Anyone ever delt with ebay scam BUYERS

higgilo

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I have decided to sell off some of my personal collections (DVD, xbox games, books) on ebay to free up some room and cash.

I have run into the phenomon of the buyer who claims to have not recieved an item and has immeditaly threatend bad feed back if I dont refund his money now. No emails saying, "hey man, the dvd got lost in the mail, how about a refund." (Story is he recieved an empty package. I suddenly got a paypal dispute stating, "Package empty, no communication, want refund." When I try to get more info, the response I get is. "The package was torn, I want a refund or I'll leave negative feedback"

This all seems fishy. I look the guy up on ebay and he has a feed back rating of 5 and has left only negs for transactions.

I opened a cliaim in paypal myself and made my case to them.

Has anyone ever had to deal with buyers like this, and what do you do?
Thanks
 
Yep, I sold some Gamecube games awhile back where the buyer claimed they were in poor shape and even going so far as to claim a cigarette burn on one of the cases (I have NEVER smoked indoors and I don't recall playing my Gamecube out on the back deck or in the garage).

Guy was a total douchebag, and he wanted roughly 60% of what he paid (Including shipping) back. Though thankfully when Paypal told him he had to ship it all back in order to get a refund, he magically disappeared.

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=78045
 
They're all over the place, unfortunately the system with ebay and paypal makes for a prime growth medium for bacteria like them. If I was doing a sell off of random stuff, especially in a major metro area, it'd be craigslist, cash only, and meet in a public (and well lit) location. That way no scammers, no robbers, and they have no idea where you live. But that's a pain in the ass for a lot of people.
 
ebay is a joke!!! they have it to where you have to ship first while they hold payment . buyer protection what about seller protection. ebay is a scamfest
 
Only way to win is not to play.

Sad but true. I've used eBay for a long time but I just can't stand how they've turned the feedback system into a weapon anymore.

PayPal dings you if your feedback is below a certain, very high amount, like 98% I think? So neg threats, if you're a big seller on eBay, are a serious problem. I'm not sure whats worse, that people abuse it or that eBay dosen't care.
 
I had a seller that sent me someone else's item by mistake. I emailed him and said if he sends me the address I would send it off right away. The original item that I bought was roughly $30.00. He sent me almost $70.00 for mailing the misdirected package. I think he was so afraid of bad feedback that he would do most anything to make sure that he continues to get 100% good feedback.
 
Tag him for feedback extortion. He is forcing a refund from you and threatening a negative feedback if he does not get his wish. Thats feedback extortion and thats against ebay policy. I have reported feedback extortion with success, so its not impossible.
 
i got screwed often enough that i get delivery confirmation and insurance on all items i sell now.
 
This thread reminds me of something that I had forgotten, and now that I am remembering it I'm actually livid with rage at my desk at work. It's funny how personally people can take eBay feedback.

Anyway, I've been an eBay member since 96 or 98, 100% feedback, bought a lot, sold a lot, never had a bad experience. I also sold a lot of my textbooks, DVDs and CDs using half.com. Still never a bad experience. THEN eBay changed the feedback policy so that sellers could not leave negative feedback. I had a guy buy a graphic novel from me on half.com, which I had stored in the basement in a box. If you're not familiar with half, it's much more of a "store" feel where you pick your items, click check out, and pay. So, as soon as I got the email that I had made the sale, I went to get out the book and found that it had soaked up a lot of moisture. My fault, I immediately refunded the buyer's money and sent him an email apologizing that the item wasn't in the condition I listed it as and I was unable to complete the sale. I had his money for like 2 hours total and issued a complete refund.

Of course, I get negative feedback, "refunded my money promptly but i wanted the book, not my money back".

What a total douchebag. And of course eBay basically told me to go fuck myself when I complained. I immediately pulled off all my items for sale and almost never use the site anymore.

They really need to get their shit together and start offering seller protection too. Without sellers there won't be any buyers.
 
It should be pretty easy to show (but not prove) you didn't send him an empty box.
 
I made a premptive claim on paypal and in it I called him out as a scammer. That quieted him. Thanks for the advice on feedback extortion. I diddnt know eBay acknoledged that it exists. I reported him there too.
 
ebay is a joke!!! they have it to where you have to ship first while they hold payment . buyer protection what about seller protection. ebay is a scamfest

Not true at all. The buyer always has to sent the payment first and there is no hold on the money. I don't know where you heard otherwise.

As for scammers, well, there are everywhere, not just on ebay. I have never has a bad experience there. I post large, clear pictures of what I am selling so there can be no question of the condition of the items. I send everything priority mail with delivery confirmation if possible, and I keep records from the post office of when the item was sent and what its weight was. I have never had to use those records as I have never had a dispute.

Maybe I am lucky, but rather, I suspect anyone who has problems is unlucky. If there really was a problem with ebay, people simply would stop using it, and with 90 million active users, that isn't happening.
 
been using ebay since 03'. I only had one negative up until this past week! I email the buyer of a router, informing him that I have to wait for the shipping funds to transfer to my bank account so I can ship. 2 days later (takes 3 to process withdraw from pp), he emails me and gives me a one sentence "what are you playin" deal. He then leaves me feedback, opens a case saying I didn't ship the item AND of course brings my stupid 5-star rating down significantly. Guy was a db, didn't even want to work it out. So, I just refunded him and kindly thanked him for allowing me to avoid doing business with him.

I'm not being sarcastic either, I'm glad he went through all the hassle to neg me after only three days of auction ending...saves me a headache on working w. him :) I contact ebay and they told me to falk off. What pisses me off, is the fact that they will remove personal attacks and falsified statements, but they can't see an alteration of the star system as a falsification and case for removal. The buyer altered my shipping time/charges, when they clearly didn't apply to him. I used to sell quite a bit on ebay, but now it's only a item here and there....
 
What pisses me off, is the fact that they will remove personal attacks and falsified statements, but they can't see an alteration of the star system as a falsification and case for removal. The buyer altered my shipping time/charges, when they clearly didn't apply to him. I used to sell quite a bit on ebay, but now it's only a item here and there....

Ebay business model = Stars low, good (no discount for seller fees!)

They are happy to remove a single neg feedback as 1 usually wont hurt your discount.

I love how I have to sell 100 products and do $3000 in sales per year to be a power seller..... I did over $11K last year in only 68 transactions but will be losing my power seller discount because of it....
 
ebay has gotten pretty crappy for sellers in the last 2 years
 
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