Ebay/Paypal protecting fraudulent sellers?

[tee_bee_ay]

I am a Canadian ebay buyer and seller since 2002.

After enough small purchases from China that didn't arrive, or arrived many months after I needed them later (and paypal consequently paying out to me in my favour) I did not want to become a 'frequent complainer'.

I value paypal protection and if I claim too often, I worry that protection may run out for me (legitimate or not the worry is real).

I am also willing to pay a higher item and shipping cost to actually get my item within a couple of weeks over the US border. So I filter my search to North America, US only, Canada only depending on the item I want and speed of delivery I seek.

In two separate incidents lately, I had selected a US and a Canadian seller, both with decent feedback.(98-99%).
Both listed a spefific city in their respective country.  After my purchase, I received tracking. I expected to get my Canada purchase in less than 6 days, and US purchase within 8-14 days depending on speed of Customs. Much to my disgust, 
**Each item tracking number I was provided after sale was from China Post.** As of my writing this post, one still has not updated from its 'left China' status.

I reported one seller's item listing repeatedly to ebay as he advertised heavily as a US-based seller - including little US flag photos with the words 'US seller' on his item photo. Ebay never removed the auction...

I did receive a refund on both after much frustration and 7 weeks of emailed 'negotiation' and lies from the CAN seller, and no movement on tracking of the US seller's item.

My problem?

Today, my Paypal refund email for the supposed US selker had the notation,

"Due to the unique circumstances of this case, PayPal is issuing you this refund at no cost to your seller.  ".

IS THIS SOME FORM OF FAVORITISM to ebay china sellers because they bring in more money? Or is there something more going on ebay/paypal that these mega-companies are not sharing but definitely should, because this behaviour smacks very loudly of bucks meaning more than honesty!!

I have had them do this once before with me for a much higher revenue-generating ebay china- located seller as well on a extremely blatant  'item not as described' case

Where is the justice for me as a victim if ebay appears to protect fraudulent sellers by not removing their accounts, or Paypal gives me the money instead of the seller?

Justice is not inly about the dollars, that is why in Canada we have 'restorative justice' where the criminal must do some work to atone for their damages.

Nor does Paypal's payout instead making the actual seller fork it over,  or ebay's refusal to sanction such sellers (by removing them/their listing when proof of item location fraud such as tracking from China) send the right message.

And it does nothing to protect future buyers from going through this same abuse.

[*help_no_brakes*]

" both with decent feedback.(98-99%)."

If they are high volume sellers that is POOR feedback.

I understand your frustration.

However I ALWAYS look at a sellers feedback(not the %) which indicates the country of registration.

I have no comment on the eBay or PayPal decision making as it is beyond my ken.

ETA...just had a look at the last two sellers you negged...their feedback is terrible...please have a look for your self...click on the negatives.

[chiaretta]

"New items" sellers who don't have at least 99.5%, better yet higher, will not get my business if the item is available from someone else, it is that simple

There is also something I didn't point out earlier on: beware of "too good to be true"!

As for the remainder of your comments, including the fact you've been selling and buying since 2002, I arrived in February 2000 and have almost double evaluated transactions in the last 12 months than what you managed in 15 1/2 years.

I'm in Europe, so have the advantage of a single market uniting 28 countries and more than 500 million people, plus the few countries which have customs' treaties, thinking of Switzerland and Norway among others, but that doesn't quite add up to me being particularly lucky.

I just take time to choose my sellers and sometimes that takes a day or two before I make an informed decision

As a final comment, yes, if you make too many claims you will lose your protection, while not so often people come on here to complain about that, so while we don't know how many cases you need to open in how short a time before it happens, be careful.

In 7.000 purchases, I am waiting for almost 150 items bought in the last few weeks, some of them are waiting for me at the post office and today it's a national holiday and I will have to wait tomorrow, and that will tip me over, I haven't opened a case in seven years, and only ever opened a SNAD, EVER

[dbmm-media]

And the lesson for today: Do NOT buy from china 

[phcd1]

You simply open a INR case on eBay. There is nothing more to do. Sooner or later these fraudulent location sellers will give up giving their items away (and of course, leave appropriate feedback).

[sidemouse]

Not to tell you what to do but I ALWAYS open an Item Not Received case if an item has not arrived the very next day after the latest estimated delivery date.  I don't care where it says it comes from, I don't care if it snowed up in the Rocky mountains, if my package doesn't get here when it said it would that seller can expect issuing me a refund, pretty much.

[imakesugar]

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@sidemouse wrote:

Not to tell you what to do but I ALWAYS open an Item Not Received case if an item has not arrived the very next day after the latest estimated delivery date.  I don't care where it says it comes from, I don't care if it snowed up in the Rocky mountains, if my package doesn't get here when it said it would that seller can expect issuing me a refund, pretty much.

So then if it arrives a few days later then do You return the money that the Seller charged You? How do You do that?  Do You look at the delivery Confirmation Page to see How far it is away before You file an INR? You do know that the dates that eBay puts in for a delivery date are only ESTIMATES don't You?

Did you know that eBay has a habit of making it seem like the items will be delivered sooner than they could possibly arrive don't You? eBay also does have a list somewhere (?) that tells what areas of the country will be delayed due to natural causes that the Seller has no control over. Sometimes eBay seems to "FORGET" Holidays and does not allow for holidays when they figure out delivery dates...Also sometimes a Seller Might have 3 days as their handling time and IF they usually ship it in ONE day eBay will change the handling time to One day even IF the Seller has 3 days Listed...

Personally I probably won't file an item not recieved until at least 1 week has passed. If I buy from a foreigners, sometimes i wait for 2 weeks before filing. ( eBay gives me 30 days to file) BEFORE I file I will shot a message to the Seller to see if and when it was mailed and tell them the item Has NOT arrived yet. Many Sellers will check to see why the parcel has not arrived and are helpful to try and find it. I have to admit that I do get nervous if I message a Seller and they DON'T answer my inquires. Then I usually give them a few days to answer me...

I do not pay much attention to when eBay says that it will arrive. If I need something in a timely fashion I will buy it locally and NOT on the Internet. There are too many variables on Delivery to expect for a parcel to Arrive exactly when eBay says it will come...I just wait! I have only had 2 orders Not arrive in ALL the Items that I have bought. 

Even IF an item does not arrive when eBay says it should be delivered then If I do file an INR( I give the Seller a week or two past the due date.)  Then, I usually wait to escalate a case for a few weeks for the item to arrive. (I have 30 days to escalate a case) I try really hard to give the Sellers a break. They can't help it IF they got it in the mail on time and the delivery service makes a mistake and routes it 2000 miles out of the way...

I suspect that You might want be MORE patience...Sellers do keep a record of Buyers who are unreasonable and they do pass the lists around. I do NOT want MY Name ON ANY list like that...I want to see everything available when I search for an item.  Sugar

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[jesslikesfoxes1978]

Wow, this is the second time, while looking for a solution to this problem, that I've encountered one of your pompous and unhelpful replies.

Big whoop, you buy considerably more preciouses than us mere mortals and take days to deliberate each purchase.

The real issue here is that there is NO facility provided by Ebay, for buyers to simply filter by seller location.  This is a basic function which Ebay seem unwilling to offer buyers and that is what this post is complaining of.  Once bitten, we all know how to avoid the fraudulent seller but what we want is to stop the biting and it's not unreasonable to expect Ebay to give such requests at least lip service.  Maybe they’re just too busy counting the listing fees from these hordes of fraudulent sellers….

[oldensign]

And when attempting to leave negative feedback for fraudulent sellers (no product, fake tracking number) up pops the little red Oops sign.  I have had successful transactions from China and from Hong Kong, but some are just scams. If feedback percentage is less than 99% forget it. If feedback is PRIVATE, do not do business. Check sellers identification - if seller has had multiple IDs, walk away quickly. It certainly seems to me that eBay goes out of its way to protect fraudulent sellers.  Why?

[bonjourami]

Members cant sell with private feedback..not allowed.i have multiple ids as do thousands of Ebayers, doesnt mean they are scammers.

[kh-gary]

Hi everyone,

Due to the length of time that has passed since this thread began, we have locked it from future replies. If this is still an issue that warrants discussion, don't hesitate to begin a new thread here: https://community.ebay.com/t5/forums/postpage/board-id/shipping-returns-db.

Thanks.