Ebay rewards dishonest buyers who commit Return Fraud.

[ivanhoe_cycles_australia]

We've been an ebay seller for 8+ years now, and had our fair share of dishonest buyers who are obviously exploiting Ebay's returns procedure with false SNAD claims.

However I've had 2 instances back-to-back this week of 2 separate buyers starting a return request for a "defective" item valued at $150, and then sending back something totally different than what they ordered. One buyer returned an empty parcel containing only a piece of cardboard. The photos the buyer uploaded were pulled from google images.

Ebay did not make us refund the buyer, thankfully. However Ebay refunded BOTH buyers in full! This is a total mishandling. It rewards the buyer's dishonesty, and encourages them to commit the same action again and again - because they know they'll get "free money" with no effort whatsoever! 

Ebay is cultivating a dishonest selling platform.

Would be very interested to know if anyone else is experiencing an increase in this sort of activity? 

[*casey*]

*casey*

There's never been an option to block  buyers  based on feedback score alone, the phone verification block was the closest

countessalmirena

Strictly speaking, neither of the options were to block buyers solely on whether or not they were 0-feedback buyers, but the phone verification + 0-feedback option may be what’s being remembered.

I'm sure that's what is being remembererd.

Having a credit card on file  and /or being registered with Paypal used to override the

'phone' verification block  so buyers could still  bid or buy.

"ebay - phone verification

eBay wants to make sure that buyers meet your criteria. However, if your buyers meet an equivalent requirement (have a PayPal account, credit card on file, etc.), we will not block them from doing business with you"

Because many low feedback buyers  registered none of the 3 options, it blocked a lot of them.

[south.coffee]

Rather than maybe block zero buyers, I think I'd prefer a way to block STUPID buyers.  The ones who don't bother reading the description, or checking the dimensions, the ones who simply look at the photos then press the buy button.  These are the buyers who waste your time, complain and create false returns because of their stupidity.

We put lots of effort into our listings creating simple text, clear dimensions, close up photos and even adding a photo in second position "read full description before buying"... yet they still come !

The option of T&C tick box as they click the buy button "I confirm I am not stupid and have made an informed decision based on the listing content" - TICK HERE --> PAY NOW.

(It's Friday afternoon aka eBay chaos hour as I write this rave... I need a holiday.)

[springyzone]

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@south.coffee wrote:

Rather than maybe block zero buyers, I think I'd prefer a way to block STUPID buyers.  The ones who don't bother reading the description, or checking the dimensions, the ones who simply look at the photos then press the buy button.  These are the buyers who waste your time, complain and create false returns because of their stupidity.

We put lots of effort into our listings creating simple text, clear dimensions, close up photos and even adding a photo in second position "read full description before buying"... yet they still come !

The option of T&C tick box as they click the buy button "I confirm I am not stupid and have made an informed decision based on the listing content" - TICK HERE --> PAY NOW.

(It's Friday afternoon aka eBay chaos hour as I write this rave... I need a holiday.)

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😂🤣

That gave me such a good laugh.

You're right. Everyone has to start somewhere and a new person might be okay or at least better than the regulars who have been around for years but who have managed to have bad experiences for their last 50 purchases. Like, what are the odds the problem is with the buyer?🤣

I sometimes get a bit of amusement out of the monumental stupidity of some buyers, exposed in their feedback.

I've mentioned it before but my biggest laugh came when I saw the negative that one seller (a really fantastic Australian seller) copped from a buyer before me. The comment was about double sided tape that was about half a cm wide and advertised as such in the title and description. It said bad experience, this tape was far too narrow, not even 1cm wide.

I commiserated with the seller and she replied she felt like telling them their first ebay purchase should have been a ruler.🤣