Ripped off by buyer return, please Help

[dudemanwhoa]

I recently sold a $70 pokemon card lot of 8 sealed packs to a buyer who now wants a full refund on the packs after he opened all of them and wasnt pleased with his pulls which no one has control over because thats just how trading card packs work. He is claiming I already opened them and resealed them with nothing in them which is preposterous and now wants me to give him a full refund on the item including the taxes he payed on it and pay $11 to ship the opened packs back to me where theyre useless. I opened up a case against the buyer and had it ruled in buyers favor and im honestly at a lost. I basically payed this guy around $20 in shipping fees and $9 in taxes and now hours of my time for him to open up my $70 packs and claim they didnt have anything good in them which THEYRE BLIND FACTORY SEALED TRADING CARD PACKS how am I supposed to have any control over what pulls he gets. Does anyone have a number to get in touch with a actual person at ebay because theres no way I will stand for this and allow this buyer to take complete advantage over me like this and walk away scott free where theres no telling how many times he will get away with this again. please even if you have even the slightest helpful suggestion let me hear it cause im desperate at this point.

[valuetrendz]

Go to ebay.com/sellerhelp and navigate through a few screens until you find the contact button.  You will then have to again navigate a screen or two until you finally get to an option for ebay to call you back.  Give that a shot but it is honestly a shot in the dark based on how ebay handles these cases.

[lagarto_electronico]

You could try to request that eBay investigate the buyer to see how many accounts are associated with his IP address and how many times he's pulled these types of returns in the past. They will not be able to reveal the results of the investigation to you.

If he returns merchandise to you in altered condition, that is supposed to be against eBay's policies.

Unfortunately, this is a predictable problem with these types of items. There are people who make a living conning sellers on eBay in the manner you describe.

[countryhome13]

Hello, 

Can you please tell me what your out come was. I am dealing with the same.

Beth

[wran_gler2]

You may want to add in bold in your listings that you do not accept returns on opened  items (like the cards) given the nature of the item you're selling.  

[cardncoinhobby]

I am having this issue as well. Buyer bought a item of about the same value which i bought new on release day. Came with 2 boxes, they opened both and all the packs and are now claiming its resealed and that they only got common cards. eBay is going to force a refund tomorrow and there's nothing I can do. eBay suggested i accept the return, but they want me to pay return shipping so im not doing that. I imagine eBay will tell them tomorrow to keep the items and that they're making me refund them..

[sigs70]

Good Afternoon

  Typically Scam, if Ebay fails to side with you, did you call PayPal? ? They are really good at solving these scams if the payment was processed thru them... If both let me dry, I would File a Small Claims Court Case file fee is somewhere around $$80 Max payout is usually between $1.00  to $10,000, in addition to the scam charge him for all fees and time wasted to include lost work..... He or She will be served and will have to appear in person , Some may laugh at this action, but IT WORKS... most cases are solved within 30 Days.... Good Luk....

Sigs70

[mudshark61369]

@cardncoinhobby,

Unfortunately, ebay's Money Back Guarantee heavily favors buyers, and sellers either have to pay the return shipping cost, or just refund the buyer, or ebay will refund the buyer and you will get a defect on your account, lose the final value fees and probably get a negative from the buyer.  There is no way around that.  eBay also does not back up their policy that says items have to be returned in the same condition in which they were received.

Selling the card packs attracts scam buyers, so I would not list them or more than one at a time.  Yo might even consider auctioning the packs so you can check out bidder's feedback profiles and cancel the bids of apparently scam buyers.

 Pay for the return and if the packs are short the number of cards they should have in them because the buyer "mined" them. Make sure to photograph the condition of the boxes when you receive them, to back up your claim. Then file a claim with the USPS postal inspectors for postal fraud, and inform the buyer of that. By filing with the postal inspectors, you might scare the buyer into refunding you. 

FYI. You might have had more responses if you had posted your own topic, on the Buying & Selling Returns board, instead of piggybacking your issue on a year old topic on this board. 

[mudshark61369]

@sigs70,

Because the buyer is who files disputes they will go through ebay first, and PayPal rarely overturns Not As Described disputes already turned down by ebay.  As for small claims court, because the "fraud" took place in the buyer's city, that is where the suit would have to be filed and the seller would have to appear there. Small claims courts do not award damages for travel or lost work time, so it is rarely economically feasible to take that route.

[cardncoinhobby]

I will try calling PayPal thanks, although I may be too late as eBay forced the return today (today was last day). 

[cardncoinhobby]

Thanks for the replies. Ya its about 5 states over so probably not feasible.. Today was my last day and the buyer escalated the case to eBay this morning as soon as available, so eBay is having them return it.. I suppose I should of just accepted the return, didn't know I would get a ding on my account. I don't think appealing it would of worked anyways, there wouldn't be any good way for me to prove it. I didnt really post here for help, I already know i'm SOL. Just want to post publicly so others are aware of the scam and risks of selling on eBay. I'm thinking about just shutting down my store down and selling on Facebook or something instead; it's too easy for a buyer to just say "oh I opened all these sealed collector boxes and think the seller open and resealed it". 

[schro23]

List in your narrative, "All our sales come with a money back guarantee as long as packs and or boxes have not been opened. "  That solved only 2 issues I had in the 20+ years on EBAY.

[elizabettallingto_0]

What I have found to be most effective, is NOT opening a case. Hear me out, I choose to contact eBay customer service instead. Whether you choose to call them, or choose to use the text chat option (my preferred choice) to explain what happened. When you open a case it allows for the buyer to argue their side/lie about the transaction, using this method removes the buyer from the equation.(even when presented with photo evidence that they buyer was in the wrong, for some reason most of these case still will go in favor of the buyer) There are many people who will take advantage of eBay's buyer protection policies, and return policies. So, while you explain your side of the story to customer service always make sure to bring up what policy it is that is being violated/taken advantage of during the transaction.

I had shipped a clothing luggage to someone of which they opened a case saying it was received damaged. I had no issues accepting the return, I just wanted to have photoproof that it was damaged during shipping so that I could make a claim with USPS. The buyer was reluctant but eventually sent photos. They were completely blurry and from what I could see the luggage was not damaged at all. I went ahead and did the return for them, and paid for the item to get shipped back(as it did not look damaged). Once I receive the item, and saw that it was in perfect condition!? I Immediately contacted customer service and explained that the buyer was misusing eBay's return policy. To avoid paying for the shipping of returning the item, they lied and said it was damaged, which forces the seller refund everything, including shipping charges, and if you want the item back, you will have to pay for that shipping as well. I explain to them that I have no issues with giving a refund to them for the cost of the item, however I was not okay with refunding there initial shipping as well as the shipping to have the item returned. I further insisted that if they would like photo evidence, of the condition of the luggage, I would gladly send it(I was told that it was not necessary, and they would take immediate action. They do their own reports and cases)Via this method of NOT opening a ticket, I was able to get refunded back for the shipping costs that I had initially refunded them, as well as refunded for the shipping cost for the item to be sent back to me. They also let me know that they would be restricting the buyer's account as they do not tolerate people misusing eBay's policies.

Sadly enough, this wasn't the last time it had happened either, but everytime I choose to speak with them, I was able to get the results I wanted, but usually it also included another perk of the buyers account being temporarily disabled. The first time I lost a case, I decided to try this method and haven't been disappointed yet. FYI also any difficult people who harass you, don't block them yourself, until after you report them to eBay customer service, they keep track of complaints on accounts, will investigate, and disable accounts.

I hope this helps! 🙂

[kh-phdan]

Hello Everyone,

Due to the age of the thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thanks for understanding!