eBay

chatou-matou · ‎12-31-2012

Hi everyone,

I have a weird situation here...I'm using a secondary account as I don't want my buyer to be able to track down my messages here.

So, I'm the owner of a Canadian business that sells computer systems and parts.Great feedback score, and lots of sales volume.

So, a year ago, I decided to offer free shipping on cheap/small items like cables, usb sticks,... and I ship them in padded envelope with lettermail postage. I thought about it a lot before doing it and decided to accept the risk that once in awhile, one of the packages disappears (including buyers wanting free stuff...). And actually, since a year, no issue, so two thumbs up. Then there was THAT buyer. If it was just a lost package, I would just refund him, put him in my blocked buyers list, and end of the story. But...

So, couple of weeks ago, I had one small item with free shipping that was purchased through paypal by this buyer with 240 feedbacks, 100% positive (well, we know what 100% positive means for a buyer, but anyhow...), so nothing to be worried about. Packed the item and shipped it same day, as usual. And left positive feedback. Next day, I received the following email directly to my paypal email (which is different than my ebay email), from a free, noreply, untrackable email address:

"eBay Scam buyer / Item ******************

reetings,

Just a heads-up, your buyer "*********" will claim that his item arrived damaged and request a refund threatening negative feedback.

Take a look at his feedback left for others, does the same thing with everyone for a free deal. Send it with a tracking # and insurance with signature to save yourself the potential loss, block him if you can and call eBay to report him if he does contact you with the same story"

And sure thing, after checking his feeback closely, there is a number of things like that...anyway, it's been shipped, nothing to do about that.

So, today, 2 weeks later, I received the following email to my paypal email account:

"hi, im ******* from ebay I just bought a ******** from you I got the mailer in friday but something was wrong with the mailer was opened/ripped and no ****** in it only the white invoice papers maybe a postal side issue ?? anyways I decided to contact you from ebay from this time but you seem not accepting any messages on this account so I have doing a search on google about your ebay username and finaly found your email.. I decided to contact you before to leave negative/feedback/dispute.."

So, first, how come he cannot contact me through ebay email system? I guessed I blocked him after I got the first email, so does it even prevent him to email me??

Second, what the hell was the first email...where did it come from, who sent it? Of course, no possibility to know, but what do you guys think?

Third, sure I'll refund you, but how can I help the community and prevent this to happen to others?

Thanks in advance for giving me your advise of this situation!

pierrelebel · ‎12-31-2012

"I guessed I blocked him after I got the first email, so does it even prevent him to email me??"

Yes, your eagerness to block him before you even had an actual issue with him prevented him from contacting you through eBay!

What to do - refund him in full with apologies.

Leave him on your blocked bidder list, add his name to the blocked bidder list on all your other selling IDs.

Move on.

chatou-matou · ‎12-31-2012

As I said - he will be refunded - but how can I help the community considering he seems to be used to do stuff like that.

stevephinn2012 · ‎12-31-2012

Send him a polite email telling him you have contacted canada post and that 1 of their investigators should be in contact with him about him receiving and open empty package. They are concerned about mail fraud and possible theft so they will be coming to pick up the envolope for investigation.

Tell him it is the only way you can get your money back

see how he responds

pocomocomputing · ‎12-31-2012

You can use the Report a Buyer option. It shows in different places but I am not sure where. Report him as a frequent fraud buyer.

Also, try sending an email to kalvin at ebay.com in eBay Canada. He used to be quite responsive to issues posted in this forums. he seems to be missing in the past few months.

I have had some success with Kalvin getting this looked into in the past as have other eBay members here in these forums.

He will most likely pass it on to the eBay Trust and Safety team but having him do it might have more weight in getting something done.

Send the email saying something about negative feedback. It may be considered feedback extortion.

pocomocomputing · ‎12-31-2012

You can use the Report a Buyer option. It shows in different places but I am not sure where. Report him as a frequent fraud buyer.

Also, try sending an email to kalvin at ebay.com in eBay Canada. He used to be quite responsive to issues posted in this forums. he seems to be missing in the past few months.

I have had some success with Kalvin getting issues looked into in the past as have other eBay members here in these forums.

He will most likely pass it on to the eBay Trust and Safety team but having him do it might have more weight in getting something done.

Send the email saying something about negative feedback. It may be considered feedback extortion.

Sorry for the typo. The issues reported to Kalvin have been issue with things not working on eBay or system issues.

femmefan1946 · ‎12-31-2012

You can add a Response to any feedback left for the transaction. While the most effective feedbacks and Responses are calm and factual, they are not required to be positive.

Remember that your Response can be read by your future customers.

And do follow up with eBay. Include his private email with full headers in your report. Technically they can't work on that basis, but it will be in the back of their minds.

The first email? An annoyed seller watching the buyer's new purchases and doing a little vigilantism. Not really approved of, but sometimes useful.

brandeentertainment · ‎12-31-2012

I know I had an issue like this a few times and one time I got about 10-15 Seller to report a buyer and all leave follow up feedback thew buyer is still a part of ebay as they did nothing but you should see the guys feedback it is a field of BUYER CLAIM ITE NO RECEIVED.. BUYER IS A SCAMMER .. It's pretty awesome LOL..

The one Thing I will do once in awhile is tell the buyer I Only do Replacements in these circumstances and will ship with tracking,insurance and signature confirmation ..90% of the time the parcel arrive next day ;)..Every once in awhile the buyer will just say Ok and this is when I kick myself but Sometimes ytou have to play the game.. It is not hard to see good from bad if you look realy hard

chatou-matou · ‎01-01-2013

Thank you everyone for your answers! I wasn't excpecting to have any way to avoid a refund, but I like stevephinn2012 and brandeentertainment and emailed my nice customer with their directions. Will see what happens!

pocomocomputing => not sure how to contact Kalvin. Looked up his name and found an ID located in Australia...not sure I'm going the right direction there.

Happy New Year everyone!

pierrelebel · ‎01-01-2013

Posting rules do not allow posting someone's email address.

However, take a look at this forum:

http://community.ebay.ca/forum/Seller-Listing-Tools/500002001?

The first name you see gives you the answer you want! 🙂

Happy New Year.

chatou-matou · ‎01-01-2013

Merci beaucoup, Pierre, et bonne annee de meme !

i*m-stilll-here · ‎01-01-2013

How much was the item worth?

chatou-matou · ‎01-01-2013

i*m-stilll-here => not a big deal, $25. I wouldn't ship expensive items without tracking. I was OK to refund him, but I'm curious to see his answer.

Anyway, I emailed him as indicated previously, and emailed Kalvin as well. And I received the following answer from the buyer in the meantime:

"this is not a theft it is a error I already received opened damaged package... this is common... just issue me a refund or I will have to go thru paypal dispute and negative feedback.. what a waste of time for only 20$ ... this is *** "

So, he refuses to have another item shipped with tracking, wants a refund only. Confirms what I thought. Considering he threatened me twice already of neg fb and he's refusing to have another item shipped, I guess I'm safe waiting for Kalvin's answer...or wait for an insult email from my nice buyer before seeing a non-received item case opened. Way to go, true Xmas spirit 🙂

femmefan1946 · ‎01-01-2013

thew buyer is still a part of ebay as they did nothing but you should see the guys feedback it is a field of BUYER CLAIM ITE NO RECEIVED.. BUYER IS A SCAMMER .. It's pretty awesome LOL..

An intersesting contemporary illustration of the usefulness of negative feedback.

Apparently the customer is still able to buy because many/most sellers do not see feedback until the customer has made his purchase.

I wish I could think of a way that the customer who ends up on "many" Blocked Bidder Lists could be removed by eBay for poor performance.

patken123 · ‎01-01-2013

, but how can I help the community and prevent this to happen to others?

Hi,the only way this buyer will learn a lesson ,and also the best way you can help the community is not to send him anything and let him give you a neg.FB,but you won't (understandably so) do it because you'll end up loosing more than you gain as an individual .and your buyer knows that ,he knows you'll have no real alternative but to cave in .

I'm not a seller but I hate to see/hear people with no conscience getting away with their scams ,it only makes the bolder and encourages them to go to bigger more profitable scams.sad indeed.

chatou-matou · ‎01-02-2013

femmefan46 => couldn't agree more...

patken123 => problem is...free shipping=no tracking=full refund from paypal as I can't prove it was shipped. Which is fine, that's the risk I accepted. But I really, really would like to see his account suspended if he already had a number of reports from sellers.

What cracks me out is his statement of "I already received opened damaged package... this is common". Yeah right. Real common. I received another email from him again today, pressing to get an immediate refund, threatening (a 3rd time) of a neg fb. This time, he argued he doesn't need the item anymore as he bought one elsewhere. Of course he got one...

chatou-matou · ‎01-03-2013

Yippee ki-yay!!

I was about to answer to my nice customer (the same 3rd email threatening of red fb I mentioned before) to offer the same thing - ship another item only, with tracking - and went to check the sales info...and awesome news: "eBay note: This user is no longer registered on eBay." That is awesome!! 🙂 I'm guessing a number of sellers complained of the same thing, and it finally happened. Glad I didn't refund him or shipped him anything else 🙂

Anyway, let's see if nothing else comes up...his account suspension/deletion could be temporary and due to a number of things. But hopefully, that's the end of this story. That feels really good to resist to a scammer and win, needless to say 🙂 Tonight I'm happy, hopefully eBay/PayPal won't ruin this 🙂

zee-chan-jpn-books · ‎01-03-2013

Congratulations to the OP! =D

patken123 · ‎01-03-2013

That's great .I wish I could see his face when he received the news although these type of people develop a thick skin and probably is right now planning a different way to scam others.