Fraudulent return

[shopleague]

What do I do when I sell a service, complete the service and the buyer leaves positive feedback then after 20 days he claims that he never got my service and opens a case and eBay sides with him because there's no tracking number involved? Not only do I waste my time but he also gets my free expertise...

[retroman_studios · Accepted solution]

That's the risk with services. I know PayPal does not have a seller protection for services.

I don't know what eBay rules and policies are for services. Perhaps you should start mailing a physical invoice with tracking and a printout of services rendered.

Update: I looked at your service and the prices. Hard to say but iether your prices are too low or it's a service that attracts all the wrong crowd.

[shopleague]

You're correct, I still find it weird that even after the buyer leaves positive feedback and marks it as shipped, he can still open a case for item non-received. Oh well, I guess law of averages, there will always be bad people trying to scam you and appear ''friendly'' but they are a low percentage of people. I just hope eBay can try to minimize them, it's impossible to get rid of them all. I even had chat logs that proved I completed the services and eBay still ruled it in his favor. 😞

[reallynicestamps]

With transactions on physical goods, the normal failed transaction rate is usually given as one percent.

Most sellers find it lower, but there are some categories which are definitely higher, which is what 'average' means.

Gaming is one of those high fraud categories. It's been my observation that electronics, horse tack, motorcycle paraphenalia,  reborn babies (shudder) and dolls, are others.

[tryubik-useonlyasdirected]

Purchase tracking / signature on everything. Sometimes its the best insurance policy. Also, if using Canada Post, the 'Do Not Safe Drop' option can be useful.

It's a legitimate gripe, fraud is fraud. Allowing fraud in anyway is also fraud.

[femmefan1946]

Which doesn't work with digital goods and services.

No proof of delivery-- no protection against claims of no   delivery. 

Many sellers of digital products underestimate their actual costs, from that lack of protection.      

Would an item that sells for one euro sell equally well for one euro fifty? Or for two euros?

The difference being a premium against the occasional loss to fraud or error.                             

[tyler@ebay]

Hi @shopleague - I want to echo the other pieces of advice you've been given. For situations where there is no tracking I'd encourage you to consider adopting some form of self-insurance against losses like this (a great business article about that here). 

In addition, just as an aside for you, if you're going to be selling services or some other form of digitally delivered good you need to be listing that in the 'Everything Else' category in the classified ad format. That lets you safely include contact info, and avoid eBay claims. Listing these in the video game category is considered a violation as you are not actually selling a video game. 

Additionally, including your contact information in your listing description and photos is also against the rules, as that could be seen as soliciting 'off site' sales, which I'm sure you aren't intending to do, but while you are listing in the video game category in a non-classified ad format it is considered a violation. Thanks!