Buyer wants me to buy him extra things to ship to him

[mark_sh2]

Hello,

Bit of a strange issue here. I recently made a sale and after he paid the buyer sent me a message with a list of things he wanted me to buy him (some books) and add into his parcel as the seller wont ship to his country. I replied saying I will not do that but he is still pushing the issue and doesnt seem to be taking no for an answer.

Should I just refund and risk the negative feedback? I asked if he wanted a refund and he said no but at this point id rather just not deal with him as it seems super sketchy and I am not a free shipment company. Can eBay get involved with this at all?

Thanks

[cutie.loves.beauty]

Im not one of the top experts on here but Ive dealt with a few sketchies. With out seeing the finer detail of your conversation, based on my experiences, I noted its usually best to follow my initial gut feeling. How ever, based on limited info I have, if it was me, as long as the buyer has some positive feedbacks I would probably go ahead and ship. If you are concerned about negative feedbacks I would contact a cs rep via web chat and note the situation. That puts it on record and when I did this before they promised to remove any petty negs left by the buyer. I make a point to be extra polite and friendly toward fussy buyers and I find it can often diffuse conflicts to a point where things become a slight bit more amicable☺

[reallynicestamps · Accepted solution]

Should I just refund and risk the negative feedback?

This is a buyer demanding stuff (goods or services) not included in the original transaction.

EBay does not allow that.

Any feedback could be Reported and removed.

I'd cancel the transaction as Buyer Request, since he is not accepting the original transaction, and move on.

"I regret you are not happy with the transaction as originally agreed. Since you want more than that transaction, I will cancel it and you will get a full refund."

Then Block him.

You will still get Messages from him for 30 days after your last Message to him, so ignore them. But file, don't delete them.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

This is a very common scam. Usually it is with gift cards. The gist of it is that they will dispute the payment after the gift cards or items are received.

They may also ask you to ship the item to a different address than the one on the invoice "This is a gift can you include extra stuff and send it to a different address, I want to surprise a friend/cousin/fellow scammer, etc". If you send it to a different address, they won't even have to go through the banks, eBay will refund them automatically when they open a case since your are obligated to send to the address they provide at checkout to qualify for seller protection.

Contact eBay's customer service to report the buyer, and ask them to walk you through cancelling the transaction. Then add the buyer to your blocked list and move on. Don't waste your time. 

[mrdutch1001]

Never agree to any"demands" after the fact, and  if the items are not something you already have listed on eBay, then those "demands" are against eBay's terms of use....Best to cancel the transaction, refund, report the buyer and block the buyer...

[ricarmic]

Personally, it looks like the buyer selected the "ok you won't ship me the other stuff but I still want the original one", but I may be misreading.

I've encountered buyers who've enquired about similar things because not many people ship to their countries. They've been honest folks, just trying to find someone to help them.

I just simply repeat that all I can do is ship my own stuff I can't do anything else (sometimes it takes a repetition or two) and they take the original item with no problems afterward.

This situation may be different but I'm simply making the point that not always is this going to be a criminal mastermind type of situation....

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

People are usually too quick to assume a buyer is scamming them when someone goes wrong, with that said it is very similar to one of the most common eBay scams. Especially with how many possible issues can arise with international shipping, I think in a situation like this it's always better to go on the safe side and cancel the order.

The OP seems worried about negative feedback (and I assume OOS defects). If they contact eBay prior to cancelling and explain why they feel uncomfortable with the transaction, it is likely that the CSR will agree to let them cancel and put a note on the order. The buyer is asking for stuff not in the transaction. 

[reallynicestamps]

@ricarmic  You work in a very "safe" category because philately has been a handshake business for years.  And small enough that word gets around.

Gaming? Not so much.

Even beyond the high saleability of the games and machines, gamers gonna game. It's a challenge to see what they got away with.

[marnotom!]

@mark_sh2 did say in their post that the buyer was interested in some books, though, not additional gaming goods.

Having said that, the logistics of trying to pull this off safely feel daunting to me. How patient is this buyer going to be while waiting for the books to reach the OP? How is the OP going to get paid? Will the buyer flip out and try for a reversal of the payment for the gaming stuff if they’ve already made one?

I’m all for supporting a fellow human in need, but if the buyer is being as insistent about this as the OP is suggesting, they’re not someone I’d want to deal with.

[38e_avenue]

I had a very similar case. It depends, who is the buyer - mine had 2k positive feedback and kindly asked for help. I shipped what he wanted - he paid for the additional item, additional shipping costs and added a 50 dol. bonus for my help. We do not have enough details to tell you, your case is a scam, or not.   

[flipistics]

I think the only way I would ever consider doing that would be to put up an additional listing for the person with the items they wanted included (marked up by the eBay fee amount). That would at least help to protect you from a scammer.