Screams fraud

[trademarkfinds]

I sold 3 new wifi deadbolts to one buyer. Buyer claims they arrived defective. Won't take master code and batteries get extremely hot. Claims to have called yale for them to confirm they are defective. I've sold about 3 of these in the past to different buyers, no issues. My initial assumption is installation error or damaged during installation. I do not accept returns and apparently the buyer is trying to use money back guarantee to return these. 

After speaking with an ebay csr, I'm encouraged to make contact with the buyer and try to work it out. I contact the buyer to see if I could help troubleshoot it.  He tells me I could try but he has a short time fuse and gives me his number. I continue my conversations through the returns portal. I could tell he was aggravated by that but I wanted it to stay recorded. I troubleshoot with him and his responses are uncertain of any change.  In a response he stated to be a "pro property manager " and that he uses these locks. I could tell he was dead set on returning these locks. So I accepted the return because ebay would have forced it on me.

Remember I said he gave me his phone number. A little Google search and bam I found 56 negative out of 58 yelp reviews for this guy. Oddly he lives an hour from me but had it shipped to idaho. There was a 3 week span from delivery date to when the return was opened. 

My thoughts are that I'm getting his old locks back. Either that or the address label scam. My plans are to video the package being delivered from the mail truck , verifying address label, then opening and inspecting contents and condition.  All in one continuous shot. If it is used broken items I plan on filing a police report. Then contacting ebay to see how they'd want me to proceed. I could reach out to the buyer tell him he's a p.o.s. and should close the case before I am forced to file it with the feds.

Does this sound like a good course of plans for handling this? 

[ebooksdiva]

Your no returns policy doesn’t mean no refunds. If the buyer opened a NAD return you can either accept the return, issue the return label, receive the item back and refund. If you qualify, you can deduct up to 50% from the refund if the item isn’t your item or if it’s damaged in any way. 
Or you can refund without receiving the item back.
Then at the end of the year you can write it off as a  loss on your taxes. 
As for the buyers phone number, you already had that in the order details. 
Looking up the buyer’s yelp or whatever isn’t relevant to the transaction and may not even be true. 

[zgnisaer]

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@trademarkfinds wrote:

My plans are to video the package being delivered from the mail truck , verifying address label, then opening and inspecting contents and condition.  All in one continuous shot. 

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Why would the mail truck @trademarkfinds be at your address if it's not on the label?

[trademarkfinds]

Doing video of the package being delivered from the mail truck or jeep would make a clear case that no wrong doing would be done on my end.

[trademarkfinds]

I understand the Nad is a freeway for returns . That's what the buyer did. I accepted the return.  The buyer claimed the item wasn't as described.  Just said they was defective (falls under the Nad). Never accused them of being second hand or anything. How likely would three like items be truly defective to one buyer? 

The information gathered outside of ebay is just to give me information of what to expect. The numbers are different.  

I'm aware of the return options but I am also aware of being able to fight it as well.  

Thank you for your response 

[soh.maryl]

Am I missing something here? The buyer is NOT claiming he did not receive the item.  He  is claiming it's not as described.  So how would doing a video of the package being delivered prove that his claim is false? He admits he received it, how else would he be able to say it's defective?  

[bashort]

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@soh.maryl wrote:

Am I missing something here? The buyer is NOT claiming he did not receive the item.  He  is claiming it's not as described.  So how would doing a video of the package being delivered prove that his claim is false? He admits he received it, how else would he be able to say it's defective?  

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the OP suspects that the buyer may return something other than what they bought.

The problem is that even if the op has a uncut video of the usps driving down the street to being unpacked and it being a brick ebay will not be interested in looking at anything other than tracking showing the return delivered.

[luckythewinner]

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@trademarkfinds wrote:

Doing video of the package being delivered from the mail truck or jeep would make a clear case that no wrong doing would be done on my end.

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No one at eBay will watch your video.

And even if they did, eBay has no idea if what you received is what you shipped.

[luckythewinner]

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@trademarkfinds wrote:

How likely would three like items be truly defective to one buyer? 

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It would be likely if you had shipped the buyer three used defective ones. And eBay has no idea whether you did.

The bottom line is that eBay has no way of knowing who is telling the truth, so they do not even try. They do not care about your video, all they care about is whether the buyer has delivery confirmation for a package to your address.

And that is all the Money Back Guarantee requires.

[isaiah53-57]

What you suggest doing regarding video taping to protect yourself is useless in regard to winning an initial case with ebay - However that information could be very useful in small claims court in a case against the buyer, or the venue that facilitated the sale(given that the buyer has been reported numerous times and yet the site allows them to continue to buy and scam with impunity)

We ran into a buyer like that who we found had at least 15 reports against them in a 90 day period(+/-) that is approximately what we could verify from sellers who had filed reports and those who said they would file - No telling how many more sellers filed reports that we could not contact during that time frame...

I see posters(especially site apologists) tell you to report abuse and thievery and bad buyers will get the boot or perhaps reprimanded - I just have to shake my head when I see it - by our experience and opinion, nothing is done about it and the scammers just continue on their merry way to the next victim - Are they so desperate for sales that they don't dare take steps to remedy the problem? Or maybe they just don't want to know how bad the problem really is once they try to start remedying? Or maybe they just dont care for the added expense that will hurt quarterly reports? - Who knows- But as you can see by our 0 listings, its one of the main reasons we don't list here anymore...

[trademarkfinds]

You are correct in my suspicions.  

My thoughts are that recording the unboxing will prove no foul play on my part for when the reporting officer makes a police report. 

[trademarkfinds]

Thanks for the info. 

It's unfortunate that honest sellers have to endure dishonest buyers and vice versa. Seems that There's more protection for buyers than for sellers. Being new to selling I'm learning more and more each day. Good and bad. I have been absorbing info since I've started selling here. I've had 2 returns prior to this one.  First was a ordered by mistake which I accepted anyway.  Second was a INAD claiming item was not vintage and a common reproduction. Prior to that the buyer claimed never receiving package.  After 3 days he gets his package then opens the return.  I accepted it even though I had quite a few very good pictures showing every part of the item. 

From what I've seen the chances of a seller getting their money back is greatly increased when police and postal reports are introduced. Unfortunately in most of these cases it seems the buyer still gets their money back. If ebay wants to give their money away they can. I really don't care as long as I get my money back if actual fraud exists.

It's a shame it's not clear what a seller has to do to prove they're in the right. 

[kabilab]

The following is how I handled situations similar to what you are encountering.

I initially became an e-Bay seller in 2003, but in partnership with my cousin; I supplied the product and she handled everything involved with sales. In 2013, though, she died in an accident, so I began handling my account. At that point, I had been self-employed for 50 yrs. I quickly experienced a few problems I had not anticipated; it was now analysis and decision time. The question for me was do the positives outweigh the negatives? They do. Next, if they do, am I able/willing to put the negatives to bed and only accentuate what remained? The answer was yes; here I am.

If the answer is no, flee!

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Have you reached out to Yale to determine whether this is a known problem?

Have you determined whether that if you accept the return whether Yale will swap the units for you?

[trademarkfinds]

I

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@kabilab wrote:

The following is how I handled situations similar to what you are encountering.

I initially became an e-Bay seller in 2003, but in partnership with my cousin; I supplied the product and she handled everything involved with sales. In 2013, though, she died in an accident, so I began handling my account. At that point, I had been self-employed for 50 yrs. I quickly experienced a few problems I had not anticipated; it was now analysis and decision time. The question for me was do the positives outweigh the negatives? They do. Next, if they do, am I able/willing to put the negatives to bed and only accentuate what remained? The answer was yes; here I am.

If the answer is no, flee!

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I'm sorry for your loss but I hope you're happy with your new responsibilities.  Don't get me wrong I'm enjoying this very much. It does get discouraging to encounter such situations as this and I know I probably shouldn't fight it but, If I don't at least try I will not know in the future. I understand returns are going to happen and I value my time as much as the next person. In this instance $270 and the possibility of fraud seems to be worth fighting for. For lesser I'd rollover and move on. I do agree it's not worth stressing over a sale which equals 5% of the monthly income.  The above was roughly 60% of December.  I'm still in my growing and learning stages. Thanks for your time and advice.