What the hell?! Scammed 3 times in a row while trying to sell something!!

[france_thibodeau]

I've been trying to sell a Google Play Code (US Only) that I accidentally bought and now, three times in a row, I've had 0 feedback people hit 'buy it now' and never pay.

Is there ANY way to protect myself against this?! I just want to sell this damned code. How many times must I be lied to?

I've done everything in the Ebay Seller Help & Info section, I've checked various sites, I just don't know what to do anymore!

Help?

[femmefan1946]

Are you using Auction with Buy it Now?

Don't.

Change the listing to Fixed Price and add Immediate Payment Required.

The listing will remain active until someone actually pays.

You can't block 0 FB buyers, but you can go to Seller Preferences /Buyer Requirements and put an automatic Block on bidders with Strikes for non-payment.

And those three deadbeats?  Open an Unpaid Item Dispute on each of them as soon as 96 hours has passed from their bogus purchase. After 96 more hours (yeah, sorry) you can close the Dispute and get your selling fees back.

The deadbeats get a Strike, which will make it more difficult to bid on eBay in future. You will be protecting the whole community.

Also add those three deadbeats to your personal Blocked Bidder List. If they are all the same person (it happens) that should Block any new ID they come up with in a renewed attempt to scam.

A deadbeat is not necessarily a scammer, but he is a jerk.

Worse. There are very few protections for digital products sold online. The basic problem seems to be that delivery cannot be proven.
Perhaps another seller will have advice about that.

Best wishes for a successful sale.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

Well... I looked at your listing, you're trying to sell a $100 USD code for $135 CAD. No offense but I don't think anyone would be "stupid" enough to buy it. It's not a deal, why would anyone go through the trouble to buy it off a 3rd party seller on eBay when they could buy it from Google itself for literally the same price?

You might have paid $140 CAD for it due to exchange rate, but when a US buyer buys it, they would have to pay an exchange rate on top to buy it. In other words, it costs a US buyer more than $100 USD to buy the code from you. I don't think any "real" buyer with a proper mind will buy it off you. You haven't been scammed yet since you've only had 3 deadbeats (or it could be a legit buyer but after they hit buy, they realized it's not worth it), but at your price point only a scammer will buy it and then you'll truly be out the value of the code when it happens. As femme said, you can't prove digital delivery to eBay, so you'll likely lose any dispute opened against you from a real scammer.

Did you cancel those 3 sales properly to get a final value fee refund from eBay?

You're also going to pay ~15% fee to eBay and PayPal when you do successfully sell it. So if you're not willing to mark your price lower to attract real buyers looking for a deal, then it's probably not worthwhile to sell it. You can spend Google play code on a lot of things... In game currency, books, music, movies etc. How exactly did you "accidentally" buy a $100 USD code anyway?

[france_thibodeau]

Hi

Thanks for your advice. But I've checked the Seller Dashboard everywhere, and the listing editing page, and can't find the "Fixed Price" section. Is this something only available on the Ebay.com site? I'm Canadian, so I'm using Ebay.ca

I've done that, the 96hours hold and the reporting. I've also added them to my blocked list.

I just... don't know what to do anymore.

[france_thibodeau]

Hi.

I've lowered the price to make it a better deal.

As I'm on Ebay.ca I can only list items in Canadian Dollars. Thus, the Canadian price. I can't change that.

Yes, I've cancelled the listings properly and gotten the fees back.

I 'accidentally' bought a US code online because the seller sent me a US code instead of a Canadian one (not on Ebay) and they refused to exchange it for a CAD one because I had a copy of the US code and thus could have used both.

The way you're making it sound, it's better for me to not sell it and just cut my losses. I can't use a US code, but I guess I'm just out $140 dollars.

[femmefan1946]

You got defaulted into the garbage Simplified Sell Your Item form.

You can change to the more useful Advanced/Business form via a link at the top right of the overSimplified form.

But on the form under Selling Details > Format  there is a dropdown menu. That's where you change to Fixed Price.

Do NOT choose Best Offer, at least not yet. It does not allow you to opt for Immediate Payment Required.

[pjcdn2005]

We can list on either site. I would list it on .com in $US as some US buyers may not look at a listing in Canadian dollars and the 'value' and price would be easier to compare for some.   If you did that  you would have to pay the exchange fees when you transferred the money to your Canadian bank account. Or, you could keep it in your account and buy items that are listed in $US.

[france_thibodeau]

It doesn't seen to matter. Ebay's policies won't let me sell. So I'm stuck with a Gift Card Code that I can't use.

Oh well.

Thanks for all your help.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

Go to the address bar and type in my.ebay.COM so that you can sell on the US site in US currency. It might prompt you to login again, so just use the same username and password. Then go from there and make a new listing to sell in USD.

It makes sense that you can't get a code refunded because like you said, you already knew what the code is, and there is no way for the shop to know that you wouldn't turn around to redeem the US code after you "exchanged" for a CAD code. Unfortunately you'll have to treat this as an expensive lesson learned; pay attention to the currency you're buying when it comes to digital wallet.

Do you have any US friends you can sell this to at a discount or give it away to? If you're still trying to sell on eBay, expect to only get less than 70% of the gift card's value (15% to eBay & PayPal fee, perhaps a 15% discount on the gift card to actually get someone interested in buying it), and also to run the risk of a scammer. Gift cards are high risk category, and it seems you're an inexperienced seller so it makes you a potential target for scammers. It's up to you to decide if it's worth the risk and the work over $70 USD.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

Did you buy the gift card for in-game currency or for something else? Have you googled things like "how to make a Google play account in another country" or "how to use a usd Google play gift card in another country"? I don't have personal experience in this, you'll have to do your own research to see if anything works for you so that you're not fully out $100 USD on your own purchase error.