Sellers protect yourself

[fonephun]

I sold a phone and the buyer said it would not turn on. I was completely baffled and suspicious! This was the nicest phone that I've had, but you really don't have a choice so I offered him a refund. He sent back a different phone!! It is stuck in recovery , is obviously not the same physically & has a diff. IMEI. Ebay says there is nothing I can do because I didnt post the IMEI. I won't do this because it can be stolen. An option is to send it to the buyer in writing and w/a pic! Thanks for telling me after I get ripped off ebay! I want everyone to know and that's why I'm telling you.  It amazes me how easily some people lie and rip you of so easily. My only recourse is legally and I will excersise that to it's fullest extent. Stealing, internet fraud, interstate fraud etc. Unfortunately I think to sue him I would have to go to his town, but if I'm wrong I'll do that too. b safe!!

[alternativefreedom]

I had a problem with someone in the U.K who tried to screw me over. One morning after over 9 months of waiting for my money I woke up and realized American law is based on British law so I looked up the law for small claims court in Great Britain. After I read it, I sent the buyer a threat to take her to small claims court in GB. Lo and behold, the person who never replied to my former emails, responded within minutes. If eBay won't support you threaten your seller with court and follow through. You can look up the state laws so easily on the net. Then try to find another place to sell your products besides eBay.

[reallynicestamps]

Interesting, but bluffing is not usually as useful as action.

Were you really planning to fly to the UK and appear in Small Claims Court? Or pay a barrister to appear for you?

EBay and Paypal have a Resolution Centre. You do have to start a Dispute within 45 days but unless he pays within the 20 mediation period, he gets a Strike, which restricts his ability to bid and buy on eBay, you get your selling fees back, neither can leave feedback and you can relist the item and find a paying customer.

The Resolution Centre is under Customer Support in the top line on this page.

[bshop4u2c]

Alternativefreedom: You are right on this one. Ebay and Paypal will not protect you against claims from buyers in the UK. I sold a sweater to a buyer in the UK, who chose USPS International First Class Shipping for her purchase; the cost of sweater + shipping was over $60.00. She paid through Paypal.

THREE DAYS LATER she contacted me complaining that the package had not arrived;I asked her to be patient, explaining that first class shipping could take several weeks. A few days later she opened a case on Ebay UK-complaint:item not received. Paypal put a hold on her payment in my account. I contacted Ebay- was told that I needed to prove my case with tracking info, which is not available on first class international shipments, also Ebay UK, but never got anywhere with my explanation. EbayUK found in the buyer's favor, she was refunded the full amount. I lost over $60. + an expensive sweater, which I am sure she received. The fact that she opened this case in less than a week after item was purhcased did not matter to Ebay. This occured a few years ago when I was a newbie to Ebay-I now will NEVER ship anything expensive by first class international.   If threats of a law suit worked for you, good for you-I'll try it if ever necessary again.

[reallynicestamps]

 tracking info, which is not available on first class international shipments

Glad you noted that this was several years ago. First Class International service standards have changed. It now includes Delivery Confirmation to Canada and possibly other destinations. (I'm Canadian and it has never been important for me to learn.)

In addition, I understand that USPS no longer offers Surface Shipping ,w hich can take up to three months to arrive and should NEVER be used for shipping overseas.

[alternativefreedom]

Bluffing is what I don't do. And, I was prepared to take action as I've done in the past. You don't need to be in court to fight a case. So your "smart ass" response to someone you don't know is not valid. I love people like you "the know it all" who discount the real issues people post on these blogs. Many, many sellers are unhappy with eBay. If it was only one person than I would question their motives. But, it is not just one person. So, if you are one of the fortunate few who never has issues and does everything perfect, well what can I say. More power to you. Just stop telling us how perfect you are.

[reallynicestamps]

Perhaps American and British Small Claims Courts are different, but here in Canada we pay a fee for Small Claims mediation and both parties, or their designates, usually a lawyer, must appear. If one of the parties does not appear, he loses the case.

I've done one or two of these over the years, and find Small Claims judges very helpful. In one case, we had not explained clearly to our customer what we had done to correct a problem caused by a previous contractor. Basically we were at fault, because we were using technical jargon to explain what we had done. Once we switched to plain English, everything became much more friendly. That ended up with a handshake and a nice cup of tea at the customer's house. 

The other was a contractor who had not completed a job but had put a mechanic's lien on our house. He didn't turn up and the lien was ended on the spot.

I've been in the work force for over 50 years, and have learned that yelling and threatening do not work. Find the system and work with it. If the system does not work (and the eBay/Paypal system does for the most part) change the system.

In this case, there is a system easily available.

EBay will end a transaction when the buyer does not pay within four days. (Less for US sellers I believe, but that change is recent).

The seller gets her fees back. The buyer gets a Strike which makes it harder to buy on eBay. Neither can leave feedback.

[alternativefreedom]

I would like to think that you are a nice person and that you think by responding to these posts with advice that it is helpful to the sellers who are very dissatisfied with EBay. People complain on these blogs because they feel they have no other recourse. We are dealing with a corporate entity that has forgotten who got them where they are. I know that not all sellers are honest but most on eBay are middle class people trying to make ends meet and eBay was a wonderful way to recycle goods that may have ended in a trash bin because people did not know what to do with their stuff when they were through with it. But, as "honest" sellers we would like to feel protected by the dishonest scammer buyers that are out there. Most buyers are honest but the few bad apples that are out there are quite prolific in their "jobs" of making easy money scamming whomever they can. eBay is a perfect "workplace" for them because eBay with their unfair rating system has allowed them to make their living on the site. So, please understand that many of us do follow policy but still do or did not get positive results from eBay even after crossing our t's and dotting our i's.

[gleuny]

I agree, perhaps we are a small amount of HONEST sellers (and that is one comment most people leave in my feedback). Problem is there are also a lot of BUYERS who scam people, and ebay / nor paypal protects use. It is true the customer is always right. however, what ebay is forgetting BUYERS ARE NOT EBAYS CUSTOMERS, THEY ARE THE SELLERS CUSTOMERS. EBAYS CUSTOMERS ARE THE SELLERS!! Ebay gets a commission from the SELLERS not the buyer. Pretty simple business model.

If we bring back negative feedback for BUYERS perhaps we can weed out these scam artists from ripping off sellers and giving us a bad reputation. I as a seller got negative feedback from someone who falsely claimed the item was defective;100 year old item off a typewriter, duh.) I mentioned in the ad AS IS, expect normal wear from an antique. Did ebay remove it no,to prove even more stupidity by ebay, they decided not to front me the 10,000 free listings they always promote monthly. so my sales went down from 500 a week to 50?i wonder whose nephew is running this company because as a blue collar guy, even i know that you cant make money if you cant sell your product

[bluedolphin4me]

Not only is the rating system unfair, but I just recently had a buyer with a history of non payment, I have my settings set that she in no way should have been allowed to bid or buy any of my listings. I was polite and explained this to her and the devils spawn came out. So I went on ahead and accepted the payment, BAD move, than she decides to contact me outside of ebay to extort me for MORE items than the listing had, I did ignore her until she opened a item not received case. I uploaded tracking info and it showed delivered. Took me over a week to get it closed. Then she leaves me a negative feedback because it took her a week to get it, tracking showed 3 days. I went from 100% to 98.8% over a snot nosed little extortionist!! Ebay protects these nasty people and there is nothing I can do about it....what good are these settings if the thieves can still bid and buy??

[ricketts62]

Oh, I had a buyer who contacted me trying to get me to send her more items than my listing had.  And she wanted my e-mail address so she could send me "$5" for my "shipping".  I sent her e-mail to eBay.  Nothing.  She kept sending me e-mails, I'd contact eBay.  Then she opened both "Item not received" & "Item not as described" for EACH of the 4 items that I had sent her before>

I called eBay.  They were REALLY not much help, even with her extortion e-mails to back me up.  So I replied to her "cases" with the extortion e-mails and a reminder that I had them.  Then I also asked her to make up her mind, had she recieved them, because one cannot file an "Item not as described if one has not received the item"  and finally how she had described the items as "Perfect" even describing the colours (in her extortion e-mails) which is WHY she wanted MORE of them.

She dropped her cases and wished me "BAD KARMA"  But it wasn't eBay that did her in, it was the amount of information about what she had already received that she put into her extortion e-mails before trying to get more for free.