Buyer Fraud – Sellers Beware – Ebay Won’t Help

[lexusking]

I have been the victim of a buyer fraud and Ebay say it is not covered by Seller protection

In February 2024 I sold a £4000 Computer part I decided not to use to a buyer who had joined ebay one month before – zero feedback. I discounted the part from £4500 to £4000 to close the deal, he paid, I shipped the part to him by Royal Mail tracked insured service and on the Royal Mail tracking service there is a photo of him signing for the part at his door with his details displayed on the parcel. Ebay have a copy of this photo. Just to clarify he has never said he has not received the part, he has never questioned the condition of the part or the fact that it is the correct part that he bought. The buyer then messaged me asking for a further discount or he would like to return it, I had sold it with a no return policy and explained this and also stated that I could not retrospectively discount it any more. He then contacted Ebay saying he wanted to return it, Ebay opened a case, looked at the details and closed the case in my favour as I had followed ebay’s policies and the sale was conducted correctly. In March 2024 another case was opened by Ebay, saying that an outside financial institution had requested a refund of the full £4000 and until this was resolved my selling account funds would be on hold. I sent details to ebay showing the buyer had received the product correctly and suggested this was a fraud to get the product for nothing and I presume Ebay sent that information to the financial institution. This week Ebay messaged me to say the case had been decided in the buyers favour and that I needed to pay £4000 to ‘refund’ the sale. I contacted customer services to appeal and had a long chat with a service representative who said ebay could do nothing as the claim had come from the buyers funding source through paypal and they were powerless to do anything. I pointed out the buyer still had the part and the agent suggested I contact him to ask for it back – I have done this through messages  but have received no reply. Next week ebay want £4000 from me – bare in mind they took c£500 commission on the sale. So I would be £4500 out of pocket. The agent took my comments seriously and Ebay translated the ‘chat’ to a complaint, and within a few hours ebay responded saying they have followed their policies, refunded me £14 ‘dispute’ but they could do nothing. It has been suggested I contact the financial ombudsman if I am not happy, I will but on their website it says it can take them 6 months to reply. I am also going to contact the Police fraud hotline on Monday but that takes 28 days to get a response. So I lose £4500 to a scammer?  How can this be? Has anyone else fallen foul of a situation like this?

[buffster1963]

You gave them the right to do it when you agreed to their terms and conditions by using their site. Ebay will and do use debt collectors. 

[igbyred-1]

No I didn't, it's that simple.  Ebay do not operate above the law.

[papso22]

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@igbyred-1 wrote:

No I didn't, it's that simple.  Ebay do not operate above the law.

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Perhaps you would be good enough to point out which law?

[buffster1963]

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@igbyred-1 wrote:

No I didn't, it's that simple.  Ebay do not operate above the law.

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You have given no details as to what happened but that does not change the fact that you agreed to the terms and conditions when you listed the item. 

[lexusking]

Well having personal experience of Ebay's "debt collectors" re my original case I will make the following comments.

I sell regularly but am not a business but always have various stuff listed for sale and have done for 26 years (I buy for myself more than I sell) and when my Fraud happened (which was probably Paypal's fault anyway) but it left me with a £4,000 hole as I had taken the proceeds of the sale from my Ebay account to use for something else. I had about £500 in my account which left me with a negative of £3500. Plus Ebay wanted to also claim the sellers fees at the time of about £500.

After much conversation Ebay graciously refunded the £500 sellers fees but that still left me £3500 in the hole negative balance.

I did not change anything with the account and carried on selling to reduce the debt. After about a month the Ebay "debt collectors" did indeed contact me but I replied and explained everything and carried on selling to get the debt down.

I communicated with them 4 or 5 times over a period of 3 months and each time they were professional, courteous and helpful. There were no threats, letters, arguments, just reminders the debt existed. I kept them informed what I was doing. There were no fees, nothing to sign, nothing formal.

After 3 months I had sold enough to clear the debt in full and was back in funds in my ebay account.

During this time my Ebay account was as normal, I still bought stuff I needed myself as normal paying by card and sold stuff as normal crediting the account. I thing at one stage Ebay even allowed me to use some sales proceeds to buy something even though the debt still existed. There was no drama just normal private buying and selling. 

At no time, apart from my frustration at the time due to what had happened was there anything else negative with Ebay or the account.

So of course Ebay wanted the money back, and I was the victim of the fraud, and I could not get a resolve on the money gone but it was of more value to me to in effect trade out of the situation than do anything drastic and lose the Ebay trading platform access, which from my point if view would have been stupid.

I could have repaid the money of course but i did not need to, I carried on selling and the money sorted itself out.

I know everyone is in different positions and I suppose I was / am / lucky in some ways but I value the Ebay account more than taking drastic action and trying to avoid a debt, Ebay did not cause the Debt, a fraudster and an outside financial institutions refund policy did.

I am not sure this helps anyone but it may be useful to know what can happen if you owe Ebay money though something gone wrong on a bigger sale or the like.

It's not the end of the World. Communicate and keep going.....

[buffster1963]

Thank you for sharing, its very useful to know these things. 

[nat11911]

Yep, thanks for the update and glad to hear you've got it all sorted (albeit to your cost).

You won't remember me i'm sure, but I spoke to you about 2 years ago regarding a car I was selling: you gave me some good advice at the time which was very much appreciated. All the best, Chris.