eBay

umaydis · ‎11-09-2019

I sold an expensive (>$1,000) video card on ebay last month. At first I was concerned about the buyer, who had zero feedback, on an account created just on the day my auction ended. The person's name on paypal and the recipient's name in his PP shipping address were also different. But it all went well, at first. I received my money, shipped the item, and almost forgot about the matter.

One month later the buyer suddenly claimed the item as damaged/not as described and requested a return/refund. My auction was listed as "no returns accepted", and this is how I learned that buyers can get around that by making the item damaged claim. I also learned that if I refused to accept the return, ebay would just refund the buyer, and I'd be out of my money and the item. Yes, I know, this is a very frequent and common scam happening on ebay, and I'm very certain that it's happening to me right now.

The item is currently on it's way back to me with tracking and signature confirmation. Now I wonder, how can I best prepare myself for receiving a wrong item or just a brick? I'll definitively need some reputable witnesses when opening the package, but who? The USPS employees at the post office, or should I ask police if I can open the package in their presence at the station?

Witnesses are not enough, I know. So I'm prepared to file reports to postal inspection service and police.

Thanks for your input.

corvettestainless · ‎11-09-2019

This has a 10% chance of you winning an appeal-

1st, you need to have it held at Post Office, you can try video opening in front of USPS employee at Post Office, and get them to give you a letter of some sort. File Police Report. Give both reports to Ebay in an appeal.

Opening in front of PD won't help, once you have this item, there is no proof what you 'did' with the item before you got in front of PD.

no_zero369 · ‎11-09-2019

Here is the advice on Fraud I have picked up from others on these threads.

Step One - Try to head it off. Revise first message placing the blame on theft in USPS. If that doesn't work...

Step Two - File fraud reports to get buyer on the radar and perhaps a courtesy refund from eBay.

But why are you speculating that you are going to get a brick in return?

umaydis · ‎11-09-2019

Thanks for the advice. I suspect that this buyer will not return the original item because his defective/not as described claim was bogus in the first place. I know what I've sold and that my item was perfectly working, in like new condition. Reading all the bad stories here, it's well possible that I'll end up losing my money and the item.

I'll receive the return shipment soon and then we'll see. I've already arranged for my local post office to place the shipment on hold, so I can pick it up on site and open it in presence of a supervisor.

umaydis · ‎11-12-2019

For what it's worth: I guess I got out of this the best possible way an eBay seller can hope for these days. Got the video card back, in the condition I sold it, and sure enough it worked perfectly (sigh!).

Already reported this buyer for making a false claim to dodge my no returns policy. If there's anything else I can do to give this guy a little harder time, I'm all ears.

For me as a small, private seller, with 1-2 sales per year on average in my 20 years of eBay membership, this means, no more selling! No one needs this kind of headache.

Best of luck to everyone.