was shipped to Oregon address I'm sure is a middleman shipper. No eis. yes, these are the boots when he opened the return he said creases were too deep & some marks, which I took many pics of. I also mentioned the marks in description. He also sent me a pic of the tongue with a large scratch mark on it, of course that part of tongue is covered in my pics but I know if that was there I would have mentioned it & taken a pic. anyway i agreed to the return, he then closed the return & opened a payment dispute, chargeback. I think in the chargeback case he wouldnt have to return the item? 

[dbfolks166mt]

thank you, No was shipped to Oregon address I'm sure is a middleman shipper. No eis. yes, these are the boots when he opened the return he said creases were too deep & some marks, which I took many pics of. I also mentioned the marks in description. He also sent me a pic of the tongue with a large scratch mark on it, of course that part of tongue is covered in my pics but I know if that was there I would have mentioned it & taken a pic. anyway i agreed to the return, he then closed the return & opened a payment dispute, chargeback. I think in the chargeback case he wouldnt have to return the item? 

     Google the address and see if it is a freight forwarder. There are several in Oregon and forwarders have setup there because it is one of the states that does not have a sales tax. If it is/was a FF the buyer probably realized that he would have lost his MBG coverage under the eBay policy if they used a FF. Unfortunately that policy means nothing in the face of a chargeback. There are some seller protections in place for chargebacks but they are pretty weak and eBay generally waffles on them. 

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-policies/payment-dispute-seller-protections?id=5293 

     I am going to assume the chargeback is for a NAD reason. If so the seller has little chance of winning the chargeback if you dispute it and the CC company will often add a $20 processing fee if you loose the case.  You can accept the dispute and hope the CC company requires the buyer to return the item but most don't. You can also try to fully refund the buyer through eBay although you may not be able to do this since the chargeback is open. If you refund through eBay there is a remote possibility that eBay may honor the chargeback seller protections but it is a remote possibility. 

     Curious what country the buyer is from. You can find this in the order details. 

[vintagepl]

Thank You, such valuable info! Yes it is a freight forwarder to China. Looks like I better gear up for a fight. 

[dbfolks166mt]

Thank You, such valuable info! Yes it is a freight forwarder to China. Looks like I better gear up for a fight. 

     It does not surprise me that the buyer is in China they are one of the top countries when it comes to running scams, which this appears to be. EBay's current functionality will only allow you to block countries you will not ship to, and not those that you will not sell to, since the FF has a US based address, and that is what eBay keys on rather than the buyers registered address, the sale goes through.

     I am familiar with most of the FF's addresses and have canceled a number of sales due to problem with the buyers address since there are countries that I will not sell to despite the eBay policy. EBay frowns on this and I have seldom done it but it is my merchandise and my risk. 

     EBay could put processes in place as many ecommerce companies have done to combat some of the chargeback friendly fraud but they refuse to do so and in reality have no incentive to do so. A chargeback is NOT supposed to be a buyers first go to process to dispute a transaction, they are supposed to use the companies own internal process first but in this situation the buyer probably fully realized they would have lost an eBay NAD case since it went through a FF. 

     Please follow up and advise as to how you handled the chargeback response and whether the CC company made the buyer return the item and/or if you retained the proceeds from the sale.  

[vintagepl]

Will do, Thank You!

[vintagepl]

you asked me to let you know what happened with this chargeback case so here goes. I received the boots back from buyer today but surprise surprise, they are not the boots I sold him.

[dbfolks166mt]

you asked me to let you know what happened with this chargeback case so here goes. I received the boots back from buyer today but surprise surprise, they are not the boots I sold him.

     I am actually surprised you got the item back. With chargebacks this seldom happens. Sadly the fact that the buyer or some customs agent switched out the boots does not surprise me. 

[technoshoptotalwireless]

Screenshot all the messages you have sent to the buyer and  to eBay seller support, report him as an abusive buyer and block him on eBay, also screen shot this, then tell your side of the story, all your points, be as speficific as possible and included all details as possible. Create a collage with all this info, you can do that in paint and save is as PNG. Then do a collage with all the pictures you provided in your listing, include the ones that show the most details. and create also a collage with those pictures.

You do this because the amount of pics you can submit is limited.

I have had almost all chargebacks settled in my favor this way.