Partial Refund Scam

[spex820]

Just had a buyer claim to me that the item I sent to them was damaged during shipping. They stated it was broken in half & if I would send them a partial refund, they would keep the item & be happy. I told them that I was sorry to hear that & asked them to send me photos of the damage. They sent over some of the worst blurry photos that I have ever seen in my life. I then sent them an email stating that the item was fully insured & that I would give them a full refund plus shipping. No response until a few days later when they left me negative feedback claiming that they were ''not happy & this was a complete waste of time.'' This buyer has his feedback in PRIVATE mode. Who has feedback in private mode these days unless they are trying to hide something?

I called ebay & explained the problem they REMOVED the negative feedback. It seems this buyer has a habit of doing this. There is a flicker of hope for us sellers, but ebay really needs to step up & help us out against bad buyers.

[gogemgo2 · Accepted solution]

It is working both ways. I purchased my daughter a photo light box for $12.99 (included shipping). She got back to me stating it was very flimsy and the parts to connect it together were missing. When I informed the seller he stated it was not worth it to him to have the item returned and offered me $6.00 instead. LMAO really???? Many times I had to eat returns (buyer's remorse on a custom item)  and have the item sent back to me and refund the entire payment as a seller. How dare he offer me less than 50% on an item that is not even usable. WOW!

[plumbingspecials]

gogomgo2 Did you request a return? He doesn't have to offer you anything if you do not at least request a return.

[plumbingspecials]

Did you tell the buyer to request a return?

[psziel]

i have also got to the point where someone claims anything and mention discount, i tell them to open a return. i have had people open the return first and say they just give them a discount and i accept the return and ignore the request. 75% of the time. the item is never sent back and Ebay closes it in my favor. i had a guy the other day do a not as described and wanted to settle for a discount. i pulled the tracking info. he didnt even get the item. told him where to get off

[lewisburggold]

Looks like you did good.  Besty regards

[biker-machinist]

I ran into same isuse few months ago. He opened claim thru Ebay as item arrived but not as described (rusted) a week after item was delivered.  I took pics when I packed and shipped and posted on Ebay but Ebay still favor the buyer.

Ebay need to imporve on SELLER PROCTECTION  because they collect listing fee from seller

[biker-machinist]

but if it is big, heavy item , the cost for shipping is expensive and you accept the return , you (the seller) will have to refund full amount plus the cost to ship item back

[spex820]

Yes. I even told him I would pay for return shipping. Got no reply until bad feedback was received.

[plumbingspecials]

Did the buyer ever threaten to leave negative if you did not compensate? You can contact ebay and tell them that you tried working with the customer and they did not want to follow protocol to resolve things with you. You can probably get the feedback removed, but also you can reply to it for now and state something like "Buyer was non-compliant in resolving issues". That will let others know that you tried and the buyer is just being difficult (I do have another name for buyers like that but I cannot use that kind of language on these boards).

PS - don't forget to report the buyer for "making unreasonable demands" and then toggle the option that  closely describes your problem.

[spex820]

They did not threaten me with negative feedback, they said they would be happy with a partial refund. Ebay saw my correspondence with them & the crummy pics they sent & backed me up & removed the bad feedback. Buyer said the item was broke in half but that they fixed it but it was now loose. Now, really.. if you got the item & it was broke in half, normally you would take a photo of it & make a claim. Not this guy. He sends blurry pics & now starts to say that it is scratched here, there, & here. The item was NEVER removed from its packaging. They also got it in 2 days because I used Priority shipping & it was insured. I always say in my listings ''FULL refund if not 100% satisfied'' & that is what I told the buyer, just send it back. In his negative feedback he said '' Not happy/complete waste of time''. I saw that & was like yeah, waste of time because your scam did not work.

[spex820]

& he still kept the item.

[spex820]

Thanks. I think that the scam has worked for them a few times & now they feel they can get away with it more frequently. They have their feedback set to PRIVATE. That is just shadey right there. I told ebay that I bet they have tried it before, they agreed with me.

[nautilusdragon]

I sell rare and discontinued perfume. I received 6 return request/refund request, 2 of which said it was not delivered and 4 "items not as described". Since I have tracking numbers, two cases closed in favour of me (thank goodness). But after that, I started to get purchases with return request, stating that "items not as described". 

One of them said the item I sent was not as described, asked him to send the picture. He sent the exact picture of item that I posted to him. I asked what is not the same the? He said the item's box was damaged. That is very impossible since I sent the perfume in a plastic container (sealed), then wrapped again in a bubble mailer.

Second case, a woman who claimed that she received the perfume and the sealed is opened (no longer brand new), the cap of perfume is missing, and yada yada ... I only sell brand new sealed perfume, she sent me the picture of the perfume which is very new, but of course already taken out of the  box (duhhh). I had to offer her partial refund since I know eBay will offer full refund if I didn't. Terrible eBay!!!

Third case, also claimed item not as described. Didn't show me any photos when asked, but still got 100% refund???!!! 

Fourth case was this week, an admin assistant at ODU. Said that I sent her wrong perfume, smaller bottle and not a rare perfume like pictured on eBay. This is the worst! I didn't even sell the perfume she told me she received. Did not have that perfume in my stock. Again, eBay is very kind to support this scammer by providing 100% refund.

So yes, I furiously cancelling all my listing on eBay and planning to sell somewhere else. No seller protection here, only the breeding place for scammers.

Anybody else had similar experience like this?

[houseofblair]

I get all sorts of craziness going on with returns.  Some have asked that I reimburse them without sending the product back, which I will not do.  Others claim that the item is not as described (in particular baby shoes).  The items are NEW in the box and have never been worn.  Purchased from a manufacturer.  I'm beginning to think that eBay is going to become what Amazon has...frequent returns for whatever reason a buyer deems fit at the seller's expense.