Ebay complicit in fraud and threatens to charge me as part of fraud

[bn880]

I have a case where a buyer is lying about some boards not working for him, sending a photo of just 1 of 2 required boards installed with a fuse removed.  I accepted the return, he provided FAKE return shipping information.  The time has expired, I asked eBay to step in, and then I had Patak S and Sayan M. put the case on hold, asking me to provide a shipping label to the buyer.  The buyer is in the US and I am in Canada so this is impossible and is already AFTER fraud has been committed.

The buyer is a known scammer in the US with a google review record to prove it (1.5 stars with a history of defrauding others).

Ebay now threatens to refund the buyer after 4 days if I don't provide a label.  Meanwhile the buyer won't even reply... "I've placed the request on hold for 4 days to give you time to arrange return shipping with the buyer. Please note that if you don't resolve the issue by, 08th July 23. We'll issue the buyer a full refund on your behalf without requiring the item to be returned."

So this is it, eBay excuses fraud, and wants to defraud a long time client to pay off some scammer.

When will eBay make things right, and hire reasonable customer service people?

[bn880]

Literally just screen cap the PDF if possible.

[cardconnoisseurs]

I'd file mail fraud charges against the buyer and Ebay. 

[reallynicestamps]

When I say I am a  technodolt, I mean I don't know how to take a screenshot. Among many other simple processes.

I am the monarch of workarounds.

[marnotom!]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

When I say I am a  technodolt, I mean I don't know how to take a screenshot. Among many other simple processes.

Just in case you're at all curious:

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201361

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

You can open the PDF on your computer and take a cropped screenshot. Google for instructions on how to do so with your operating system. 

There is also Adobe's website: https://www.adobe.com/ca/acrobat/online/pdf-to-jpg.html (Although, I have never used it so I can't vouch for ease of use. It's Adobe though, so it's probably fine.)

On the topic of refunded labels, the only possible downside is that some services will only refund your label in the form of a credit toward future use of the service. This might be an issue if you don't regularly use Shippo. It has been a while since I have had to use Shippo, but if I recall this is the case with them. With that said, it wouldn't be difficult to use the credit the next time you have a sale and need to print a label since Shippo can print Canada Post labels.

Lastly, if you choose to use Chit Chats to ship to the USA, they have return labels built into their service that you can easily print. I would only advise using Chit Chats if it makes sense cost wise and time wise since some of their depots aren't located as conveniently as Canada Post. 

Like most people, I agree that it is a hassle to provide a label for anybody who has never been through the process before. It feels very archaic to have to jump through so many analog hoops to get send a label on a marketplace that is supposed to be one of the most used and longest standing. eBay should realistically have some sort of system to automatically generate return labels using eBay's printed shipping. Especially since they have their own shipping facilities in the USA that are used for their current version of whatever took over from the Global Shipping Program. On a side note, eBay could probably make a pretty decent profit through charging some sort of insurance fee up front to cover the cost of a return label, and then dealing with it using their current USA international shipping process.  

[bn880]

I did end up sending the Shippo label a couple days ago... now have to chase up the case.

Likely going to lose 50 bucks on the label, and PROBABLY wasn't necessary after my contacts with support on the client not replying to requests to pay for his label, but ok, safer maybe.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

[bn880]

Well, the buyer never shipped back the boards with the provided label, and ebay just closed the case in his favour and refunded him.

[byto253]

Have you contacted eBay?  Same thing happened to me and they refunded me.   The label is to make the case that you followed the process and the buyer should not have been refunded without returning the boards.

[bn880]

Yes, they said to file the appeal.  So I have.

[byto253]

Best of luck.  Hard to see how it can stand when they were provided the ability to do the return, but that is being logical...  

[bn880]

Yep thanks, got the case overturned today based on the appeal.  What a crazy system.

When the case was originally closed in the buyer's favour it stated that: "buyer "Didn't receive item""

And stated that I had "agreed to refund the buyer but did not."

Pure insanity, and I suspect there are just some malicious agents at eBay.  All the crazy decisions were made after hours US/Canada time and before the dates where the case had to be handled.

[ricarmic]

The decisions are probably bots decisions. The dates can be misleading, because if they say resolve by July 21 they really mean resolve before midnight on July 20, I've got zapped by something at 12:03 AM of the "due date", learned that lesson the hard way. Might not be your situation but is something to watch out for.

[byto253]

Super, congrats on getting your funds back. 

I think malicious is giving too much crediit as it implies some thought 😎 . Like @ricarmic said, it is likely you got botted.   That's what happened to me as well.  

The cruddy and crazy part of it is that eBay is paying for the refund to you, and buddy gets to keep your boards and the refund, just like my person got the audio tubes for free at the end of it.  C'est la vie, and hope it does not come up again! 

[bn880]

Thanks.  And Incredible if he gets to keep the money too. Well if eBay wants that kind of client, then they can keep sponsoring his theft.

[cardconnoisseurs]

A lot of times, you just need to go through the process. A lot of the decisions on the various ecommerce sites have zero human input until it reaches a certain point. Thier business model relies on sellers being willing to "take a few on the chin" to enable them to keep seller support/CS costs down.

But generally the Ebay CS staff will give you the straight 411 on where you stand in a given situation. For example, I had a buyer open a claim for a tracked package that was still within the delivery timeframes. Ebay would not release the funds, but when I contacted Ebay SS, they basically told me in no uncertain terms to just go through the process, and that the claim would be closed as soon as the delivery scan went in. And that's exactly what happened. 

Compared to Amazon, Ebay is a *dream*. I would consider murdering someone to have access to the SS CS chat feature that Ebay has on Amazon! Those associates are able to resolve any issues I have 99 times out of 100. 

I wish Ebay had the same level of traffic that Amazon has, as Ebay is by *far* the easier way to sell. Despite some of my quibbles about some of their policies, by and large, I love selling on Ebay. The best part is that the rules are generally invioable. So as long as you follow protocoo, you are generally golden. That is *not* the case on Amazon. Their seller agreement literally gives them carte blanche to do as they see fit with your listings, inventory, account balance, and account itself. I have even heard horror stories of them destroying an entire pallet of iPhones a seller had sent to them for their FBA program, because one of the bots accidently flagged it with a removal/destroy order, and Amazon argued that the seller should have been checking their inventory updates. I think that case went to arbitration, as we are talking about high six figures worth of product here. 

Back when I relied close to 100% on Amazon for my livlihood, my stress level was never higher. As I have slowly divested myself from full reliance, and migrated listings to Ebay, things have done nothing but improve. 

Obviously, sell a product at the market it's best suited to, and I value Amazon, but by comparision, Ebay is a *dream* just in terms of hoops you have to jump through, and the threat of unilateral action.