@ddue8024 wrote:
Dear community,
I have recently been selling my brand new NBA card boxes, they're factory sealed and get sent in really good packaging as I'd want to receive them the way I send them.
I sent a box to the US and thought it was odd that my payment was on old when the order came through. When they arrived, within a day the buyer complained they were used and weren't factory sealed. Didn't message me about it though, immediately lodged a return request. Ebay steps in and says I have to organise a return label.
Hang on a sec, I haven't even spoken to the buyer nor has he provided proof of their claim, oh we're an online platform and we don't verify claims we accept what the buyer says came the reply.
Now after this back and forth and trying to get a reply from the buyer and getting crickets, they close the case in the buyer's favour, give him a refund and basically tell me that's that.
So I organised a return label and of course, still nothing from the buyer, no response to ebay messages or SMS to their phone number.
Now I'm expected to pay sellers fees, have just had my goods effectively stolen with ebay's full blessing and out of pocket for the return label (I should be able to get a refund for that) and on top of that I get calls daily from paypal's robotcaller which when I answer no one is there so I've blocked it as it's spam.
So my question is, what can I do. I'm flabbergasted that they sided with a buyer with a zero rating and without proof of their claim. Meanwhile other buyers are sending me praise for how well things are packaged and totally positive.
What really hurt was the complete lack of empathy from the chat/email agents, kept telling me that I needed to factor in these types of situations into my business plan. I'm not running a business here! Complete and utter incompetence and after looking for any phone numbers or places to lodge a complaint against ebay's handling of the matter I can't find anything online.
So, wondering if any of you have any suggestions. I'm down about $900 as a result of this farcical episode.
Just curious here. Not doubting your word, but how did you organise a return label? Quite often on here I have read that return labels can only be sent for items within Australia, not to international buyers. That could be wrong, I don't know, but interested in how it works.
With regard to payments being put on hold, I believe this can happen if you haven't been selling for long or haven't sold much recently. The money may go on hold for 21 days or until you can confirm the items have been delivered. This stage doesn't last forever, just till you have a few recent sales under your belt.
I do feel for you as it does sound as if you have been scammed and i agree, a buyer should need to provide some sort of evidence in a case like this-perhaps photos-although realistically, ebay is probably going to side with the buyer in most cases.
However, it is pretty poor that the buyer gets the full refund before there is evidence that the item has been returned to you. As tuckcase said, a dodgy buyer might just send something old back to you but at least they would have had to go to some effort, go through the motions.
I can't help you with how to get your money back. You could try the chat option and reinforce the fact you did not get your item back etc as you were meant to, maybe they may reimburse you out of ebay funds. Don't count on it though.
If you have paid for a postage label, there may be a way to cancel it and get your money back for that, at least. Sellers here will be able to help you with that or let you know if it is possible.
In the meantime, perhaps limit some of your expensive items to Australia only. It won't cut out the scammmers but it may make it easier & less expensive with return labels and so on.
