My experience with the ebay dispute team

[anwag75]

Hello, I wanted to share my experience so you can tell me what I did wrong but I believe ebay messed up here.

I sold a development board on ebay and I immediately had issues with the buyer, he claimed he didn't receive my item when the tracking already showed it was delivered. I won the dispute since the tracking proved it but then he opened another one for item not working.

He claimed now that the item wasn't working, now as a seller i only have the option to accept the return so I offered to provide funds. Being from Italy and having sent the item to the usa I sent him a message saying if he could buy a label locally and to let me know the cost so i could reimburse him. 

The buyer replied that the item is in mexico so he shipped the item from usa to mexico and then claimed it wasn't working. I was still trying to get it back but the buyer simply let the dispute timer run out despite me sending him messages every day to get it fixed.

as a result i lost the dispute, I tried to appeal the case and still lost it.

Now doesn't ebay say that one of my options is provide funds to the buyer so he can buy it locally?

my ebay message to the buyer on september 13th was

'Hello, return to adapter please and then I will take care of the refund.

My local parcel shop doesn't allow me to ship from the USA to italy'

on september 14th he said that the item is in mexico. doesn't ebay offer any sort of protection in this case? there's literrally written by him in the chat that the item is in mexico and i shipped it to the usa.

I'm pretty disappointed, i tried to send an email to the ebay dispute team 3 times, i called ebay 3 times and  usually i'm supposed to get an answer in 48/72h but it's been weeks. ebay chat agents also say I should have won the case but they can't do anything because the case has been appealed already except ask me to report the buyer or to send an email to the dispute team.

The buyer obviously isn't answering since he got the item for free by receiving his 520 euro  back, I paid for shipping and I also owe ebay 48 euro for 'selling cost'.

I only wanted to get the item back but by just ignoring my messages the buyer managed to win the case, he never sent me any picture or video of the product too despite me asking him over 10 times. he was just claiming it wasn't working and taking pictures without showing what i sent him.

[mam98031]

I am so sorry you are having to deal with this.

"on september 14th he said that the item is in mexico. doesn't ebay offer any sort of protection in this case? there's literrally written by him in the chat that the item is in mexico and i shipped it to the usa."

Yes they do and it is in the MBG.  I'll give you a link below so you can review it.  After you do and you find the section or sections that help you.  Contact Ebay again and try to get this situation fixed / appealed in your favor.

I hope you will come back and tell us how things turn out for you.

Money Back Guarantee

I would suggest that you contact Ebay for Business on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter for the better trained CSRs.

Here are your options for contacting Ebay Customer Service.  Please be aware that for social media CS, you send them a Private Message and briefly explain what your problem or issue is.  Feel free to leave your Name, address, phone number and/or your email address in this message.  It is private and secure and it may help to speed up the response for you.

https://twitter.com/askebay

https://www.facebook.com/eBay/

https://www.instagram.com/ebayforsellers/

Your options will be on the left.  If you use the link below you can only get to the Automated Assistant or Chat box type AGENT in the box and hit enter. You will then get more options.  Not all options are available 24/7.  It will depend on staffing available.  So sometimes you can request a call back and sometimes you can't.  Sometimes you have the Chat option available and other times it won't me.  If it is important to you to use one of those options, just try back later.

If you use a cell phone or other mobile device, you may need to turn off your Spam filter so that Ebay can call you.

If you are a seller outside of the US or Canada, you will need to use the Chat Option.

https://www.ebay.com/help/home

[anwag75]

I tried like you suggested, I just get bounced back by the Facebook and instagram team to the eBay help section. The chat agents in the help& contact section  say that they can’t do anything on their hand except to report the buyer and send an email. 
I’m extremely disappointed I lost the money this way despite trying to help the buyer. I was just trying to get my item back instead I lost over 500€

[luckythewinner]

Now doesn't ebay say that one of my options is provide funds to the buyer so he can buy it locally?

Wouldn't that just be a "refund"?

I only wanted to get the item back

Even if the buyer had shipped you an empty box, you would still have lost the item and the money.

but by just ignoring my messages the buyer managed to win the case

Did you go on eBay and formally accept the dispute? Or did you just allow him to distract you until it was too late?

he never sent me any picture or video of the product too despite me asking him over 10 times

eBay does not require buyers to send pictures or video, no matter how many times you ask.

[fab_finds4u]

It's my understanding that an item sent to another address after original delivery is not covered if the buyer used a freight forwarder or mail redirection.

Try to appeal saying it was sent to the USA but now the buyer claims the item is in Mexico.

[isaiah53-57]

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@anwag75 wrote:

Hello, I wanted to share my experience so you can tell me what I did wrong but I believe ebay messed up here.

I sold a development board on ebay and I immediately had issues with the buyer, he claimed he didn't receive my item when the tracking already showed it was delivered. I won the dispute since the tracking proved it but then he opened another one for item not working.

He claimed now that the item wasn't working, now as a seller i only have the option to accept the return so I offered to provide funds. Being from Italy and having sent the item to the usa I sent him a message saying if he could buy a label locally and to let me know the cost so i could reimburse him. 

The buyer replied that the item is in mexico so he shipped the item from usa to mexico and then claimed it wasn't working. I was still trying to get it back but the buyer simply let the dispute timer run out despite me sending him messages every day to get it fixed.

as a result i lost the dispute, I tried to appeal the case and still lost it.

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Seems you have been scammed - I perceive this to be a problem of epic proportion - In reality, I wonder how many people are scammed on this site for every theft post we see on this board - thousands? 10's of thousands?, 100's of thousands? My guess is those are numbers the site will go to their grave with...

So not only does the site now want you to give them, in many cases, 30% to 40% of the items selling price, they also want you do it on a site where control over buyer theft is virtually non-existent. Wow...Good luck with that site owners - From what I've heard in talking to people about buying and selling on ebay, things must be getting pretty dismal - Though I haven't been talking to the criminal element, per say - I'm sure they would say different...

[mam98031]

@luckythewinner 

"Even if the buyer had shipped you an empty box, you would still have lost the item and the money."

Why are you assuming if the buyer were to ship the item back that they would just get an empty box?

"eBay does not require buyers to send pictures or video, no matter how many times you ask."

Actually sending a pic is a requirement in the USA if the buyer files an INAD.  

[anwag75]

After like 6 times of trying to use the contact form, spend time on waiting for the chat with agent option eBay said they escalated the agent to someone from the management team. I spent one hour explaining everything again and in the end they said I should have sent a message saying ‘send me your PayPal account info or other payment method’ and because I didn’t send it it was their reason for claiming I didn’t provide funds to the buyer. They said the buyer having moved the item to Mexico isn’t an issue despite the previous agents said it should have been enough to have won the dispute and even if I asked countless times for the buyer to ship the item locally to my address I didn’t ask for his ‘PayPal account information’ so he was in the right for not shipping it and ignoring my messages. I also asked if they could at least remove the 50€ eBay fees I was charged for after eBay took the money from the sale and they said no because I didn’t make a genuine effort in trying to get the item back.

the buyer literally used their dispute system to get the item for free and I can’t believe he succeeded in doing this by just ignoring my item and to each of my requests reply ‘the item isn’t working’ without ever providing any pictures, description or try to send it back