INR Abuse and Exploiting of Ebay's TOS | Selling

321continuegames · 2023-05-08T16:06:53.213000Z

In regards to a recent Item Not Received Return Request and how I attempted to bring certain concerns to Customer Support at Ebay. I sold an Item -- a video game (loose disc Nintendo Gamecube game). Item was sold and shipping method was Canada Post - Oversized Lettermail, which has no Tracking Number. I do this for low cost items that can fit in an bubble mailer evelope to compete with Ebay.com American sellers who have better shipping rates then us here in Canada. I have shipped out hundreds of packages out this way to great success. Seller left a note with Instructions for me during shipping, this is what it said ;Buyer note"Hi Please do not include any invoices, receipts or paperwork inside the package. Also, please test it thoroughly/clean before shipping out. Will leave positive feedback for your efforts. Thank you!" I, the seller package and ship the item & Mark as Shipped, Thursday April 27th 2023. Buyer Messages me back exactly one week later with this message;"Hi, I noticed that this order hasn't shipped yet. Could you please provide me with the tracking information? This is a gift and I need to make sure that it arrives on time." Seller (me) I send a reply to the buyer right away ;"As stated in my listing and per method of shipping shown at checkout this game shipped out Canada Post Oversized Lettermail. This method does not come with a Tracking Number." Buyer : Never Replies to this Message. Today May 8th Buyer opens up a Item Not Received Claim Requesting a Full Refund. One of my Options as a Seller is to Contact the Buyer so I sent him this message this morning;"I’ll refund you. Next time look at shipping details of packages if you expect tracking you will pay more. I sent it lettermail, no tracking as stated in my listing. Seeing as this package isn’t even going to you and was a “present” it might have been a good idea on your part to get tracking on it. Thanks for your business but I do not condone drop-shipping off of my page because things like this happen. I am not sure what ebay has for policies on drop-shipping but I will be contacting them to find out more and use this scenario as an example. Have a great day!I do not expect to receive a reply from this buyer as when I looked at his feedback he has 4 Negative feedback from the last 6 months and a common theme is that this account does not reply to messages.Upon doing some more inspecting of his feedback page I noticed this account joined in 2021 and has (11,000+ Feedback). Most are positive feedback from other sellers who most likely leave feedback as soon as they ship out an item, before they have to experience any INR's. This account also had 0 items for sale, however it looked like they had sold items in the past in a tune of 384 items. Another thing I noticed about this users feedback page is that they do not leave any feedback for any of the Ebay stores they buy from. I decided to speak with Ebay Customer service and explained the situation to them. I also explained what I believe this account is doing. I informed Ebay Customer Support that my reasoning for contacting them wasn't because I had to refund the money (it was a very high amount) but my concern for the abuse of their refund policy system that they have in place and to hopefully bring some attention to it. I was told without supplying a tracking number that Ebay would ultimately side with the buyer. I explained what I believe is going on and asked for them to look into it and rest assured I will issue the refund. It didn't seem like the Customer Service rep really cared about what I was saying and just told me to make sure I have tracking number on my packages. I can post the whole transcript here, if somone can clarify that I am allowed to do so. The meat and potatoes and what I think this user is doing in using Ebay's protection for buyers as an exploit. They are changing their address in their profile before purchasing an item from a Ebay Seller with 100% Feedback Rating and Good Feedback comments on Shipping Speeds. They then use their own website or social media or other platform to sell these goods. They buy from reputable sellers that ship packages using Canada Post Oversized Lettermail knowningly that it will come without a Tracking Number. They then wait a week and send a message highlighting the fact that they haven't received the package and ask for a tracking number. They then wait for the cut off delivery estimated date and create a Item Not Received case and the Seller is left with no choice but to offer a refund to the buyer. If this is the case the buyer is sourcing for "free" not handling, storing, picturing, packing, shipping anything. Then they open a claim and get a full refund for the item they most likely sold at a markup. Double dipping at it's finest. If this is what is going on can't Ebay look at a buyers history of opening Item Not Received Claims and getting refunded? I also have screenshots of everything I posted in here, I can post those too. I'm just not sure if I am allowed to do that here?

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INR Abuse and Exploiting of Ebay's TOS | Selling | eBay Canada EN