Old Problem Getting Worse SCAMS

[missourioutdoorparts]

Hi All,

Old problem we have all dealt with but still very frustrating.  Same Scams that are very hard to win if could win at all.  Seem to hit very hard the last 30 days. I have lost 500.00 in 3 Scams. No help from Ebay. Keep hearing need to take care of the Buyers. Well I think most Sellers are Buyers also.  Two problems keep showing.

1ST, All three Scamers were 5 or less on Rating. 2 were 0 and one was 3 with no activity in over a year  (New one I learned is a Guest account) .  Have a lot of sales with 0 Buyers and no problem at all. When it does happen it is always the 0's that get me. I really hate to punish the good new Buyers that are 0.  I did not make 500.00 from the 0 Buyers in last month. 

2ND, Would a good quality Camera pointed at the Packing table be Helpfull. Would Ebay even pay attention to the vidio or is that a waste of time.

Any help or thoughts would be appreciated.

[dabunk2000]

ebay will not allow or review any video evidence.

[duncanvr]

eBay wants to become a merchant for buyers where buyers will feel confident with every eBay purchase. Set your buyer requirements so you don't accept sales from buyers with under 5 feedback. eBay more and more cares about buyers not sellers. Sellers just have to eat the loss. On the 3 scams you had did you even get the items back? This will be a mess under the new payment system when it comes out.

[emerald40]

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@duncanvr wrote:

eBay wants to become a merchant for buyers where buyers will feel confident with every eBay purchase. Set your buyer requirements so you don't accept sales from buyers with under 5 feedback. eBay more and more cares about buyers not sellers. Sellers just have to eat the loss. On the 3 scams you had did you even get the items back? This will be a mess under the new payment system when it comes out.

_____________________________________

No such setting.

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[duncanvr]

Buyer Requirements Preferences

Selecting Buyer Requirements enables you to block buyers who:

• Are registered in countries to which you don't post to
• Have a feedback score of -1,-2,-3 or lower
• Have received 2 Unpaid Item strikes in the last 30 days
• Are the winning bidder on 1-100 of your items in the last 10 days. (Note: This block will apply to all buyers, regardless of their feedback score, or you can choose to only apply this block to buyers with a feedback score of 0-5 or lower.)
• Don't have a PayPal account

Set up my Buyer Requirements Preferences

[missourioutdoorparts]

I did get one back and now in the Trash. I Knew I could restrict buyers with under 5 but hate to hurt new Buyers. I have now pulled all my hard to ship Items and my Expensive items. I have noticed the hard to ship and expensive to ship seems to be a target. Thank you for the input.

[duncanvr]

Expensive items with new buyers are a big RISK. I would stick to selling items under $60 and easy to ship stuff. You know your still going to get some theft even with items priced under $60. But it hurts less than the loss of several items over $100. Sellers will always have to take the loss of the money and the item. Its not right in my view but some people seem not to care ripping off online sellers. The problem can only get worse as the population explodes and more and more people come online. Most people are of good nature but there are shady characters among who are happy to scam for FREE items. Its bad when eBay CS reps back up the scammers.

[reallynicestamps]

@duncanvr

Because buyers can only get positive feedback, those customers got negs as sellers.

The Preference is legacy code.

[emerald40]

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@duncanvr wrote:

Buyer Requirements Preferences

Selecting Buyer Requirements enables you to block buyers who:

• Are registered in countries to which you don't post to
• Have a feedback score of -1,-2,-3 or lower
• Have received 2 Unpaid Item strikes in the last 30 days
• Are the winning bidder on 1-100 of your items in the last 10 days. (Note: This block will apply to all buyers, regardless of their feedback score, or you can choose to only apply this block to buyers with a feedback score of 0-5 or lower.)
• Don't have a PayPal account

Set up my Buyer Requirements Preferences

__________________________________

I see your highlighted.

You can block those with negatives.  But since buyers can only hae positive feedback, that is a really old ebay page. that it not even applicable any more.

But again, you can not block 0 feedback buyers or those under 5 feedback.

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[duncanvr]

The feedback system is an unfair playing field its one sided, although I now have over 10,000 positive which seems to help. Even though I don't live in the UK I sell old classic British stamps to Brits on eBay UK. Although mine are all on envelopes. This make the stuff I sell easy to mail out. But I still worry when I get an expensive order. If I send $500 worth it goes by courier. Otherwise lots go airmail. Luckily in this niche the people that buy from me are 90% honest. I reach out to my buyers at point of sale and send the new buyers a scan of the airmail envelope I send them. Tracking in general is useless and no good, eBay ram it at us to track everything but frankly you still lose a case even with tracking. I'm glad I have 300+ regulars who come back all the time to my listings and new buyers in for one offs. I'd hate to be selling common goods where you rely every time on a one off sale then get scammed. 

[duncanvr]

The buyer requirements is still used by eBay HUB under block bidders

Your only other option would be to refuse the sale if buyer has no feedback. But then you get dinged for that on your dashboard.

[reallynicestamps]

From your feedback (which is not a very accurate measure of sales) you've made over 300 sales this past 12 months.

Are the three unhappy buyers the only ones? If you are getting less than one percent of your transactions in Disputes (including problems solved without eBay involvement) you are pretty normal. The lump of three in a month could just as easily be coincidence.

What were the scams?

Phoney Paypal emails telling you to ship?

I would guess not, you are too experienced to fall for that one.

Requests for refunds on NAD products?

Did you ask for the item to be returned before refunding?

Did you refuse a return shipping label when eBay told you to send one?

Item returned that was not the one you  sent?

That one can sometimes be dealt with by a polite discussion with a Customer Rep.

But a customer that is unhappy is not a scammer. He's an unhappy customer.

Not every transaction will go perfectly.

Are you self-insuring against the occasional problem with Cookie Jar Insurance-- adding a small amount from each sale to a virtual Cookie Jar and using those virtual pennies to pay for return shipping when there is a problem?

Your problems were with

1. a Guest Account

• some banned scammers use Guest Accounts to circumvent bans
• most Guest Accounts are clueless newbies who need stroking and advice

A 0 FB buyer

• usually a newbie -- and again clueless

A low FB account with no recent activity

• caution always required, since these accounts are sometimes hacked.

As someone else has mentioned- a video is not helpful because there is no way of knowing if what was taped was what was sent.

EBay doesn't get into he said/she said.

If the buyer is complaining, and returns the item, he is refunded.

You can ALWAYS  demand the item be returned. You may have to pay return shipping.

You can NOT refuse refunds.

What were the scams?

[missjen831]

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@duncanvr wrote:

Buyer Requirements Preferences

Selecting Buyer Requirements enables you to block buyers who:

• Are registered in countries to which you don't post to
• Have a feedback score of -1,-2,-3 or lower
• Have received 2 Unpaid Item strikes in the last 30 days
• Are the winning bidder on 1-100 of your items in the last 10 days. (Note: This block will apply to all buyers, regardless of their feedback score, or you can choose to only apply this block to buyers with a feedback score of 0-5 or lower.)
• Don't have a PayPal account

Set up my Buyer Requirements Preferences

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@duncanvr Right. The setting you mentioned doesn’t exist. The block above is for a negative feedback score. A buyer can’t get negative feedback so unless they have a brand new account and they sell an item or 2 and get negged, that block is compelely useless and doesn’t work the way most thinkit does. 

[duncanvr]

I'm selling similar to reallynicestamps

https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/postalhistorylettersandcovers

My feedback is now actually 11024

The scams I have seen are chargeback buyer cancels the bank transaction and PayPal freezes the money. I've not received my item this happened even with tracked. But mainly with NEWBIE accounts as well. On that note the scams are much less in our niche. I've never had a return ever. I get REPEAT buyers which is a good thing some buyers have been buying something every week for years.

[reallynicestamps]

One problem philatelic sellers sometimes have is believing that 'registered' mail is tracked.

This is now basically only true domestically-- at least for Canada, USA, and UK. Apparently for most EU countries as well -- not even within the EU.

A registered letter or package from Paris to Lyons? No problem.

From Paris to Bonn? Not tracked once it crosses the border.

Philatelists are a lovely bunch, but can find it difficult to adapt to change.
Which may be a good thing in our category.