Nothing like dealing with yet another "Partial Refund Scam" on eBay. Here is how it works:
1. Buy something at full price on eBay.
2. Receive item.
3. Message seller and suggest there is a small/large/drastic/catastrophic problem with the item and that you are very unhappy but at the same time remain vague about what the issue really is.
4. When the seller offers a full refund on return of the item as per eBay policy, indicate that return shipping in your country is 50 times more costly than anywhere else in the world and requires the pope, prime minister, sports superstar or celebrity to hand deliver it to the local post office--an alternative to this is suggesting it is IMPOSSIBLE to return as your country only accepts incoming mail, that you live in a region that has no post office within 1888 km or that you don't have the time to do it (running scams is a full time affair).
5. Say you would be happy if you could get a return of 50% of the original purchase price--add a thinly veiled threat about negative feedback by telling the seller that this happened before and the outcome wasn't good.
6. If the seller won't accede to your request for a partial reimbursement demand that you receive a full refund immediately before you will return the item AND that the seller send money to your PayPal account for shipping also or there will be a 'big problem' (this means definite negative feedback). If this is successful, you have hit a home run and most definitely don't have to return the item and have made a tidy profit on the difference in the cost of initial shipping.
7. Repeat when needed as eBay will not allow sellers to leave negative feedback and the seller is always wrong.
We have been bitten by this bug several times and now WILL NOT deviate from eBay policy regardless of the buyer's threats 😉 Do not let these repeat offenders get away with this!! The more they succeed the more they will repeat the process. It's becoming a cottage industry.
