How to pay for dispute

[moto288]

Hello all,

To keep a long story short. I've sold 2 similar sets of cutleries on ebay to a fraudulent buyer in the US (2 feedbacks, I should have noticed). They filed a non-authentic claim on my items, and the usual story goes, ebay sided with the buyer (despite the items being bought by me personally from the brand store - unfortunately this was years ago and from overseas so I don't have the receipt).

I managed to get ebay to reverse one case so I haven't lost everything. It's been a frustrating and stressful period dealing with ebay on this, and I'm giving up, both happy and sad and I only lost slightly over 1/2 of the money originally.

However, the ebay paying option is convoluted to say the least. Paypal have frozen the funds for the item that I need to refund (so I'm on a negative balance) and ebay is asking me to Pay Now via an ebay page. Obviously my preferred option is to go through Paypal as that means I get the Paypal fees of that transaction back as consolation. However, if I zero out my balance by depositing money into eBay, will eBay know to take money from there?

So the item is $1400, and Paypal withheld $1349 from me (the balance is Paypal fees), so if I can go through Paypal, I pay $51 less.

Could I please ask for some advice how I could go about doing it via Paypal? Saving $51 would help reduce my loss - every little bit counts when you're burned by a scammer.

Thanks so much!

[justkidzbiz]

Thanks Lyndal, wasn't sure about C&S with International post but it can be done for domestic but obviously won't help with the OP's probs.

[lyndal1838]

Return labels can be generated for buyers in Australia but not for overseas buyers.

It is the same with any ebay site....you can only generate a return label if the buyer is using the same postage system as the seller.

[justkidzbiz]

I noticed C&S will now let you print return labels for parcels sent to New Zealand providing you send 1000 parcels per year. Apparently they are looking at introducing more countries in the future. That can only be a good thing with the number of overseas scammers or buyers wanting to return an item. But only suitable for large volume sellers.

https://auspost.com.au/business-solutions/parcel-shipping-couriers/parcel-returns#tab1

[moto288]

Thanks again justkidzbiz and thanks lyndal1838. Unfortunately in my case, eBay's closed both escalated cases in the buyer's favour already (but thankfully reversed one with unknown reasons), so yes, I've emailed eBay and they confirmed that I won't be getting my item back. What I'm unsure of is how solid eBay's system is. As I know my items are definitely authentic, I'd like to know what kind of documentation would they need to believe what the buyer says? I've read online that in some cases all they need is a signed statutory declaration, or perhaps all they need is a letter from some dodgy local shop. eBay's obviously have something to hide as they refuse to provide that. If it's an authentication letter from Hermes, then there's no privacy issue. I have the buyer's name and address in any case, which is why I'm suspicious.

I've actually offered (during the return request phase) to the buyer that I'll reimburse them the postage as I can't generate a shipping label, but the buyer totally ignored my offer and insisted I provide a shipping label. I suspect they know this loophole and all they were doing was waiting for the return request period to lapse and then they'll escalate it so they'll get both the money and the item.

[padi*0409]

I'm pretty sure there was a case like this a few months ago where a seller had a dispute with an overseas buyer over a high-end watch, he took to eBay's facebook page and after a lot of exchanges there the matter was eventually resolved in the seller's favour.

Somebody may have the link to that thread, I can't find it.

[moto288]

Thanks padi*0409, I'll have a look! You're right, might actually be helpful to complain on social media these days!

I've written an email to the CEO, and guess what, no replies! CEO email's are generally responsive to direct customer complaints but obviously not the eBay CEO. Such a failure of a company.

[imastawka]

I'm wondering if you could try ACORN

You've nothing to lose at this stage.   Try them.

https://www.acorn.gov.au/

[justkidzbiz]

Keep ringing eBay demanding that they advise the buyer to return the items. If they have advised PayPal to refund the buyer then the item then belongs to you again. This is such a big flaw in the MBG. IMO eBay do  not have the right to tell a buyer they can keep an item as well as receive an item. 

Advise ebay that you personally purchased these items from the Hermes store several years ago and that you find it ludicrous that they are advising the buyer to keep the item as well as receiving a refund.

Do a Google search on International eBay fraud and see if you can find any similar cases. I'll see what I can find out. 

Im guessing the buyer is well aware of the dispute process in regards to how to report "fake" items and that as such "fake" items cannot be sent through the post.

this is absolutely disgraceful conduct on eBay's part. They need to substantiate their reasons for a) refunding the buyer and b) how they have deemed this item to be fake when it is in fact genuine. 

There is no way I would be letting this go.

I really feel feel for you Moto.

[justkidzbiz]

This makes for interesting reading!

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/apr/25/ebay-seller-beware-buyer-guarantee-exploited-scammers

[*tippy*toes*]

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@padi*0409 wrote:

I'm pretty sure there was a case like this a few months ago where a seller had a dispute with an overseas buyer over a high-end watch, he took to eBay's facebook page and after a lot of exchanges there the matter was eventually resolved in the seller's favour.

Somebody may have the link to that thread, I can't find it.

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Was it the TAG phone scam you were thinking of Padi? The seller listed a genuine TAG phone and the Canadian buyer claimed it was fake and sent photos of a completely different phone. I haven't read through all 286 messages, but it might be worth the OP spending half an hour going through them all. The thread ran for nearly 3 weeks, but the seller won in the end.

http://community.ebay.com.au/t5/Selling/I-have-a-feeling-we-fell-for-a-scam-buyer-claiming-counterfe...