Refund Scammers - EBay do nothing!

[papua4]

So I’ve been scammed. I’m a seller. Sold an item for £185. Customer received it and said there was an issue and can he refund. I’m yes of course sorry and accepted the return. 
A few days later a tracked envelope arrived with a pen in it? No tracking numbers on the envelope just the bar code which was weird. A message came from EBay that day saying my item has been returned and it’s time to refund! Suddenly I realised what had happened. I scanned the scan bar code thing on the envelope and it’s the same tracking number as on the returns on eBay! I reported it to EBay straight away and said I do not want to refund the buyer because he has returned a worthless pen but they came back and said it’s been delivered so they refunded the buyer! Advised me as it’s an online sale they can’t see what was returned and suggest I have a contingency fund to cover returns! The guy has £185 of my money.. so cross. I have his address, if I was that sort of person I’d be travelling the 40 miles to go get my item back! I reported him and he’s still on there! Also 1 week later someone else tried it. They loved the item and gutted as it was the wrong one (buyers fault), I said no problem I’ll exchange for the other correct one and guess what, they said no it’s fine, I’ll just have a refund please. I refused the refund through eBay (as I changed my policy to no returns) but said they could return it via the post office. They asked 3 times to return it through eBay but I said no, and I never heard anything else! This was in the space of 2 weeks! I reported seller to eBay but again nothing is done. 
there’s absolutely no protection for sellers. For this reason I’m closing my shop and sticking to Etsy!  EBay will go down the pan as no sellers will want to trade on there. 

[_localhost_]

first one you will need to contact Action Fraud

second one as I changed my policy to no returns you have to accept returns even if you are a private seller and go through eBay to do so.

was all this on another ID because all you have sold on this one is a pillar drill

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

When ebay works it usually works well.

I have been on ebay since 2008 and just been scammed once.

I sold some audio gear for £50.

Buyer said he wasnt happy with it so I did a return on it.

I got back a length of wood full of nails designed to injure me !

Ebay refunded him, he kept the item and left a neg !

I contacted police in regards the wood.

They went to see him.

His wife said she sent it so he got off and she got a formal warning.

I try not to sell anything expensive on ebay to deter scammers.

[signs_and_vintage]

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@nigel_paul_wright7557 wrote:

I contacted police in regards the wood.

They went to see him.

His wife said she sent it so he got off and she got a formal warning.

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That is some s****y grade lazy coppering there, she would have had no involvement in the deal so nor would she have any reason for knowing your details, UNLESS it's one of those accounts where for whatever reason the payment is in the partners name due to bankruptcy / poor IT skills etc... where she could tentatively claim she was.

I assume he was on licence / building up offences / has a job where this would be an issue (probably the least likely issue, however e.g. the HCPC does make interesting reading...) hence punted it to her for first offence. Take it was a letter not a caution? I also assume you didn't check if the buyer had any sort of formal professional registration (social worker etc...). Sorry to hear this, that's extreme.

[papua4]

Yes I was messaging on my private account on my phone.

My business page is northern-fur

She loved the product but she ordered the wrong one, she hated what she had on her coat already… so why wouldn’t she want an exchange and just a refund?
She also left it a week to request a refund, an expensive item that doesn’t fit, you report it straight away don’t you?
I said I would accept it back but only through Royal Mail, she was thank you so much to start with then obvs realised her scam wouldn’t work that way so asked a few times to return through eBay! Never heard anything since.

I said to the first guy I’ll give him 7 days to return it to me, if not I’ll report him to the police. I haven’t as I don’t think they will do anything but actually now I’ve read a couple of replies, I think I might. Or action fraud which I didn’t think about.

Thanks for your reply.

[papua4]

I think I might report him to the police then. I did warn him I would if he didn’t return it. 

My products are too expensive to risk me selling on eBay anymore. Twice in as many weeks! Too many dishonest people out there.. 

[johnwash1]

Do report him.  It's the only way that such behaviour will be reduced.

[myriad*seller]

You can appeal the decision if you haven't already, once you have the Action Fraud number and eBay *might* return your £185 

With regards to returns, you cannot refuse returns.

If a buyer has a genuine reason, or invents a reason to return items you have to accept the returns, and you have to refund.

If you don't accept the returns, eBay will just refund your buyers and tell them to keep the items without returning them. 

So never refuse returns or you will end up even more out of pocket

Also do not sell what you can't afford to lose...

[myriad*seller]

Having looked at the items you sell, it is possible you were targeted, and may be again in the future, to stop you selling those items 

In theory, buyers could do the same scam on you for every item to drive you to bankruptcy because people don't like animal cruelty. 

[myriad*seller]

Also you were a business seller masquerading as a private seller on your other "business" account

Another thing that sellers who trade legally really don't like - you are also required by law to accept returns for any reason, including change of mind. The fact that you refuse returns means this extends the buyers legal consumer right to return for change of mind to over 12 months with you paying postage both ways!  

So there are many reasons you may have been targeted 

[papua4]

Oh what do you mean? I’ve made a business page and selling under that? 

The only reason I’m messaging on my private account is because i used my phone and I was logged onto my private account. Is that what you mean? 

[myriad*seller]

No, your business account is a "private" seller account. It clearly says "Private" not business

You were trading illegally by failing to register correctly and display your contact details and offer change of mind returns. 

If your account was a business account you would not have been able to refuse returns as eBay does not permit those registered correctly as businesses to remove the accepting returns option. 

[papua4]

Ah I see! So I’ve set it up wrong! I do pay £19.99 a month for this but obviously not done it quite right! 

Tbh I don’t find eBay that user friendly.. probably just me though! 
I’m closing it down anyway as this can easily happen again and it’s too much to lose. 
I will report to action fraud.  I’ve written the money off now but he shouldn’t be able to get away with it! He knew exactly what to do and as I’m inexperienced I got done! Lesson learnt, I should have done my research! 
Anyway, thanks for your advice. 

[signs_and_vintage]

I have to say... eBay offering £20-a-month services to Private sellers seems almost bizarre to me, who on earth would need to spend so much to dump car boot items? I hate paying promo fees which feel de-rigour now same as fees were, let alone paying subs!

[myriad*seller]

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@signs_and_vintage wrote:

I have to say... eBay offering £20-a-month services to Private sellers seems almost bizarre to me, who on earth would need to spend so much to dump car boot items? I hate paying promo fees which feel de-rigour now same as fees were, let alone paying subs!

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Well, OP wasn't paying any fees to list on their private account, so they had that extra profit to use on a shop 

And people wonder why correctly registered sellers who trade legally hate sellers who undercut them by trading illegally. 

[johnwash1]

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@myriad*seller wrote:

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@signs_and_vintage wrote:

I have to say... eBay offering £20-a-month services to Private sellers seems almost bizarre to me, who on earth would need to spend so much to dump car boot items? I hate paying promo fees which feel de-rigour now same as fees were, let alone paying subs!

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Well, OP wasn't paying any fees to list on their private account, so they had that extra profit to use on a shop 

And people wonder why correctly registered sellers who trade legally hate sellers who undercut them by trading illegally. 

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I don't think anybody with at least half a brain wonders that.  What we wonder is why ebay create such a tilted playing field.  And in October tilted it even further.  I never asked for free FVF, I doubt whether anybody did, though I certainly felt that 13.2%+30p was a bit steep, especially for my cheapest items, and appreciated the 70/80% off offers.

It's almost as if it's a deliberate strategy to sow discord and have sellers fighting amongst themselves, rather than focussing on the monster that is ebay.

[papua4]

Well I thought I was paying £20 a month for a business page? I didn’t realise I hadn’t set it up correctly! 

when I sell under my private account I don’t need to pay anything per month. 

This is just too confusing. If I have set it up wrong (yes, it looks like I have) how would I know if eBay don’t tell me? 

[signs_and_vintage]

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I never asked for free FVF

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I mean, same here, but then same as I never bother asking customer to double my invoices either 😂

I don't think, as you say, anyone ever did ask but 3Bay got over-taken by other sites.

And whilst fees were getting grabby, especially when you factored in the near-essential promo - I was losing 25% on some sales - it has put a huge them-and-us divide between genuine private sellers, 'private sellers 😉' and real business accounts.

[johnwash1]

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@signs_and_vintage wrote:

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I never asked for free FVF

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I mean, same here, but then same as I never bother asking customer to double my invoices either 😂

I don't think, as you say, anyone ever did ask but 3Bay got over-taken by other sites.

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If they're being overtaken, perhaps they needed external consultants to tell them how to fix it.  E.g. make search as good as it was 10 years ago, fix web site problems instead of tinkering with things that aren't broken and make it even worse.  Respect sellers settings so we have realistic delivery dates and don't need to source postage externally to get around it...

That's just the start of a long list.  And I'm available for consultancy, my daily rate would be around 10% of the CEO's golden parachute, which is probably what he's most focussed on.  Or should be.

[signs_and_vintage]

This is it with modern companies, once you get to the top its rewards for failure.