I think I am being scammed

[retrorevolution-2015]

Ebay sent me message saying an item was being returned to me. It said I had received the item and said I needed to refund the buyer. The problem is that the item I received yesterday was not the one I sent. Anyone had a similar experience, and how did Ebay respond?

[sheba-knows-best]

So what was returned? If it was a pile of doggy-doo then I suspect you have been scammed. If it was a reasonable item, there may be a reasonable explanation.

1. Contact the buyer, with a photograph of the item that was returned, saying have they made a mistake? (This has happened to me, a buyer was returning two items to two sellers and I got sent the wrong one).

2. If there is no response from the buyer contact ebay customer services and explain the situation. If this is a repeated scam by the buyer you may get lucky and ebay will block the return and you won't have to refund.

3) Possibly this is a first time scam, and unfortunately as there is no evidence that you are telling the truth (vs the buyer telling the truth) you will have to refund. Report the buyer and move on. Unless it is an extrememly expensive item and then you can consider legal action.

[martin-silverauctions]

Yes happened to me, eBay refunded the buyer and gave me a warning on my account, eBay side with the scammers and screw the sellers everytime. 

[padanpcparts]

That's not true at all. In my experience, E-bay take a measured appoach to the majority of these sort of issues. You just have to be professional and calm, fill in any required paperwork, have conversations where you don't lose your cool and have facts and evidence available to back yourself up. It also helps to know E-bays rules and procedures well. I have won as many cases as I have lost in this sort of instance. They just have to be finanical viable for the time allocation. If someone steals a ten pound item? OK, they do it once and never again. If it's £100, then I will spend much more time and effort chasing. 

Shebas advice above is great. First point of call is to contact the customer and ask the question. In our busy lives it is easy to make mistakes. I can't count the number of times the customer has been extremely apologetic and we have managed to resolve the situation without any Customer service intervention. 

[martin-silverauctions]

Yes it is true, customer service put a defect on my account and told me losses are a part of selling on eBay, been selling on here since 1999 so I think I know how it works very well thank you.

Won't be posting on here again given so many experts know it all. 

[the-nutwood-collection]

@sheba-knows-best has given good advice - contact the buyer and ask if they've made a mistake.

I often wait in line at the PO while a customer with a whole heap of returns flick-flicks-flicks through the QR codes on their phone.  Often, they seem to be completely clueless about the item that's in the parcel and where it was purchased from.  I often wonder how much stuff ends up at Amazon when it should be at ASOS.

My opinion, for what it's worth, is that 'free returns' have got completely out of hand.