eBay

oasis85 · ‎10-25-2013

Have sellers noticed a rise in buyer fraud recently, I have had to issue a bunch of refunds from buyers saying they didn't get their item. Its hard to prove because to have tracking from Canada to US is expensive and to the rest of the world isn't available to most countries. I have started taking pictures of the parcels with the postage stamp date visible. Not sure if that will help when a case is opened. I had a buyer request to return a CD for a similar one, I agreed and sent out the CD and they said they would return the original CD at my cost. They never returned the CD, I have the emails from the buyer saying he received the replacement CD and would ship and then saying he wouldn't when I contacted him again. There is apparently nothing Ebay or Paypal can do. I guess I have learned not trust anyone.

EBAY NEEDS TO LET SELLERS LEAVE NEGATIVE FEEDBACK.

007steveb16 · ‎10-25-2013

@oasis85 wrote:
Have sellers noticed a rise in buyer fraud recently, I have had to issue a bunch of refunds from buyers saying they didn't get their item. Its hard to prove because to have tracking from Canada to US is expensive and to the rest of the world isn't available to most countries. I have started taking pictures of the parcels with the postage stamp date visible. Not sure if that will help when a case is opened. I had a buyer request to return a CD for a similar one, I agreed and sent out the CD and they said they would return the original CD at my cost. They never returned the CD, I have the emails from the buyer saying he received the replacement CD and would ship and then saying he wouldn't when I contacted him again. There is apparently nothing Ebay or Paypal can do. I guess I have learned not trust anyone.

EBAY NEEDS TO LET SELLERS LEAVE NEGATIVE FEEDBACK.

You sell Buy It Now I see.....

Before a buyer buys an item off of you using Buy It Now what do you see of their feedback?

NOTHING!! NADA!! ZIP!! It's a pointless facade that doesn't solve the problem like you "feel" it would.

Sellers lost the ability to leave negative feedback a long time ago because eBay realized how many sellers were abusing the system and using it for every little bit of revenge they could get. Revenge in situations where the seller was 100% at fault, doing it just because they could, not because they should.

cumos55 · ‎10-25-2013

You do have the option to..

Report a Buyer.

This report is anonymous.

If enough sellers report a buyer, that buyer will be gone... NARU... Not a Registered User....

mr.elmwood · ‎10-25-2013

no

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oranorth · ‎10-25-2013

In my experience.. Yes buyer fraud is absolutely up and not just "have not received my item", the site is broken

mr.elmwood · ‎10-25-2013

Site works fine. Is not broken.

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oranorth · ‎10-25-2013

"Site works fine. Is not broken." Is that right?, here's an example, look to your left at my particulars ebay says registered 2009... I've been selling here since 1999. Here's another...Ebay had major "glitch" about a month ago with sending invoices, no one at ebay could figure it out let alone solve the problem. Out of desperation I came to the boards for the first time since I've been selling here.... One of those transactions I had to do a non-paying bidder...finally the buyer paid, I combined shipping and shipped the 3 items to Europe, and now I have an open case with paypal "items not received" . Over the years here at this site there has been many problems, honest sellers are totally on there own, dishonest buyers it seems are backed up by ebaypaypal

mr.elmwood · ‎10-25-2013

Registered on the board has nothing to do with eBay. Two different sites.

I can buy, sell, list, de-list, revise, anything. I repeat, site is not broken.

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recped · ‎10-25-2013

@mr.elmwood wrote:
Registered on the board has nothing to do with eBay. Two different sites.

I can buy, sell, list, de-list, revise, anything. I repeat, site is not broken.

Filled with glitches...YES, Broken....NO

Regarding fraud......It's gone from extremely rare to extremely rare! In 14 years I can count on one hand the number of fraud attempts I've experienced. They happen about once every two years, I'm due for another one sometime in 2014.

I think I can handle the 0.0002% hit to my bottom line.

"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915
- answering Trolls is voluntary, my policy is not to participate.

ricarmic · ‎10-25-2013

I have seen no change in my category (Stamps)

reallynicestamps · ‎10-25-2013

Fixed Price and Buy It Now sellers, who seem to be the majority of sellers, cannot use negative feedback to choose our customers.

However.

Sellers can prevent fraudulent (and other, honest) claims in several ways.

Use your Seller Preferences to Block bids from members with Unpaid Item Strikes.

Use your Seller Preferences to Block bids from members with Policy Violations. (That may include those Reports mentioned earlier.)

Use your Seller Preferences to Block bids from members without active Paypal accounts.

Refuse partial refunds. No refunds without return (or really good pictures.)

Over the top thorough packaging.

Clear descriptions including clear pictures help the seller as much as the buyer.

Giving the buyer the date and service of shipping.

rose-dee · ‎10-25-2013

@reallynicestamps wrote:
Fixed Price and Buy It Now sellers, who seem to be the majority of sellers, cannot use negative feedback to choose our customers.

Your advice is excellent as always. I wanted to add though that there is (was) one area where a buyer's FB (or more precisely, other information in their FB page) can be useful for a seller, i.e. when an offer is made on a BIN/FP item.

I used to check buyers' purchasing history as a bit of due diligence before accepting, rejecting or countering an offer, and since I use "Best Offer" on a lot of my more expensive items, this was helpful information to have. For example factors such as seeing the types and values of items a buyer recently purchased, and how often, or whether the buyer had some knowledge of the category, etc., were useful in making my decision.

I say used to because as of the past week, as we all now know, eBay has removed the ability to view items purchased on a buyer's FB page, along with other changes to transaction transparency. It remains to be seen whether this will also create new possibilities for frauds and scams, hidden behind a curtain of "privacy".

I can only say that I've probably been very fortunate to have been selling in a category where such activity is extremely rare. I've yet to have a case of what I would call deliberate fraud. The odd non-payer (i.e. never paid), but that's to be expected. In a B&M store, that loss goes to shoplifting, but the other costs are so much higher.

Nonetheless, I think there is a gap that eBay should close where its INR policies are concerned. It's arguably easy for someone intent on defrauding a seller to use the INR process. I just can't envisage how a fix would work in practical terms.

prettyshinyluvs · ‎10-25-2013

Yes, it is actually much worse and much more previlant than you think. I would never have believed it either until it happened to me. I was a powerseller with a 100% score for over 5 years. I sold high end jewelry, coach and Michael Kors items, Bath & Body Works lots, and many other name brand items. I would sometimes sell high end auctions that would have many different items in it such as these. Many of these auctions went for anywhere from $200 to $600. The last auction I did like that ended at just over $1000. Someone put the final bid in seconds before it ended.. it was someone with a 3 feedback score. I got very concerned. We communicated and I offered to just offer it to the bidder before them (one of my regular customers) after they said they would pay in a few days. They begged me not to, they wanted it so badly. So I allowed the transaction to happen. I was still concerned. I shipped it UPS and paid for the extra insurance to insure it for the final bid price. Long story short.. they received the box and told me when they got it the box was crushed and torn. They said there was so much damage during shipping. I was shocked because this never happened before.. I was so sorry.. but I got right on it and said I would file the insurance claim. Found out SHE had to file the claim, i gave her all of the info. Instead she just filed something with paypal to get her money back. Instantly paypal gave her money back.. I contacted them and they said she said she doesnt want to file for insurance. (she was all for it, until she found out UPS wanted to come look at the box). I told paypal I paid for the insurance, they said they did not care.. they cannot force her to file insurance. But they did tell her she had to mail the box and contents back to me. Well low and behold... I got the box back.. the exterior was completely in tact. All of the jewelry, coach purses and expensive items were missing.. the only thing in the box was the Victoria Secret robe with Bath and Body works squirted all over it.. also inside was a bunch of junk items never sent to her .. old toys etc.. (probably just to get the box back to weight). I took pictures, called paypal, they told me to call the police. I did and called paypal back.. they never did anything. I finished all of the auctions I had going at the time.. all of that money went straight to my -$1000 negative paypal bill and I never sold another item on ebay!!! This was 2009. I checked the buyers record again today.. they are no longer on ebay (with that name) and still have a feedback score of 3 which tells me they got out asap. They found out how to scam and I'm sure they are still doing it, opening new accounts etc. Sellers be warned, you think you have a good relationship with ebay and more imporatantly paypal. But you do not, they do not care that you have a feedback of over 3000 all positive and the buyer has a 3 score. They don't care you've given them thousands of dollars worth of business. They don't care if you purchased insurance, they will not force the buyer to use it. BEWARE!!!

prettyshinyluvs · ‎10-25-2013

RE: Use your seller preference to block bids form members without active paypal accounts. FYI Paypal is always for the buyer!! If I were selling today after what happened to me, I would take checks only.. wait for them to clear..... and then ship. That would be the ONLY way to protect yourself.

ringsofchampionsca · ‎09-10-2014

Ive had a increase in Buyer fraud, I produce rings that are customized , and they take longer then 45 days to produce and ship to buyers, each buyer is aware of the timeframe to make these items. they wait just until the ring will be shipped and the contact paypal or their bank , and get a chargeback or refund . while their ring is already produced or being shipped.

Its wrong of ebay and paypal to issue refunds automatically because someone complains. What about my cost associated with making the items, and the shipping costs.

too many people here are fraudulently using the buyer protection to scam sellers into making products, costing us money,. then at the last minute claiming issues to get refunds, Its like a game they are playing . totally criminal i say.

@oasis85 wrote:
Have sellers noticed a rise in buyer fraud recently, I have had to issue a bunch of refunds from buyers saying they didn't get their item. Its hard to prove because to have tracking from Canada to US is expensive and to the rest of the world isn't available to most countries. I have started taking pictures of the parcels with the postage stamp date visible. Not sure if that will help when a case is opened. I had a buyer request to return a CD for a similar one, I agreed and sent out the CD and they said they would return the original CD at my cost. They never returned the CD, I have the emails from the buyer saying he received the replacement CD and would ship and then saying he wouldn't when I contacted him again. There is apparently nothing Ebay or Paypal can do. I guess I have learned not trust anyone.

EBAY NEEDS TO LET SELLERS LEAVE NEGATIVE FEEDBACK.

amethyst1415 · ‎09-10-2014

Nowhere in your ad does it say that it would take longer than 45 days to produce and ship. Plus, that is too long for buyer protection in most cases. If you add that in your description you might not get buyers wanting to know where their item is.

When I first started out selling on eBay I had these visions of selling to make a profit. POOF! That went away in the first month. Now I sell as a hobby and I barely break even...but it's fun.

Don't sell what you can't afford to lose.

althetrainer · ‎09-10-2014

Now this is making me nervous with my currently situation. The costume sewing pattern that I just sold yesterday was bought by a brand new eBay user who registered minute before purchasing my item. She overpaid shipping by $3.85 so I looked at her Paypal. It was registered in one name but the shipping address was to someone else. I've shipped to a different address before but with this newbie situation this raised a small flag.

I wanted to test the water so I sent a message to my buyer via eBay regarding the refund and asking her to confirm her mailing address but got no reply. I waited for a day then I refunded the $3.85 thinking if she didn't get the message from eBay she should get the message from Paypal, but once again no reply.

I know I have no choice but to send the pattern. The item has been paid for and there's nothing I can do other than keeping my fingers crossed hoping it's just one inexperienced and uncommunicative customer. I know all she has to do is to claim that she never received the pattern. If that happens I will have to refund her the money. So I will lose my pattern and shipping cost plus eBay and Paypal fees.

It's under $50 but I hate the feeling of being a sitting duck. If I have to feel this way every time I list an item I don't want to sell on eBay at all. What's the point of giving myself gray hair just to make a few bucks?

pjcdn2005 · ‎09-10-2014

There is always going to be the odd problem with a buyer and those are the ones that you hear about on the boards. You don't hear about the thousands of smooth transactions. For myself, I do think that it is very important to communicate with buyers to let them know once you have shipped an item and to give them an approximate time of when to expect the item. That seems to prevent the 'where is my item' inquiries and perhaps helps to make some buyers a little more patient.

mr.elmwood · ‎09-10-2014

Since I started using Paypal Shipping, my "Where's me widget" questions have dropped to zero.

Al, I have a handful of bad stories. I have over 9,000 happy stories. Happy people never say anything. Ya only hear the cry-babies.

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althetrainer · ‎09-10-2014

I actually don't mind the "where's my item" type of buyers because I always ship the next day. I had sold many things in the past and only a handful actually needed my reassurance. I have had my shares of uncommunicative buyers and those transactions too went smoothly. But in this case, it's not just the buyer being uncommunicative but the whole situation makes me uncomfortable. I maybe worrying for nothing but I just don't like this feeling. What happened to good ol' days when we could sell without constantly looking over our shoulders?