eBay

joeanddarra · ‎06-16-2017

Hello,

I have a buyer who notified me the item she purchased, an iPod, arrived missing.

The package was damaged - it looks like it was sliced open.

The iPod was rolled in several layers of bubble wrap - the bubble wrap was still in the package.

When I track the shipment via USPS, there is no note regarding damage.

I don't sell very often, and I've never experienced anything like this, as a buyer or a seller, so I am not sure what to do.

I've been in touch with her all week & phoned the USPS. ( The information they gave me wasn't very helpful )

She told me she will give me until Monday to refund her payment.

What am I required to do?

I appreciate any advice you can offer.

Thank you.

emerald40 · ‎06-16-2017

@joeanddarra wrote:
She shared pictures. The package looks like it was sliced open & the iPod removed from the roll of bubble wrap. The roll of bubble wrap was still inside the package. I asked if the package was marked damaged and she said no. I asked if she reported it to the post office and she said no.

That looks exactly like a package I have received after I have sliced open the package, pulled the product out of the bubble wrap and then stuffed the bubble wrap back in before taking it out to the trash.

Someone tampered with it. So now it needs to be figured out who did it.

joeanddarra · ‎06-16-2017

I did. Thanks!

joeanddarra · ‎06-16-2017

Yes.

southern*sweet*tea · ‎06-16-2017

@wolf*song wrote:
Again, that's subjective. If the buyer's expecting a message twice a day, then saying she hadn't heard from the OP is accurate, albeit unreasonable.

Sorry, I'm just not ready to believe the buyer's a scammer. That assumption, in my opinion, is made far too often here, and I'm not jumping on the bandwagon.

I'm not assuming the buyer is a scammer. I'm assuming the buyer got a rifled package and is upset and doesn't know what to do about it from her end. The seller files a tampered mail report for her. An honest buyer would be happy to know the seller was taking care of them. A scammer will either go quiet or "find" the missing item.

The easier you are to offend the easier you are to control.

We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did. - Thomas Sowell

emerald40 · ‎06-16-2017

@wolf*song wrote:
Again, that's subjective. If the buyer's expecting a message twice a day, then saying she hadn't heard from the OP is accurate, albeit unreasonable.

Sorry, I'm just not ready to believe the buyer's a scammer. That assumption, in my opinion, is made far too often here, and I'm not jumping on the bandwagon.

Not sure where you are in this thread, but have you read how many more times this buyer has continued to email the OP especially after she has repeatedly told her that the process needs to be first looked into.

wolf*song · ‎06-16-2017

Has it occurred to anyone else that the buyer may be experiencing this for the first time, right along with the OP? Maybe that's why the numerous emails? Only the OP can read the "tone" of those emails, even if they were posted here, because only the OP's opinion about them really matters. None of us has been in contact with the buyer for the last week. Perhaps the buyer's as worried about this being resolved with her money safely back in her pocket as the OP is worried about losing both the item she legitimately sold?

Something to ponder, instead of automatically assuming the worst.

wolf*song · ‎06-16-2017

That wasn't aimed at everyone. 🙂

wolf*song · ‎06-16-2017

I'm up on it. I just addressed something in another post. Take it for what it's worth.

emerald40 · ‎06-16-2017

@wolf*song wrote:
Has it occurred to anyone else that the buyer may be experiencing this for the first time, right along with the OP? Maybe that's why the numerous emails? Only the OP can read the "tone" of those emails, even if they were posted here, because only the OP's opinion about them really matters. None of us has been in contact with the buyer for the last week. Perhaps the buyer's as worried about this being resolved with her money safely back in her pocket as the OP is worried about losing both the item she legitimately sold?

Something to ponder, instead of automatically assuming the worst.

If the buyer was that concerned she would have opened a case already.

wolf*song · ‎06-16-2017

ANOTHER assumption, and you continually impose your experiences, or your cynicism, or your beliefs upon the buyer. Why? You don't know the buyer, do you? I'm assuming no. Every experience isn't exactly like something you may have heard about, read about, or experienced first hand. I may be playing Devil's advocate, that's true, but at least I haven't appointed myself judge, jury, and executioner. Just relax your views a little, maybe?

ersatz_sobriquet · ‎06-16-2017

Agree with Emerald.

Scammers are pushy, impatient, and don't use the ebay system in order to stay off the radar.

Honest concerned buyers are not so pushy, no incessant emails, and open a case, or at least refrain from emailing the seller more than necessary.

Moreover, USPS does not deliver empty packages without damage notice stickers attached.

tellmemama · ‎06-16-2017

@*eponymous* wrote:

Your lack of experience in receiving a damaged package doesn't negate the occurrence of damaged packages that are delivered without labeling.

Making preposterous threats does not give the seller a tool to help convince the buyer to hold on to the packaging in case USPS wants to examine it!

Losses are absolutely part of running a retail business. A seller who accepts that is much more able to think and act calmly.

And believing everything a buyer says will result in a seller who is no longer in business. Any normal buyer would either have a little patience to allow the seller to get to the bottom of the problem or wash his hands of the whole thing and open a case to let momma ebay deal with it.

The post office does not deliver damaged/rifled packages without some sort of documentation. Somewhere along the way somebody took this iPod out of the packaging. I happen to think that from the buyer's behavior, it was at the end. After delivery.

Truthful buyers do not issue ultimatums.

Joe

llllady · ‎06-16-2017

@ersatz_sobriquet wrote:
@megadestroyers wrote:
"First the buyer has to open a case, and secondly the seller has to refuse to refund the buyer once the case is opened in order to get a strike on their record."

I think you're confusing an Unpaid Item dispute with a return request??
No. Lycan said that the buyer should be paid off so that the seller doesn't incur a strike from a case being opened. I was pointing out that a case does not incure a strike against a seller unless it is unresolved by the seller. Sellers should not be afraid of cases, however they should avoid unresolved cases.
In this situation it would depend on what kind of case the buyer opened. Snad the buyer would win, INR the buyer would lose.

I'm not sure how the buyer could file or win a SNAD claim after all the messages claiming they didn't receive anything because the package was empty.

“It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent” ― Madeleine K. Albright

Great! 45.8% down over the same time last year with 2x+ items listed. Are you impressed? I'm certainly not!

ersatz_sobriquet · ‎06-16-2017

@llllady wrote:
I'm not sure how the buyer could file or win a SNAD claim after all the messages claiming they didn't receive anything because the package was empty.

That would be the correct claim. Snad. Not as described. Something was delivered, so INR does not apply, but it was empty.

Anyway, telling the details of how these cases are won and lost is just helping scammers who are reading here.

emerald40 · ‎06-16-2017

@llllady wrote:
@ersatz_sobriquet wrote:
@megadestroyers wrote:
"First the buyer has to open a case, and secondly the seller has to refuse to refund the buyer once the case is opened in order to get a strike on their record."

I think you're confusing an Unpaid Item dispute with a return request??
No. Lycan said that the buyer should be paid off so that the seller doesn't incur a strike from a case being opened. I was pointing out that a case does not incure a strike against a seller unless it is unresolved by the seller. Sellers should not be afraid of cases, however they should avoid unresolved cases.
In this situation it would depend on what kind of case the buyer opened. Snad the buyer would win, INR the buyer would lose.

I'm not sure how the buyer could file or win a SNAD claim after all the messages claiming they didn't receive anything because the package was empty.