@coppedco wrote:
Long story short, I sold my personal macbook air this week and today the buyer received it and almost immediately opened a return request which eBay approved automatically. The reason for his return is "I need 1tb instead of 500gb, ordered by mistake". I been dealing with eBay for more than a decade now and I know about all the different scams and I just know he will try to screw me over. My mistake was shipping it without checking the address first as I usually only ship to residential address just to be safe, specially with expensive items. This buyer used a random big commercial building in MO. I contacted eBay upon the request being opened and asked why was it automatically approved when I thought I could refuse the return if is just because of a change of mind and not something wrong with the item or not as advertised. I know about recording the opening of the package and inspecting the item on camera but I would like to know what else I can do to protect myself. Im also aware of the fake scan returns where the label gets scanned as delivered even if it never was so a video in that situation would not be possible. Thank you in advance for any guidance!!
How can you protect yourself?
There is only one way to absolutely protect yourself as a seller. Don’t sell online. Sell locally for cash. It is too late to mitigate one’s risk on eBay after the sale has taken place. Now you have to play the waiting game to see what you get back.
But that said, so far, the buyer has done nothing untoward about this return request. You offer returns. eBay approved it. Your customer bought the wrong item and honestly admitted as much. So, now he needs to send it back, as per your stated policy.
“…I been dealing with eBay for more than a decade now and I know about all the different scams and I just know he will try to screw me over.”
At this point you have suspicions, not facts. It is counter-productive to view an uncomplicated buyer return request as an automatic scam attempt. Give the buyer the benefit of the doubt—at least until something in their behavior signals fraud. That hasn’t happened here— a scammer always, eventually, tips their hand.
PS—As others have mentioned, video evidence of boxing and/or unboxing is useless for eBay’s purposes. They will not accept or view it. Now, it might have some value in a court of law, or small claims, but not here with eBay.
albertabrightalberta
