How do we take proper action against fraudulent buyers?

[friendoffew]

I sold an item recently that was returned. The buyer advised it was faulty and demanded a full refund. I accepted though I was hesitant as it came with a number of accessories - eBay customer support confirmed I could appeal if the buyer had made a false claim or did not return the item with all accessories.

The item was functional when I received it. As I suspected, the buyer had stolen a number of accessories from the case (which were listed and pictured in the original listing). They have denied this and have since made threats.

I found that this buyer had done the same thing to a number of other users and those I received contact from said they had accessories stolen and eBay had provided a full refund.

eBay sided with the buyer and refused my request to appeal. They have debited my bank account automatically.

They did not follow their own returns/refunds policy and have refused to acknowledge my request to lodge a complaint (against eBay)

As sellers can't leave negative feedback for buyers and apparently reporting them does nothing, is there anything more I can do to appeal this or report the buyer and eBay?

[enigmabear]

Did you also report them to ACORN?

[*tippy*toes*]

All I can say is keep hounding eBay. I would also make a report with ACORN or the police against this buyer. Sadly, in eBay's eyes, buyers can do no wrong. Even when it's proven they are scamming, eBay refuses to do anything about it. They need to be taken to task over it.

Hopefully others will be along soon to offer some better advice. Keep checking back here because there are some very knowledgable people who should be able to guide you in how to proceed with this.

Good luck.

[phorum_junkie*]

Definitely report the to ACORN, it can be effective to get together with other sellers if you know who they are, back in the days when QLD police co-ordinated auction fraud reports if one person got a crime number and passed it on to other sellers who had been hit and they included it in their reports the police did take action, some of the older posters will remember the classic case of lunasaffire who hung herself in the end and had the police after her, she was stupid enough to claim not received for dozens of parcels that had tracking.

[friendoffew]

I haven't as yet as I was under the assumption eBay customer service would assist.

Will be doing that on the weekend though, thank you.

[friendoffew]

Thank you for the information.

I had noticed the same feedback on some other user accounts and have contacted a few other sellers with the exact same story.

Pointed this out to ebay and the fact that this buyer has been around less than a year with one case almost every month, no assistance there as they said they don't take a users history into consideration for current disputes.

Keeping all emails to be safe.

[clarry100]

Yes as has been said definitely report to The ACORN. This is a federal police unit who investigate cyber crime.

http://www.acorn.gov.au/

Hopefully you had someone else with you when you opened up the returned package who would be prepared to sign a statement (stat dec) that the accessories were indeed missing when it was opened by you.

Do you know the exact weight of the package as mailed out from Aust Post? Then compare that to the weight of the returned package. That will show that what was returned did not equal what was sent out.

If you can get the other affected sellers to contribute to your evidence in the form of a message to you stating what happened to them then include this with your ACORN report too.

Once you lodge the report you will receive a case number. Provide this case number to ebay and optionally even to the buyer. It might shake them up to know that the federal police are inverstigating them.

[kopenhagen5]

I would call eBay ask to speak to a supervisor and explain eBay had stated the item needs to be returned with accessories and was not.

Also add the member to your following, that way we can assist a little further. 

[collect247]

Yes tippy ebay do do something about scamming buyers and that is ebay suspends the sellers for making the buyers shopping experience

like living in hell.

This is why I got suspended,the buyers scammed me and I got suspended.

Well ebay you can kiss my **bleep**ing **bleep**.

[*tippy*toes*]

---

@collect247 wrote:

Yes tippy ebay do do something about scamming buyers and that is ebay suspends the sellers for making the buyers shopping experience

like living in hell.

This is why I got suspended,the buyers scammed me and I got suspended.

Well ebay you can kiss my **bleep**ing **bleep**.

---

Exactly. Because buyers can do no wrong, even when proven otherwise and sellers are the scum of the earth in eBay's eyes. I think several members on here have added buyers to their "following" (myself included), to show that eBay does absolutely nothing to stop these reptiles from continuously ripping people off. All the while, decent hard working sellers are getting shafted.

I wonder how enhanced a buyers experience will be if there are no sellers left (or only the Chinese, because we all know they are untouchable)? I know people are quick to say that without buyers there would be no eBay, but without sellers there'd be no eBay either, so BOTH should be protected from scamming reptiles.

Spoiler

Disclaimer: No offence meant towards reptiles. I believe most of them are intelligent creatures.