How do you avoid scammers on Ebay as a seller.

[starvocal]

I am having from time to time buyers coming back to me claiming that I have sent them faulty goods.. this is despite that everything I send out is in pristine condition and is well packed and tracked.  Hmmm had one the other day who was fairly abusive, threatened negative feedback which she has now posted on my site and I have replied to.  She refused to send goods back despite the fact I offered her the return postage and a refund if I thought she had a case.  Personally speaking, I packed the item well, it was in good order when it left here.  Had a few of these sorts of folk, and I think there are people out there at the moment trying this on and then refusing to send back goods.  Not the money here definitely not ,as the item was not worth the effort really.  However, the principle of the thing is at stake here and there appear to be more of these people coming through Ebay.  I suppose you can't have everything and you have to expect some problems but are any others (sellers) having this trouble out there?????  I am a very ethical person and expect people to treat me with respect as I respect them.....am I expecting too much????

[phorum_junkie* · Accepted solution]

If a buyer claims an item is damaged I ask for a photo, if they provide one I either give them a full refund without them having to return it or, if I think I can fix it and still sell it for more than the two way postage I will snd them an already addressed prepaid satchel to return it in.

Sometimes if it is somthing minor like a miss sewn seam in a clothing item I will give them a choice of a full refund or a partial rfund and they can keep it.

I would never give in to blackmail and if they threaten a neg I would not refund unless they go through the proper Paypal dispute process so they had to pay the cost of the return which I would not refund if the item was undamaged.

It is almost impossibl to argue that you have packed an item carefully enough to prevent damage, virtually anything other than clothing, soft toys etc needs to be double boxed with suitable buffer packaging between the two boxes. The package needs to be safe if something weighing 20kgs is dropped on it from shoulder height.

I have only ever had one person who tried it on with me and I got my money back through Paypal after a couple of phone calls, I also got the items back and the buyer was kicked off ebay a few weeks later because she tried to scam buyers too so the only negs I have evr received were removed by ebay without me even having to ask.

Never would I choose to be out any money to avoid a silly red dot on my computer screen.

[springyzone · Accepted solution]

For what it is worth, if I were a buyer, the negative against your name would not worry me, because you gave such an informative and sensible answer, plus your other feedback is fine. Considering the fact postage & tracking was included in that price, I am not sure what quality a buyer would be expecting. It sounds to me as if you were more than fair.

Some buyers are just ding a lings, but they are in the minority I hope.

[daniel-online-solutions · Accepted solution]

Yup, I agree to all of your views, recently I met 2 customers from Israel, first customer claimed he did not receive the item, due to the item was shipped using non registered mail (even i proved photo of item's packed and shipping label) because I can not trace it so refund him the amount, during our communication everything was fine but once I refund, his attitude changed 200% and gave me negative feedback, I tried to request ebay to remove but can not, eBay said it was not falling in their rule to remove. 

I learnt from mistake, in future all shipment to Israel i will use registered mail, no matter how chear the item is.

Recently 2nd customers from Israel raised a dispute again, saying his items did not receive in 30 days (no include weekend and holiday) wanted me to foc him the item, I told him because April has a lot of holiday in their country and Israel's custom always delay the item but he just ignored and said his item must receive within 30 days, if not it will be foc. The case has pending in ebay 2 weeks still unsolve. Finally the items received in this monday, this customer claimed the items were no as he bought, he said item has no label, wrong item...... I gave him a solution to mail all the items to someone in his country and willing to pay all the cost to him, he started to give excuse he is not free and threaten me to give negative feedback if no a satisfied answer. What he wants was money all refund and product foc

Anyone has experience to share? I have emailed ebay but still no reply.

cheers

[i-love-my-sheep · Accepted solution]

I had a fairly new buyer ask me a few months ago how I would package a particular item because she was worried it would get broken en route, as she had had issues with that previously and the seller refused to respond to any of her messages (she wasn't aware of opening cases and that kind of thing at that stage). She even offered to pay extra for postage to ensure I had enough supplies to package it properly. I assured her that I had plenty of packaging material here (I keep good boxes and packaging from things I buy) and no extra payment would be required. I've had enough things broken en route, like 4 plates I bought that were each wrapped in a single sheet of newspaper, then put into a 500g satchel bag with no other packaging - completely smashed on delivery - that I wouldn't knowingly do that to a buyer buying something that could potentially break. I told her in the event that it did arrive broken, take a photo and send it to me and I would give her a full refund of both the item and the postage. After it arrived, I got the loveliest message from her thanking me so much for having common sense and that common sense seems to be lacking these days. She even felt I went overboard with the packaging and I said no, that's how it should be with things that might break. For days, I kept getting messages thanking me. 

Unfortunately, in any business, there are people who think they can scam people. In my opinion, no proof, no refund. There are too many keyboard warriors who are big and tough behind their computer screen because it gives them some sense of power and sadly, we will all encounter those people from time to time. My guess is, whatever you sent WASN'T faulty or broken, they were just trying to see how far they could push you and whether they could get their money back, even though it was only a small amount. Most buyers who did receive something broken or faulty would at least have the decency to send a photo or some other kind of proof that there was an issue.

One last thing, threatening to leave negative feedback to essentially blackmail you is against ebay's terms and conditions so I would forward that particular email to ebay. I'm not sure if there is any way to know what these people are up to prior to sale, apart from checking their feedback they have left for other buyers. I cancelled a bid a month or so ago because out of 20 feedbacks left for other sellers, 15 were red and 4 were grey. Only one green. I wasn't risking my reputation for someone I felt could've been a scammer.

[luxuryrethreads · Accepted solution]

I know this is off topic...

I wouldnt send items off to certain countries and just blocked these people from these countries.

Ive seen sellers state in their listings they wont send items to these countries, top three being,

Italy

Israel 

Russia

Some US sellers also block people from Australia from bidding on their items as well.

Regarding to the real topic at hand, don't worry about it, just add them to your block

list, sometimes buyers like to "push" sellers to see how far they can go. Your negative

feedback will go back to 100 % after a year full of good positive feedback, so maybe 

concentrate on getting double the amount of positive feedback. 

I've seen sellers from the USA and China have 30 negative feedbacks to their 2000

positive feedback and people are still buying from them. If you sell quality items,

people will still buy from you. But as a buyer, I wouldnt bid on items from sellers who 

have 96 % and lower feedback.

Hope that helps!

[daniel-online-solutions]

hahaha, totally agree risking country to ship. Italy and Israel.

[davewil1964]

Nigeria, of course.

Or any offshore drilling platform.

[**melonbellies**]

What do you do if someone says they have returned an item for an exchange but it never comes back but then the are demanding a refund
?

[cq_tech · Accepted solution]

Then it's tough luck for them. That's why it is imperative that all returns should be sent with full tracking and signature on delivery as it protects both parties from loss. You are under absolutely no obligation to refund a buyer until the item has been returned.