Has anyone noticed recently buyers reporting that they have not received their purchase

[daiseymay0_0]

The buyer then requires a refund. This usually happens when there is no tracking no. The item is usually not valuable enough to warrant a tracking no. E bay usually rules in favor of the buyer and without permission sends the money to the buyer from your account. There is no protection to the buyer at all  I think that this is getting to be a popular scam. Anybody have this experience?

[reallynicestamps]

This has been going on since I started here in 2001.

Nothing new.

Your best and cheapest policy for dealing with this, in my opinion, is Cookie Jar Insurance.

Basically, you add a few pennies, rarely more than a dime , to your asking or shipping price. These pennies go into a virtual Cookie Jar. When you get a claim, you refund from the Cookie Jar.

More formally this is called self-insurance.

Many sellers who use this find they actually make a little on it, collecting more pennies than they give out. Just like a real insurance company.

If you are using Paypal shipping labels, you could also give the buyer the number on the shipping label. For honest but nervous buyers, this is a reassurance that their purchase actually is on its way.

For scammers, this may make them think that the item is Delivery Confirmed and that a phoney claim will fail.

Not all the numbers on those PP labels are 'tracking', some are just internal bookkeeping for Canada Post. So yeah, smoke and mirrors.

E bay usually rules in favor of the buyer and without permission sends the money to the buyer from your account.

The deal is to get the buyer refunded before they go to eBay or Paypal.

And when you do, since most buyers are honest, if nervous, ask them to refund the refund when the purchase arrives using Paypal's Send Money. In my experience, most will.

[aubreyclay56]

yes there are many buyers scamming sellers that dont use tracking and many more will come,even for items costing very little,its unfortunate but a reality,then you get buyers complaining about shipping charges on a 5.00 item and having to pay 10.00 or 15 bucks to ship,i as a seller have given away a few items for that reason and lost money,it seems there are a few bad apples in every category,i personely use tracking on most of my items,very unfortunate that some people spoil it for the rest,ive looked at a number of sellers getting cases opened against them for no delivery,i looked at one guy that was selling coins he had 3 cases against him for that reason all to the same guy and the items he was selling were coins offering 2.00 dollars shipping,the buyer even left fb to the seller stating money refunded so this buyer was creating a coin collection for free,nasty nasty,felt so sorry for the seller one would think ebay would step in and say sorry goodbye we dont need people like you,but im sure the buyer is still doing the same thing,you just never no if you will end up with a buyer like that or not,kinda like going to the casino big chance of finding dishonest buyer

[dmil8030]

Hello 'daiseymay', 

<< buyers ... have not received their purchase ... then requires a refund. .... when there is no tracking no.

....  Anybody have this experience?>>

Just about everyone who sells on ebay has that experience, but mercifully not often.  Thieving is as old as humanity.

As the other poster has suggested, if you are not already doing so you really must add a bit extra to every item you 

sell for self-insurance against loss.  It is necessary for both your budget and your healthy disposition.

Whether it is a few cents or a few bucks depends on the price of the items you sell and the likelihood of a loss.

Even on tracked items which cost more, say, jewelry or porcelains, a seller may have to refund on occasion for issues

like breakage so you need to add a bit on to the price of every item you sell.  If you are doing it right, your 'insurance' will

grow beyond your losses.

You are correct that many small items are not worth tracking, - little things like trading cards and dvds, connector cables 

and buttons.  They wouldn't sell if they had Canada Post's tracked services attached.

So set your 'insurance' aside and absolutely keep track of it and keep it separate.  It is not extra profit.

And when you mail your items, whether you send a quick & sweet note to tell your buyer her items are in the mail, 

or just say so in feedback is up to you.  Certainly you can add the postal receipt number.  It makes it more 'real'.  

That said, I certainly hope that you are using tracking for your more expensive coins.  The rule of thumb about loss 

is that you only send an item untracked if you can afford to lose it.  For most people the ceiling is about 10 bucks.

I would hope that you would not send a $125 coin without tracking, even if your listing suggests this.  I will assume 

that $2.50 shipping fee is just for show and you would absorb the cost of tracking after the sale yourself.  

I'm sorry you had a loss recently.  I hope it was a relatively small one.  I can't stand scammers, -- they ruin it for 

everyone.

If you think your buyer might be doing this as a means to get free items, - call ebay and gently report the person.

Ebay cannot 'watch' a scammer if they have not been made aware of him.  

[gilliankehler]

I had a buyer once that I FOR SURE thought was going to open a INAD/INR case to get her refund. After I marked her item as shipped, I received an email from her asking for a tracking number. I kindly explained that, as mentioned in my listing under terms of sale, that I do not provide tracking numbers as I would have to charge too much for shipping. This girl, from the US, didn't like the sounds of that one bit, and went ahead and copy-and-pasted ebay policies in further messages to me, trying to get me to upload this tracking number that she "just knew" I had, and was withholding from her (lol). Finally, to appease her, I gave her the receipt number from the post office receipt. It had no tracking, nothing. Just a number.

That seemed to make her happy, and she never opened a claim, and I never heard from her again.

So yes I agree, that some buyers are just really nervous and un-trusting, and just need a little bit of reassurance, even if it is just a placebo effect 😄

[izzame]

Funny you ask, had a surprise email from Paypal myself today. Buyer received refund from yours truly as they have not received their item from Dec. (No tracking) So, OK I can't say yes, no, maybe. I do self insure so that's OK. First one in almost a year. What I am ticked about is the buyer didn't have the "common courtesy" to let me know that it was MIA  Just, hello Paypal $$$$ please cha ching. I'm aware this is all legit, that's not my point, and as sellers part of OUR score sheet is communication. I do correspond with all my buyers and in every email If you have any concerns or questions please email. I pulled out the CP receipt for that particular item and will be emailing the buyer a scan so they do know that it was shipped. And may add something to the effect if/when it shows up please be a "responsible buyer helping to keep ebay a safe & honest place" and send me a refund. (Still working on the wording for that thought) 

[reallynicestamps]

How about:

I regret that your purchase mailed January 15, 2016, has not yet been delivered.

When the parcel does arrive, you can return the refund of $X.xx  by using Paypal's Send Money service. My PP account is izzame @ randomemail.co.

Attached is the Canada Post receipt for the purchase of a shipping label.

For what it's worth, since we sellers can only leave positive feedback, mine includes the date and shipping service as well as any invoice or tracking numbers I might* have. Even when those numbers are just for the invoice, they seem to make the customer feel loved and cared for.

*I use stamps rather than PP labels, because: well, did you notice my ID?

[ricarmic]

If these are of use, here is a link to my "form letters" I use for MIA, Late shipments.....

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/I-haven-t-received-my-item-or-Item-not-received-case-the-...

[izzame]

Thank you for your help and input. I'm just getting ready to do that email now. I have the image of the postal receipt to send them. 

And thank you for a look at your form letters.