lucky me...most of the time!

[joliefran]

I just received a return from a dishonest, scamming buyer.  I sell Tibetan Buddhist and am mostly sheltered from this kind of situation.  I think she may have done what the other ripoff artist did, which was try to serve some high acid food, like salsa, in what are meant to be part of an altar and used for water only.  She sent me some hilarious pictures (would I get in trouble if I posted them?), where it looked like she had taken orange powder and sprinkled it all over her counter top, including the bowls, where it could be seen floating on top of the water.  Another picture showed a white cloth with an orange tinge, proof that her housekeeping is good and she tried to clean up the mess of orange powder she scattered.  The claim was that the bowls were causing this bizarre eruption of orange and that they turned the water orange and...it was all my fault, of course.

My question:  there does not seem to be anywhere, in the return process,  where a sellers input is requested, let alone even allowed.  Big surprise!  eBay doesn't care what I have to say.  So I am telling the buyer what I think of her and her scam AND that I will not refund her, so she can milk the system and get her refund from eBay, which is what will probably happen.  I hate it that somehow that dishonest can get away with lying...and end up with her refund.  I guess it does not matter to eBay whether her claims are valid or not.  This is all correct, right?  She has # one feedback, the one left by me automatically, so I have the feeling she has run this kind of scam before and needed to re-emerge a changed woman, or at least a dishonest woman with a new eBay account.  eBay doesn't care and will shell out the $30.  I WILL report her.  But big whoop.  Anything else I can do, beside have my head examined?  Thanks

[itscalledapostingid]

How to handle a return request as a seller 

[titipeo]

Say goodbye to YOUR $30. 

If I where you, I accept the return, and refund after receipt. Send her a return paid label, and wait for return, before refund. eBay, in no way, will send her $30 from their coffers, it is coming from yours. Oh, also add her to your blocked list. 

[caseypl]

Why automate feedback? Does it have any meaning at all if it says positive things about a buyer who scammed you, allegedly? Does that help other sellers decide on whether to do business with someone messaging us? (Yes, we do look at their feedback and what they leave for others). 

Also, the positive feedback is usually along the lines of "Great customer, prompt payments, highly recommended". What exactly makes them great? I'm not saying this is the feedback you leave, just asking in general why feedback is automated? I don't care if I have to manually type something personable and related specifically to each sale because the last thing I want to do is leave positive feedback for someone that left me negative feedback or pulled a scam. 

[fashunu4eeuh]

Hi, why did you jump to the conclusion that this buyer is a scammer? Is a customer with an issue automatically up to no good?

First, i didn’t see anything in your lot of 7 brass bowls listing that advises that acidic liquids can damage the bowls. It did say they were for religious offerings involving water. But no warnings outside of advising them to wipe the bowl dry after use. I’m assuming that is because the brass bowls will corrode otherwise.

Generally, brass corrodes when the zinc, copper and tin components of brass alloy are exposed to water. The corrosion is easily identifiable by reddish or pink splotches on the surface of the object. This sounds very similar to what your buyer describes.

It is not a stretch to imagine the buyer may have mishandled the bowls. But conversely, did it occur to you that the bowls may have been defective? Most metal objects are lacquered now, protecting the finish, at least initially. What if these missed that step? Even so, water causes something untoward to happen if you must emphasize the need for drying them off immediately after use.

Despite all this, you offer 30 day returns which means you accept returns for any reason or no reason. Under these circumstances, you were expected to accept the return, particularly since damage was reported.

When selling online, we sellers can’t know for certain that the items weren't defective, or that the buyer used them for some purpose other than what they were intended for. All we have then is suspicions, and those aren’t fact. As a result, i tend to give buyers the benefit of the doubt.

Last but not least, it is rarely in a seller’s best interests to give an unhappy buyer a piece of their mind, or resort to name-calling. It is not professional and solves nothing.

You might consider omitting the extensive instructions and background information from your descriptions, in favor of just describing the items, along with more adequate warnings about their usage. Other info can always be sent with the package, or included in the listing as a video. But as it is, this very long wall of words distracts from the necessary information that serves one’s customers well.

[fern*wood]

Like you said---most of the time you are lucky.  I know it's entirely your business and your decision, but I would sure not want to take an avoidable unresolved by seller hit to my account just to lose my money anyway.

[kensgiftshop]

---

@joliefran wrote:

So I am telling the buyer what I think of her and her scam AND that I will not refund her, so she can milk the system and get her refund from eBay, which is what will probably happen.

---

Ebay will refund them, but it'll be from your account.

[soh.maryl]

Feedback is one thing that both buyers and sellers can control.

You can write individual FB to each individual buyer or seller with each individual transaction.

Or you can set up your FB so that a rather generic remark is automatically sent at some point.

Entirely your choice.  

FB has actually become somewhat of a joke because buyers can only receive positives.

Handle FB however you wish.  Other than not leaving negs for buyers, there is no "wrong" way to do it.

[southern*sweet*tea]

Is this your first return?   If it is you have been extraordinarily blessed.

I ask because you have over 16K feedback received and have been here since 2001.  You should know how returns are handled by now.

Accept the return or fight it, lose and take the non-performance defect.  YOU will still be out the money either way, because the refund certainly won't come from Ebay..