Recently sold a brand new and rare game that was sealed and brand new, and a bonus 2nd game that was new and open box with some box damage with pictures clearly showing the damage, the buyer is now contesting the auction was not as described and wants to return, now here is the thing - after checking the buyers feedback and even contacting a few people who sold to him, they all have said the exact same thing - that this buyer is doing the old switch-a-roo scam, one person who sold a like new open box game, with pics of the game disc and the buyer returned with a broken box and a damaged disc that clearly was not the same - the buyer is seems to be doing it very infrequently enough to try to stay under the radar - and like me, has been an Ebay member for along time and thus here is the dilemma, the longer you've been a member you know all the tricks, what you can get away with and what you cannot.
This is when I do NOT TRUST Ebay's seller protections, and everyone who's been on Ebay for a significantly long time knows this, if this person does indeed to commit any type of fraud then one thing is for certain, I cannot rely on Ebay here for any protection.
Has anyone actually managed to get Ebay to actually side with the seller even when clear fraud is evident? I'm not so worried about the bonus game if this person tries to switch out my brand new shiny game disc for a scratched and worthless one, because that game isn't worth much at all, more worried about the sealed rare game. The other issue is that many Ebayers always contest the "Brand new" label, Brand New doesn't have to mean its factory sealed either, Brand new and unused, Brand New - Open box etc and once again, Ebay does not side with the seller nearly as much as it should even when its an open and shut case and even in some cases will feed you a standard script.
I've personally sold a lot of games and purchased too, sure - sometimes as a buyer myself that the seller has neglected to mention some minor damage or over-stated the game's condition but most of the time its been acceptable, but occasionally you do get predatory scammers who try to look for any cracks in your items description to exploit, and it isn't always possible to write a 50 page document accurately describing your item to prevent this type of abuse.
I feel like submitting a police report and a mail fraud incident to the post office doesn't have any impact for the seller after all, if you've been ripped off and ebay will not step in on your behalf most of the time and I'm not sure how actually impactful this is for the fraudulent buyers especially if they skirt under the radar by only doing this type of fraud infrequently.
