Some people.....

[Aaron MacQ]

Right, so I've logged in to ebay in order to see how i go about fulfilling the requirement to 'inform us with the necessary details such as the tracking number for the issued label '

But, this is what I see...



What is going on?

I've now apparently had 3 different status reports, and I don't see any way of recording that I've accepted a refund/return or whatever I'm supposed to do next....

Anyone done anything like this before?

Is this the greatest scam, with DNS hijacking, fake ebay phishing sites, a redirected 0800 number and a con artist trying to get me to freely send him some money, or have I stumbled across the worlds worst ebayer at the same time as realising just how disjointed ebay is???

 

[Tfp]

Ebay is disjointed as you say.

Always goes in favor of the buyer, and the scammy buyers know this.

 

[Jack Ratt]

That experience would put me off selling anything on Ebay unless it's a cash transaction. I don't know any sellers who have won a favourable settlement

 

[Aaron MacQ]

So, the way I think this all works, I have to arrange/agree a return shipment and record the tracking id, although ebay does not appear to have a facility to record that tracking id. How inconvenient.

So, I have sent the following to the buyer:

Hi [name removed],

Ebay have asked if I will accept a return rather than pursue a claim under their seller protection policy and in order to maintain good standing with the ebay community, I will accept. I'm sorry for the delay to get to this stage, but having never been in such a situation before, I was awaiting ebay's advice, which they don't give until the case is opened. I still feel hard done by considering that was a very minor mark on a 19 year old used car part from a private seller, and having offered free shipping, but there we go. Might I suggest you get answers to your questions BEFORE completing a purchase, as after that point, the seller is obliged to proceed with the sale and delivery.

Moving on, we now need to arrange the return. I've had a quote of £18.79 from UPS for collection from the original delivery address, back to my residence. I am happy to arrange this if you can confirm a suitable collection time.​

I also included the screenshot of the UPS quote.

 

[Jack Ratt]

You just need to hope you get your stuff back in the condition that you sent it. What will Ebay do if you do get scammed ? Do they withhold payment until you get your stuff back and await your approval ?

 

[Z Victor 1]

Been following this, it's horrendous. E bay need to receive a lot of bad coverage on this. I would try to put this story out wherever I could in the public domain without compromising your personal information. Good luck with this.

 

[Aaron MacQ]

You just need to hope you get your stuff back in the condition that you sent it. What will Ebay do if you do get scammed ? Do they withhold payment until you get your stuff back and await your approval ?

No idea. There's only one button available within ebay which says "issue refund". I'll not be clicking that until after I've received the item back.

From ebays seller protection faq (my least favourite pointless page on the internet):

How does the eBay resolution process work?
....
....

For item significantly not as described cases, you have 8 days to arrange one of the following:

- send a replacement item, if this is what the buyer would prefer. Buyers are required to return the original item first. We expect you to post the replacement item and provide the related tracking information to the buyer within 3 days of receiving the returned item.;

- refund the buyer. Buyers are required to return the original item first. We expect you to refund the buyer within 6 days of receiving the returned item;

- offer a partial refund and the buyer can keep the item

- contest the case by providing proof to eBay that the item was described properly (for example, the buyer is stating that the item is used rather than new, and the listing clearly describes the item as used).

At the end of the 8-day period, eBay will check with the buyer to see if they are satisfied. If the buyer is satisfied, the case is closed. If we don’t hear back from the buyer, we won’t refund them or hold you accountable for the transaction.

If the buyer is not satisfied, eBay will review the case. If we find in favour of the buyer, we will remove funds from the seller’s PayPal account to reimburse the buyer for the cost of the item and the original postage cost, in a way similar to how PayPal currently reverses transactions; or, where there are insufficient funds in the seller’s PayPal account or where PayPal is not the reimbursement method of the seller, directly refund the buyer for the cost of the item and the original postage cost, and, in this situation, when appropriate, require the seller to reimburse us for the refund according to the process described in "How are reversals managed in the eBay Resolution system? ". Sellers must have a valid reimbursement method on file with eBay at all times

We understand that there will be times where both the buyer and the seller may be right. In those cases, eBay may absorb the cost to reimburse the buyer without any impact on you.​

So, as far as I can see, all I can do is communicate directly with the buyer (via ebay messenger), arrange a courier, confirm the tracking number (via ebay messenger), and click issue refund within 6 days of receiving it back.

I'll call ebay (again) and confirm this is the correct action once I hear back from the buyer regarding collection.

 

[Aaron MacQ]

Oh, what now???

You may remember the message I sent to bay. Looks like whatever systems they have haven't linked it to the claim properly....

Thank you for contacting eBay Customer Service. I appreciate the effort that you made in providing us with this attachment. This only proves that you’re really eager to settle this matter. Please allow me to assist you with this.

I have checked your account and I am so anxious to help you sort out your issue however, I was unable to identify the item which you are pointing out.

In this instance, we need more information to review the matter in full so that we can provide you with a specific response. This will also allow us to identify the root cause of the issue so that we can resolve this as soon as possible for you.

Please reply to this email to let us know:

- The item number for which you are concerned about
- The user ID of your trading partner
- Any other information you think might help us resolve this

As soon as we hear back from you we'll start looking into this.

I trust that this information is helpful to ease out your concern immediately. As always, our goal is to help you with your concerns as quickly and accurately as possible.​

 

[Aaron MacQ]

I have responded with:

This is in relation to item 192463737257 and buyer olirobi_65.
In addition to the messages on ebay, I also received the following message from the buyer via SMS text message at 9:12pm on 28th May which I find quite disturbing given the subsequent actions of the buyer.

[I copied his initial SMS here]
​

An ebay dispute case has already been opened (5172183961) and I have already received a request to accept a return. Please advise asap if this is still the best course of action.

Thanks for your assistance,
Aaron​

 

[Althulas]

eBay are shameful for this so called review of the case. I feel gutted for you Aaron when it’s so obvious the buyer is a scammer at the least eBay should not allow any funds to be issued untill you have your items returned in the same condition you sent them in if they are going to rule in this arschloch favour.

 

[Aaron MacQ]

Thanks. I'm doing my best to look at this as positively as I can.

I work in IT, specifically running a web based marketing business, and e-commerce is a significant part of it, so if nothing else, this is a great sales pitch for running your own online store, vs using ebay and having to put up with this rubbish, all whilst paying eBay 10% commission on every sale for the pleasure, and knowing they get a second benefit from their Paypal fees (although I have no specific issue with Paypal fees. PCI compliance is a nightmare I'm happy to offload for 3.4%!)

 

[Aaron MacQ]

Oh, just in.... (i think i'm going to be up all night at this rate)

Hello Aaron,

Thank you for writing back to us regarding the case for the car parts (item# 192463737257) you sold to buyer “olirobi_65”. I am sorry to hear that your buyer is trying to commit fraud by asking you to accept their return request. Rest assured that I am more than glad to assist you with your concern.

I have looked into the details of the message you have provided and know that we do not condone the behaviour shown by your buyer and we’ll closely monitor their account and activities and rest assured that appropriate action/s will be taken once we confirmed that they have breached our policies.

Upon further review, I can see that the case is currently placed on hold for you to facilitate a return to your buyer. Please be advised that you need to either send them a shipping label, funds, or arrange a collection for the item within the timeframe given.

I highly advise that you further communicate with your buyer so that you can settle the issue with the return postage and avoid the case from closing on the buyer's favour.

Thank you for choosing eBay and I wish you all the best on eBay in your future transactions.

Kind regards,
Alyssa Mae G.
eBay Customer Service
​

I'm at a loss to figure out what they're trying to tell me.

I think they acknowledge there's something fishy going on here but they're just going to monitor the situation ??? Great. Thanks!

However, I still need to send a shipping label, accept the return and they think there will be future ebay transactions....

 

[Aaron MacQ]

So, I've gone back with...

Thanks, although after review of the ebay seller protection faq (https://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/seller-protection-faq.html), I'm still confident that this represents abuse of the buyer protection policy and I was correct to initially refuse this return request based on the following valid points:
- the item was properly described, but the buyer didn't want it after they received it, or
- the item was properly described but did not meet buyers' expectations, or
- the item has minor scratches and was listed as used condition.

Can you explain why I have subsequently been forced to accept the return, and pay for return postage?

What exactly is the Seller Protection for, if a clear case like this is not upheld, or have I misunderstood what the seller protection is?

My item was clearly described as 'Used' and having been removed from a 19 year old car, and returns were not offered.
The 'Damage' claimed by the buyer is present in the original listing photos and doesn't represent any actual issue with the item. The defects (minor scratches) detailed aren't even visible when fitted and are likely to present on every similar 'used' item as they will be incurred during the fit/removal process.

I had trust that ebay would look after sellers, and so far, I'm very disappointed with the quick decision to side with the buyer, especially given their comments towards ebay, and it's users.

Any feedback or advice on how to avoid such buyers or situations in the future would be much appreciated.

Regards,
Aaron​

 

[Slam]

I am shocked at ebays attitude as you say they acknowledge what you are saying but for an easy life are siding with the buyer but at your expense. My main concern is you arrange a courier and then eBay issue a refund before you ever receive your item back and that's it game over they have the roll hoops and their money back, is this a loophole in their system.

 

[mrscalex]

I go right back to the 90s with eBay. In fact my original account was US as no UK site existed at the time. I sold a ton of stuff (collectible Scalextric) in the old days but I stopped around 8 years ago as the eBay landscape changed.

Over the years ebay has become very buyer centric in terms of rights. They want to present themselves as the world’s universal and largest store. By using you to take all the risk with the actual selling. And offer you little protection in return.

Not for me.

 

[gookah]

Sellers have no protection on eBay fullstop. I buy from eBay, but any expensive sale I do is collection only. That may limit the people interested but they only take the goods if they are happy with them and it's cash on collection.
Even here they are acknowledging the buyer is in the wrong but threatening you with full refund and possibly no return.

You may get the goods back in worse condition, with them taking photos of deliberate damage used to help their claim.

 

[Aaron MacQ]

Being in Northern Ireland, the big draw of eBay is the fact that it's got a UK wide audience. Postage is so cheap these days, even for larger items, that it does make it very easy to source a sale.

But the downside is situations like this where they sit on the fence and take the least problematic solutuon for them.

I have a reply from eBay after my last message:

Hello Aaron,

Thank you for getting back to eBay Customer Service about the caseID-5172183961 for the parts (item 192463737257) sold to “olirobi_65”. I deeply apologise if you're not happy with the response from our colleague as you believed you're not at fault on this transaction. I'd like to assist you further on this.

I reviewed the details and I see that we’ve asked your buyer to return the item as it was not as described based on your listing. I have seen where you are coming from but I hope you understand that we don’t actually see the item first when it was delivered to the buyer. I'd like to share with you that as per eBay policy, if the buyer's claim that there was a problem on the item they received, the seller is responsible to support the return label.

Please bear in mind that once your buyer failed to return the item to you after you provided them the return label or even they are no longer responding with the claim, rest assured that we will close the case and not issuing a full refund to your buyer.

With regard to your request, if you don't want to sell to certain buyers, you can put them on your blocked list. They won't be able to bid on any of your items until you remove them.

Here's how:

1. From the eBay homepage, click ‘Help & Contact’

2. In the search bar, type ‘Block a buyer’

3. Go to ‘Blocked bidder list’ where you can block particular usernames

To take someone off your blocked list, simply delete the user ID in the text box on this page and click 'Submit'. Once you add a Buyer to your blocked list, they will receive this message: “Unfortunately, this seller has decided that you are not permitted to bid on their listings. You may contact the seller via the Ask Seller a Question feature if you want additional details.”

I trust I was able to answer your query and thank your patience and cooperation. Have a good day.

Kind regards,
Laura D.

eBay Customer Service​

 

[Althulas]

By the sound of it ebay won’t issue a refund if the buyer does not return the item in that statement let’s hope they live by it. Have you sent the buyer the return label and has it responded?

 

[philiper]

How can they say the item was not as described???? What a pain in the back side ebay is being! Feel for you

 

[Bampz]

Hi
Would suggest that if and when the buyer returns your goods that you open and check their condition BEFORE you sign for delivery and if not correct refuse delivery