- Joined
- Jan 20, 2018
- Messages
- 884
Hi Ponies,
As many of you buy and sell on Ebay, I thought I would share this story from my recent eBay experience.
I sold a pair of wall sconces recently. The sconces had a brass base and a glass shade. I shipped the insured items to the buyer and when they arrived, she claimed they had been broken in transit. The glass had apparently arrived ok, but she claimed the brass bases had both snapped off during transit. The items were shipped in their original shipping boxes, which were very secure. There was nothing loose where the items could rattle around. I was immediately suspicious, because I couldn't understand how the package would have been handled roughly enough to break metal, but not damage glass. She sent me a photo of the "damage" and when I zoomed in on the photo, it looked like she had unscrewed the base. It looked like you could see the threading where it had been unscrewed. She claimed they both broke in the same place, but only showed one in the photo. She sent me three messages within 24 hours and didn't even wait for me to return her initial message. I should also note that this is a zero feedback bidder, which further raised red flags.
I initiated an insurance claim and asked her if the box had been opened by customs or if she took a photo of the damaged box. She said no. While I was working with her, she decided to open a return claim with Ebay. Ebay then took my money away from the sale and told me I would have to pay for return shipping ($50 CAN) or she will get to keep the item AND would be refunded the money and I would have nothing. I've read all eBay's policies and I thought if you didn't offer returns, you didn't have to accept them. Apparently, this is not the case. I was very angry. I told eBay that I suspected this was a fraudulent claim. Initially, it seemed that eBay was out to protect this potentially fraudulent buyer, but after spending several hours talking with at least four eBay customer service people, I was told to accept the return (or lose everything) and then inspect it when it arrived back. When I thought about it, I realized if she was trying to commit fraud, she probably wouldn't send the item back.
I told her I would offer her a full refund, but that she must return the item and I provided her with options to ship it back to me. As suspected, she refused on three separate occasions to return the item. During each exchange with the buyer, I called eBay asking for guidance. They advised me that once the return claim is opened, the buyer has to return the item within five days.
After the buyer's third refusal to return the item, I stopped communicating with her and waited it out. Today was the end of the waiting period and I contacted eBay and asked that they find in my favour, as they had promised and return my money to me. Initially, the customer service agent refused to do it, because he stated I was supposed to send the buyer a shipping label. I had been previously instructed not to do this, if the buyer was refusing to return it. The prior agent who told not to send the label had made an error. I asked to speak with a supervisor, because I had followed all the instructions I received from Ebay. Anyway, the agent couldn't find a supervisor, but he read all the file and confirmed the conversations I had with other agents. He decided to find in my favour and my money will be returned in a few days. I also decided to file a report against this buyer to have eBay investigate her. If she is trying to commit fraud, as I suspect, they need to terminate her account. This whole ordeal took at least 6 hours of my time and it was quite stressful. Here's what I learned:
1. Ebay has some polices that can inadvertently protect scammers. While most of the agents I spoke to were pretty good and polite, I still received incorrect information and I was hassled quite a bit, when it was clear I was doing what I was supposed to do. While I'm satisfied that this will be resolved in my favour, as it should be, I don't think such a heavy onus should be placed on the seller in a situation such as this one. Several of the agents did apologize to me for having to go through the situation and that it got as far as it did, when it did appear as something was up with the buyer and not me. Either way, given my recent eBay selling experiences, I'm thinking of just not selling on there anyway. I only made about $70CAN from this transaction and I can say it wasn't worth the time, energy and frustration it took from me.
2. Paypal is just as bad as eBay. I believe eBay owns Paypal. They took my money from my account and "held" it while this was going on. I think there are better systems for ensuring everyone is protected, not just buyers.
3. Even if an item is insured, you may not get the money back. This is a big one. I thought I could submit the claim and they would pay the insurance. There are many exclusions for items that won't be covered and they have a catch all in their policy that states they can basically refuse any claim. The insurance has not provided me with the money for this item yet. They only agreed to even investigate the claim when I pushed for it. The truth of the matter is that without actually seeing the item myself, I have no way of knowing if it actually was damaged in transit. Also, if and when I'm certain that this buyer, Ebay and Paypal have dropped this issue and returned my money, I will close the insurance claim. I have no desire to get the insurance money if the item wasn't really damaged. I will not be a party to insurance fraud.
4. I also learned that you can set certain perimeters with selling on eBay. One of the agents I spoke with set my account so that no bidders under 5 feedback can bid on any of my items. This buyer is now restricted from bidding on my auctions as well.
I hope that by sharing this story, other sellers can avoid the same grief I went through.
As many of you buy and sell on Ebay, I thought I would share this story from my recent eBay experience.
I sold a pair of wall sconces recently. The sconces had a brass base and a glass shade. I shipped the insured items to the buyer and when they arrived, she claimed they had been broken in transit. The glass had apparently arrived ok, but she claimed the brass bases had both snapped off during transit. The items were shipped in their original shipping boxes, which were very secure. There was nothing loose where the items could rattle around. I was immediately suspicious, because I couldn't understand how the package would have been handled roughly enough to break metal, but not damage glass. She sent me a photo of the "damage" and when I zoomed in on the photo, it looked like she had unscrewed the base. It looked like you could see the threading where it had been unscrewed. She claimed they both broke in the same place, but only showed one in the photo. She sent me three messages within 24 hours and didn't even wait for me to return her initial message. I should also note that this is a zero feedback bidder, which further raised red flags.
I initiated an insurance claim and asked her if the box had been opened by customs or if she took a photo of the damaged box. She said no. While I was working with her, she decided to open a return claim with Ebay. Ebay then took my money away from the sale and told me I would have to pay for return shipping ($50 CAN) or she will get to keep the item AND would be refunded the money and I would have nothing. I've read all eBay's policies and I thought if you didn't offer returns, you didn't have to accept them. Apparently, this is not the case. I was very angry. I told eBay that I suspected this was a fraudulent claim. Initially, it seemed that eBay was out to protect this potentially fraudulent buyer, but after spending several hours talking with at least four eBay customer service people, I was told to accept the return (or lose everything) and then inspect it when it arrived back. When I thought about it, I realized if she was trying to commit fraud, she probably wouldn't send the item back.
I told her I would offer her a full refund, but that she must return the item and I provided her with options to ship it back to me. As suspected, she refused on three separate occasions to return the item. During each exchange with the buyer, I called eBay asking for guidance. They advised me that once the return claim is opened, the buyer has to return the item within five days.
After the buyer's third refusal to return the item, I stopped communicating with her and waited it out. Today was the end of the waiting period and I contacted eBay and asked that they find in my favour, as they had promised and return my money to me. Initially, the customer service agent refused to do it, because he stated I was supposed to send the buyer a shipping label. I had been previously instructed not to do this, if the buyer was refusing to return it. The prior agent who told not to send the label had made an error. I asked to speak with a supervisor, because I had followed all the instructions I received from Ebay. Anyway, the agent couldn't find a supervisor, but he read all the file and confirmed the conversations I had with other agents. He decided to find in my favour and my money will be returned in a few days. I also decided to file a report against this buyer to have eBay investigate her. If she is trying to commit fraud, as I suspect, they need to terminate her account. This whole ordeal took at least 6 hours of my time and it was quite stressful. Here's what I learned:
1. Ebay has some polices that can inadvertently protect scammers. While most of the agents I spoke to were pretty good and polite, I still received incorrect information and I was hassled quite a bit, when it was clear I was doing what I was supposed to do. While I'm satisfied that this will be resolved in my favour, as it should be, I don't think such a heavy onus should be placed on the seller in a situation such as this one. Several of the agents did apologize to me for having to go through the situation and that it got as far as it did, when it did appear as something was up with the buyer and not me. Either way, given my recent eBay selling experiences, I'm thinking of just not selling on there anyway. I only made about $70CAN from this transaction and I can say it wasn't worth the time, energy and frustration it took from me.
2. Paypal is just as bad as eBay. I believe eBay owns Paypal. They took my money from my account and "held" it while this was going on. I think there are better systems for ensuring everyone is protected, not just buyers.
3. Even if an item is insured, you may not get the money back. This is a big one. I thought I could submit the claim and they would pay the insurance. There are many exclusions for items that won't be covered and they have a catch all in their policy that states they can basically refuse any claim. The insurance has not provided me with the money for this item yet. They only agreed to even investigate the claim when I pushed for it. The truth of the matter is that without actually seeing the item myself, I have no way of knowing if it actually was damaged in transit. Also, if and when I'm certain that this buyer, Ebay and Paypal have dropped this issue and returned my money, I will close the insurance claim. I have no desire to get the insurance money if the item wasn't really damaged. I will not be a party to insurance fraud.
4. I also learned that you can set certain perimeters with selling on eBay. One of the agents I spoke with set my account so that no bidders under 5 feedback can bid on any of my items. This buyer is now restricted from bidding on my auctions as well.
I hope that by sharing this story, other sellers can avoid the same grief I went through.