Please Be Careful (Fraud Buyers)

[melmacj7]

I'm writing this to warn sellers of a trend that may be old or new. 

December  2021 I sold a like new RTX 3060 Ti (a month old) to buy a RTX 3070. 

Two weeks later buyer opened a case Item Not as Described.

Ebay open a case without question or investigation and urge me to refund. Even though the item was listed as seller is not accepting refunds. 

I reported fraud multiple times but eBay just removed my 100% feedback for not granting a refund instantly I assume. I still have the transaction count but my 100% positive feedback is gone. 

From December to February eBay gave the buyer that hole time to return the item.

A box suddenly showed up at my old address February 5, 2 days before the case was set to close in my favor.

I was able to retrieve the item today 2/8 which is just a box of rocks. 

Now I'm frantic because eBay is threating to debit my account in 2 days from today. $770.00

I've already contacted customer service and hopefully the team is looking into this but as a seller eBay has done little to protect me as a customer too.  I've only been penalized. 

There is no justification for what happen here. The policy is protection for the buyers when they can commit fraud just as well. I pray eBay will review pics sent and this case before proceeding any further.  

I've been blown off by eBay because Item not as described and a delivery status of a box with rock. I'm so upset and disappointed. 

[donsdetour]

Not a new scam. old as man it seems.

Sorry you had to learn this the hard way.

Should file fraud and theft with law enforcement.

Oh and it again the rules to leave a negative as a positive.

A thing what you sold in in electronics??

Such is a high scam area by the way.

[melmacj7]

Good I idea I will go to the police station now and file a report. 

[katzrul15]

@melmacj7 

Reach out to e-Bay CS on Facebook for Business.  However, BEFORE you do, go to the Transaction view and in the drop-down menu, choose "report buyer".  Report them for fraud to e-Bay.

Use this link to send a private message to e-BayCS.

https://facebook.com/eBayForBusiness

[maxine*j]

This is the same INAD dispute you've been posting about since January.   I know there were at least six such posts, although I see only four now. 

Anyhow, nothing will change in anyone's answers, you know, including their advice to not leave those negative remarks in the buyer's positive feedback and including their explanations that "no returns" does not mean "no refunds."

As for warning others, everyone here is painfully familiar with the fact that buyers can abuse the MBG.  Dealing with that fact is just part of doing business.

Previous posts:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/949504

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[inhawaii]

I only run in to that issue when i sell RTX7930's.

[melmacj7]

Maxine if you don't have a positive feedback to share. Then I'm sure they're others that need your advice and I'll keep posting as much as I want until this change. 

Thank you 

[melmacj7]

Part of business are you f'n kidding me. ok 

[melmacj7]

Responses like this is why the error exist. People that think this is ok. I have done nothing wrong except sold an item fair and square. I'm suppose to shut up about it because you think this is just business. Think I should sell you some 700 graphics cards and send you back a box with rocks. See if you feel the same way then. When eBay says we just going to debit your account. You annoyed with the posts read elsewhere. 

[wrong66]

You're likely not going to receive a dime. Sorry, but that regrettably is business as usual on eBay. You show no feedback score because it appears you haven't bought or sold anything on eBay for over a year. The feedback scores only show activity for the las 12 months. If you contact eBay on Facebook, don't display the attitude that you've shown here. Sorry this happened to you, but it's more common than you think.

[melmacj7]

No actually eBay is in the process of asking me to upload documentation and pictures to what the buyer sent. A fraud case is open. I am not accepting a 770.00 lost.  They buyer get the RTX3060 Ti and the money and this is cost of doing business.  Just as my response to Maxine I'm not a merchant. This is not a cost of doing business for me. eBay granted that a-hole the money before investigation then that cost should be on them not me. I'm just hoping I responded fast enough. I've done everything possible police report, bank dispute filing, attorney small claim and I've contacted eBay customer support multiple times. For as the feedback before this happen that 100% feedback was always there. I had 3 sales/buy in the last 6 months so it really shouldn't just disappear. You know I'm sorry for ranting about this and if I was a merchant with hundreds of RTX 3060 Ti's on the shelf maybe I would accept this as the cost of doing business. But I'm a consumer and gamer who wanted a upgrade. But this is it for me. Now that I know that no refund as a seller can be overridden. I won't sell here again. Anybody for any reason can file INAD. eBay will be accept the claim no matter what. Maybe this is a California thing but here in Missouri I don't think it fair practice. 

[maxine*j]

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@melmacj7 wrote:

Responses like this is why the error exist. People that think this is ok. I have done nothing wrong except sold an item fair and square. I'm suppose to shut up about it because you think this is just business. Think I should sell you some 700 graphics cards and send you back a box with rocks. See if you feel the same way then. When eBay says we just going to debit your account. You annoyed with the posts read elsewhere. 

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Well, once upon a time on eBay you could have sold me the card and sent me the rocks instead, and there would not have been a thing I could do about it.   I had such transactions in the early days on eBay.  So did many other people.  Out of those terrible experiences was born eBay's Money Back Guarantee for buyers, without which eBay would have died because buyers were tired of being ripped off.

EVERY on-line venue has a policy similar to eBay's MBG.  Do dishonest buyers sometimes abuse those policies?  Of course they do, and of course it is not right.   But as a seller you must allow for that, financially and emotionally.  If you cannot, then you cannot sell on-line.

And, by the way, this is a public forum and when you post here you get what you get.  You have no say in who reads your posts or how they respond.

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[melmacj7]

No worries this is it for me as a seller. You seem to think I'm one side with this complaint. All I'm asking before you go debiting a seller account with threats. Do actual investigation. Ask the buyer to send pictures of the item failure. What's happen what makes the INAD. What is the seller rating? What is the buyer rating. What and when was the seller last item sold and what was the feedback? Freeze everything until the investigation is complete. Get more details the burden of proof was on me as a seller when I didn't get the box until 2 days before case closure. Maybe you been a victim one too many times so maybe your feelings about this are involved. You know chances are a seller with 100% feedback won't chance his account and rep on one fraud incorrect item. We can go back and forward with this and like you said maybe I shouldn't sell online and I won't.  Thanks for your input. 

[dbfolks166mt · Accepted solution]

     You are likely going to loose both the money and the board. This happens way to often and 99.9% of the time the buyer wins. If you have ready any other postings on this forum you would know that at least a couple of times a week some seller is scammed out of a card/board usually for significant dollars. They are simply high value, high target items for every scammer out there. 

     You do have the buyers address and while it is good that you filed a police report where you live it would be more beneficial to file the report in the town where the buyer lives although depending on the state the AG's and law enforcement may not do much given the low value, from their perspective, of the item. Always remember the #1 seller rule and that is to NEVER list anything you cannot afford to take the financial loss on. I cannot see the item you sold but it may be on another account. I am not sure where you are located but there are far better forums to list this type of item on. 

[maxine*j]

There are around 25,000,000 sellers on eBay, with about 1,600,000,000 active listings on any given day.  Every day, thousands of those transactions go wrong.  If eBay hired the staff to do the sort of investigation you want in each case, seller's fees would be so high they'd cause nosebleeds. 

So it comes down to this:   Buyer says X and Seller says Y, and since eBay cannot know which one is telling the truth, it goes with the buyer's version of events.  This is true on EVERY other on-line venue, as well.

I repeat, as a seller you must allow for that, just as merchants in "traditional" brick-and-mortar stores have always had to allow for shoplifting, employee pilferage, fraudulent returns, merchandise damaged on the floor by careless shoppers, and other losses.

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