Suspicious Email, buyer requesting refund

[saspat-82]

So I sold 3 items back in August 2020 to someone in Australia. I sent the items small packet air no tracking to australia to save on money which the buyer was fine about. 4 months later, the buyer messages me requesting a refund and says they haven't received their item. I tell them there's nothing I can do because it was more than 30 days past expected delivery, she gets increasingly upset and says she has already been told by ebay that they will contact me for the refund and she will get my account restricted. I remember that a week ago i got an email claiming to be from ebay, it contained links to the item numbers and also was available through ebay messages so it looked real but there's typos in it and it's formatted not like ebay with no background image or logo, just text here it is:

"Your help is Needed 

Hi Saskia,

Good day!

We received a communication from your buyer complaint that she didn't receive the orders below. With that, we encourage you to communicate with the buyer toi verify if there's something that you can help to sort the matter out.

313176992713

313182810308

313176991738

eBay"

Is this really from ebay? Why hasn't ebay opened a claim and stepped in like they usually do? Do buyers have longer time to file claims in australia? Any help appreciated, right now I'm not refunding. 

[zee-chan]

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@saspat-82 wrote:

I sent the items small packet air no tracking to australia

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Because there is no tracking, you can't prove delivery, so the buyer will win the item not received claim, and you will then have the funds withdrawn from your account AND a defect. I personally have never received such message from eBay myself, but that's because I will refund instead of dragging it out. It sounds legit to me though as item numbers were included. 

I suggest that you refund so that at least you won't get a defect, and stop shipping to Australia. I recently sent an Xpresspost parcel to Australia that took 3 WEEKS so I'm not taking my chances with small packet air there now. 

[recped]

Yes probably really from eBay, because it is past the deadline for the buyer to open a claim that doesn't stop them from contacting eBay who will then contact you and suggest you work it out.

Keep in mind this buyer still has more than a month to open a PayPal claim, if you have no proof of delivery  you will lose that claim.

I tell them there's nothing I can do

I'm sure that endeared you to the buyer...........

Shipping times to Australia have been incredibly slow since March, packages vanishing is not unheard of. I have lost one and the others took 6 - 9 weeks.

[retroman_studios]

Does the sender on My Messages indicate it's eBay? You can usually click on the sender name and it will give you some details.

I think at this point eBay *may* be doing a courtesy contact, nothing they can do but they are helping the buyer.

It's really up to you what to do.

[lady.stark]

I do agree that the typos make the message look fishy... I doubt eBay will really contact you on this.

That being said, if the buyer opens a claim on PayPal, you will likely have to refund. Hopefully, you did insure with a third party...

[saspat-82]

Okay thanks, I read the terms of service conditions so I believed this was all I could do I wasn't trying to be rude... She's threatening to get my account restricted and was asking for an item of the same value sent for free from me so I politely told her there was nothing I could do until ebay steps in and gives me the go ahead. It seemed scammy to me so I posted here, I no longer ship to australia and I always do tracked items now. 

[saspat-82]

I don't think she realizes she can try a paypal claim, and I believe with paypal the seller has to receive the item back first right? And yeah the typos threw me off and the grammar doesn't even make sense, I'm pretty sure an ebay rep would have an automatic reply and just fill in the necessary info for each email instead of write it out by hand. 

[saspat-82]

what is a defect? Like something written on my account?

[femmefan1946 · Accepted solution]

She's threatening to get my account restricted and was asking for an item of the same value sent for free from me

Okay.

Telling her 'there's nothing I can do' was not the best PR move, but her threats sound sketchey as fudge.

And I have my doubts about that message. EBay would contact you through eBay Messages, I believe.

The deadline for eBay Disputes is 30 days from estimated last day for delivery.

Has that date passed?

In any case, tell her to open a Dispute. Scammers don't want to be on eBay's radar.

If she can open the Dispute, not tracking means you will be refunding promptly and you should.

A Defect can mean loss of TRS and higher fees, restrictions on the number and value of your listings, or even if you got several Defects, a closed selling account.

[femmefan1946]

She has 180 days from payment for a Paypal claim.

And if she backs her PP with a credit card, or if she used a card directly, she also may have access to the card's chargeback policy.

In both cases, the best defense is the tracking number, which you don't have, and a prompt refund.

That email and her threat to have you restricted would not encourage me to mention PP or the card as possibilities.

You should be ready however.

Australia has high import fees and sales tax. Your shipment may be waiting for her to pay those fees and pick up.

It's been my observation that doll ladies are nearly as belligerent as sneakerheads.

[recped]

Australia has high import fees and sales tax. Your shipment may be waiting for her to pay those fees and pick up.

Not really, the GST rate in Australia is 10%, 3 points lower than here in Ontario. On imports the first $1000 is NOT charged GST. Also shipments below AU$1000 are exempt from duty.

Since at least early in 2020 Australia has implemented a Marketplace Facilitator law and any sales in the last year had GST applied by eBay in the same way as they do for most US States, Norway, New Zealand and as of two days ago the UK so unless the sale was worth more than AU$1000 there would be nothing due on delivery.

To me this whole situation with the OP is a case of a very patient buyer who decided not to wait any longer and then found out that their delay made it possible for the OP  to say "too bad, so sad" (at least up until a PayPal or Credit Card claim is initiated. They will learn and next time their INR claim will come much faster.

[femmefan1946]

Thank you for the correction. I've seen several mutterings about the Aussie GST but never really looked at them since Australia is not a common destination for my stuff.

The scam I mention I have heard of fairly often, usually from Germany.

[zee-chan]

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@recped wrote:

To me this whole situation with the OP is a case of a very patient buyer who decided not to wait any longer and then found out that their delay made it possible for the OP  to say "too bad, so sad" (at least up until a PayPal or Credit Card claim is initiated. They will learn and next time their INR claim will come much faster.

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Yes, it's unfortunate for the buyer. My international sales definitely suffered during covid. Only US sales have been arriving reliably... at least that's the case for me.

More about defect for the OP:

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-policies/seller-performance-policy?id=4347#section2

[pjcdn2005]

The item was purchased in August so the MBG has expired which means even if the buyer opened a claim, they could not ask ebay to step in.  However if the buyer used PP and opened an item not received claim there, they could get a defect IF PP was asked to step in before the seller refunded. 

[ricarmic]

I'm not 100% sure but I think the bots would let it go if the buyer had sent an ebay message before the PAYPAL refund happened.

I believe this because by accident I FULLY refunded a fellow from PAYPAL that should have been a partial refund after they sent me an ebay message (I was fixing something that was overcharged and did it through PAYPAL).

I did not get a defect for that.

Presumably if the buyer messaged and then requested a full paypal refund, if the full refund was subsequently given, there wouldn't be a defect.

[pjcdn2005]

I was  referring to an unresolved claim defect, not an OOS defect.   If the buyer escalated the PP case, the seller could get an unresolved defect.

[saspat-82]

Yes she reached the deadline already which is why I told her I couldn’t do anything, she doesn’t realize she can go through PayPal and pretty much gave up after I told her I wouldn’t send her another item. I also said I wouldn’t send a refund until eBay told me to, since I didn’t get anything concrete from them, I decided not to refund as I assume she received the item and lied about not receiving it (I haven’t received it back still). I’m fairly certain she’s a scammer just betting on me feeling bad and refunding, no longer shipping worldwide and always using tracking now! Thanks for all the help

[saspat-82]

She ordered in august and contacted me abt a refund in December, I was keeping in contact with her the whole time until estimated delivery then she went quiet for months until contacting me again. I have no problem refunding if I’m given reason to do so but I already had trouble with this buyer in the beginning, she kept stating the price of the items in AUD instead of CAD so when I gave her the price she was upset and demanded her AUD price in CAD (making the items even cheaper). I got her a good discount, mailed out the bratz and kept in contact with her until she stopped replying, waited months to complain about them not arriving then threatened to get my account restricted. Now I haven’t heard anything from her, she doesn’t really want the refund because she hasn’t gone through PayPal. Now the 180 days have passed and she isn’t entitled to any refund. I believe she got her dolls but is lying about it to get her money back and am glad I didn’t refund.

[saspat-82]

She has received the item and lied about it, hasn’t gone through PayPal to get her refund or opened a case when it was late. She’s left me alone now and I won’t be shipping to Australia again, always with tracked within North America. I was new to selling, not trying to scam anyone.

[Anonymous]

@saspat-82
RE:

She ordered in august and contacted me about a refund in December, I was keeping in contact with her the whole time until estimated delivery then she went quiet for months until contacting me again.


Thats a good buyer thats used to long delays IMHO .. ive had parcels take 4 months to get to rural areas in Australia ..

Normally any person that abuses the INR will know about Chargebacks and the time aloughtment for deliverys ..

The best experiences I've had were from Australian buyers.

I shipped a teacup by land to help with costs and got an INR .I think about 3 month's after that I received a letter stating I received the item and how can I pay.

Didn't help with my defect but it certainly made me feel good about people and taught me never to ship without tracking international.