eBay

dreyerot · ‎04-24-2017

A buyer has pulled all four 8TB hard drives out of an external unit and is claiming I sent him an empty enclosure. This is a $900 dollar unit, and if he has his way, I will pay for him to return the empty enclosure and he will keep $800 worth of hard drives. I really need help getting past the first level tech-support people to get to someone who can help me with this. I would like to get something on record before he escalates it. Any suggestions appreciated

rnparts2013 · ‎04-25-2017

How did you ship the package? USPS, UPS, FedEx? Is there a weight marked on the shipping label? Do you have proof of the package content? Did you put insurance on the package? Has any other buyer every filed similar claim against you before?

dreyerot · ‎04-25-2017

UPS, uninsured, but I have a photo of the 17 lbs weight on the label (an empty unit weighs 3-4 lbs). No other similar claims. Level 1 tech support just tell me to approve the return and refund the buyer, but he's clearly trying to scam me.

hafoster · ‎04-25-2017

UPS reweighs the package. FedEx reweighs and remeasures the dimensions of the package.

So the weight shown in the tracking details is the actual weight of the package.

You might point this out to the buyer, together with: What's a good daytime phone number for the investigator to call you?

carlmarxx · ‎04-25-2017

@dreyerot wrote:
A buyer has pulled all four 8TB hard drives out of an external unit and is claiming I sent him an empty enclosure. This is a $900 dollar unit, and if he has his way, I will pay for him to return the empty enclosure and he will keep $800 worth of hard drives. I really need help getting past the first level tech-support people to get to someone who can help me with this. I would like to get something on record before he escalates it. Any suggestions appreciated

You can upload in the ebay despute both labels for Rep.'s to look at . If Buyer goes to File with paypal instead you can upload labels for them to look at and even fax them . That being said you are a newbie selling High risk items , There for you should hold off selling them until you get way over 300+ feedback mark . Because buyers under the 300+ Feedback are targeted by scam buyers .

rnparts2013 · ‎04-25-2017

You probably need to talk to an eBay agent that's above regular rep level, with the evidence of what others have said, the shipping weight showing in the UPS tracking info. I wish you win the case. However in case you don't, this is a good amount of loss to go to small claim court. Yes, it takes a while, and you might have to pay court cost up front, but if the defendant loses, you will be compensated. Yet, there's still procedure afterwards under the circumstance that the defendant does not pay up. It's all up to if the amount is worth the time and effort.

On the other hand, is there any slightest chance that the HDs were stolen in transit, the buyer indeed received an empty case?

hafoster · ‎04-25-2017

@rnparts2013 wrote:

On the other hand, is there any slightest chance that the HDs were stolen in transit, the buyer indeed received an empty case?

The carriers record the actual weight all the way until delivery. Here's an example of a package gaining weight and changing shape as it hurtled towards its destination:

rnparts2013 · ‎04-25-2017

That doesn't mean anything. I had the incident happen to me, someone during transit cut the box open, took 80% content out, sealed it back, put back in transit. UPS does not update weight changes along the way as far as I know, unless there's weight increase, they will bill you the adjustment. Also, once ordered liquid fertilizer, received with half bottle spilled, obviously 40% weight was lost, UPS just delivered that way, the seller didn't even know it till I cotacted him.

The point is when seller has no absolutely concrete proof, he has to look at all possiblities.

Sometimes it helps to do a little research online. You have the buyer's full name, address, and possibly phone number, correct? Google them, you never know what you can find, nowadays people put all kind of personal affairs online, see if you could find any proof of they have the possesion of the HDs. Maybe this is not the first time they are trying to pull this kind of scam, someone else has mentioned their names, user IDs etc. Isn't there a girl got caught pulling INR scam when the seller discovered on her facebook picture of wearing the dress she had claimed never received?

dreyerot · ‎04-27-2017

Thanks for the advice people, but it looks like I'm screwed(btw, I'm no newbie, I have 250 seller feedbacks). It's going into dispute and Ebay always sides with the buyer. For all you scammers out there, this is a great one. Buy external hard drives, rip out the drives and send back empty enclosures. It'll take a while, but you'll always get your money back and some free hard drives.

jennybug20910 · ‎04-29-2017

you are right. e-bay ALWAYS sides with the buyers. they treat sellers like dirt and kiss these scammer !!!! SAD.

dreyerot · ‎04-30-2017

Yup, just got the email today confirming he's getting his money back and I have to pay to have my emptied enclosure shipped back. There's no evidence that an actual human being actually looked at the case. No option to appeal or make any other comments apparently.

I'm taking a huge loss on this. Now I feel like I should quit doing this legitimately and start pulling the same con this guy is. It's obviously easier and far more lucrative than what I'm doing.

cptdedawg · ‎04-30-2017

Better get use to it. Ebay sides with buyers and sellers have no protection. I sold an amp and it got shipped through global shipping. Buyer then requested return as it was not as described. I agreed to return and paid for return. I got back an amp that had been put in a single wall box that was too small. What I ended up with was a 40 lb hunk of scrap metal. I contacted ebay and they sided with buyer. So the buyer is right and the seller is wrong always it seems. So ebay beleives that a person can buy a crystal vase from Italy have it shipped here and comes well packed. You as the buyer complaim, and ebay makes seller take it back. All you have to do to meet the criteria is to just throw the vase in a shoe box with no padding and ebay apparently believes that you have met the requirements for return. The only thing a seller could do is to video record the packing and shipping of the item in detail. Ship by USPS. When returned it must be returned by USPS. I recorded opening package in Post Office. If you do this you can turn the deception into the USPS and it becomes a federal crime if one uses the Post Office for fraud. This does not work with the Global program though. I no longer though ship out of the U.S. I lost a nice $350.00 in all.

dreyerot · ‎05-31-2017

This buyer actually pulled a second type of scam on this transaction. By excluding the proper customs documents on the return, whatever he put in the box was in fact returned to him. Ebay considered this delivered, so I never even got anything at all back. Appealed and of course was instantly denied. I've now quit selling onebay because of this incident.

In summary, if you're a scammer and you want to get free merchandise, just buy external hard drives from international sellers and file false returns. You'll make a killing.