Scammed by a buyer

[littletangerine]

I sold a Vintage Hot Wheels Electronic Garage and someone bought it on Christmas Day to scam me. Can you believe it? I thought Christmas is about giving. I even spent Christmas day organizing the parts by sealing individual parts in its own plastic bags and pack the item really nicely, so I can ship it out first thing next morning thinking some kid is getting late Christmas gift.

Anyhow, he bought the set which was complete and tested working unit but within a day after delivery the buyer asked for full refund due to missing part directly to eBay without even trying to contact me.

Needless to say, after I paid for return shipping and got the item back, it was missing 6 parts and he swapped a few other parts that were not my originally. Some of the parts he swapped has stickers and my did not. I had one part with broken clip and now I got swapped a good part for some reason.

While all this is happening, I did some investigation using readily available search engine for sold items on eBay and found someone sold an incomplete set of same Hot Wheels Garage just 15 days prior. I message him and this seller told me he sold it to Modesto, CA as where my buyer is located.

It's now clear that the buyer bought the incomplete set for lower price and returned my after he stole the parts he wanted without a penny spent and shipped right to his front door.

But, I think most of you reading this probably knows what happened next. Yes, eBay decided it was NOT in buyer's control for me to receive missing or broken parts and issued a full refund. 

At the end I lost about $150 because it was bulky item to pay for shipping both way plus hours of hard work. This will be a Christmas experience for me and my family to remember by from eBay.

[the_fancy_fox]

What happened is ebay has no way of knowing your set was perfect and the buyer is a thief.  It is a he said / they said situation. It’s upsetting to have happen to you, I know, been there had it happen. 

meantime, start adding a small amount to each item you sell as your personal loss pool. After ten years I am easily over a $1000 in my fund.  Now when a uninsured package gets lost or a buyer becomes a thief, it’s a comfort to know it’s not a loss.

Block the buyer and report them. If they pull this enough ebay might do something.

[rosachs]

This type of behavior really stinks, and it can take a lot of the wind out of your sales.  Unfortunately, it's one of the worst B&M behaviors to show up on eBay and other venues.  B&M retailers have had to deal with buy-open-swap-return scams for a very long time.  And online is even easier since you don't have to look anyone in the eye and your purchases are delivered right to your door -- no need to drive anywhere!!

This is why many many retailers build a 'loss factor' into their pricing.  Their records show that they will lose $X a day to consumer theft -- shoplifting & switching being the two biggest sources.  So that add that figure, plus a bit more just in case, to the fixed costs of selling anything in their store.  This increases the base cost for the item, and increases the asking price for the item.

It's a sad reflection on the moral compasses of a growing segment of the population.  😞

-Bob.

[m60driver]

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@rosachs wrote:

It's a sad reflection on the moral compasses of a growing segment of the population.  😞

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I would pluralize that to growing segments of the population.

[stainlessenginecovers]

If ebay performed the refund, you got a ding. 

On a 'missing parts' return, it's basically a 'not as described' which gives the seller 2 choices:

a.) pay for return shipping and then refund upon it's return

b.) just refund without getting the item back

Sounds like you chose a.) - but you didn't have to if the shipping cost was not worth it vs. just refunding.

Also note if you 'allow 30 day returns', are Top Rated and 'chose' so ebay didn't have to do it for you, you could deduct up to 50% of the refund if item comes back 'less than'. 

[sextons-sweet-deals]

The Hot Wheels buyer knew what they were doing. Scamming! You can at least report them to eBay and block them. I get low ball offers all the time on my old Hot Wheels. Did you ever look at their feedback profile prior to shipping? When a buyer leaves a negative or neutral, the seller can respond to posts for others to read. 

I would recommend doing a little extra work on your listings to protect yourself a little more in the future. I looked at a few of your listings.

Your used clothing listings seem to only have 1 photo. I would add more like including the back of the item and photos of any issues like stains, holes, or cracking in artwork and spell out those issues in description. You have your clothing marked used and that is it. If your clothing has no issues, use something like no issues found. See photos. Ask questing if needed.

On the Barbie Ski Lodge, did you research this item? Do you know if you have all the parts? If not, I would state something like I cannot confirm if this is complete or if you know what is missing, list the missing parts. Use a statement like see photos and ask questions if needed along with open for comments. Some members / shoppers will tell you what you might be missing.

Good Luck

[littletangerine]

Thank you for all the advice. I posted some statements to the Barbie sets listings that they might have missing parts and I am open to questions. 

Again, thank you. But I could not find the used clothing listing with only 1 photo. I really want to fix those listing you mentioned. I just could not find any listing with 1 photo after 10 minutes looking over the listings. Can you help me by just pointing out the brand name of the clothing? Thank you so much.

[tsme35]

I do that, I call it my "self insurance" program.

I have this problem with fishing reels, work perfect then returned missing or a damaged replacement part.

[itsjustasprain]

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@sextons-sweet-deals wrote:

On the Barbie Ski Lodge, did you research this item? Do you know if you have all the parts? If not, I would state something like I cannot confirm if this is complete or if you know what is missing, list the missing parts.

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I would list the parts you DO have and show them in at least 1 photo. No need to mention parts that you don't have anyway. Maybe put in a disclaimer that if something is not shown or described it is not part of the sale.

[littletangerine]

I just check the buyer's feedback profile and it shows 100% positive with 95 reviews, but when I check the feed back he left for others and found he left 4 negative reviews on other seller.

One of the negative review he left was that he received a vacuum cleaner with missing parts.

Another negative review was that he received a empty box from a seller.

And another one was that he did not receive the item for over a week.

Last one and the most recent was that the new facial cleanser was not new and sealed as described.

It looks like eBay is allowing this kind of behavior.

[sapphire_studio]

Block him, report him on eBay, and maybe even report him to the authorities.

 Make sure you have buyer pays returns or free returns on all your listings so you can be a a top rated seller and be able to take off 50% of the refund in situations like this.

 There is no point to having no returns on eBay it just attracts scammers who can force a return anyway.

[inhawaii]

I bet your buyer is just as upset at you are.

Your buyer is wondering why you had the nerve to sell them something that was missing pieces.

Unfortunately we don't know who's telling the truth.

Neither does ebay.

[littletangerine]

Ok, I just tried to report the buyer for abusive behavior and eBay will not give me the option. I am not able to select the transaction nor the buyer.

I am just trying to help the seller community. Now I am discouraged.

It sucks.

[sapphire_studio]

Try this link:

https://spd.ebay.com/RBASellerHub

[littletangerine]

I did. It does not give me a option on that particular order nor buyer.