Latest scam on eBay.ca?

[cal-ectibles]

I've been selling on eBay for 20 years now and seen a lot of scams but this is a new one to me. 0 feedback buyer in Montreal purchased a $320 item so l made sure it shipped with full insurance (Xpresspost) so there would be no opportunity for claims. Well he got me! Made a claim to his credit card company claiming he did not recognize the transaction so they opened a dispute with eBay, who in turn did the usual hold of funds and requested tracking info from me. Of course they already had the tracking info and proof of delivery two weeks previous so I pressed the send info button and instantly received the case decided in buyers favour message. That got my blood boiling so I contacted eBay immediately and after a one hour song and dance routine said it was out of their hands but would submit a request to eBay seller protection on my behalf. And so as I wait for a response from them l have now added a 5 feedback requirement to all my listings, unfortunate because we all start with 0 feedbacks and aside from about half of them being non paying bidders the other half are totally fine. If eBay doesn't fix this loophole it's going to get very bad for sellers very quickly. I can absorb the losses from most late delivery claims where the internatonal buyer waits only a few days after the eBay-prescribed delivery date to make their claim, which eBay pays out regardless of Canada Post's suggested delivery based on the tracking info (Canada Post does not pay claims for late delivery any more). However, I refuse to submit to abuse due to the apparent lack of concern of eBay by not creating a firm policy to deal with clearly fraudulent claims. This was supposed to be my retirement pension supplement and I have a lot of inventory to list still but without support this plan will not be sustainable. 20 years, 100% positive feedback, many thousands of sales and dollars earned for eBay and this is what you get. So disappointing. 

[ricarmic]

Hi @intimewithmusic!

I've been here I guess over 22 years, now, (1999 vintage anyway), so yes of course I had a few over the years, if you sell enough stuff it is going to eventually happen.

How one does business depends a lot on what category one lives in. A zero feedback buyer purchasing a cell phone is much different than a zero feedback buyer purchasing stamps (where I live).

A chargeback from a cell phone buyer is also very different from a chargeback from a stamp person. I mentioned earlier in this thread that the last chargeback I had, I called the guy, got to listen to his wife giving him **bleep** for using the expired card, and he actually also paid me the $20 chargeback fee I got billed as well.

As with everything on these boards one has to take it into context. Even though femme and I live in the same stamp world for at least part of what we do, what works for me might not work for her and vice versa.

My caution is that what we read here are the horror stories, which are probably pretty rare in most categories, and it is all too easy to get caught up in them and/or overreact, same as someone who blocks a country after they lose their first package to it.

Everything we sell bears risk, of course for a $500 or $1000 item, 99.99% of us would track it, some would get signatures, some would insure it etc. We would also handle it more carefully than a $10 item to minimize the risk of loss depending on what happens.

The OP clarified that the automagic process took over when they tried to add something to the ticket which shouldn't be happening, hopefully the CSRs help will get it resolved properly.

[marnotom!]

I’m thinking that something similar to the process that @doc_scribe described in post 12 happened in this instance. Since the eBay bot already had tracking information with which to work, the OP’s attempt to “update” that information was treated as a change to the tracking information which rendered the already existing—and likely more than adequate—tracking information invalid.

This is what happens when we have IT wizards with no selling background doing the coding for this site. 🙄

[itolduandso]

My experience with 1st time buyers is that often cases these people are the most courteous buyers on ebay. I have often seen buyers who apologized to me for being new to ebay and not being sure if they do things right with their purchase.

tyler@ebay 

Tyler, some examples could be useful on this page.  Like the sections:

>>When a buyer reports that they haven’t received their item

>>When a buyer reports that an item doesn’t match the listing description

It lists a few scenarios that I am not sure everybody reading is can understand these situations easily.

https://www.ebay.ca/help/selling/getting-paid/handling-payment-disputes-managed-payments-seller?id=4...

With regard to the dispute resolution process - if there are risks of ticking the wrong boxes for seller and buyer (as OP mentioned) then the process should be clearly improved.  I am not expecting it to be toddler-safe but I shouldn't be digging a hole to myself just because I press the wrong box inspite of fact I have done everything correct otherwise.

As a smaller seller I only come into a refund and disput situation once in every 100-200 transactions I have (knock on wood) and it's mostly due to other facts like the buyer not reading details.  So I should not need to write down the notes to know the exact steps what to do and what to avoid to not lessen my chance of getting sa fair resolution happen.  From what users here describe is like walking on egg-shells trying to not wake sleeping dogs.

Also as mentioned above, is it clear what happens in case of a claim when the status is >> A delivery status of "not delived yet" <<

Here is the section:

- You have provided proof of delivery, which includes the following:

- Tracking number provided by the shipping company (uploaded by the date in the payment dispute notification)
- A delivery status of "delivered"
- Date of delivery
- Recipient's address, matching the address on the order (including the city, province, postal code or international equivalent)
- Proof of signature confirmation if an order has a total cost (including shipping and taxes) of $750 or more, uploaded as an image while contesting the payment dispute

Will then ebay bot (I assume it doesn't have a name) be intelligent enough to put things on hold and wait because the status is still not delivered?  Or will it automatically close the case in favor to buyer just because the actual delivery has been delayed (or takes longer) than the preset delivery dates offered by Ebay?

I use another delivery company and use none of the options that ebay offers. Sometimes the delivery is faster than 2-3 days sometimes it takes 2-3 weeks (like is in case of Guantanamo or Poerto Rico, shipping from Canada).

Still I don't have a way to specify the delivery window myself in ebay. I have to pick one of the preselected options.

I understand ebay is moving towards Amazon type of experience, so there will be pressure on buyers to stick to preset delivery dates to provide consistent buyers experience and if my delivery dates are out of normal, my listing will be likely suppressed. I am kind of bracing for that to happen sooner than later.

[itolduandso]

In my last paragraph I mean "sellers" not buyers ....

"so there will be pressure on SELLERS to stick to preset delivery dates to provide consistent buyers experience"...

[intimewithmusic]

Well said. I checked Tyler's link and read that items worth $750+ need the delivery to be backed up with a signature. In Canada it can be specified whose signature and whether the signor must be over 18. Most of my stuff goes over borders so just the sig is the best I can get. The eBay info didn't stipulate whose signature it must be. I'm sure the fine print on that is out there.

Your input is appreciated. I still have my stamp collection going back to the early 60's. One of these days I'll have to expore your world so I can sell it off. Not looking forward to it.  I know a lot of knowledge is needed in that category. Probably little value as most of them came from the coupons in the back of Batman & Superman comics! 

Best wishes

[intimewithmusic]

A couple other things relating to what you point out.

   When I had my retail music store I attended middle of night breakins, caught shoplifters,  reposessed musical instruments, attended court hearings for catching a number of crooks and considered the day someone might walk in the door with a gun.

You are correct, "Everything we sell bears risk". ;>}

[cal-ectibles]

UPDATE! It's been two months now but eBay seller protection has come through for me! I've been reimbursed for the full amount plus the dispute fee of $20. But it wasn't without effort! The day after I was defrauded (May 28) the customer service rep applied to seller protection on my behalf but nothing came of it. I wasn't willing to drop it and called back after two weeks. My new CS rep agreed I was qualified for seller protection and approved my claim on the spot but the funds never appeared in my account. At the end of the month I checked again, still not there. I waited until a few days ago but couldn't see any refund so called again. The rep I spoke with said I was way too late but put in an inquiry anyway and yesterday I received a nice email and apology (!) from eBay Managed Payments Leadership Jonathan S. and today funds are back in my account. Thank you Jonathan! He said my appeal had been approved but mysteriously not reimbursed. Now the money is back and my faith has been restored (until my next claim comes around) . Happy ending! Thanks everybody for your support! Persistence does pay!

[triber]

Good for you for not giving up, I am so glad you were reimbursed. It was a lot of effort but worth it, not only for the money but for the principle.

[intimewithmusic]

Nice! and good job on that!

[teenytrinkets]

This is great news, and proves it's so important for us sellers to keep on pestering ebay until they uphold their end of the deal - be it for $30 or $300!