Fraud allowed by ebay

[piriestore]

Just had a case where for a large bulky item ,sales value $255 customer (zero feedback) started a return ,automatically accepted by ebay,sent back an empty satchel as proof of return and despite my challenge and having proof of a fraudulent return ebay has refunded customer but thankfully not from my funds,

How is that a successful business model when you knowingly allow  fraud 

[springyzone]

I think what has happened here is ebay has been too hasty. A lot of it is automatically generated so you don't necessarily have humans over seeing every step.

Most probably, as soon as the return was tracked as delivered to you, they refunded.

Once they refund a buyer, there's no going back on it.

I am sure you had the evidence eg by weight of parcel etc to prove your case though, which is why they have had to refund the money to you.

It seems to happen sometimes & ebay does lose money.

I am guessing though that they factor in a certain % loss but it is still overall cheaper to do it this way, with automated processes.

They know they can't prevent some fraud. It is still a successful business model if they are coming out of it overall with a decent profit.

From what I have read, it isn't always easy for sellers to get refunded so your case must have been clear.

But for every time ebay has to refund, they are probably still raking in fees from sellers who have had to refund unfairly or from newish sellers who have had a buyer fail to pay, but who don't know or put the effort in to reclaim fees from ebay.

Just be glad that it wasn't your own funds that went to that dishonest buyer, because that has happened to some poor sellers.

[lezned-toycollector]

Whether or not eBay refunds a buyer is really none of your concern.  $255 is but a drop in the ocean when compared to eBay's profits.

They've created a successful business model by providing the MBG - part of which includes refunding the buyer if certain conditions are met. 

Lucky for you, they also provide seller protection - which you've just used.

Of course there are going to be cases where people play the system, but they have no way of knowing who's telling the truth (i.e. if it's the buyer or the seller who is rorting the system). This is why the protections are in place. They take it upon themselves to refund the buyer while allowing the seller to keep the proceeds of the transaction. It doesn't take long for patterns to appear, outing the fraudster and resulting in them becoming NARU.

In the grand scheme of things, refunding buyers out of their own pocket for any claim is really nothing at all to eBay.

[sandypebbles]

Zero feedback has nothing to do with anything, plenty of buyers with feedback in the hundreds plus can just as easily be dodgy as

That said, I hope you have already put this 'person' on your blocked list so they can't pull the same thing on you again

And the random listings I looked at of yours all said you accept returns, including your completed listing for a $255 item