Sketchy buyer filing a dispute. Help

[rosepeak]

A few days ago, a customer who purchased a book from me THREE MONTHS AGO filed a dispute with her payment institution, requesting her payment back, and the reason indicated for this dispute is that "the buyer did not recognize the transaction". Not that she didn't receive the book, but that she doesn't recognize the transaction. This customer never contacte me at all, so I tried to contact her to ask her what the problem is, did she not receive the book? But no response whatsoever. I looked at her Ebay profile and it's completely new with no feedback, it looks like she signed up just to make the order from me. It seems really unfair that Ebay is demanding me to refund her payment just because she doesn't recognize the transaction, which isn't my fault, as I had dutifully fulfilled her order three months ago when she (or someone using her account) made it. What should I do?

[marnotom!]

You are protected against this sort of claim as long as you are able to supply the tracking information requested by eBay that shows delivery to the buyer’s location as provided in the transaction details.

If you shipped without tracking you are, unfortunately, out of luck.

The type of claim you're looking at is a credit card chargeback (or dispute) where the cardholder is disputing an unauthorized charge to their credit card.  Somebody other than your buyer may be disputing this charge.  There have also been reports from other sellers dealing with chargebacks like this that their sale has been caught up in a "net" of chargebacks.  The buyer filed a chargeback for a transaction made around the same time, but the eBay sale got flagged by the card issuer as well.

[rosepeak]

The buyer chose economy shipping for her order, so it was shipped without a tracking number.

If the reason for her chargeback is that she didn't receive the item, then I'd agree that requiring proof of delivery makes sense, but she wouldn't even respond to my message confirming that this is indeed the case. Rather, the reason given is that she didn't recognize the transaction, which seems to point to the fact that someone else may have used her credit card to make the purchase, so the seller shouldn't be held responsible.

[marnotom!]

eBay and the credit card issuer involved with the chargeback require evidence that you shipped the item to the same address as the one in the transaction details page. Online viewable proof of delivery is pretty much the only way to provide this evidence for an eBay sale.

Since you can’t provide this evidence, it’s in your best interests to cooperate and issue the refund yourself as you’ll be charged a $20 chargeback resolution fee if eBay has to wade further into this case.

Sorry this happened to you. Chargebacks like this are one of the risks online sellers face when accepting credit card sales without having the card present at the time of purchase. The good(ish) news is that they’re rare and from what I can see doesn’t appear to be for one of your higher-ticket sales.

[recped]

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@marnotom! wrote:

Since you can’t provide this evidence, it’s in your best interests to cooperate and issue the refund yourself as you’ll be charged a $20 chargeback resolution fee if eBay has to wade further into this case.

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It's a credit card chargeback so the $20 fee will be automatic, without tracking there is no way to win this so to minimize the damage refund before eBay does or there will be an additional mega-defect (unresolved by seller).

[rosepeak]

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It's a credit card chargeback so the $20 fee will be automatic

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How does Ebay allow this sort of thing to happen to hardworking, honest sellers? The customer didn't even bother to contact me, if she did I would've gladly resolved things to her satisfaction. Filing a chargeback should be used as a last resort, not the first response.

[pjcdn2005]

The $20 fee is charged Only if you dispute the charge and lose. For example if you have tracking and can show that the item was delivered you could contest the dispute and you would be covered by ebays seller protection.  If you don't have tracking and don't refund the buyer on your own, you would lose,  end up refunding anyway and pay a $20 fee.

https://www.ebay.ca/help/policies/payment-dispute-seller-protections/payment-dispute-seller-protecti...
When a buyer opens a payment dispute because they didn't receive the item or they don't recognize the transaction, sellers will be asked to provide:

• Evidence of successful delivery to the address provided by the buyer at checkout, or
• Proof that the buyer collected the item

If eBay determines that the item was successfully delivered or picked up:

• We will not seek reimbursement from the seller for the disputed amount, even if the payment institution decides that the buyer is owed a refund; and
• We will waive or refund the seller's dispute fee

[recped]

In the OP's situation eBay will NOT determine that the item was successfully delivered and thus will NOT refund the dispute fee.

I could be wrong and hope the OP can come back and tell me what the end result is.

[marnotom!]

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@recped wrote:

In the OP's situation eBay will NOT determine that the item was successfully delivered and thus will NOT refund the dispute fee.

I could be wrong and hope the OP can come back and tell me what the end result is.

But surely if the seller voluntarily refunds, eBay has no need to determine the item’s delivery status, thus the dispute fee wouldn’t apply?

[femmefan1946]

@rosepeak 

The buyer chose economy shipping for her order, so it was shipped without a tracking number.

And it was your choice to offer tracked or untracked shipping.

When we go commando on tracking, we are taking the chance that we will face a Not Delivered claim (often really a delayed delivery and neither loss nor scam).

If this really upsets you, in future do not offer untracked services. You may find that the number of your sales drops. Would that upset you more than the occasional claim?

Remember the buyer is not likely lying. They may not remember the book. The book may not have been delivered. They may be scamming, although on a cheap book , why bother?

And if the purchase is high value (whatever that means to you $25? $50? $100?) you are still allowed to upgrade shipping to a tracked service.

I have a Free Shipping * sale going out tomorrow by Tracked Packet, because the value of the item is too high for my comfort even though this is a repeat customer. Normally I use untracked LetterPost for fast, secure shipping and accept the occasional claim. More than once the untracked item has returned to  me for an error in the address.

It's business, not personal.

*Free Shipping isn't free, it is a marketing term meaning shipping is not a line item, but is included in the asking price.

[pjcdn2005]

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@marnotom! wrote:

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@recped wrote:

In the OP's situation eBay will NOT determine that the item was successfully delivered and thus will NOT refund the dispute fee.

I could be wrong and hope the OP can come back and tell me what the end result is.

But surely if the seller voluntarily refunds, eBay has no need to determine the item’s delivery status, thus the dispute fee wouldn’t apply?

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Correct.  I should have posted the following which is from the same page link that I gave earlier.

When a buyer files a payment dispute, the seller will be charged a dispute fee if they challenge or don't respond to the dispute, and they are found responsible for the disputed amount. If the dispute is eligible for payment dispute seller protections, the seller won't be charged a dispute fee.

The seller has the option of accepting the dispute and refunding or of challenging the dispute.  To me the above says that the seller will not be charged the fee if they accept the dispute or if they challenge but are eligible for seller protection.   That's how PP handled disputes and I have always understand that eBay handles it the same way.

[ricarmic]

I think it is important to know that the description is the bank's/credit card's description of the reason, not necesarily the buyers.

I have had a buyer that took ONE invalid transaction to the credit card company and the credit card zapped ALL the transactions the buyer had, tagging all of them as unauthorized transactions.

By the time I talked with the buyer (I was still able to get their phone number) they were exasperated by all the problems they were having with all the valid transaction sellers/companies coming to them about the chargeback when they only had one they believed to be the problem.

I'm not siding with the buyer, they could in fact be the problem, but generally a scammer isn't going to wait months to charge back something "small". In my experience there is something else afoot that your transaction got caught up in.

Unfortunately if you can't get a response from the buyer for an untracked item, you're out of luck, it is best just to treat this like an INR, take $$$ from your (hopeful) cookie jar resolve it quickly to avoid the nasty defects (or mega-defect @recped  I like that term 😀) and move on.

These are frustrating for us all, the secret is to not take them personal, which is very very hard to do, and plan for things like these, and INRs to happen from time to time to be covered by the cookie jar insurance plan so to speak.

[intimewithmusic]

Hello @femmefan1946 

  Personally I think your reply to this should be pinned to the top for an entire year. Some may disagree however, with shipping costs on the rise more and more sellers particularly newer ones who have not yet crafted a strategy  to include tracking on all items are likely to experience losses like this.

  With respect to the above  suggestion for "cookie jar insurance" that never worked for me. I'm the type to eat all the cookies in the box and all the potato chips in the bag the 1st day.  No will power...

 I would like to see Canada Post and  Canadian courier services become more creative with shipping methods that include tracking.  Possibly through the system of partnering up.

    The rise in online shopping has increased so much large entities like Amazon and Walmart are close to holding a monopoly on the sale of less expensive shipped goods by excluding regular couriers. USA, China and Australia have governments that offset international shipping costs. 

   Canada may not have their subsidy abilities. That being said  if tracking is required to avoid seller losses and to properly identify the contents in an international order, services with tracking should be more competitive. Possibly better technologies?

  Canadian governments go to great lengths to prevent monopolization when it comes to internet services, social medias, insurance services and cell phone mobility amalgamations. 

   Canadian tracked shipping costs need to evolve into a more even playing field for Canadian sellers.  I hate to say it but Amazon nearly has a monopoly on the sale of "everyday items".  They did it by doing what other countries do, by subsizing their own tracked shipping methods, using good technolgy and partnering with couriers. 

  IT

[flipistics]

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@intimewithmusic wrote:

 Canadian tracked shipping costs need to evolve into a more even playing field for Canadian sellers.  I hate to say it but Amazon nearly has a monopoly on the sale of "everyday items".  They did it by doing what other countries do, by subsizing their own tracked shipping methods, using good technolgy and partnering with couriers. 

  IT

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Yeah, this was a great post.  It's 2022 (almost 2023 now). Surely we're at a place where every single piece of mail could be cheaply and automatically tracked?  I just wanted to point out though that you CAN actually use Amazon to ship out orders through their FBA multi-channel fulfillment. I haven't tried it yet (I plan to eventually), but basically they charge you a fee to pick, pack, and ship the item to whoever you want using their delivery network. You apparently don't have to sell the item on Amazon (the fees are a little less if you do though), and the packaging isn't Amazon branded. I have no idea if ebay accepts the tracking numbers or not, and of course the item has to be short-tail because you don't want anything to do with Amazon's "fines" for items that sit in their warehouse. The shipping costs for small, light items appear to be about $5 or $6 though compared to maybe $15 to $20 through Canada Post.

Is there anyone with experience using FBA Multi-Channel Fulfillment? If so, what are your thoughts?