This past month has been horrible for me with bad buyers. But here on eBay my current problem is I have had two buyers one last week and one this week that received boots and claimed they were not as pictured, and then sent me photos of items that were way worn / damaged. 1 pair was new never worn , but had lived in a box so the leather had some rubbing, but the soles were pristine and I received photos of the side soles with cracks and chunks missing, and in one photo you cans see dirt and wear to at least one nodule on the sole (hiking/hunting boots) it is obvious these are not the ones I shipped. The other pair had been worn 1x and had some dirt/wear on soles, but no “wear down” and the shafts were In perfect shape, there was a scuff to one toe, the photos came from this buyer with one sole completely dislodged from the boot, and both shafts with cracks and flaking off of the finish, I can’t even imagine what would have had to have happened during shipping for this type of damage to occur, and the buyer claimed the the finish is completely flaking off when touched; I had taken a soft towel and wiped these down and a lint brush to the platform heel before shipping and know the shoes were nearly like new, except for the toe scuff and sole. I spoke with eBay and told them I didn’t believe these were my shoes and they told me I had to accept the return but if they weren’t my shoes that they would protect me and reimburse me for the return shipping fees. This made me nervous (still does), I am having the buyers ship back on their own dime and will reimburse if somehow either pair of these are actually mine?? I learned my lesson years ago and always photography while packaging to ship (for insurance purposes) but in both these cases the buyers have claimed no damage to the box, so if that’s the case how could anything like this happen and these returns be legit?? I also started marking my items in very discrete ways, always more than just one small mark, so I can look for these marks if something comes back that is questionable, but have never before had to even look for the marks. I have recently ordered a custom stamp and invisible dye so it’s an easier process to Mark my stuff, and I tell buyers before they ship it back that as long as all the markers we place on the item are present and the item comes back in the same condition it shipped in, a return is worry free, and all items are always insured against any shipping damage, so that situation is never an issue, until it is (NOW).
Anyway, I am curious if anyone else is seeing a rise in this type of activity? I recognize the fear and uncertainty of the pandemic times we are living in, is that causing more activity like this??
One of the buyers I shouldn’t have sold to, or my system shouldn’t have, I thought I had my system was set not to accept brand new buyers (0) but the cracked shaft boots were bought from a ”first timer” on eBay, I asked eBay about that as well, wondering if this was a bad buyer that got shut down and just went back and opened a different account, eBay claimed they have ways of tracking buyers/sellers that do that, but apparently that doesn’t come into play until later, after I get the item back and report the buyer (if that is how it plays out).
I have just today upgraded my protection to a GoPro, I am going to record all my packing and do an up-close inspection before boxing each item, they will have a time, date & location stamped. Am I going overboard?
