Theft or fraud?

[theclassof1984]

I sold an item that I make to a guy in Australia in the summer when I was using surface mail. That of course takes longer to deliver than the time limit to claim a non-delivery, so it went sour and the guy wanted a refund. I gave it to him before he opened a claim. He is now selling the very item I sold him right on Ebay that he got from me for free. Yes I learned my lesson with the surface mail thing. 

Question is, what can I do? Can Ebay do anything? It isn't like I have a unique serial number on the item but I do recognize the item as definitely mine.

[nuvistors]

It is possible that the item was delivered much later.

It is also possible that the item he has for sale had nothing to do with you.

[theclassof1984]

Obviously to the first statement and no to the second! It is mine or I wouldn't have bothered wasting my time with all the typing.

[mr.elmwood]

I do not get emotionally involved. Sure, I get beat every now and then. I am not going to worry about it.

[theclassof1984]

Understood. Normally I shrug it off, but this guy got a refund, promised if it ever arrived he would give it back, and then sells it boldly on Ebay. That is sticking in my craw!

Is there recourse? Legal, or with PP/Ebay? or do I just drink heavily tonight and get over it?

[pocomocomputing]

LOL, Buy it and claim INR ...

[brandeentertainment]

You must have a friend that would like to buy the item 😉

[konamicode]

Buy it back through a proxy account / friend and claim you never got it. You'll get your money and item back.

Just make sure he doesn't track it of course.

Best way man. 😄

[femmefan1946]

Boy, what a sneaky bunch we have posting today. Can't say I disagree though.

[ricarmic]

Well unfortunately from eBay's perspective how do they know that you aren't lying? Much as all of us posters here are super honest folks, there are lots of not so honest sellers out there and there's no way for them to know that you aren't lying, it would be a he said she said kind of thing....

I had a similar situation, my buyer bounced his payment in a way that they got the stamps for free, and went about trying to resell the stuff he got for free. I watched him to see what he did....they started by sort of changing the packaging so it wasn't obviously mine but later on he didn't even bother to do that. Interestingly it didn't take him long to get suspended, because he was getting negs from buyers (this was under a different ID than the one he purchased the item from - I followed 4 different IDs for the same person)! It is pretty bad when you can't run a business when you got your inventory for free! Much as I considered talking to eBay (and even the police, this was a fellow Ontarian that did this to me) I realized that whilst I knew 100% for sure that they were my stamps that he stole from me, how could I 100% beyond all reasonable doubt prove to someone else that that was the case.....so as with all the other business irritations that we experience I shrugged it off.... still am irritated about it though, that was a $700 loss......

Anyway, hang in there think of the other 99% great buyers you've experienced.....

[tobyshitzu]

I caught someone in Canada doing that to me.  Claimed not received and got refund.  I contacted other sellers in their fb and found out their items "not received" too.  They'd very nicely ask about the item not arriving, then escalate threats if the refund didn't come.  I noticed in the buyer feedback there was a large number of feedback exchanged with another id, both buying and selling. That other id was selling the "not received" items on ebay, though registered in a different province

So I confronted the buyer with that and they left me a neg and low dsrs.  Then I told the buyer I was taking the info I had to the police and canada post unless they paid me back and removed the feedback.   They then claimed the item had been misdelivered and they just received it, and decided to pay me back and revise the feedback. 

Of course reported this to ebay including the shilled feedback and false location of one id.  ebay removed SOME of the shilled feedback, the province of the one id changed (though was changed back later) and their listings were ended (but back selling a month later).   They still buy or sell on ebay focassionally though not as much.  Of course no way to know if they have more ids. 

If they hadn't shilled their feedback they'd probably still be ripping off sellers..  With how little ebay did I  would have been better off not to report them so  the evidence of the shilled feedback I found would be as easy for someone else to.

[ricarmic]

I should add that I can't imagine eBay or the police would be able to do much this person has had at least 4 ids, all with different names and addresses (apartments in the same city) and apparently bank accounts so who knows who the real person is! They have one wee thing they do that allows one to connect them together, given this is a public board I won't mention it because I've used it to thwart them the 2nd and 3rd time they tried to burn me again under different ids....my point is that eBay tries to make it easy for new buyers to sign up and start buying stuff, but making it easy also makes it easy for bad people to do it too....part of the price we pay.....another note is that this isn't just an eBay problem, I've experienced the same thing on other non-ebay sites I sell on as well.....not as big though that one has set the record so far....

[theclassof1984]

That is incredible! Only a true fraudster would ever think of doing that. People really can suck some times.

[theclassof1984]

Follow up - this guy paid me back after I sent him a paypal invoice daily for a few weeks. He even admitted clearly to defrauding me and copying my item to sell on Ebay and Ebay still allows him to function here.