The 'E' Type Forum

I just want to warn you about selling items over ebay to 2-dogg (M A Uniontown, PA).

I have sold a box spanner to him and he now claims to have received a totally different one of course of lower value and which I never had in my possession.

Just in case you come across him.....

Never had this happen but then I never sell abroad outside UK....what line do ebay take on this...do they support the seller or buyer.....not much proof either way of what was sent/recieved....Steve

It just began, so no outcome yet. But surfing the internet there is not much you can do about it as seller as buyer are always "right".

I am trying to contact ebay, but it is easier to walk on water than contacting them. Fair enough, they might not be available today, but I even though you don't get close to have a chance to try to call them or to request them contacting you.

They only guide you through various "use case descriptions" which are structured on circles.

For now I have stopped all my ebay offerings. And I am considering stop buying on ebay, which probably will be a loss on the low 4-diggit area for ebay per year....

Theoretically this could also happen within you own country. But fair enough the chances are much higher that you might meet in person at one day in the future.

Perhaps a simple misunderstanding with a confused old man rather than a scammer? From the info provided, I find he's 78 years old. In any case, accusing someone of deception (without proof) and posting someone's name/address in a public forum is bad form, especially as you acknowledge the issue is not yet definitively resolved.

Fair point, but honestly 2 hours after reception of my box spanner he filed the complaint with a picture of a different box spanner. How should that work?

Unwrapped and forgotten what he received???

I am always wary of transactions on ebay, and online in general when it is not a shop with good reputation.
Difficult to prove what was really sent or received...
As said by Wagstefan, usually the buyers get more consideration than sellers, and ebay as Paypal protect the buyers.
Better buy or sell to people who have accumulated a very high rating (100% is preferred) and many transactions.

I got now two responses from the buyer.... Trust me, very "nice and kind" (Ironie) and he knows, what he is doing....

In hindsight its the price you pay as a seller....most people are honest....Wright it off as a bad deal ...Steve

Please note I have edited out the personal Address details from the original post.....Steve

Hi Stefan,
As a buyer, when I have had issues with a purchase i have always managed to have a chat with one of the E-Bay staff and they have resolved it. As long as you are a trusted seller I can't think of any reason why they would not listen to your side of the story and have the facilities to check for any previous issues with the buyer.

Maybe persist with getting a one-to one call with them to talk it through. I have managed it several times.

Good luck
Eddie

Thank you for all your kind responses and Steve, thank you for the amendments.

After a further communication where he boldly insisted on that I sent a wrong box spanner I never had and that he will let ebay sort out the issue, he for whatever reasons withdrew the claim.

But again, he might be confused, but remembering that he had an ebay auction about a box spanner purchase which lys further in the past, but assumingly not knowing what he has received..... doesn't sound logic to me.

Lessons learned: I will restart my auctions and clearly describe and post, that I will record the wrapping process on video to be on the save side. What an effort?!

How many items have you posted and how many have you had a problem with....is recording packaging worth the time?

A friend of mine deals in vinyl records, mostly rare stuff. He has fallen foul a couple of times of this self same scam. You sell a rare album, the buyer then complains to eBay and sends them a photograph of a different version of the album, which they probably already had, and tell eBay that you have scammed them. eBay pretty much always sides with the buyer and claws your payment back

He no longer sells on eBay.

It's a sad reflection of modern society. It seems that all walks of life are affected by these scumbags.

Regards

Unfortunately those type of scams are not unique to eBay, the same happens with many mail order companies including Amazon (who can supposingly afford it) where customers make all weird and wonderful complaints about received goods and the credit card companies side with the customer and clow the monies back forcing the supplier to go through jumps and hoops to prove their case mostly to no avail. This is particularly worse if the claimant is an overseas bank or customer. Distant selling always carries a percentage of risk and the relevant legislation hasn't in a hurry to catch up with the rights of the sellers especially when one can blatantly prove a deliberate scam attempt. End of rant!

Here is another one, about a year ago I purchased an Apple Mac from amazon for 2K, a delivery date was provided but no goods arrive, on checking the tracking sone lame excuse was stated, The package arrived the next day, the box seemed a lot lighter than it aught to have been. That fact instantly prompted me to video the unpacking sequence, of course the box was empty despite it had been repacked and sealed with the correct Amazon tape, it was clearly obvious the delivery guy had stolen it. Luckily after numerous phone calls to Amazon customer service with proof provided, I finally received a full refund, I was lucky to have that video I took while unpacking the box.

We had the same issue with Amazon. My son bought Apple airbuds and something else expensive. I don't know what made me do it but I video'd my son opening it, only to find a coffee mug with a rude remark on it. Without the video I'm sure he would have had a problem. Package had not been open and resealed, clearly an opportunistic employee in their warehouse. Now I always video expensive stuff.

John