eBay

cataliner · ‎07-22-2017

First: Why can't I phone Ebay anymore? This is a complex issue and I don't know what to do about it! It needs immediate attention.

I sold a pair of vintage prescription designer glasses last week to Joe. When I ship an item, I always put a Thank you note inside that includes my phone number. Last night I got a phone call from Fred saying that the glasses were described as NONprescription.

It turned out that the buyer (Fred) had purchased them on Grailed, but phoned my number because of the note. MY buyer (Joe) had tripled the price, lied in his description, and listed them on Grailed, providing Ebay with his buyer's address, not his own.

Apparently Fred has opened a Paypal case against Joe, and Joe has contacted me saying the glasses are NAD.

I really don't know what to do! WHY CAN'T I PHONE EBAY?!

NOW what do I do?

a_c_green · ‎07-23-2017

@jesusrocks3339 wrote:
@a_c_green wrote:
@jesusrocks3339 wrote:
Mail Fraud and Providing Fraudulent Contact Info. Double whammy. No No Joe Joe.
Actually, it was the OP putting their phone number in the package that started this. Joe's contact info with eBay may actually be accurate, but his buyer didn't need to go looking for it, since their package had a phone number already provided, so they dialed it.
I could be wrong, but I would think that changing contact info to someone else's without their permission could be against rules.

No... no... there's no indication that anyone has been changing contact info. When the OP shipped out the purchase, they put their phone number in the package in case of problems. (See the original posting in this thread, [here].) Fred dialed the number, assuming that he'd reach Joe, but got the OP instead, since the OP is the one who shipped the package.

jesusrocks3339 · ‎07-23-2017

@a_c_green wrote:
@jesusrocks3339 wrote:
@a_c_green wrote:
@jesusrocks3339 wrote:
Mail Fraud and Providing Fraudulent Contact Info. Double whammy. No No Joe Joe.
Actually, it was the OP putting their phone number in the package that started this. Joe's contact info with eBay may actually be accurate, but his buyer didn't need to go looking for it, since their package had a phone number already provided, so they dialed it.
I could be wrong, but I would think that changing contact info to someone else's without their permission could be against rules.
No... no... there's no indication that anyone has been changing contact info. When the OP shipped out the purchase, they put their phone number in the package in case of problems. (See the original posting in this thread, [here].) Fred dialed the number, assuming that he'd reach Joe, but got the OP instead, since the OP is the one who shipped the package.

I read the whole thread. My understanding is that Joe changed his address to Fred's when he bought the shades from the OP. The OP may have received fraudulent info from Joe.

I am not alleging any issue with the card/letter inside the package. And I may be wrong about this however I am guessing that eBay would not take kindly to people copying other's listings and selling them on eBay and then changing their contact info back and forth to other people when they have a buyer. Now, if it is to another person on another e-commerce site I do not know how they would respond to that. But it would be interesting to find out.

a_c_green · ‎07-23-2017

jesusrocks3339 wrote:
I read the whole thread. My understanding is that Joe changed his address to Fred's when he bought the shades from the OP. The OP may have received fraudulent info from Joe.

Joe put in Fred's address as the Ship-To: address accompanying his payment. That's perfectly valid. You always ship to the location provided with the PayPal payment, nowhere else. The purchaser does not have to be the recipient, in other words.

jesusrocks3339 wrote:
I am not alleging any issue with the card/letter inside the package. And I may be wrong about this however I am guessing that eBay would not take kindly to people copying other's listings and selling them on eBay and then changing their contact info back and forth to other people when they have a buyer.

But none of that occurred. Joe listed the glasses on another site, apparently, where Fred found them, and then Joe had the OP ship the glasses directly to Fred. I don't know if Joe copied the OP's photos. We know he didn't copy the OP's description, because he wrote his own and got a key detail wrong, saying that they were plain when in fact they were prescription.

If the OP hadn't put a phone number in the package, Fred would have presumably gotten back to Joe somehow (he thought he was, by dialing that phone number) and returned the glasses to Joe.

I don't see any need for the OP to get any further involved with Fred. If the glasses come back in good shape, just refund Joe, and let Joe sort out his own mess from there on.

jesusrocks3339 · ‎07-23-2017

Not allowed

Some examples of activities that aren't allowed include:

Using member contact information obtained from eBay or using any eBay system to offer to sell any listed item outside of eBay

jesusrocks3339 · ‎07-23-2017

Not allowed

Falsifying or omitting contact information such as a name, address, or telephone number

The problem is that this whole scheme was without 2 of the parties involved having been privy to the situation at hand.

It all would have worked out ok in a way if Fred had been happy with his purchase.

When it comes to mostly individual unique items from a private seller (like the OP) this type of deal is too dicey and can run into lots of issues. I think it was a good thing that the OP included her contact info inside the package. Even though it was a bit of a confusion when Fred called, she has access now to how Joe used her info (contact and most likely pictures) in the deal.

The point at which the OP's info was used was when Joe had the item shipped. The OP's address is the RETURN address on the package.

Does that sound like a transaction eBay would approve of?

lacemaker3 · ‎07-23-2017

@cataliner

It appears that "Joe" has relisted the sunglasses on Grailer again, as of yesterday.

It's against their policies to list something for sale that you don't own. There's a Report button on the listing, so you can report the seller to the website. Please do that, to shut the scammer down.

I suspect that "Joe" is playing with a stolen credit card /PayPal account / financial account, so he's playing around with someone else's money and not risking his own. He's just going to skim the profits and run.

retrose1 · ‎07-23-2017

@lacemaker3 wrote:
@cataliner

It appears that "Joe" has relisted the sunglasses on Grailer again, as of yesterday.

It's against their policies to list something for sale that you don't own. There's a Report button on the listing, so you can report the seller to the website. Please do that, to shut the scammer down.

I suspect that "Joe" is playing with a stolen credit card /PayPal account / financial account, so he's playing around with someone else's money and not risking his own. He's just going to skim the profits and run.

I do not think so.

I think that Joe is finding interesting items to list on another site as a middleman dropshipper.

And I think that the OP's return address will show on the paypal transaction when Joe bought from the OP - but Joe's return address will be on the paypal transaction with Fred. The OP's return address will be on the ship label to Fred but should not be on Fred's transaction with Joe.

The fact that the glasses have been relisted, might mean that Joe either found another pair and is hoping for another sucker, OR Fred sent them back to Joe and is hoping to resell them before the case times out.

If I were the OP, I'd just hit return for refund and wait. AND report Joe for relisting ebay merchandise on another site to ebay AND the other site.

(*Bleep*)

cataliner · ‎07-23-2017

What?? How can he do that? He doesn't have the glasses and has opened a case to return them to me! Is he listing them accurately this time?

a_c_green · ‎07-23-2017

@jesusrocks3339 wrote:
Not allowed
Some examples of activities that aren't allowed include:
Using member contact information obtained from eBay or using any eBay system to offer to sell any listed item outside of eBay

Right, but Joe did not use the OP's contact info anywhere, nor did he use the eBay system (any part of it) to sell the glasses to Fred. He just used Fred's address as the Ship-To: location when purchasing the OP's glasses. He did his own listing on Grailed (whatever the heck that is) with himself as the seller.

Look, I'm not defending Joe here; I'm just saying that he was using the OP as his dropshipper, basically. If the buyer had been happy with his purchase, the whole deal would have been successful for all parties. If the OP had not put their own phone number in the package, Fred would have gotten back to Joe (one way or another) with his dissatisfaction; he would not have called the OP.

ersatz_sobriquet · ‎07-23-2017

He even relisted them as not prescription. Some people never learn.

a_c_green · ‎07-23-2017

jesusrocks3339 wrote:
The point at which the OP's info was used was when Joe had the item shipped. The OP's address is the RETURN address on the package.

Does that sound like a transaction eBay would approve of?

Joe wasn't using the OP's info; the OP was. Joe likely had no idea what the OP's exact return address was (beyond maybe their City and ZIP, since Joe can see the tracking), and probably still doesn't know it, since he has never seen the package that went out.

eBay (and PayPal) expect you to ship the purchase to the address provided with the payment. That can be someone else at a different location. The relationship of the buyer to the recipient is irrelevant.

For example, one of my regular buyers always pays for his stuff via a PayPal account with a completely different name on it. (e.g. I get a payment from Bob Jones but the package always goes to Joe Smith.) The eBay ID used for the purchases is just an anonymous label that could belong to either of them. As long as the buyer is happy, it doesn't matter to either me or eBay what kind of connection there is between the recipient and the guy whose account is paying for it.

a_c_green · ‎07-23-2017

@ersatz_sobriquet wrote:
He even relisted them as not prescription. Some people never learn.

No kidding. Still, maybe he's found another seller of that make and model where the lenses are in fact not prescription. You'd think he could find a less complicated way to make a buck...

cataliner · ‎07-23-2017

THE PLOT THICKENS!! I checked on Grailed, and the glasses are relisted -- using my photo, apparently by Joe but in FRED'S NAME!!! I have let Fred know that if he ships the glasses to whomever Joe sells them to, he'll be on the hook for a fraudulent sale. Geez!

tellmemama · ‎07-23-2017

@cataliner wrote:
THE PLOT THICKENS!! I checked on Grailed, and the glasses are relisted -- using my photo, apparently by Joe but in FRED'S NAME!!! I have let Fred know that if he ships the glasses to whomever Joe sells them to, he'll be on the hook for a fraudulent sale. Geez!

I said it before and I'll say it again. Stinks to high heaven.

Joe