Scammed by buyer - Ebay sided with Buyer - Is Ebay a safe place for sellers?

[forsakenrelik]

Recently, a buyer opened up a defect claim against a product I shipped to him. Upon reviewing his feedback left for others, it is apparent there is a pattern of this behavior, consistently claiming the same issues against sellers for the same types of items I sold to him.  He uses terms like "lazy flippers" which indicates to me he has a vendetta against flippers and this is his way of getting back at them.  It is also pretty clear that Ebay did not review this case in detail or any of the information I provided to them.  This entire process has been infuriating and makes me question whether Ebay is a safe place to sell goods, or not.  What is to keep buyers from doing this constantly?  Obviously this buyer does and continues to get away with it.  Shame on Ebay.  And trying to get in contact with Ebay is nearly impossible.  Is there no support for sellers and nothing we can do?

[soh.maryl]

It would be a good idea for all SELLERS to read eBay's Money Back Guarantee for buyers so they can understand what buyers can do under the MBG.

All a buyer has to do is to open an item not as described case in the Resolution Center.  eBay will, most of the time, side with the buyer and require that the seller send a prepaid return label and refund upon receipt of the returned item.  

It doesn't matter what evidence you may have that his claim is bogus or that he opens a lot of claims or leaves that type of negative FB.

If the seller does not do as outlined above, he runs the risk of eBay stepping in and refunding the buyer as well as allowing that buyer to keep the item in question.  

[m60driver]

Ebay is not 100% safe for sellers which is why one should not sell something you can't afford to lose.  And alas Ebay does not really look at feedback left for others to find those buyers who clearly have issues.  Sellers are held to pretty high standards but buyers far less so. I had one potential buyer who I blocked after seeing that about 30% of the feedback left for others were negs.

[alturi-3]

The feedback you left for that buyer is a policy violation so you're better off just keeping your head down and letting this one go.

[soh.maryl]

So you have been around eBay for this long and did not know that sellers aren't allowed to leave negatives for buyers, even if it's marked as positive?

That buyer can point this out to eBay, it will be removed and you will sustain a "defect".

[fashunu4eeuh]

Selling online has risks that cannot be avoided, only mitigated. And one of the most important ways to protect one’s interests is to know the policies, especially the Money Back Guarantee (and the PayPal Buyer Protection program).

If you dispute eBay’s ruling and have persuasive evidence, you have 30 days to appeal the decision. Below is a link on how to do this successfully. (It is at the appeal stage that documentation will be reviewed by a person, where before it is almost always an automatic win for the buyer.)

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/managing-returns-refunds/appeal-ebays-decision-return-missing-item...

It is possible to reach customer service at eBay. The call center was closed due to the pandemic, but going to Help & Contact on most eBay pages should link you to someone. Or try eBay’s social media platforms at Facebook or Twitter. I‘ve heard positive things about the CS reps on Facebook, in particular.

[outdatedrecreated]

Don't take this the wrong way but I would STRONGLY suggest you understand eBay's policies if you are going to sell items for hundreds and thousands of dollars. Based on the very little bit that I know about your specific situation, you are taking some risks I wouldn't suggest anyone take. Don't sell anything you can't afford to be scammed out of. Protect yourself.

[jewelbiz]

No it’s not safe & I’m losing sleep over it!  I had a very crooked, fraud buyer & eBay told me she was suspicious & cancelled, deleted vanished the sale.  I relisted It & she bought it again for The same $1740.
Ebay helped me over the phone & With them again this 2nd time to now cancel the sale manually  and Helped me refund her the total $1740.
1 month later she made a case Against me with paypal saying I did not ship her item!!

Hello!  Of course I didn’t ship the item. I refunded her.  Why should I ship after giving her back through PayPal All her money?  It actually took 2 days to reestablish my PayPal account Unfrozen.  Why? I don’t know because Through them I refunded her 100% so why would I ship a no sale.
Paypal Here ruled in my favor.

Was this the end of it?  Not by a long shot.  She’s crazy.

She is malicious evil.  She then made aNother case This time with her credit card company saying the same thing that I didn’t ship out “her” item.   PayPal again informed me of this 2Nd case against me.

Her credit card company ruled in her favor but PayPal said since I was such a long time good customer they were not going into my bank account On file with them and take out an additional $1740. 

I have not been the same Selling or Trusting on eBay since.
The crooks scammers know much more than you and Me!

I literally am losing sleep worrying...

no not safe.

[southern*sweet*tea]

Ebay or any other third party selling venue is as safe as YOU make it.

Any online form of payment (with the exception of cryptocurrency) can be reversed.

Any buyer on any venue who wants to steal from you, will.

It is up to the seller to protect themselves by self-insuring. Commercial insurance may or may not cover fraud, I have no idea.

Bad feedback happens. If it's deserved, suck it up and learn from it. If it's false, form a coherent, non-accusatory reply.  Savvy buyers pay more attention to the seller's reply than they do the actual neg.

[redlmc]

I do the same thing; I block buyers that leave negative feedback excessively, or what appears to be excessive compared to the total feedback left.

I mentioned before how useful it would be for buyers to have ratings according to returns, etc.  We know that will not happen.

I do check each time I receive an offer from a buyer to determine if they have a history of leaving negatives or neutrals, or comments about purchases that could be a signal.

Additionally, I figure users are coming to these forums to figure out their next scam.....

[jojitsusensei]

I would never ever sell anything on eBay again I quit 2 years ago when all this stuff started to get really bad and I have not sold anything since then don't plan to either.

I have also reduce my buying by 99%.

I no longer buy anything on eBay unless I absolutely positively need to.

[redmodelt]

You should have blocked the buyer after the first time. 

[jewelbiz]

I did but they somehow obtained my home phone Through eBay somehow saying it was Openly published on an eBay page for the entire world to see & called me Up & begged me to unblock them Saying they must have the item beyond all life!

I stupidly unblocked them & they immediately bought it 2nd time That same day.  

Wondering if I made a big mistake I called eBay.  The eBay rep told me Not to ship....No!

Later the same night another eBay rep In a different part of this country called me!!!!! Out of the blue Unsolicited & told me to cancel the sale & on the phone Together with me, we Together cancelled the sale & together refunded the total $1740. Money!

[bargainnation]

eBay is a relatively safe place for sellers but there is no guarantee that a seller will never be scammed by a buyer or that a buyer will never be scammed by a seller. There are a few dishonest buyers who look to scam sellers and they know how to do it and get away with it.  However, there are far more honest buyers (and sellers) on eBay so the good outweighs the bad.

When you run into dishonest buyers request that they return your item (many times they want you to let them keep the item plus give them a total refund so that they essentially get the item for free). Some times a seller might want to let the buyer keep the item if paying postage twice is going to be far more than what the item is worth.

The only thing you can do as a seller is to add that particular buyer to your BBL and report them to eBay for suspected abuse of the MBG. If enough sellers report dishonest buyers perhaps eBay will eventually kick them off of the platform when they see that a particular buyer has a pattern of claiming that a large number or percentage of items they buy is "defective";  "not as described";  etc,

[forsakenrelik]

I understand what you are saying for sure.  It's not that I can't afford to lose $130 worth of goods.  That's really not the point.  The point is, it should not be so easy for buyers to scam sellers and eBay should review evidence in more detail before closing claims and siding with buyers.  eBay is fostering a platform for buyers to be dishonest and scam sellers.  Also, while I certainly understand the importance of understanding the Terms of Service, this knowledge does not provide me with additional protection as a seller.