Buyer rips you off and Ebay refundeds every time. Sellers leaving Ebay every day

[tvr-inc]

Well yet another buyer bought two hard drives. Applied for a return and sent two junk hard drives back that don't match what I sent. And Ebay wonders why sellers are leaving for Amazon every day. I have been selling on Ebay for 18 Years and I dont know if I have it in me anymore. I have been going to Amazon. Making more money and dont have to worry about Ebays hate for sellers anymore.

[luxgoods]

That is such a bunch of **bleep**. I feel your pain and many of us feel the same way.  on top of all this ebay wants us to give free returns to these scammers.  There is no seller protection.  I am sorry this happened to you

[orangehound]

Amazon will do the same thing to you ... but, the difference is that Amazon's policies have a low tolerance for the abuse of returns.  Dishonest buyers don't last long there, and so the chances of encountering a dishonest buyer on Amazon are limited.

But on eBay?  There seems to be no consequence to the eBay thief ... they can keep stealing, defrauding, and eBay does nothing.  I've never heard of a buyer kicked off eBay, and we have no ability to screen the quality or honesty of buyer.  So, the result is that there is a spreading epidemic of dishonest buyers with no end in sight ... like Russian Roulette, every sale can shoot you in the head.

[fine_find]

Just because you have already sent a refund does not necessarily mean the end. Of course if you choose to do nothing about it, then it is. If I were you, I would call eBay and ask for the Resolution Department and speak to one of those reps. Explain what has happened to you and see if you can file an Appeal. I assume you have pictures from the list page where you sold them, and that you could also take pictures of what was returned to you. With these, you have a case against the buyer for sending you something other than what you sent.

Speaking to any other department will do you no good as no other department has the power or the authority to overturn a decision. Only the Resolution Department has that. Never complain to customer service as they have the least power of all. Be nice when you contact them though and see if they can't help you. My bet is that they will if you offer your before and after photos of the items returned to you. Good luck.

[scrappy_cat_crafts]

I agree that ebay are totally unfair to sellers. We sell lots of £2-£10 items with free postage (ebay insistence) and it is totally uneconomic to use a tracked system. The consequence is we are plagued by 'item not received' emails, some of which are honest, Royal Mail are hardly blameless, but many are not. ebay then refund the buyer without proper consultation and downrate you. I am planning to retire, it isn't worth the aggro!

[petecaithnes_0]

I recently sold a bunch of new sealed booster packs to a guy.  He opens them.  Didn't find what he was looking for in them.  Accuses me of making the packs up and sealing them again.  Claims I did this.  Sends the opened packs back, gets refunded.  Because they are opened, I have to bin them.  3000+ sales, no negative feedback, then this thieving guy breaks that giving me negative feedback.

[bluebrickstacey]

I tried to appeal a scenario similar to OPs. I sold a diamond ring ($500ish) and had a plastic ring returned to me. I was told by the Resolution Department that I needed to "write it off as the cost of doing business".

After being a ebay seller for years--having thousands of positive feedback ratings--always 100%...I took several years off of selling. I don't sell anything now that I feel like I can't risk giving away.

[plumbingspecials]

Check your store setting because it seems as though you have automatic returns turned on. They did this a couple of months ago, and every seller had to physically go in and turn it off if they didn't want eBay to process returns for them. I was surprised, too when I checked one Sunday morning (I've since learned to give myself a day off) and found that a return was delivered on Saturday via US Mail, and eBay gave the buyer a refund without me ever having the chance to verify that we did receive the return or that it was correct.

[misfitfun]

Did you file a theft report w the police and USPS?

[lmc1987]

All haed drives have serial numbers that are individual to the drive. If you have definite proof of the serial numbers and can take pictures of the Bad drives sent back to you and are willing to Not lay down for the rip off, you can after many conversations most likely get your money back  less the return shipping you are forced to paythat is. I have had similar circumstances and fought it and actually not lost anything but that return shipping. I actually don't understand eBay's Idea with that but they won't help you at all if you don't accept getting stuck for the return shipping cost to gwet back your own property. eBay is becoming more and more unfriendly to sellers everyday sadly. But persistence has saved me losing on more than one occasion, it just takes saying wait a minute until they listen. Good Luck hope it works out for you

[lmc1987]

Meant to say Hard Drives sorry for the typo

[disneyshopper]

You can use that REPORT A BUYER option in your Seller Dashboard to report a buyer who is misusing the Money Back Guarantee.  ebay keeps track of buyers who are reported, and eventually, the buyer could be banned from filing any more returns.

[pissantpeasant]

Always remember that 'Seller protection' does not exist on ebay.  The buyer is God, an Almighty existence that does not allow you to leave bad feedback on it (lest ebay lose a portion of its precious bottom line).  Only the Godbuyer can dispense judgement.   You're expected to take Money Back Guarantee misuse with a smile, or leave ebay altogether.

If you sell something on ebay, expect to lose it; that is how things work here.  Until this changes, I don't see a bright future for the company.

[lewisburggold]

Its so shameful the way it has become here.  Best regards

[jt_cycle]

It doesnt really matter if you provide definitive proof. They most likely wont do anything about it. We recently had a helmet returned to us that was materially different from what we sent. eBay forced the refund and we opened an appeal. Different brand, different design helmet. The customer left the invoice in the box where they purchased it from some other company clearly showing their  name and address and the model helmet and price. I thought it was clear evidence they were in the wrong. We sent pictures of the invoice and helmet they returned. Clearly not our helmet which cost more than what the buyer returned. eBay still gave the customer a refund and said they cannot determine this was caused by the buyer. Im showing them an invoice with the buyers name and address from another company matching the item they returned to me and its not proof? Said im supposed to file a police report? Seriously? It could have been just a simple mistake on the buyers part but we will never know because of eBay's absurd policy. Its getting worse every year. Been here for 18 yrs but not sure how much more I can take. Its not about the money, but principal and integrity. My appetite for **bleep** is getting less and less by the day. It makes no sense why a company would make it so difficult to make them money. I understand taking care of the buyer, but we as sellers are eBay's customer. When are you going to take care of your customer? eBay earns their money from the sellers, not the buyers. I realize it trickles down from the buyers but if you have no sellers left who can tolerate your policies where does that leave you? Wake up eBay!