How to cancel an order when it's clear the buyer is a scam artist and has a long history of it.

[401lawdog]

I am selling my childhood Pokemon Crystal (for Gameboy Color). The buyer who purchased it last night had some interesting feedback about being a scammer, but no negative reviews. One comment strongly encouraged prospective sellers to google the buyer's name and ebay account name. When I did, I came up with the following link , which confirmed my fears. The buyer targets smaller/newer sellers, often those selling old-school Pokemon Gameboy/color products, gets the order, swaps out the motherboard, and sends the game back to the seller claiming that it was not an authentic copy. If the seller refuses a full refund, the buyer just does a chargeback. 

As I am a rather new seller, I do not want to get stuck with negative reviews. I have tried to contact Ebay directly for their blessing to cancel the transaction due to fraud/scam but cannot find anything besides this forum and the automated chat. 

What would you do in this situation? I only have 3 options to cancel (damaged/oos, buyer requested cancel, or buyer's address had issues). I don't believe any of those options accurately reflect the reason for canceling. Any insight/guidance would be appreciated. 

Thank you!

[12345jamesstamps]

Cancel an order...would the buyer leave a negative feedback anyway?...they can I believe.

I would ship it out ASAP.

There are some bad sellers as well as bad buyers out there.

It goes with the territory.

You are here to sell items. You cannot pick and choose who to sell to.

If you can't afford to lose an item(expensive) don't sell it (yet).

Take a photo of package with postage on it and send it in a friendly email to (buyer) that item has been mailed.

Do not leave feedback first...wait for their feedback...then respond.

We have all had bad buyers and returns....and refunds..

I suggest listing cheapo items first as a newer seller.

Good luck.

[buyselljack2016]

Sellers cannot leave a (-) for a buyer.

I cannot tell you what I would do other than to suggest that if I were the seller in this instance.............. the buyer would not be receiving anything.

my account can handle a neg if that were the outcome.

My wallet cannot handle being scammed.

$14.99 I can take a chance.

$149.99 not going to happen.

ETA:    start your "block buyer list" now with the ID as the 1st inductee.

   Also make note of the shipping address in case the block is bypassed in the future.

[bbcardzman]

Buyers on eBay Can Not/Will Not/and Do Not get negative reviews because that is eBay's way of protecting all the bad buyers. Just put buyer asked to cancel or issue with buyers address because anything else will affect your rating. ALSO report the buyer to eBay because this helps weed out these bad buyers (even though they will start a new account and try it again). If you cancel them and send a refund immediately they probably will not try it again on you.

[buyselljack2016]

@bbcardzman 

Asked to cancel when they did not, or problem with buyer's address are now being monitored by eBay and can result in a seller defect.

Those suggestions are no longer a good idea. YMMV

[albertabrightalberta]

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@bbcardzman wrote:

Just put buyer asked to cancel or issue with buyers address because anything else will affect your rating. 

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@bbcardzman (and @401lawdog )

If a buyer is a scammer, do you not think they will know to report a seller who lies about the reason for cancelling an order? Doing that is a quick road to suspension of the seller! 

[klhmdg]

If you really think you are going to get scammed, cancel as Out of Stock.

You will get a defect on your selling account.

Do not relist the item if you use Out of Stock.  

Add the buyer to your BBL -

As a new seller you are a sitting duck for scammers. 

Never sell anything you cannot afford to give away.

[sextons-sweet-deals]

You're saying that the buyer has some feedback responses from sellers calling them a scammer, correct? If so, I would not ship. Reason: issue with address and then block them.

I normally look the buyers' profile. Check their feedback to others and what others left them. Where are located? How long have they been on eBay? Google map / satellite the buyers' address? 

Pokémon is a target for scammers, and you are a young seller.

I would entertain selling locally and accept cash only. There are plenty of Pokémon collectors around. 

[shado-x]

If you really think you are going to get scammed, cancel as Out of Stock.

No.

[gurlcat]

It's unfortunate that your link had to be removed (must have identified the buyer's i.d. which is prohibited in the Community "No naming and shaming" policy) because to me this all hinges on just how bad of a reputation this buyer has.  Firstly I'm curious as to what website even exists where a BUYER could become notorious (a seller, I could picture).  And I'm curious about how many sellers said they had that same awful experience with this buyer. 

If it was just one or two, and that might not be very compelling. And by the way, did you look at their feedback LEFT FOR OTHERS?  Do you they give negatives to sellers, and if so, what comments do they leave?  Also, the positive feedback they have received from sellers -can you see what kinds of items they've gotten them on?  Be sure to sort the feedback by 'most recent'.  If most of their good feedback is for non-Pokemon stuff, like I dunno, lightbulbs, soap, rubber chickens, etc then it's irrelevant, and their less-common good feedback for Pokemon items could be sellers who just give good feedback immediately when they ship, before knowing the guy is a scammer. 

Now, if a BUNCH of sellers told war stories about this guy on whatever website that was, and especially if he has a habit of negging sellers, and doesn't have a lot of positive feedback from Pokemon sellers ..... man I dunno.  I sure wouldn't be keen on sending my lamb for the slaughter. 

The problem is, as a new buyer you can't afford to have an Out Of Stock strike; it would immediately put you into Below Standard status, being such a big percent of your total sales, meaning you would be paying higher fees and I forget what-all disadvantages until you have enough good sales to climb out of Below Standard.  But like others said, if you choose a false reason, a scammer might be aware enough to report you. 

@buyselljack2016I get why you're careful to say IF you were a seller in the OP's shoes you wouldn't ship, but IF you were such a seller, what menu choice would you pick for cancelling? 

[gurlcat]

Ooooo!!  I just had a memory.  TOTALLY unrelated to the OP's conundrum and not advice, of course. 
Years ago, I had a buyer who was such a pig and raised so many red flags before I even shipped her very valuable item, that I got so stressed out I accidentally sent her the wrong thing, a pretty worthless one in fact!  Oh I felt TERRIBLE of course, and swiftly refunded her when she filed a return.   But before that even happened she wrote me really nasty messages, which I reported as abusive, and so then when she left me negative feedback, accusing me of purposely sending her the wrong thing, I requested removal, and since I had already reported her abusive PM's, the neg disappeared very quickly.

[buyselljack2016]

I plead the 5th.

also, not for sure, but if memory serves (sometimes it doesn't) .......  if push comes to shove one OOS will not put a seller below standard. I could look it up, but I think someone else may chime in with policy faster than I can look it up.  (perhaps something about 4 different buyers)

They could chance the other options, but as has been "blue" confirmed..................... there is a watchful eye on those reasons.

[buyselljack2016]

yup @gurlcat ..................Mistakes happen. You never know when you might accidentally grab the wrong envelope and ship a brilliant uncirculated Lincoln penny instead of that crispy $100 bill, or just be so stressed about other things in life that you just get so caught up in other things that...............................

You did not get your widget? I'm so sorry. I'm sure I sent it. I think I sent it. I don't see it. Well now I don't know.

Sorry, here's your refund. If I find it in the future, I will let you know before anyone else.

My last OOS had just fallen off, and last month I got a new one to carry for a year. I was lucky. Did not get negged for either.  One that fell off I actually found and relisted for the buyer. This one is still eluding me. I know I still have it. Just don't know where it is.

[gurlcat]

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@buyselljack2016 wrote:

also, not for sure, but if memory serves (sometimes it doesn't) .......  if push comes to shove one OOS will not put a seller below standard.

 The OP has had their account only 10 months and not sure if they were even selling that whole time.  They've had only 6 sales in the past 90 days, so if you extrapolate that average ... even very generously, like say they've had 50 sales, then one OOS would put them Below Standard. 

[buyselljack2016]

4 different buyers before the hammer drops