What exactly happens when you report a buyer?

[completepcrepair]

where it says:

"How was your experience?

Rate this transaction positive / report buyer"

I am debating on if I should report a buyer for "misused returns"

Here is the situation:

Buyer purchased an new sealed item that was listed as NO RETURNS and claimed it was not working. Due to the nature of the items "smart bulbs" I messaged the buyer to assist in the install. My email was ignored so I had no choice but to accept the refund with shipping paid. I received the item, fully tested it and it worked as I expected it would. 

I now have a USED item that I have to sell for less due to it being used and had to pay $7 in shipping and $11 in paypal fees along with all the couple hours I put in trying to refund due to transferring the funds two quickly out of my paypal account.

I'd like to know

-What exactly takes place when you report a buyer?

-What does ebay do?

-Is this kept private or will the buyer know I reported them?

I want to see if it's even worth it to repot them.

[disneyshopper · Accepted solution]

ebay does keep records when you report a buyer for misusing the MBG to get return shipping paid by the seller.

The buyer will not know that s/he has been reported.  If enough reports are filed for that buyer, ebay can refuse to accept any cases from that buyer under the MBG.

Occasionally, I do read a post from a buyer who discovers s/he can no longer file any returns on their purchased items.

[spontar]

I really believe that sort of reporting and blocking a buyer's rights is unacceptable without allowing the buyer access and respond to the report. You have the buyer's information and you can choose whether or not to do business with the buyer in the future.  The same rights should be given to buyers. If a seller will not credit a return that was not properly listed, arrived damage or defective when it was not listed that way or simply sends the wrong model or item, then a buyer should be able to report the seller. Buyers are victimized by unethical sellers even when the seller has a 5 star rating. If a seller doesn't want to accept they made a shipping mistake, all they have to do is open a case and lie about the reason and blame the damages or defect on the buyer. I recently had an experience with a seller who has a 5 star feedback rating and wouldn't admit they packaged and shipped the wrong item and even went as far as stating they never had the shipped item in inventory, therefore they could not have shipped the wrong item.

My buyer rating is also 5 star. eBay opened and closed the case in one day without even contacting me with details. My refund or corrected item ship was denied and the seller will not ship the correct item after repeated requests through previous emails. Luckily, I'm only out $12. It could have been much worse if this was a high dollar purchase. It is unbelievable the seller did this over a $12 purchase. I can only assume sellers can do this any time they want, as many times as they want and for any reason they make up. The item listed in my purchase history will not allow me to contact the seller or dispute the closed case. My only option is to leave negative feedback that will likely be followed with some form of retaliation from the unethical seller or just forget about it and never buy from the seller again. I have elected the latter but I have figured out that eBay is the problem and I will never purchase through eBay again. I will be making most of my future online purchases using Amazon Prime.

Ebay needs to make some major changes to the "Step in and Help the seller" procedure. The buyer should be able to see what the seller reported and dispute the report.

[thevintagesilvershop]

What happens?  Nothing. 

[shewat_1547]

@spontar the minute the buyer files a claim the seller is "reported".  eBay sides with the buyer 99.999999% of the time with no regard to whether or not the buyer is lying.

Why shouldn't sellers have the same right to report the buyer, irregardless of whether or not it's true?

Your "buyer rating"? Its BOGUS, buyers haven't been able to get negative feedback since 2008.

Had you filed the proper case and followed through, the seller would have had to send you a return label and refund.

[completepcrepair]

Thank you.

On further review of the report buyer.

After I hit report buyer it opens all the options to report the buyer but the "report buyer" submit button is greyed out and I can not report the buyer!

Of course it still gives me the option to submit positive feedback. Ebay is ridiculous

[lgonzalez28]

When they can no longer return on eBay they just file bogus returns on PayPal. 

[completepcrepair]

Good point. Madness...

[mesodude]

My hat’s off to eBayers who sell technological items. I’ve met people who probably would get stymied trying to screw in an ordinary lightbulb and I know I’d easily go insane handling returns for electronic and electrical devices. In your case, you don’t know whether your buyer is mentally challenged, technologically challenged, has had a case of buyer’s remorse,  or something else. And because there is no way to know for sure to what degree your buyer is tech savvy, I think in your scenario it’d be very hard to make the case that they abused the return process.