eBay

focuspokatus · ‎01-18-2023

I am very angry...EBay sides with a buyer on a 200$ item. Our bill from the post office shows all th items in the photo on the scale confirmed everything. The buyer sends a photo of an empty box and when proofing on the scale, this is impossible it was missing by 30g. I opened up an investigation with the post office, anti fraud Canada, etc. It is pointed out over and over how EBay just doesn't protect us...so, I am no longer going to buy or sell myself on EBay....I am fed up of corruption and not willing to take the chance to lose more money.

ilikehockeyjerseys · ‎01-19-2023

eBay doesn't arbitrate between buyers and sellers, but they do remove buyers or sellers who have a pattern of fraud. eBay's buyer protection is much closer to that of Amazon or any other major website. Which is that they take the buyer's word for it until the buyer shows a pattern of bad faith behaviour.

It sucks that happened. The best thing you can do is what you have already done. Open fraud reports, and if required a police report. I would contact the buyer in a friendly way and ask for them to confirm whether their contact information on file is accurate because you may be required to include it as part of Canada Post's investigation into how their mail went missing. Let them know you want to ensure they get their item safely so in order to help resolve the issue for them you have opened a report with Canada Post's fraud investigation department. If an employee stole their mail, that's a big deal and you want to do everything you can to ensure it is resolved for them.

If the person is not being honest, there is a good chance you will receive a follow up message with some story about how the item turned up.

You also may want to contact eBay's eBay for business page on Twitter or Facebook and send them a direct message asking them how to handle this kind of return. They may instruct you to provide a return label regardless of the box being empty. There are some newer mechanisms where sellers can hold over part of the refund, but I am not as familiar with them. There is also a very small chance that if you are a long time seller in good standing, and the buyer has other reports on their profile, eBay may cover the refund as a courtesy. (You can't depend on this though)

Ultimately, you should report the buyer using this page: https://www.ebay.ca/help/selling/resolving-buyer-issues/reporting-issue-buyer?id=4084

eBay doesn't arbitrate on a case by case basis, but if enough sellers report a bad buyer eBay will remove them from the website.

zee-chan · ‎01-21-2023

@focuspokatus wrote:
I am very angry...EBay sides with a buyer on a 200$ item. Our bill from the post office shows all th items in the photo on the scale confirmed everything.

Photos don't mean much to eBay as it doesn't prove delivery. Did you send it with tracking and did you get insurance? I would do both for a $200 item as that's above the threshold I'm willing to lose.

marnotom! · ‎01-21-2023

eBay is pretty good about insulating sellers from fraud that can be proven by a party not directly involved in the sale, like credit card fraud and fraudulent claims of non-delivery provided the sellers meet their requirements for proof of delivery. It's not so good when it comes to "not as described" cases because it comes down to "he said-she said" and there's no independent verification of either party's information. As has been pointed out earlier, your photos aren't great "proof" as you could have taken those photos and still sent an empty box.

And as you've found out, the buyer is presumed to have a valid case unless the seller can prove otherwise. The problem isn't so much eBay as it is the credit card system. eBay has the fraud measures it has in place in order to bypass the credit card chargeback system, which is expensive and time-consuming to go through and also tends to favour the buyer. Wherever you sell next, if this markeplace accepts credit card payments on your behalf, you're likely going to be at the mercy of similar protection measures and no further ahead than you were on eBay.

Sorry this happened to you. Most online sellers factor in the occasional loss to fraud into their business plan, just as brick and mortar retailers factor in losses due to shoplifting and damage. Unless these online sellers are selling in an extremely risky category, though, these sort of losses are generally rare and manageable.