Strange buyer behavior experience - anyone else?

[rei-npkrlma]

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. . .

[rei-npkrlma]

Oh you're being such a negative nellie! lol

The CS rep assured me I wouldn't get any violations so I have to cling to that and all the calls are recorded, so I feel okay with the way it went. As for cancelling, I still feel better about having to do that than going through with those sales. Everything gut instinct in me was screaming "beware!" and when I don't listen to my gut, I always regret it. Time will tell which way the wind blows on this one, I guess.

muttlymob said -
"Then the buyer has every right to complain that your reason for cancelling was invalid.  6 cancellations for an invalid reason could hurt.  A lot."

Yes, I understand that, but that was what the rep suggested I do and he felt it would be okay on my end.  Needless to say,  I sure hope it is...

[pvcliff]

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@d-k_treasures wrote:

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@rei-npkrlma wrote:
THANK YOU duggmills - exactly what kept going through my mind...cancel rather than face further ramifications to my account like six ugly red dots or a refund I simply cannot afford - cripes, that would have cost me $15.66 in shipping alone - right there my meager profits are eaten up should there be a return / refund.

Thanks for your understanding. . .

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Were the shipping addresses the same on all? If not, then they could have been buying for 6 different people, being shipped to 6 different people.

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My fist thought is that the buyer couldn't figure the gosh  darn cart out -- been there myself several times, most recently at Easter buying egg wrappers. Finally decided to just pay the $1 postage five times, but the seller came along and combined things for me after the fact. The Christmas gifts was a good idea too until we found the OP's buyer had everything sent to the same address. I had to do six pistachio transactions because unlike Cheryl's, Harry & David, etc the nut farm order system didn't have the ability to order six items to six addresses and provide a total for a single checkout. I attribute whatever the issue was for the OP's buyer to cluelessness rather than something sinister. Either way I'd be concerned about shipping too without a mind merge with the buyer.

[tina06457]

I would never believe a cs rep with something like this not even if recorded. Sorry but they just tell you what you want to hear. Sellers get taken all the time by following their advice. Were these high priced hot selling items? Scammers usually only go for those. I would have tried to contact the buyers first before doing a cancel. Hopefully you don't have 6 defects now.

[berserkerplanet]

Just a shot in the dark - Hiram, OH?

[sin-n-dex]

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@rei-npkrlma wrote:

The CS rep assured me I wouldn't get any violations so I have to cling to that and all the calls are recorded, so I feel okay with the way it went. As for cancelling, I still feel better about

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That's not true. They do not record all calls, listen to the recorded calls or look up calls. You need to get a call number and agents name and ask for notes to be made "if you need to call back and discuss this with someone else". No call number for you, they didn't write anything they said down. There's no record.

You will have to call back and plead your case again if you find yourself with defects, but you might not get defects unless the buyer calls and complains.

Cheers, C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@sin-n-dex wrote:

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@rei-npkrlma wrote:

The CS rep assured me I wouldn't get any violations so I have to cling to that and all the calls are recorded, so I feel okay with the way it went. As for cancelling, I still feel better about

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That's not true. They do not record all calls, listen to the recorded calls or look up calls. You need to get a call number and agents name and ask for notes to be made "if you need to call back and discuss this with someone else". No call number for you, they didn't write anything they said down. There's no record.

You will have to call back and plead your case again if you find yourself with defects, but you might not get defects unless the buyer calls and complains.

Cheers, C.

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And make sure the rep makes notes WHILE you are on the phone. Once you hang up, a new call comes in, and they're working on that instead. Always get your notes for your file made while you're talking to them. If they don't put you on hold to make notes, they didn't make any.

Cheers, C.

[pvcliff]

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@sin-n-dex wrote:

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@rei-npkrlma wrote:

The CS rep assured me I wouldn't get any violations so I have to cling to that and all the calls are recorded, so I feel okay with the way it went. As for cancelling, I still feel better about

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That's not true. They do not record all calls, listen to the recorded calls or look up calls. You need to get a call number and agents name and ask for notes to be made "if you need to call back and discuss this with someone else". No call number for you, they didn't write anything they said down. There's no record.

You will have to call back and plead your case again if you find yourself with defects, but you might not get defects unless the buyer calls and complains.

Cheers, C.

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What I found interesting is without a call number or any other information, a second CS knew I had just called about the same problem one time. This was at least 4-5 years ago, and I was following the "call back to see if I get an answer more to my liking" rule. Started to tell my story and was told "I see you just called, blah blah blah".

[rei-npkrlma]

No, but I had one of those the other day that did this only with 2 of the same item, not six...
This one was from South Carolina.

[rei-npkrlma]

He - the rep - did tell me he was making a note on my account about this. I believed him. He was very helpful.

[berserkerplanet]

Ran into the Hiram, OH thing with a PayPal chargeback on a website order. Order shipped, then PayPal chargeback, then undeliverable address and item came back. PayPal still in limbo.

Looked into it and it is a thing going back a while. Address given never? deliverable and not necessarily in OH.

My guess from our order and reading the comments I found is that they are using stolen credit cards to get deep into the checkout process and trying to do script injection exploits on the websites. The actual order itself appears to not matter and just be collateral damage for the vendor and the actual cardholder. Why bother trying it with eBay purchases is beyond me (I doubt eBay checkout is susceptible to injection attacks like various website carts might be.)

https://badbuyerlist.org/buyer/0485581177ab19446137
(there are a dozen entries for same "buyer" with varying bad emails, bad phone#s, and bad addresses)

[*eponymous*]

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@rei-npkrlma wrote:
"...but what guest would have 6 IDs? "

Exactly what I was thinking, but then the eBay CS rep said when a person uses guest check out, an ID is created. So this guy just kept ordering this item with guest checkout one after the other until the stock ran out. I literally sat here and watched them roll in one after the other - really weird! [insert twilight zone music...lol]

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eBay has recently been enforcing buying limits. I think it's possible the guest buyer ran into the block and opened new guest accounts because he wanted all 6 things.

Sellers ought to get a policy violation for lying about a problem with buyer's address so, hopefully, eBay will close that loophole sooner rather than later.

A seller who cancels because they have a bad feeling about a transaction will have a short career, followed by a permanent selling ban for going (way) over the limit on out of stock defects.

[*eponymous*]

Please read my post above @rei-npkrlma

[femmefan1946]

I'm not sure if they paid with a PP account or credit card through PP - rep didn't get specific on that.

Look at your PP account.

If all the purchases went to the same PP account, is there an email on the PP confirmation of payment?

You can get in touch with the customer at that email, and explain your concerns and responses. Then offer to walk him through a multiple purchase.

[blijeolifantje]

It is really not strange. New Buyers are not aware they do not get combined ship if not bought under same user id and they do not want to create a more permannet user id on Ebay. Ebay allows Buyers to purchase without really creating account nowadays and this is what happens when they just wnat to click in to buy. You will not be able to add same tracking number to different ID so the buyer will lose when you cannot combine ship. If Buyer wnats combined ship then you should cancel order adn set up custom listing for them.  I have seen  alot of these lately and it is ebay's fault for not requiring people to have an acct with ebay.

[rei-npkrlma]

That is all precisely why I called eBay CS for advice before doing anything.

As for buying limits, thanks for the heads-up - hadn't heard / read that yet.