FRAUDULENT BUYER - PAID ONLY HALF FOR ITEM THEN LEFT BAD FEEDBACK

[baudrillard2013]

131993767541

I've been with ebay for 14 years but never experienced anything like this buyer. and very disappointed with ebay. 

What a debacle. 

Buyer wants to pick up item straight away and so I accommodate them by having Steve carry the table down to them because they couldn't lift it and I couldn't be there straight away. 

He said they came and were really besotted with the table but said "that was really weird, they asked to pay half "".  He said that he didn't agree to this and said if they weren't happy for any reason then (on my behalf) offered to them to leave the item and not buy it if they'd changed their mind for whatever reason. 

he said they agreed to pay the full amount but said ""ok, just thought we could work something out" and that you might be negotiable"". He once again said he was dumbstruck as it felt like he was at the markets!  He told me it was really weird and that the buyers had tried to get away with paying half instead of the full price. He gave me the money and he only handed me half of the listed price. I am sure I told him what the final bid price was. He said he thought I had said that it was the amount the item was won for too but that he must have been confused because the buyers said it was half of that and even had their mobile in their hand . He said when he saw them get out their mobile phone he felt silly questioning the price and embarrassed so didn't pursue it. 

I realised that they had basically pulled a swifty and this has never happened to me in 14 years on ebay. 

I rang ebay and told them what happened and that i had received many emails which the CSOs at ebay had seen in the system demanding I mark the item as paid. I told them what happened and asked them to take notes. I didn't mark the item as paid for obvious reasons. I received 18 messages from the buyers demanding that I mark the item as paid 

I simply ignored them and waited for ebay to deal with it.  Ebay's CSO seemed wishy washy. They noted there was one email asking to return the item as it wasn't as described about two weeks after taking delivery of it. 

The CSO seized on that and said if the buyer leaves negative feedback or tries to return the item or lodge a dispute then it is clear from the emails that there was no problem with the item description and that they only sent one email asking to return the item which was clearly retaliation for me to marking the item as paid. However they didn't really have any resolution to the problem of the fraud. I just figured that I had to wear the loss and that there was little I could do about it. 

Today I see that the buyer left negative feedback claiming I was a poor communicator and item descriptor was poor.  I contacted ebay and expected them to look at the messages and see that there were about 12 further emails from the buyer since I had contacted them asking for the item to be marked paid which I had simply ignored. 

the CSO , ""JD""  said ""madam we can only remove feedback if we can negate it and the buyer emailed you many times asking you to mark the item as paid and there was no response from you""

I explained why and that ebay had supported me in taking this course of action and that not marking something as paid which had not in fact been paid in full was not poor communication. 

I may as well have been talking to a robot. 

i finally replied and said to the buyer you know very well why i am not marking it as paid and told them it was highly unethical what they had done.. they then left a message

I pointed out to ebay that this message negated the fact that it was a poor item descriptor that was troubling the buyer especially in the context of a zillion email messages where the SOLE complaint was not having marked the item was paid. 

ebay claimed that they still couldn't negate the feedback left even though the only complaint in all the email contacts was about not marking the item as paid. 

HOPELESS

[letscleanupmycupboards]

It's a case of the sellers rep not being aware of the sale price. That's not fraud or a swiftie that's poor prep.

[phorum_junkie*]

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staypeachy wrote:

They Got ripped off swifty fraud whatever they were ripped off

Ebay seems to always favour the buyer   

And you always seem to have to put in your 2cents in

As i am doing now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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I note that I was the only one who gave the OP clear steps on how to resolve the neg feedback issue which is ultimately what they were concerned about. The lack of funds was down to Steve and while it may not have been morally correct it certainly was not fraud.

I cannot deny that I am fat but what ever gave you the impression I am unhappy?

[letscleanupmycupboards]

Yes personal attacks are not called for.

[baudrillard2013]

I just discovered what the buyer's problem was. 

I looked closely at my feedback and I noticed today that the person I sold the item too must have been offended that I re-isted the item and it sold a few weeks later for twice as much; hence their strange unprecedented offer to pay half of what the item sold for at auction. 

The buyer was in fact once the seller of the item a few weeks prior 

I resold the item as I did need more space in my hallway and they saw it and took offence and bid on it. 

They won the auction and then came to pick it up and acted offensively. 

Now it all makes sense. I didn't see them personally so I didn't recognise them. 

I really don't know why a person doesn't understand that different listings will fetch different prices at different times. It wasn't something I foresaw getting more for than what I paid for. I set the opening price at what I paid for it. It was a popular item and several people bid, pushing the price up to roughly double what I bought it for. 

At last I have an answer to this mystery that was bugging me as I haven't ever had such an experience before. 

[baudrillard2013]

This is not a personal attack. This is a factual account of what happened. It transpires that the buyer was in fact the same person who sold me this table a few weeks prior and this explains why they were upset with me selling their table and fetching twice the price that they did for it. Sellers need to understand that items sell sometimes for different prices for a variety of reasons. In this case I couldn't fit the item into my hallway and sold it but was otherwise happy with it. I sold it and they saw their table they sold to me being sold by me and took personal offence.

[i-once-was-bump]

I don't understand how any of this is anything to do with ebay.

They cannot send a representative to oversee every pick up transaction, it is up to you to make sure you get the correct amount of cash.

I don't know who Steve is but you said he changed his mind on the price when the buyers started to show him the mobile phone.

In future if you are sending Steve downstairs with any more sale items maybe you need to write the price on the back of his hand with a waterproof marker.

I would do that to myself because I am forgetful and the buyers can see the price you expect to be paid.

[springyzone]

Granted, Steve was a  bit of a dumbo. He suspected the item cost more but then didn't let them show him on the phone. Why ever not? He should have said yes, okay, let me look. He should have known the exact price in the first place.

But all the same, the buyers did the wrong thing too. They knew exactly what they bid-and against other bidders, too.

You don't bid a certain amount on ebay, especially in those circumstances where there are other buyers, then rock up and start trying to beat the sellers down on price. That's not on.

Where it became fraudulent was the moment the buyers claimed to Steve that that was the actual sales price & they could show him on their phone. They obviously caught on that he wasn't up to speed and took advantage of it. They lied.

It was a dodgy move on their part. Very shifty.

There's really nothing ebay can do though.

[magpie5*]

wow, how nutty are they? 

if you see something cheap, and can make a buck good on you, ebay is that way quite frankly! they were happy with the sale price, why even look! cant believe they went to the trouble of bidding, and driving over! crazy! we aint talking sheep stations!! when you say half, so they gave you less than the $ you paid for it? if you had made a small prifit to cover fees, id smack steve across the head, and milk it, but in this case, yeah id go the unpiad item case for sure! i just wish i could see their whole id so i can block them!  

i like your reply, but i wiould have written "when will you be paying the balance"  in caps!!

but yeah, Steve has to take some of the blame, maybe its a guy thing, i always have to put it in BIG writing for my hubby, he never remembers!put in that non payer and let it go, the rest of your feedback is excellant. let Karma do the rest, cheers!!