I’m a seller and I think I’m being scammed

[rac-460274]

I’ve sold an item and have received a refund request. The buyer is saying that I sent him the wrong item. I sent him a Gucci beanie and he’s claiming that I sent him some weird camo thing. I don’t know how this could’ve happened and I think he is scamming me. I’ve sent a report to eBay but I don’t know what else to do. Any advice? 

[lucy_farmer]

'I’ve sent a report to eBay but I don’t know what else to do. Any advice? '

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Tell you buyer to open a 'not as described' return case. Then you send them a returns label and when you get the item back you refund them.

Don't refund before getting it back.

*If* the buyer has sent a different item back,  Please come back here and ask for advice!

There is a process to follow about getting a case number from action fraud, sending info to ebay etc which might result in you getting to keep your money (while ebay refund the buyer out of their own pocket).

But it's late and I can't remember the order of steps in that process! so I'll call ...   @tressygirl   !

[tressygirl]

Hi @lucy_farmer !

@rac-460274   I believe one has to call Action Fraud,  Google their number , contact numbers are sometimes removed when entered on these forums!   They then will give you a police crime number, this then can be given to eBay.

However,  have you correctly appealed the decision for the refund?

If not this is the process:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/managing-returns-refunds/appeal-outcome-case-seller?id=4369

The buyer may have a record of doing this , or making too many refund requests,  which will become clear to eBay as they have access to all accounts.

@rac-460274 

[*vyolla*]

You can't report the buyer until you receive your item back, you can't know for sure what they're sending back until you actually receive it.

The usual way forward in these situations is that the seller accepts the return and gets their item back, if it isn’t their item they then immediately file a report with Actionfraud and get a reference number. Actionfraud are the Police online site and there's a webform there to fill in which will generate a reference number.

The seller then clicks the "Report a problem" link in the case, selects "Different item returned" as the reason and provides the Actionfraud reference number and report. This stops the automated returns process that would ultimately force the seller to issue a refund.

Then, someone at eBay reviews the case. As to what happens next depends on a few factors - if the buyer has done this before, if the seller is a long standing eBay member who's had no issues like this before etc.  We've seen a good few threads recently here in which the sellers have been in a similar scenario but have not lost out, but can't predict how this will pan out for sure.