Scam Warning: If your listing photos contain more than one item...

[obtanium_enterprises]

If any of your listing photos contain more than one piece of the item, and your listing is for fewer pieces, clever buyers are filing SNAD claims insisting that, regardless of text in the listing stating otherwise, they should have received the quantity shown in the photo(s) and thus your listing is deceptive, fraudulent, whatever, and they have been scammed. eBay is siding with the buyer in these cases.

For example, if the widget you're offering comes in five colors and your photo contains one of each color, then you're exposed to this scam, and eBay will side with the buyer that your listing is deceptive. That you've written in your listing description the listing is for "ONE (1) PIECE" or whatever is irrelevant. For another example, if your photo includes a few pieces arranged so that printing or markings on or around the item can be visible in one photo rather than in several, then you're also exposed to this scam.

However, if your listing is for, say 10 pieces, and your photo includes 3, then you're probably OK. BUT, if your listing is for 10 pieces and your photo contains a pile, package, boxfull, whatever, of more than 10 pieces, then you're exposed to the scam.

Time to re-do photos and listings.

[ekmadonna]

What about the dog? There is a seller here who ALWAYS lists her items with her dog in the photos! Is the dog included to?

[equid0x]

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@jeannicho22 wrote:

Wait.... Who is the scammer?

You need to write your listings like there are no pictures and show pictures like there is no written description.  

 I do carefully read the listing description to make certain what I am buying.  But truth be told, when I see a picture of 5 widgets and then read in the description that the offering is just one item, I figure the seller is a big ole scammer and I can't hit the "back" button fast enough.

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I can't possibly imagine why that would label the seller as a scammer when this is common marketing practice for any B&M including online and print and has been for decades. 

[jason_incognito]

Yes, a contract.

However, the whole thing is the contract. Including the pictures. If it got to that, they would be admissible and a part of the contract.

So you want to claim that the contract "clearly" says it is for 1 item.

The buyer can come back and say that the contract "clearly" is for all the items in the picture.

[equid0x]

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@jason_incognito wrote:

Yes, a contract.

However, the whole thing is the contract. Including the pictures. If it got to that, they would be admissible and a part of the contract.

So you want to claim that the contract "clearly" says it is for 1 item.

The buyer can come back and say that the contract "clearly" is for all the items in the picture.

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Contracts are written in text not photos. eBay listings are contracts. In fact, every sale is a contract. 

[equid0x]

Major grocer showing multiple items listed with a price for a single can.Major window covering seller selling the roman shades in the background, in a staged room to show the customer how they will look in a finished space.Major retailer showing multiple boxes of pop-tarts while listing a price for a single box

[this*old*attic]

LOL.... except on the food, at least, it gives either the count or the can weight for the price

[fern*wood]

I bet there are store clerks that could confirm there are some customers that would carry a case of those cans to check-out and then be told the price wasn't for all of them.   At least shipping wasn't involved.  That makes me try really hard to be clear.

Argue all you want.  Sometimes logic doesn't matter, but my bottom line does.  On ebay, if it can happen--it will.

[equid0x]

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@this*old*attic wrote:

LOL.... except on the food, at least, it gives either the count or the can weight for the price

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Both eBay & Google policies prohibit putting text on the photos... someone earlier in the thread mentioned that a CSR suggested that but its actually against the listing policies. 

The large obvious price on those Smith's adds was for a single can. Nobody looked at the ad Bumble Bee Tuna and thought they were getting a case of tuna for $0.59 or a case of canned veggies for $0.50. BTW this is this weeks circular and was sent to the homes of about 2.5 million people in my geographic region. 

[equid0x]

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@fern*wood wrote:

I bet there are store clerks that could confirm there are some customers that would carry a case of those cans to check-out and then be told the price wasn't for all of them.   At least shipping wasn't involved.  That makes me try really hard to be clear.

Argue all you want.  Sometimes logic doesn't matter, but my bottom line does.  On ebay, if it can happen--it will.

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I agree that it is best to avoid this on eBay but unless the buyer lived in a hole in the ground for the last 50 years there is absolutely no way they can tell me they thought they were getting a case for those prices. 

Nobody thinks they're getting a whole bedroom set with the blinds.

And nobody thinks they're getting 4 boxes of pop-tarts for the price of one. 

I'm just pointing out that this is so common that I think its impossible(or ought to be impossible) for a buyer to feign ignorance. 

I've certainly been to a grocery store thousands of times in my day and I've never once seen anyone argue with a cashier over something like this. Maybe you'll find some drug-addicted moron somewhere who argued with a cashier one time ten years ago, but this certainly does not happen with the frequency it does on e-Bay. 

If multi-billion dollar corporations are paying entire marketing departments to produce ads like this, one has to wonder why they are not so concerned about running afoul of false advertising laws if this practice is somehow allegedly non-standard. 

[escuintla]

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@jason_incognito wrote:

Yes, a contract.

However, the whole thing is the contract. Including the pictures. If it got to that, they would be admissible and a part of the contract.

So you want to claim that the contract "clearly" says it is for 1 item.

The buyer can come back and say that the contract "clearly" is for all the items in the picture.

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Even though a verbal contract nowadays has no validity, in extreme cases it does. You can't get something out of your sleeves and claim something else was "implied" when a contract specifies something different.  Words matter, you sign a contract, and claim stupidity, you are doomed! You signed, the end. 

I would call a "not nice word" anybody trying to come to me and tell me that whatever is in the picture comes with the item they bought. If I took some pictures with a $20 bill next to an item I am selling for size references, does that imply the $20 comes with it when I didn't say it went with it?

How about the couch sometimes I take pictures on? If I mention "this cup holder fits in a Porsche or a Lambo" do I have to send them the car too? Do they want the girl or the guy wearing the shoes too?

NO! I, wrote, described, and specified that the listing is for one item, the whatever thing the title says, the one in the picture in certain "category", be this a DVD, doll, or a she.

So, how does this buyer expect that I send him or her, something that is not into that category I listed the item on, something as a car, the dress or whatever is used as a background, but not mentioned? 

Contracts are valid when there's an exchange, $ for an item, or for a service provided. And when the contract even says "please understand that I am selling only the carriage, not the horse", it's pretty obvious somebody is so retarded or so dishonest to ask for the horse because it was on the picture.  Words matter, watch what you write, that's all. 

I just searched "diamond ring" on Ebay.  I wonder if there's a not so smart person buying one and requesting to get the hand or the finger that diamong ring is pictured with? The listing doesn't specify if the hand/finger comes with it. Shall I buy it and request the finger? I just know I am going to get that finger......in a very peculiar or certain way...

[jeannicho22]

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@equid0x wrote:

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@jeannicho22 wrote:

Wait.... Who is the scammer?

You need to write your listings like there are no pictures and show pictures like there is no written description.  

 I do carefully read the listing description to make certain what I am buying.  But truth be told, when I see a picture of 5 widgets and then read in the description that the offering is just one item, I figure the seller is a big ole scammer and I can't hit the "back" button fast enough.

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I can't possibly imagine why that would label the seller as a scammer when this is common marketing practice for any B&M including online and print and has been for decades. 

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I think it is deceptive and apparently eBay agrees with me.  IMHO, ecommerce is a whole lot different than selling in a B&M.  If you are a big box store and can afford the returns, sure... why not.

[this*old*attic]

These are bad analogies though.

No one expects the lamp to come with the table it’s sitting on.

OP pictured multiples of the same item, and it also sounds like there was some quantity/choice error or confusion in how the listing itself was was put together.

Extremes and exaggerations don’t make the point.

Ebay has been very clear - pics and description are equally important, BOTH make the contract, any contradiction or lack of clarity - point goes to the buyer, to protect the site experience. The end.

[jeannicho22]

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@this*old*attic wrote:

These are bad analogies though.

No one expects the lamp to come with the table it’s sitting on.

OP pictured multiples of the same item, and it also sounds like there was some quantity/choice error or confusion in how the listing itself was was put together.

Extremes and exaggerations don’t make the point.

Ebay has been very clear - pics and description are equally important, BOTH make the contract, any contradiction or lack of clarity - point goes to the buyer, to protect the site experience. The end.

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Too true.

I do remember a listing a few years back for either Lego pieces or miniatures for a diorama.  Oh, this seller was so very creative.  They put a table against a mirror and then put all the pieces on the table.  Because of the angle of the picture was taken from it looked like this massive amount of items.

In the description they listed each of the pieces and gave a grand total.  Their position was that all the buyer had to do was look at the written description and they would have known exactly what they were getting.  They also argued that all the buyer had to do was count the items in the picture.  They said if you looked clearly at the photo it looked like so many items because the mirror was doubling what was being offered. 

The seller was complaining that the buyer opened a SNAD.  I gotta say that even knowing there was an issue with the listing it took me several minutes to figure the photo out.  When the seller didn't get the response he/she wanted... Well, you know how those go.

[equid0x]

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@jeannicho22 wrote:

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@this*old*attic wrote:

These are bad analogies though.

No one expects the lamp to come with the table it’s sitting on.

OP pictured multiples of the same item, and it also sounds like there was some quantity/choice error or confusion in how the listing itself was was put together.

Extremes and exaggerations don’t make the point.

Ebay has been very clear - pics and description are equally important, BOTH make the contract, any contradiction or lack of clarity - point goes to the buyer, to protect the site experience. The end.

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Too true.

I do remember a listing a few years back for either Lego pieces or miniatures for a diorama.  Oh, this seller was so very creative.  They put a table against a mirror and then put all the pieces on the table.  Because of the angle of the picture was taken from it looked like this massive amount of items.

In the description they listed each of the pieces and gave a grand total.  Their position was that all the buyer had to do was look at the written description and they would have known exactly what they were getting.  They also argued that all the buyer had to do was count the items in the picture.  They said if you looked clearly at the photo it looked like so many items because the mirror was doubling what was being offered. 

The seller was complaining that the buyer opened a SNAD.  I gotta say that even knowing there was an issue with the listing it took me several minutes to figure the photo out.  When the seller didn't get the response he/she wanted... Well, you know how those go.

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I dunno... Have you never seen a photo of a hotel room or apartment with a mirrored wall that makes the place look much bigger in a photo? How about photos taken with a wide angle lens? Some of them aren't even photos... They're computer renderings...

[coolections]

@equid0x 

I would say you are incorrect. They buyer easily thought they where buying 5 worn looking old fuses for the price on the listing. There was no reason for the OP to put 5 pictures of the wording on the fuse. ONLY an experienced electrical would even know what to do what those fuses and they would already be familiar with the amps and volts etc, by reading the description. If the OP insisted in showing 5 pictures of the same fuse they could have at least put that as the LAST picture and only showed one fuse for the main picture. No one is going to waste their time having to return the fuse just to get $3 back. NO scam here at all.