Should I be nervous and suspicious of this buyer?

[li97eaglespu]

Hello fellow eBay'ers

 I don't sell a lot of items. I'm just one person selling my personal items, so I do not have as much experience as most of you other sellers. But I just sold an item to some buyer who's profile shows they live in Canada. So my item is being shipped to the international hub. Which I have done many times with no problems.

But the thing that throws up a red flag is. This buyer has been a member for over 4 years, But they have 0 feedback. Is that something I should be suspicious about?

[dbfolks166mt]

Thanks. But I am not worried the shipping aspect. I'm worried that after the buyer receives the item, they will lie, and claim it is "not as described". And open a case. Then eBay will have them return the item for a full refund. And instead of sending me the item I sold to them, they will send me another one that's the same make & model but broken, or they will send me a box of rocks. And since their outside USA, I will not have any legal recourse.

That is a big problem with eBay, They will rule in favor of the dishonest buyer almost every time.

eBay is 100% based on trust & honesty. Show me a half way honest person and I'll show you a half way dishonest person.

     Did you fail to read the list of seller protections eBay offers under EIS? For once the seller is pretty much covered from anything including chargebacks. 

[li97eaglespu]

Yes I read it. It seemed to me to be only relevant to shipping problems. Not "item not as described".

It's just this buyer's profile doesn't even have the links for, received as seller, received as buyer,  left for others, etc. The profile is not normal. Over 4 years and there is not even one noted feedback.

[toomuchstuffagain35]

You're considering seceding from the Commonwealth?

[toomuchstuffagain35]

But ANY buyer ANY where could do any of those things.

[fashunu4eeuh]

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@li97eaglespu wrote:

Thanks. But I am not worried the shipping aspect. I'm worried that after the buyer receives the item, they will lie, and claim it is "not as described". And open a case. Then eBay will have them return the item for a full refund. And instead of sending me the item I sold to them, they will send me another one that's the same make & model but broken, or they will send me a box of rocks. And since their outside USA, I will not have any legal recourse.

That is a big problem with eBay, They will rule in favor of the dishonest buyer almost every time.

eBay is 100% based on trust & honesty. Show me a half way honest person and I'll show you a half way dishonest person.

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Yes, this is a risk we all take when selling on eBay. 

One’s risk tolerance needs to be decided before listing, because sellers cannot mitigate risk easily after the sale is sold and paid for due to eBay’s policies. There can be stiff penalties for seller-initiated transaction cancellations, which eBay levies to reduce poor buying experiences that can arise when a seller cancels. So a buyer pays, we ship. If you find yourself hesitant to do so, then it may be more prudent to sell expensive, high-fraud items locally for cash.

I sell items occasionally in those price points, and find those buyers to be the most pleasant and easiest to deal with. Out of 15 years of selling, i have never encountered a fraudulent buyer. Bad sellers, yes. Bad buyers, no.

However, i am cautious selling in categories that may attract the less honest buyers. That would encompass gaming items, computers and electrics, designer sneakers and purses, smartphones, etc. But higher risk can mean higher rewards and higher price points. Only you can decide what level of risk to adopt.

One way to deal with the situation you describe above would be to limit your scope of buyers to domestic sales only.

Good luck in your decisions.

[femmefan1946]

@toomuchstuffagain35 The monarch is not recognised as Head of State by most of the countries in the Commonwealth. And one was never even a colony of Britain.
We're pretty loosey-goosey about membership.

Personally I like our current Governor General Ningiukadlak (aka Mary Simon). She seems pretty cool.

[chapeau-noir]

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@li97eaglespu wrote:

Yes I read it. It seemed to me to be only relevant to shipping problems. Not "item not as described".

It's just this buyer's profile doesn't even have the links for, received as seller, received as buyer,  left for others, etc. The profile is not normal. Over 4 years and there is not even one noted feedback.

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There's actually no 'normal' profile - there are tens of millions of people using this site. 

You'll never take all the risk out of online sales, no matter where you sell, it's an unfortunate byproduct of the convenience of basically having the world at your doorstep. The only sure-fire way is to sell in person and accept only cash (and then make sure you have the bills checked for counterfeit).  I don't blame you for being concerned, but anyone, domestically or internationally, can claim anything - the only way to avoid this is to cancel the sale.

[inhawaii]

From Canada?

Yikes!  😉

[li97eaglespu]

eBay changed the option to choose domestic only. Now every listing is automatically EIS. there is no option to select what country you sell to. 

I had the listing set to domestic only. Before eBay changed it to EIS. I can not change it.

[fashunu4eeuh]

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@li97eaglespu wrote:

eBay changed the option to choose domestic only. Now every listing is automatically EIS. there is no option to select what country you sell to. 

I had the listing set to domestic only. Before eBay changed it to EIS. I can not change it.

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Hmmm, below is the policy for shipping from eBay’s Help pages. It states shipping exclusions are still available.

The other link is to the EIS policy page. From there you can reach your Shipping Preferences page easily. It gives instructions for opting out of EIS as well.

But using the eBay International Shipping program gives many seller benefits, including protection from Money Back Guarantee cases. If that is your main concern, then the EIS sounds ideal to suite your needs. I have shipped items all over the world myself with no issues in 15 years. It depends on what you want for your account. Best wishes to you.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/posting-items/setting-postage-options?id=4089

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/shipping-items/setting-shipping-options/ebay-international-shippin...

[dbfolks166mt]

eBay changed the option to choose domestic only. Now every listing is automatically EIS. there is no option to select what country you sell to. 

I had the listing set to domestic only. Before eBay changed it to EIS. I can not change it.

     You can opt out of the EIS program and set all the countries you don't want to ship to in your seller preferences. Over half of eBay's transactions are now international and with the seller protections they are offering under EIS I wish I had the option to just sell internationally. Far better seller protection for international sales under EIS than there is for domestic sales. There are a couple of downsides to EIS one being you cannot do combined shipping at the moment and there are also some size and weight limits that are well below what you can ship if you are doing your own international shipping. 

Opting out of eBay International Shipping

You can opt out of eBay International Shipping at any time by updating your shipping preferences. If you choose to opt-out, you'll be asked to provide a reason why.

To opt out of eBay International Shipping:

1. Go to My eBay and select Account.
2. Select Shipping preferences.
3. Select Show on the right-hand side of the Shipping Preferences section.
4. Select Opt Out on the right-hand side of eBay International Shipping.
5. Select Done.