eBay

coin.ages · ‎04-07-2018

I'm wondering how to best address this situation...

A buyer just opened a case against me claiming that the coin he received is not the same as the one he purchased. After asking for a picture of the coin in question, the one he supposedly got, he showed a common Canadian 5 cent which, evidently, is not what was purchased and sent to him (a 250 USD antique coin...).

That guy has been bugging me for weeks with low offers, at least 10, before finally buying the coin at full price (I know I should have reacted then and cancel the sale ). And it's the second time that he buys from me, second time he ask for a return (last one was because he "found" a cheaper one, but he accepted to keep the coin after I offered a partial refund).

Anyone went through this sort of fraud ? What would be the best way to deal with this ?

fatdane · ‎04-07-2018

I would budget for the coin to be returned and to have to pay out a refund. Ebay seems to side with buyers.

If that happens, however, report things to the Canadian Anti Fraud Centre at http://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/reportincident-signalerincident/index-eng.htm if it is a Canadian buyer or if a US buyer, https://www.usa.gov/stop-scams-frauds . While the agencies that end up getting the report may not do anything for an individual but if someone is being reported by multiple people they can start chasing someone. If your buyer is playing games with you he is probably playing games with other vendors.

In the pre internet days in the stamp business we could subscribe to lists of delinquent or non paying buyers, and there were a lot of them. Today the scam artist have the internet to speed up the process of attempting to get free merchandise, and so far there is no public online registry that I know of that lists the names of the scammers.

dutchman48 · ‎04-07-2018

@coin.ages wrote:
I'm wondering how to best address this situation...

A buyer just opened a case against me claiming that the coin he received is not the same as the one he purchased. After asking for a picture of the coin in question, the one he supposedly got, he showed a common Canadian 5 cent which, evidently, is not what was purchased and sent to him (a 250 USD antique coin...).

That guy has been bugging me for weeks with low offers, at least 10, before finally buying the coin at full price (I know I should have reacted then and cancel the sale ). And it's the second time that he buys from me, second time he ask for a return (last one was because he "found" a cheaper one, but he accepted to keep the coin after I offered a partial refund).

Anyone went through this sort of fraud ? What would be the best way to deal with this ?

Hind sight is wonderful but you should have blocked him before he had the chance to scam you.

Now he will get the item free and you will be out the money.

coin.ages · ‎04-07-2018

I know what I should have done and I know how this will likely end, what I'm wondering is what would be the best thing to do at this point...

As suggested by @fatdane, I will report this to the proper authorities (without much expectations)...

I'm also thinking of reporting the buyer to ebay for "misused returns" (?). Don't know if this would help in any way, since it's the second time he's using the return policy to defraud me (and he surely must be playing this game with others) ?

dutchman48 · ‎04-07-2018

@coin.ages wrote:
I know what I should have done and I know how this will likely end, what I'm wondering is what would be the best thing to do at this point...

As suggested by @fatdane, I will report this to the proper authorities (without much expectations)...

I'm also thinking of reporting the buyer to ebay for "misused returns" (?). Don't know if this would help in any way, since it's the second time he's using the return policy to defraud me (and he surely must be playing this game with others) ?

Block the buyer if you have not done so.

Report to Ebay for misuse of money back guarantee. If he has defrauded you before, I would call Trust and Safety to see what they say about a repeat offender.

What province is your purchaser in?

What is their feedback like and any indications of these type of problems

esclyons · ‎04-07-2018

i would accept the return, and once he returns the item and it is not the one you sold him, then you can deny the refund . you are able to check the returned item before you issue the refund, if he in fact returns a different coin, then you need to call ebay and explain the situation.

momcqueen · ‎04-07-2018

Report the buyer and call Customer Service to do so. Also, I would raise this with tyler at the Weekly Chat. And also probably call police, and Canada Post, mentioning both to the buyer to ask least make them less confident they will pull this off without a hitch.