Had a buyer do the most odd thing and when I saw it, red flags went up all over the place.
Here's what happened. I get a sale. Great! I go to start preparing it for shipping and I get another and another... boom....boom...six purchases OF THE VERY SAME ITEM one after the other. Six was all I had left, so now I know this is going to stop. I was logged in, I saw this all going on and by this point, I'm getting extraordinarily supsicious.
I go to "view my sales" and lo and behold the name and address is exactly the same on each sale. BUT, each sale had a different variation of the buyers user name. In other words, there were 6 different user names, 6 separate purchases, all for the same item. I found this odd and frankly, was afraid to process the orders out of a horrid fear of some serious trouble brewing.
I really didn't want to process those orders so I called eBay CS. Luckily I had someone who took a look at what happnened and actually understood my concerns. He said the only thing I could do is process each order separately to fulfill my sales but I was so worried I asked if I could cancel them instead w/o any negative repercussions. He said sure, I could do that and to use the "Something wrong with buyer's address" when I cancelled. He also suggested I pick one user name out of the six (CS rep said the person used the same email address) and send a message informing the buyer I was cancelling (right-o, makes sense) and requesting the buyer purchase all 6 in one purchase so I could combine the shipping.
Oh - the CS rep also sais this buyer was using the guest checkout. But still, why not just put 6 in the quantity and get them all in one shipment? Who would want to do six separate transactions for the very same item from the very same seller?
I did message the buyer as the rep suggested. Then I proceeded to cancel each sale. I never heard back from this mysterious buyer. I haven't relisted the item as yet because I don't want this character to do this all over again, but I'm really wondering:
1) What is the buyers end game?
2) Has anyone else experienced this and if so, how did you handle it?
I'm super concerned that this is a scam of sorts, but for the life of me, can't figure it out. A couple of days prior to this occurence I had a similar situation but the person only bought 2 of the same item to the same address with different user names and I did follow through shipping them, but I'm still concerned something is going to come back to bite me on them.
Thanks if you made it through this whole post - I tried to condense but I seem to have trouble doing that sometimes. . . 
Okay, I have to tell a good story (I have plenty of time; I ended all of my listings 
)
Before the days of identity theft (pre computer) my father's billfold was stolen from his hotel room. He called all of the credit cards and did all that jazz.
A few days later his uncle died so my father and mother flew from Illinois to Florida, using my father's "new" AmEx number. Not knowing AmEx had simply issued a new card with the old number.
They got off the plane in Tampa, back in the days when you always had to walk across the tarmac, and immediately two guys with guns jumped in front of my father and said, "Are you ____ ____?" "Hands up." It was the FBI and he was going to be arrested for using a stolen card across state lines.
The best part was my mother's immediate response while being held at gunpoint in front of 100 people. She looked at my father and said, "What have you done now?"
@rei-npkrlma wrote:
Had a buyer do the most odd thing and when I saw it, red flags went up all over the place.
Here's what happened. I get a sale. Great! I go to start preparing it for shipping and I get another and another... boom....boom...six purchases OF THE VERY SAME ITEM one after the other. Six was all I had left, so now I know this is going to stop. I was logged in, I saw this all going on and by this point, I'm getting extraordinarily supsicious.
I go to "view my sales" and lo and behold the name and address is exactly the same on each sale. BUT, each sale had a different variation of the buyers user name. In other words, there were 6 different user names, 6 separate purchases, all for the same item. I found this odd and frankly, was afraid to process the orders out of a horrid fear of some serious trouble brewing.
I really didn't want to process those orders so I called eBay CS. Luckily I had someone who took a look at what happnened and actually understood my concerns. He said the only thing I could do is process each order separately to fulfill my sales but I was so worried I asked if I could cancel them instead w/o any negative repercussions. He said sure, I could do that and to use the "Something wrong with buyer's address" when I cancelled. He also suggested I pick one user name out of the six (CS rep said the person used the same email address) and send a message informing the buyer I was cancelling (right-o, makes sense) and requesting the buyer purchase all 6 in one purchase so I could combine the shipping.
Oh - the CS rep also sais this buyer was using the guest checkout. But still, why not just put 6 in the quantity and get them all in one shipment? Who would want to do six separate transactions for the very same item from the very same seller?
I did message the buyer as the rep suggested. Then I proceeded to cancel each sale. I never heard back from this mysterious buyer. I haven't relisted the item as yet because I don't want this character to do this all over again, but I'm really wondering:
1) What is the buyers end game?
2) Has anyone else experienced this and if so, how did you handle it?
I'm super concerned that this is a scam of sorts, but for the life of me, can't figure it out. A couple of days prior to this occurence I had a similar situation but the person only bought 2 of the same item to the same address with different user names and I did follow through shipping them, but I'm still concerned something is going to come back to bite me on them.
Thanks if you made it through this whole post - I tried to condense but I seem to have trouble doing that sometimes. . .
Hi @rei-npkrlma, while I can't discuss the specifics here on the boards, if you look at the usernames for these transactions they are what you would typically find for a guest account. I understand that this raised some alarm for you and I think it is great that you called eBay for advice, but I feel that you may have been given inappropriate guidance on these transactions. What most likely happened here is you had a buyer purchase 6 items from you and they simply did not know now to change the quantity during checkout. Additionally, it is unlikely you would receive a response to your message when a member is having difficulty navigating the site as it appears was the case here. This is a particularly common occurence around the Holidays as members come to the site for the first time to make a purchase.
@Anonymous wrote:
@rei-npkrlma wrote:Had a buyer do the most odd thing and when I saw it, red flags went up all over the place.
Here's what happened. I get a sale. Great! I go to start preparing it for shipping and I get another and another... boom....boom...six purchases OF THE VERY SAME ITEM one after the other. Six was all I had left, so now I know this is going to stop. I was logged in, I saw this all going on and by this point, I'm getting extraordinarily supsicious.
I go to "view my sales" and lo and behold the name and address is exactly the same on each sale. BUT, each sale had a different variation of the buyers user name. In other words, there were 6 different user names, 6 separate purchases, all for the same item. I found this odd and frankly, was afraid to process the orders out of a horrid fear of some serious trouble brewing.
I really didn't want to process those orders so I called eBay CS. Luckily I had someone who took a look at what happnened and actually understood my concerns. He said the only thing I could do is process each order separately to fulfill my sales but I was so worried I asked if I could cancel them instead w/o any negative repercussions. He said sure, I could do that and to use the "Something wrong with buyer's address" when I cancelled. He also suggested I pick one user name out of the six (CS rep said the person used the same email address) and send a message informing the buyer I was cancelling (right-o, makes sense) and requesting the buyer purchase all 6 in one purchase so I could combine the shipping.
Oh - the CS rep also sais this buyer was using the guest checkout. But still, why not just put 6 in the quantity and get them all in one shipment? Who would want to do six separate transactions for the very same item from the very same seller?
I did message the buyer as the rep suggested. Then I proceeded to cancel each sale. I never heard back from this mysterious buyer. I haven't relisted the item as yet because I don't want this character to do this all over again, but I'm really wondering:
1) What is the buyers end game?
2) Has anyone else experienced this and if so, how did you handle it?
I'm super concerned that this is a scam of sorts, but for the life of me, can't figure it out. A couple of days prior to this occurence I had a similar situation but the person only bought 2 of the same item to the same address with different user names and I did follow through shipping them, but I'm still concerned something is going to come back to bite me on them.
Thanks if you made it through this whole post - I tried to condense but I seem to have trouble doing that sometimes. . .
Hi @rei-npkrlma, while I can't discuss the specifics here on the boards, if you look at the usernames for these transactions they are what you would typically find for a guest account. I understand that this raised some alarm for you and I think it is great that you called eBay for advice, but I feel that you may have been given inappropriate guidance on these transactions. What most likely happened here is you had a buyer purchase 6 items from you and they simply did not know now to change the quantity during checkout. Additionally, it is unlikely you would receive a response to your message when a member is having difficulty navigating the site as it appears was the case here. This is a particularly common occurence around the Holidays as members come to the site for the first time to make a purchase.
Trinton... eBay CS is leading this OP by the hand directly into a policy violation. This has been happening over and over and over and over again for going on two decades now.
It has happened and continues to happen so often and so consistently it almost seems as if CS is a buzz saw for sellers... by design.
We've heard the "rogue CSR" line for eons, but I've never, ever, EVER heard of ONE going "rogue" with good results for the seller. It's like Lucy with the football vs. Charlie Brown.
"Yes, I agree that your item is indeed authentic. Go ahead and relist" BOOM.
"Yes, I agree that you are in the right. Go ahead and escalate the case and we will find in your favor" BOOM
"Sure, go ahead and cancel that transaction" BOOM
"Of course your item being pulled for violating the Cuba ban/ Ivory ban,(take your pick) is in error. Go ahead and relist" BOOM
And on, and on, and on.
We've even had sellers report that they watched cases being closed in the buyers favor as the eBay CSR is telling them the exact opposite. When they said "Hey- wait a minute", the CSRs ALWAYS seemed to feed them the same line: "Oh, they all show up like that in the beginning. You'll see it change within 48 hours".
BOOM.
You CANNOT convince me that this is all just random... consistently random... sorry.
Is this any way for eBay to treat their paying customers?
