BEWARE - Ebay is not doing enough to combat frauds
Summary: kyman58 shares their experience of purchasing a fake artifact from a supposedly reputable eBay seller and expresses frustration with eBay's handling of negative feedback and counterfeit item reports. reallynicestamps explains that sellers are not obligated to respond to messages and outlines the eBay dispute process for items not as described. marnotom! adds that eBay rarely takes action based on single reports but suggests using eBay's Money Back Guarantee. rocketscollectibles describes eBay's review policy and issues with counterfeit reports, recommending opening a 'not as described' case to secure a refund.
I started by looking at antiques sales, which somehow led me to "artifacts". Which is a rabbit hole I fell into. After purchasing some small trinket, nothing worth writing home about, I immediately noticed just how blatantly fake this thing was from a supposed "reputable" seller. The seller claims to have a return policy and will provide a refund. They have been ignoring my messages.
It seems there is a culture on ebay of sellers for near 100% positive feedback. I have watched as negative feedback somehow just disappears from these sellers pages. Q: Why does Ebay remove negative feedback for these scammers?
Before I really inspected the item, I had left a good review simply because i was impressed with the shipping time and gave praise to the seller for this. That was my mistake, obviously I should have given the thing a better look first. Q: Why doesnt Ebay allow you to change your review from positive to negative, vice versa? the revision you can make to your review doesnt change wether it is a positive or negative review and therefore doesnot effect the sellers rating.
There is a seller selling these fake antiques, him as well as many other sellers; all you have to do is reverse googloe image search their listings to find that they are simply selling recreations from Etsy, trying to pass them off as ancient antiques.
I have reported this seller, as well as a handful of their sale items, yet what has Ebay done? Q: does Ebay actually investigate reports like this?
rocketscollectibles
·3 years agoBefore I really inspected the item, I had left a good review simply because i was impressed with the shipping time and gave praise to the seller for this. That was my mistake, obviously I should have given the thing a better look first. Q: Why doesnt Ebay allow you to change your review from positive to negative, vice versa?
Anything you write on eBay is a statement. It's a liked a signed declaration. They do not allow to revise because anyone could falsy change their statements for whatever reason. They just do not allow to change your version of your story once you confirmed it, which is imo logical. People would also come back change their positivies to negatives 6 months later because they broke their products.
For counteifeits this is truly a problem. I tried many times to report counteifeit items as well over time when i shop in my selling category. They never remove the listings. This is indeed scary as i see counterfeits on regular basis and those often sucess to sell (for expensive amounts).
As said, if you did not past 30-days after delivery, open an item not as described case. That's an instant win you'll be refund. You may have to return it.
marnotom!
·3 years agoJust to follow up on @reallynicestamps' excellent post, take note that eBay rarely takes action against a seller based on a single report unless the evidence is really damning. As Stamps' post suggests, file your claim through eBay's Money Back Guarantee (if you're still within the timeframe to do so) and get your refund that way if the seller has ghosted on you.
eBay doesn't have experts scouring listings 24-7 looking for fraud. As with the RCMP, they tend to rely on information from the public/users to identify problems. You've been on eBay for only five years, and probably not using it frequently in those five years. The sale of counterfeit or non-authorized items was worse before you opened your eBay account. The fact that you should be able to get eBay to force a refund from the seller so easily is one way eBay is "combatting fraud."
reallynicestamps
·3 years agoI immediately noticed just how blatantly fake this thing was
From the photos or after it arrived?
Before it has shipped, you have an hour to cancel a purchase, after that you have to ask the seller to cancel.
Once in the post, there is little the seller can do, so you have to wait for arrival.
The seller claims to have a return policy and will provide a refund. They have been ignoring my messages.
Sellers are not required to answer messages. It's bad customer service, but there it is.
When the item arrives you can open a Not As Described dispute.
You could do that even without contacting the seller, which is rude , but there it is.
The seller can send you Return Shipping and refund on delivery.
Or he can Refund without requiring Return.
Or he can continue to ignore you, in which case eBay will refund you and go after him for their money.
Q: Why doesnt Ebay allow you to change your review from positive to negative, vice versa?
I agree with this. At best, we can ask eBay to remove a FB left, but usually this only happens when a negative postive was left and the wish is for it to be made positive.
they are simply selling recreations from Etsy,
And those are made in a factory in China by quasi-slave labour.
Then dropshipped by lazy sellers who don't take any responsibility for their business.
Or by the manufacturer themselves, which is one reason, the language barrier, that you didn't get a response from the seller.
BTW- Any FB rating under 98% is questionable. For overseas sellers that rises to 99%.
And reading the FB and the FB Left for Others, is more useful than the actual percentages