mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
As a seller we can all appreciate that we run into problematic transactions from time to time. It is always important to take each issue that may arise on the merits of what is going on with this specific transaction and proceed accordingly.
Lucky for us sellers the vast majority of transactions are conducted with good buyers. It is only a fraction of our sales that end up with issues to be resolved. If this were not to be true, then there would not be as many sellers on this site as there are because it would not be cost effective.
However these problematic transactions can and do take quite a bit of time to work through and hopefully come out the other side without damage to our selling accounts. As we know there aren’t any Seller Protection offered to sellers currently if a buyer opens a SNAD for any reason, real or imagined. All sellers no matter what their return policy is are expected to take the return and refund when received or refund and allow the buyer to keep the item.
We have an underused tool that we can use when a buyer is misbehaving whether it is due to improper uses of the return system, unreasonable demands or whatever the problem is. But lots of sellers are not using it.
I would like to encourage sellers to Report a Buyer when appropriate for what may have transpired during or after a transaction. If more sellers would do this, Ebay would have the notice they need to investigate and take action against repeat offenders. Our chances of getting some of these buyers educated, sanctioned or their accounts closed are far better if the sellers become PROACTIVE and formally inform Ebay of issues.
It won’t happen right away, but in time we may start to see a dramatic change if sellers take a stand. But again I URGE everyone to understand that MOST buyers are awesome. I am talking about the fraction of buyers that come here to take advantage of sellers and are getting away with it more times than not.
For those that do not know where to go and report a buyer.
Seller Hub
Orders
Locate the Transaction from the list
Look under the Action Column, there will be a drop down menu. Select the last option Report Buyer.
Follow the instructions on the screen.
@moo*cow*corner wrote:
I take the time to report buyers too. If they violate more than one policy (it's happened), I do one report for each violation. I agree it's probably a waste of time, but I do it anyway.
That is a GREAT call out. Thank you. I had not thought of that.
@tunicaslot wrote:I report each and every buyer who creates a problem - thru no fault of my own - but I'll play Devil's Advocate - the Blues have already stated that even tho you may have had a problem with a buyer - reported them and blocked them - they still can create a new acct and purchase from you again and you are suppose to ship to complete the transaction. I still report tho as I hope Ebay will come to their senses and create a better seller protection program for their sellers down the line.
99.9% of transactions go off with no problem - and there are problems with these types of buyers on every site - Ebay just has a few more of them.
Yes, they can open a new account. But Ebay can tie the accounts together. So just because someone opens a new account does not mean that Ebay doesn't know they are one and the same.
@tunicaslot wrote:That's true mam - and hopefully the buyer has learned their lesson and won't try the same thing again on the new acct!
One can only hope!!!
I made a mistake in my original post that I noticed moments after I posted the thread, but too late to edit, so I reported myself to the Mods so they could take out my screen shot as it contained my buyer's name. A wonderful buyer that I hope comes back many times. Sorry that I didn't pay close enough attention to catch that detail before posting the thread.
Here is a revised version of that screen shot without naming and shaming.
