How do I avoid scammers on ebay?

ctechjeff
Community Member

This is my first time trying to sell something on Ebay and I am having an bad time of this.  Twice it has been bought by scammers and I had to delete my Paypal account just to be safe.  I have been trying to sell an Ipod for a month and it seems I have just wasted my time.  

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How do I avoid scammers on ebay?

It's usually best to start selling with something low value, that you can afford to lose.

Not because of scammers, but because the hardest part of selling here is shipping.

And all of us mess up shipping from time to time.

 

 

https://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/far/business/findARate?execution=e1s1

 

That being said, you may find it best to forget auctions for the time being and list your doohickeys as Fixed Price. You may even decide to list as Immediate Payment Required.

With IPR, your listing remains active until someone actually pays.

 

Now a couple of other things.

To protect buyers from scammy sellers, new, occasional and questionable sellers have a 21 Day HOLD on their customers cleared payments.

The seller still has to ship promptly, and Paypal is reliable about releasing your money after that 21 days.

In the meantime, you can still use the HELD funds to buy a Paypal shipping label.

You even get a discount of 5% to 18% off PO counter prices on those PP shipping labels.

And PP will tell you when you go to buy the label whether or not the buyer's payment has cleared.

 

Don't be afraid to open Disputes.

I f you are not sure, come back and ask us specific questions.

 

 

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How do I avoid scammers on ebay?

By 'scammers' do you mean buyers who let it go to unpaid item? Or was it returned damaged or something?

 

What made you think deleting your paypal account would be helpful?

 

 

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How do I avoid scammers on ebay?

It's usually best to start selling with something low value, that you can afford to lose.

Not because of scammers, but because the hardest part of selling here is shipping.

And all of us mess up shipping from time to time.

 

 

https://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/far/business/findARate?execution=e1s1

 

That being said, you may find it best to forget auctions for the time being and list your doohickeys as Fixed Price. You may even decide to list as Immediate Payment Required.

With IPR, your listing remains active until someone actually pays.

 

Now a couple of other things.

To protect buyers from scammy sellers, new, occasional and questionable sellers have a 21 Day HOLD on their customers cleared payments.

The seller still has to ship promptly, and Paypal is reliable about releasing your money after that 21 days.

In the meantime, you can still use the HELD funds to buy a Paypal shipping label.

You even get a discount of 5% to 18% off PO counter prices on those PP shipping labels.

And PP will tell you when you go to buy the label whether or not the buyer's payment has cleared.

 

Don't be afraid to open Disputes.

I f you are not sure, come back and ask us specific questions.

 

 

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How do I avoid scammers on ebay?


ctechjeff wrote:

This is my first time trying to sell something on Ebay and I am having an bad time of this.  Twice it has been bought by scammers and I had to delete my Paypal account just to be safe.  I have been trying to sell an Ipod for a month and it seems I have just wasted my time.  


 

You don't specify what the previous problems were so others here can't really tell you exactly how to avoid them.  You may have already seen all the eBay policy pages but if not I will include a few of the more useful ones here.  At least I found them useful.  

 

As the other member said, one sure way to get paid and actually have the money is to list with Immediate Payment Required.  That way no one can "pretend" to buy it and send you a false payment statement in hopes of tricking you.  The listing stays available until someone's actual payment is made.  

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/pay/require-immediate-payment.html#how

 

 

If ever someone does not pay for an item, you can send them a nice polite payment reminder and then if no money is coming (verified as being there in your PayPal account), open an Unpaid Item case to get your selling fees back.

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/unpaid-items.html#work

 

 

You then need to add the deadbeat to your list of blocked bidders.  

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/manage_bidders_ov.html#block

 

You can also block people who have Unpaid Item strikes (habitual deadbeats) and other violations, and who live in a country you don't ship to, 

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/manage_bidders_ov.html#set

 

 

Like the other member said, even when you DO get paid you will have that PayPal 21-day-hold put on your funds, but PayPal will tell you when it is OK to ship.  Do not ship until PP says to do so, 

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/pay/payment_hold.html#new

 

 

Right now you say you only ship to Canada, but have you blocked off all other countries?  If you do not specifically block them then they will still be able to access your item.  And why not ship to the US as well?  It is Canada's biggest market.  

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/pay/ship-internationally.html#where

 

Also, your listing states that you do not accept returns.  If you mean that if the buyer has a complaint and you are happy to just refund and let the buyer keep the item, fine, leave it as is.  But on eBay there is no such thing as "no refunds".  

You do not have to accept an item back but if a buyer opens a case for Not As Described you WILL be refunding.  

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/item-not-as-described.html

 

 

Also, your item description says "A few scratches on the back", but in my opinion it is VERY scratched up with obvious signs of use.  If you try to downplay those signs of use you are setting yourself up for a NAD claim.  Your pictures are good, but always be very honest in the description.  People will buy it anyway, but if you downplay the flaws you are asking for trouble.

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/title_desc_ov.html

 

 

 

Well now, there's your bathroom reading for the week.   🙂  

 

 

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