eBay scammer - IIIF

If you're going to sell on Ebay you need to accept a certain amount of risk and then minimize it when you can. I sell 10-12 items per week and ship worldwide. I've had two items 'lost' that led to refunds being given. Both of those items were returned to me after several months as they really has been lost. I've had buyers who wanted price adjustments and not a single one who wanted it bad enough to return the item. I've had Ebay take my side on one negative feedback that was left when I wouldn't adjust a price but did offer the return. Fortunately this was documented through Ebay messaging. If I get questions from a buyer that lead me to believe that I will have a problem if they buy the item I block them from purchasing.
My experience with Ebay is that they make a reasonable effort to be fair to both buyer and seller. I've needed to return two items that I bought that were not as described and Ebay was helpful but not unfair to the seller in the way they required me to return the items.
 
Huss said:
I've been taken twice by buying cameras off this site, so I would not claim it is any better than ebay.
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I'd trust this site any day over ebay but with that said I'm skeptical of sellers here who have 0 post or 1 post. They may be OK but I'd only buy from a member who is a regular.
 
I'm with Fred
In the early eBay days people were happy to get an item they would never find in several years of camera shows .
It seems the expectations are very high now .
Don't get me wrong I purchased some clunkers on eBay from sellers that insisted they would write nuclear feedback if I didn't accept .
Something had to.change
Now it's biased the other direction with , it's a buyers market
And eBay and pay pals attitude 'just relist it '
The fees have gotten high at 10% on the auction price and shipping
And PayPal weighs in at 2.9-3.9 %
There are less problems only selling to your home country as when you have to eat the shipping it's far less
 
enasniearth said:
I'm with Fred
In the early eBay days people were happy to get an item they would never find in several years of camera shows .
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There was a time when there were many local camera shows, in NYC, Chicago, etc. I would just save my stuff up, and rent a table at a show, more often share a table with friends from collecting societies.

Buyers looked at my cameras, they gave me cash if they wanted the camera. It was a really simple system. Some states required you have a sales tax number, but that was a minor distraction.

eBay remains problematic for me, but it has redefined "rare." Few things it appears are rare.
 
Ebay will take your side if you explain them. I had the same problem with a lens I sold on ebay. The seller presented a damaged one asking for a refund. I have provided ebay a photo from the sale showing the serial of the lens on the front and explained them that the one the buyer showed was another one since the serial was different.
Both that buyer and my sale had disappeared from ebay.
 
He Probably doesn't want to open a claim because he may have a record of doing these swap-and-threaten tactics in the past. Ebay flags accounts for further investigation for too many claims opened especially on high risk items.

I would say unless he opens a claim, don't bother with it. And if you have detailed pictures in the auction including the serial number and does not match what he received then they may find in your favor.

important note *all* communications should stay in ebay. That way if they say anything out of the ordinary it'll be enough rope for them to hang themselves with.
 
Recently had a problem with a Chinese buyer. But I blame it more on ebay than them. Item was sold through ebay's global shipping program, but my printer ate the shipping label. Guess what? You have to cancel the label and wait for USPS approval and refund on the label before you can print another one. Additionally, for some reason, the original tracking number stays stuck to the auction, even though the new label will have a different number.

Buyer starts asking where the item is, I give them the new tracking number. They claim that number doesn't work (I don't think the buyer was the sharpest tool in the shed). They filed a claim with paypal, I get my account locked down. I give them the tracking number again, give paypal the tracking number, call paypal, and nothing. No help, no response. Paypal finally sends me instructions on how to add the tracking number, but apparently the instructions were outdated, the pages and menus they said to use don't exist anymore. I ended up sending screenshots of the tracking to the buyer to show the package was indeed on its way. When it finally did show up I had to email the buyer several times to get them to close the dispute. This had a knock-on effect that delayed me shipping other items to buyers since I couldn't use paypal to purchase shipping, or transfer money to my account and just do it through the post office.

It was such a PITA I'm no longer allowing any international sales. In this case the global shipping program just made things a huge mess every step of the way.
 
kb244 said:
important note *all* communications should stay in ebay. That way if they say anything out of the ordinary it'll be enough rope for them to hang themselves with.
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I have found that to be true. EBay can read all the email you put through their system, so they consider it when making a decision.

Do not reply to or start outside of eBay communication. I recently had vindictive bad feedback -- and it was only settled in my favor because of the snarky emails which were sent to me inside the system.
 
tunalegs said:
Recently had a problem with a Chinese buyer. But I blame it more on ebay than them. Item was sold through ebay's global shipping program, but my printer ate the shipping label. Guess what? You have to cancel the label and wait for USPS approval and refund on the label before you can print another one. Additionally, for some reason, the original tracking number stays stuck to the auction, even though the new label will have a different number.

Buyer starts asking where the item is, I give them the new tracking number. They claim that number doesn't work (I don't think the buyer was the sharpest tool in the shed). They filed a claim with paypal, I get my account locked down. I give them the tracking number again, give paypal the tracking number, call paypal, and nothing. No help, no response. Paypal finally sends me instructions on how to add the tracking number, but apparently the instructions were outdated, the pages and menus they said to use don't exist anymore. I ended up sending screenshots of the tracking to the buyer to show the package was indeed on its way. When it finally did show up I had to email the buyer several times to get them to close the dispute. This had a knock-on effect that delayed me shipping other items to buyers since I couldn't use paypal to purchase shipping, or transfer money to my account and just do it through the post office.

It was such a PITA I'm no longer allowing any international sales. In this case the global shipping program just made things a huge mess every step of the way.
Click to expand...

With all the horror stories of their shipping program (goes thru a processing center of their own before it's re-shipped to the destination), if I ship internationally, I handle that all myself and collect the fees as needed that way. I can't trust a third party besides myself, or the carrier to handle it.

Worst part seems to be, if you use their program, they're somehow magically not liable for anything they do to the package.
 
ColSebastianMoran said:
eBay generally takes the side of the buyer. That's helped me a number of times. A bit scary for the seller.
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I lost faith in being a seller on eBay since 2007 when they changed their policy to not allow anything other than a positive feedback on buyers. What's the point of the feedback system if you're penalized for pointing out poor buyers? I understand they did it to attract skittish buyers to use ebay, but it's ripe for abuse that way.
 
Well, I have sold several items on e-bay and had nothing but satisfied customers. I live in Norway most of the year, but I only deal with selling and buying when back in the States. I ship USPS and only domestically. Shipping to Asia and dealing with customs forms etc - why bother?

The buyers I've dealt with have been honest and most have been very friendly and grateful - so far. I have bought some nice items through e-bay as well - including an excellent copy of the CV Ultron 35/1.7; of course, I have been taken advantage of by a couple of sellers. The only really egregious case though was the s.o.b. from Maryland who pawned a crappy 1936 vintage Summar off on me when I didn't know enough to see how bad it was. But that was my own fault. Rather than dumping it and making someone else a sucker and risking my own reputation as a seller, i sold it to KEH and took a big loss.
 
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