Buyer has defrauded me by returning a wrong item

[alratact55]

Hi there,

I sold a high value item to a buyer and they made a false claim that the item was damaged and returned the wrong item. Ebay are currently telling me they are investigating. what can I do about this?? Ive already reported the buyer and made a report with Action Fraud. Ebay keep telling me to wait for an investigation 

[bungalowbill*1961]

When a buyer returned an empty box to me eBay accepted the report and took the hit themselves.

[*vyolla*]

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@alratact55 wrote:

Ebay keep telling me to wait for an investigation 

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Sounds like you've done everything you can here and that you now need to wait for eBay to get back to you.

Did you provide them with the Actionfraud reference number?

[alratact55]

Hi, they didn't specifically ask me for the action fraud reference number. In honesty their customer service is all over the place - took me a while to get to an agent who actually understands the ebay policy. But yes ive provided ebay the action fraud documents. What can I expect after I have sent them these?

[alratact55]

I'm sorry you had to go through that. I know how much of a pain it can be that some people out there are willing to screw over smaller sellers. Did ebay accept your action fraud report and reimburse the full value of the item? All I have been told is that I need to wait till Tuesday for their specialist team to review the information.

[rjwilmsi · Accepted solution]

In my experience, once you have submitted the Action Fraud report and have uploaded a PDF of the report to eBay, then within a few days eBay should issue you a full credit for the refund. I should think it is one of the cases where the offshore customer service team have to send it onshore for proper review, hence it takes a bit of time.

I believe that in these cases eBay take the loss. Presumably if a buyer has been reported as doing this multiple times then eBay will eventually close their account.

[alratact55]

Hi thank you again, I hope that's the case. I recieved the following message from ebay just now and it says the following (this was because I didn't manually refund the buyer). I was told that it would take till Monday or Tuesday for ebay to review the action fraud report.. I've been defrauded and left helpless here. Are they still going to check my case or is this the final decision?? I don't understand 

"We reviewed this case and decided to issue the buyer a full refund. Although we understand that you received your item back in a different condition than it was in you sent it, we unfortunately couldn't determine that this was caused by the buyer or that this was something in the buyer's control."

[tressygirl]

If that was thr last message you received then it seems eBay are sticking with refunding the buyer.

You say this was a high value item,  then the small claims court and legal action is perhaps the only way now if you wish to take this further.

[iew-signed-books]

Looking at the items that you have recently sold, they are all high value ones and scream out "Scam me". I wouldn't list these kind of things on here - if you search this forum, you will find countless similar examples. Definitely proceed through what used to be called the Small Claims Court - now Moneyclaim gov uk.

[lastlazuli]

Did you try opening a case with PayPal, assuming they processed the payment?

[papso22]

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@lastlazuli wrote:

Did you try opening a case with PayPal, assuming they processed the payment?

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Can a seller open a case in PayPal against a buyer?

[lastlazuli]

Good point, I am not a seller so I cannot check this. But this link has some material on Seller Protection:

https://www.paypal.com/sj/webapps/mpp/paypal-safety-and-security

Perhaps the OP or any seller can check if this is possible?

[*vyolla*]

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@lastlazuli wrote:

Good point, I am not a seller so I cannot check this. But this link has some material on Seller Protection:

https://www.paypal.com/sj/webapps/mpp/paypal-safety-and-security

Perhaps the OP or any seller can check if this is possible?

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It's not possible.

Sellers don't receive payments into their PayPal accounts.

eBay collect buyers payments and then they go to sellers bank accounts.

Whilst buyers might have paid via PayPal at checkout there is no way to know what payment method they used.

[4_bathrooms]

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@alratact55 wrote:

I recieved the following message from ebay just now and it says the following...

..."We reviewed this case and decided to issue the buyer a full refund. Although we understand that you received your item back in a different condition than it was in you sent it, we unfortunately couldn't determine that this was caused by the buyer or that this was something in the buyer's control."

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That means eBay are refunding the buyer out of your (not their) pocket. At the very bottom of the message is there a link to appeal eBay's decision?

When you reported the buyer what reason did you select for filing the report? It looks like you may have selected "Item returned in a different condition" rather than "Returned a different item". If there is a link to appeal eBay's decision you need to make it crystal clear to eBay the buyer returned a different item to what you sent.

The problem I see is that as the device was never registered with Apple nor a mobile network the usual IMEI network block might not be possible. Have Action Fraud given any indication whether they are going to do any actual investigating? I know they don't really bother investigating anything under £200-ish but I'd be surprised if they only filed a record for a reported theft of £1,000+ when they have been given the thief's details.

Also, I don't think there's any point filing a money claim against the buyer. A County Court Judgement is exactly that - a judgement the defendant owes the money to the plaintiff. A thief isn't going to care about having a CCJ; on it's own it doesn't force them to pay anything. You would be better off exhausting every avenue of appeal with eBay then filing a complaint with the Financial Ombudsman Service. 

Have you tried contacting the buyer's local police station with the Action Fraud reference? For the amount involved that would certainly be on my "to do" list.    

[iew-signed-books]

You are wrong on this one.

"If you do not pay as ordered, the person or business you owe money to may: threaten you with bailiffs to collect the money. ask the court to take action against you to force you to pay."

[4_bathrooms]

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@iew-signed-books wrote:

You are wrong on this one.

"If you do not pay as ordered, the person or business you owe money to may: threaten you with bailiffs to collect the money. ask the court to take action against you to force you to pay."

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A judgement is a judgement; enforcement of that judgement is not automatic. A regular plaintiff (i.e. not a Local Authority, utility provider, HMRC etc.) would need to employ a Private Enforcement Agency; even then enforcement agents (bailiffs) have limited powers when it comes to private debtors. For example, they cannot force entry into a residential property so unless the defendant has left their private vehicle outside there isn't much they can do if the debtor refuses to open their front door.  

[the-nutwood-collection]

Also, if the debtor pleads poverty to the court, the court will issue an order to repay the debt in installments - which can be 50p or £1 a week.  If the debtor defaults, the plaintiff has to return to court to secure an order.

Unfortunately, CCJs only matter to people that will want a mortgage or a loan in the future.

[alratact55]

UPDATE:

Ebay have closed the appeal in my favour and issued me full credit. I have always had a good experience with ebay customer service, they've always upheld their seller protection and been excellent. Maybe giving respect goes a long way. Ebay for Facebook were the most helpful. Thanks to everyone who contributed on this thread and provided good advice. Ebay did require the action fraud report. Should I pursue this further or take this as a loss, and prevent it from happening again?