Why does eBay always side with the buyer when the Post Office destroys an item?

[retrorediscoveries]

I am a victim of theft.

Buyer claims some items were broken; 48 HOURS after receiving them. Neither I nor eBay really knows what happened to said items in that time. How do we know the buyer isn't lying? They provided vague "evidence" of damage, yet I know for a fact they purposely left out half of the bubblewrap I had used from their images. It was a very well packed box, as all my listings are.

The Post Office will of course NEVER take responsibility for their actions, since the item wasn't insured. They don't care, a cop-out response to cover their backsides.

I usually don't offer returns, but the buyer weaseled a refund and gets to keep what is left of the undamaged items? This is despicable behaviour on both the buyer and eBay's parts, and I consider it tantamount to fraud.

Now my reputation on eBay is tarnished, because of a liar and a policy that forces me to suffer the faults of a third party. The Post Office is not my employee, I can't control how they act. If a package is lost or destroyed under their watch, why must I take the responsilibity and blame?

I did absolutely nothing wrong, and yet I completely lose out.

These actions need to change.

[fishinglureguy]

You must be the luckiest seller in the world not to have any packages be damaged, or go missing.  I ship out 15-30 packages a week, and at least 3-4 packages a year have a problem with delivery.  I call **bleep** on your statement.

[fishinglureguy]

The answer to your question:  You agreed to it when using eBay.  Read the fine print.  So, why are you complaining?

[fishinglureguy]

When negative feedback was allowed to be left for buyers, you could set up bidding rules excluding those negatively rated buyers.  Also, not allowing negative feedback for buyers removes the check and balance from the feedback system.  Buyers may be malicious, and there is no recourse for the Seller.  eBay will remove certain negative feedback from you account anyway, so the whole feedback system is broken.  eBay is broken and too expensive to use.

[fishinglureguy]

Have you ever tried to make an insuarance claim with USPS?  Good luck.  The list of items that are excluded from being insured is ridiculous.  The only remedy, if you are feeling scammed, is to file a claim in court.  I had to do this, when a person from another state, tried to scam me for $1600 on an eBay sale.  I filed the claim in my county court, and he canceled the dipute the day after being served... He also paind the court costs and servicing fee!  You always have recorse if you have been scammed, it is just a pain in the ass to go to court over a few dollars, so the scammer wins.

[creoleorchid]

I don't know how the mugs got broken but everyone else here is correct in that you are responsible. Sucks, I really do know but there it is.

Insurance might have covered you and is provided free with Priority Mail up to $50.  Still, you would have had to reimburse the buyer and collect from USPS.

The reason the buyer got to keep all the mugs and got a refund is because you did not follow the steps outlined in the resolution center. You only had 3 days to do this, but when the case was opened, you should have clicked on "Return for refund", with you paying the postage back, or "Offer partial refund of X amount". Anything else gets you the unresolved case strike.

If a buyer claims something arrived broken (with pictures no less), eBay ALWAYS sides with the buyer. I'm surprised you're just now finding this out. 

[sam9876]

Smart sellers don't buy insurance.

[Anonymous]

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@overtherainbowbridge15 wrote:
Great; of course I would get a snarky response. I DO NOT live in said land. Unfortunately I live in a land where most people think they're victims and now eBay gives in to them.

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Irony

[Anonymous]

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@the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth wrote:

You gave a horrendous follow up AND left a violating feedback on your buyer's profile. Why should we be sympathetic? You appear to be one of the retaliating sellers who Ebay changed the policy for. BTW it changed in 2008.

The original complaint could have been followed up with something to make future buyers comfortable. Instead you chose to use it to defend yourself and show your ignorance of the rules. Any good buyer who reads the feedback you left couldn't hit the back button quickly enough.

Stop pointing fingers and read and understand the rules.

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When I read the response the OP left, I thought.... Boy, if I happened onto an item that seller had and saw that response, I wouldn't be able to hit the back button fast enough.  Now I see what they left on the buyer's page and all I can think is...

Spoiler

OMG

[retrorediscoveries]

With this level of outright hostility toward anyone who dares question the infallible system of eBay, no wonder people are leaving for services like Etsy in droves.

[retrorediscoveries]

And for all of your information, I was told by multiple people on eBay's support phone line to do exactly what I did insofar as to the denial of the return itself. THEY ALL AGREED WITH MY SIDE.

But obviously that counts for NOTHING!

[takikawa4]

You'll find that often CS tells you what you want to hear, nevermind the truth.

[berserkerplanet]

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Have you ever tried to make an insuarance claim with USPS?  Good luck.  The list of items that are excluded from being insured is ridiculous.

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Nope, never had to make a claim with USPS or any other shipper for anything I've sent.  5000+ shipments with 2 slightly damaged (both were my fault for cutting corners), and zero lost.

(waiting for you to call *bleep* on that)

My post was addresing OP's misinformed, arrogant attitude that it was absolutely impossible that the package could have been damaged due to most awesomest packing, and that if somehow impossibly damaged it wasn't his responsibility.

So what is your point? That insurance claims are difficult doesn't negate the seller's responsibility.

[a*river*runs*through*it]

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@retrorediscoveries wrote:
And for all of your information, I was told by multiple people on eBay's support phone line to do exactly what I did insofar as to the denial of the return itself. THEY ALL AGREED WITH MY SIDE.

But obviously that counts for NOTHING!

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BINGO!

The reps know next to nothing. They are mostly reading from scripts and doing their best to get you off the phone as soon as possible.

The advice you will get here is much more accurate.

But it seems to me you are unwilling to take any personal responsibility here. You'd rather belittle your buyer in feedback & the very people that are trying to help you here.

Now you know what you need to if this happens in the future to prevent the very problem that brought you to this board.

[Anonymous]

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@retrorediscoveries wrote:
With this level of outright hostility toward anyone who dares question the infallible system of eBay, no wonder people are leaving for services like Etsy in droves.

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I'm sorry you feel everyone is being hostile... I will try to GENTLY explain it and hopefully you will get something out of this.

• When a buyer claims damage, there is little you can do except pay them off or require a return for refund... It's the same on Etsy.
• You ARE responsible to get the item to the buyer undamaged and the USPS is acting as YOUR agent.  It may not be your fault if they damage an item but it is your responsibility to fix the situation.  It's the same on Etsy.
• There are scammers who will take advantage of you and there is little you can do about it, it's the cost of doing business.  B&M stores have shoplifters, on-line stores have buyers who claim damage to either sweeten the deal or get the items for free.  It's the same on Etsy.
• Leaving an unprofessional hostile response to a negative or neutral FB makes the seller look unprofessional and hostile.  When OTHER buyers see responses like that they cannot see who the buyer is, but they darn well know who the seller is.  As a buyer when I see a seller yelling... SCAMMER, LIAR, THIEF... I can't hit the back button fast enough.  It isn't as though I don't know that some buyers are scammers, liars or thieves, but rather that the seller would rather cut off their own nose to spite their face.  It shows me the seller is probably a hot head, inexperienced and someone I really don't want to trade with.  And to make matters worse in your response of how you blamed the PO and didn't sound as though you wanted to "fix" the problem, I figure I will get the same treatment.  I really don't want to deal with that.  It's the same on Etsy.
• You cannot leave a negatively worded feedback for a buyer on their FB page.  This is a violation of eBay policy and if your buyer reports it, not only will it get removed, but you will also get a policy violation.  This will probably affect your visibility and if you get enough of them will get you booted off of eBay.
• Because eBay had to step in, you ended up with a defect, with your volume one more and you can kiss selling on eBay goodbye.
• If you had required a return for refund and the buyer hadn't sent the item(s) back, they would have been blocked from leaving any feedback.  IF the buyer was a scammer, they most likely wouldn't have sent the item back.  Scammers don't want to send items back, they want the money AND the product.  Their are SNAD cases that you can win, but only under certain circumstances.  In most cases the answer to any SNAD case would be return for refund.
• No one said that eBay is perfect, not in this universe anyway.  They are very buyersentric.  As sellers, we have to figure out how to manuever the system in a way that benefits us the most, OR at least doesn't punish us.  It's the same on Etsy.
• If you had come to the boards and asked for advice you would have received a way different reception, at least until you started saying... I'm not responsible.  It's the same on the Etsy forums.

[Anonymous]

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@retrorediscoveries wrote:
And for all of your information, I was told by multiple people on eBay's support phone line to do exactly what I did insofar as to the denial of the return itself. THEY ALL AGREED WITH MY SIDE.

But obviously that counts for NOTHING!

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OH... Looks like I forgot something in my gently worded response.  eBay's CS is severely lacking in knowledge and some of them are lacking in scruples as well.  They will tell you ANYTHING you want to hear just to get you off the line.  My guess is they get rated by how many calls they handle in a hour and getting you off the phone by telling you what you want to hear allows them to move on to the next person they will tell what THEY want to hear.

You are absolutely correct... all of them agreeing with your side counts for NOTHING!!!

ETA.... Ah, looks that the above was covered by two separate posters.  I hadn't gotten that far in the thread.