I have a feeling we fell for a scam - buyer claiming counterfeit on a genuine very expensive item

[bright_tomato]

I have listed my husband's very expensive phone (it's over $5000 brand new) and finally sold it at best offer for only $1300, much less than what we were hoping to get. But we really needed the money. I took all precautions - took very detailed photos, sent the buyer the IMEI number  and tracking number, insured the phone for $1300 when posted. She received the phone and literally the next day I receive a message that she believes the phone to be a copy or a fake. I am in a state of shock, I am not a retailer, I only sell my own second-hand goods and this phone was a gift from a close friend of my husband's. There is absolutely no chance that it is fake or a copy. She didn't even investigate,  i suggested that she takes the phone to a TAG store to check and she completely ignored that. I have a feeling this is a scam artist who is now requesting a return for refund and will send us back a fake phone to scam us.

My questions is, does anyone has any experience with what kind of process ebay/pay pal follows when a buyer claims the item to be fake? I listed the item with "no returns accepted" condition so I am also wondering - am I able to reject her return request?

[bright_tomato]

How are your questions relevant to this discussion??

The gift was given over 5 years ago! Friend lives in a different country. Please do not ask any more irrelevant questions, otherwise I will be forced to remove this thread which I don't want to do as I do need genuine help and advice from people who actually have something valuable to say.

[imastawka]

Am3 - that post was very confusing and very unlike you.

The item in question is a phone - not a watch

OP has put up photos of what she sent, and photos of what

the buyer 'says' they received.   Two different phones IMO

Too much New Year cheer, perhaps?      Just sayin'

[kopenhagen5]

Thanks for the info BT.

Please keep us informed. Some may give good suggestions as already done.

Some of the boardies here are not only well versed in ebay/PayPal disputes but also in legal matters.

Perservere with correct procedures, the good guys usually win in the long run. 

[lizzy6107]

Hi there

If it's any consolation, I am sure that negative feedback was there last night before you even mentioned his name, I saw it when I either clicked to see if he had left feedback on your page, & before I looked up his history, and when I looked at his history, it was already there, so I would say that feedback was there before anyone knew who he was.

[lizzy6107]

oh no, maybe not...

I just looked at his feedback again, and there are now 2 negatives left, so perhaps I got mixed up.

I am sure ebay will look into all emails and find out if someone did in fact meddle.

He left negative feedback for another seller on a brand new item.

Perhaps he does have a history! Good luck

[bright_tomato]

Received another message from this scum. The reply references what I have said in a previous message which, in short, was outlining the fact that we have rejected several higher offers (one was for $1500) because they were from countries that caused us some concern with regards to high fraud rates. I accepted this offer because I felt that Canada was a safer place to post to. Simple logic, in my opinion - if I was planning to send a fake then I would not care where I would post it to and accept a higher price from anywhere. Here is the reply from this idiot, showing him/her in all their pathetically illiterate glory:

FOR SURE! I WILL OPEN A CASE, OTHER WISE PEOPLE LIKE YOU WILL JACK PEOPLE WHEN THEY NEED MONEY AND SELL FAKE THINGS AND THREATEN THEM TO GO AWAY AFTER..... WHY DON T YOU EXPLAIN YOUR SELF THEN HOW DID YOU POST PICTURE S OF RED LEATHER AND BOX STATES BLACK RUBBER AND YOU SENT BROWN FAKE CROC LEATHER.... I GUESS I SHOULD OF COUGHT YOU WHEN I SENT YOU THE LOW BALL OFFER AND THE FIRST OFFER YOU TOOK....IF THIS WAS A REAL DEAL THE PHONE SHOULD A GO FOR WAY MORE AS EVEN USED ITS OVER $5000 NEW....I NEED TO RETRUN THIS ITEM ASAP TO YOU!!! AND NEED FULL REFUND WITH THE DUITES I PAID OF $156 CANADIAN $$.... I WILL NOT REPLAY TO YOU UNLESS YOU HAVE CAME TO YOUR SENSES AND ARE WILLING TO DO THE RIGHT THING AND RETRUN THE MONEY WHAT DOES NOT BELONG TO YOU..........

Lessons learned for myself and advice for anyone who reads this - DO NOT accept offers for expensive items from people with such low feedbacks, particularly if you notice that they have left negative feedback to legitamate sellers previously and the feedback sounds dodgy. DO communicate with the buyer and ask as many questions as possible to try and ascertain their intentions. I believe that if I were more careful and communicated with them more over email, I would have become suspicious and cancelled the sale before posting.

Please let me know your opinions: knowing that ebay investigators will take this communication into consideration should I keep replying to the buyer, highlighting and explaining again perhaps the point about rejecting higher offers? In my opinion, the logic is bullet proof - why would I reject higher offers if I was planning to send a fake?? Should I also highlight to this idiot that according to ebay policy the buyer pays duties and he/she should stop mentioning that point? Any other suggestions on what I should reply? I really don't want to reply, to tell the truth, as I am so mentally drained and I am also preparing myself for this to become even harder once the dispute starts and my funds are locked for 2 weeks if not more...

[bakeandfry]

Ask your buyer to show you a photo of the IMEI, they dont have to remove battery to do this, type *#06# into keypad, IMEI will display, that way you can see if its wrong phone and carry out further processes.

[bright_tomato]

Here is the reply that I came up with. Point 5 is exactly what AP told me on the phone just now. I believe that the scammer would never be willing to do any official reports at the post office and hopefully that will play in my favour during an investigation. If he is arrogant enough to do the Canadian post office report, there is a slim chance that customs might have a record of the contents of the box, the box stayed in customs for 2 days.

I will reply in point form.

1. As stated in ebay policy, duties are always paid by the buyer, seller is not responsible for paying duties and it was entirely your responsibility to check how much these would be.
2. I will re-iterate the point about rejecting higher offers in an attempt to make you understand the simple logic: if I was a scammer (like yourself) I would be attempting to get as much money for a fake item that I was planning to sell as possible. Consequently, I would accept a higher offer from ANY country regardless of whether or not I thought it was safe. I received many offers aside from yours, the item has been selling for a long time, I REJECTED many offers and several of them were HIGHER than yours. I rejected them because they were from countries that I believed to be unsafe. Mistakenly, I was under the impression that an offer from Canada (even though it was lower than several we have previously rejected) would be safer.
3. I will certainly NOT be refunding you as I repeat, YOU are a scam artist. You have stolen my red leather genuine TAG Heuer phone, photographed your own piece of c..p fake and sent me the photos claiming that that’s what you have received. I have been selling this phone for many months now, I have ALL of the original high resolution photographs that were on the listing (more than the photos on the listing, actually) and I will provide them to ebay as soon as they request them.
4. I have purchased insurance for this item when I was posting it by Express Courier service for $1300 and I paid $65 out of my own pocket. Again, logically, if I was posting a fake item I would NEVER bother spending any additional money on insurance.
5. I have also spoken to an Australia Post representative in the International section on the phone just now and they have advised me to do the following: if you believe that you received an item that was not as you expected you need to take it to the Canadian post office and make an official report, you need to take the item and the packaging with you so that they can witness it. You need to claim the consignment number ES925565643AU. Once you have done that, you will receive a reference number which you need to send to me and I will be following it up with Australia Post and the insurance company who will start the investigation. The box was scanned and examined at customs and the record of this examination will be followed up.

Feedback?

[bright_tomato]

they already sent me a picture of a fake phone, of course they won't send me any correct IMEI numbers. They are scamming me. Please refer to my posts above if you need to see the picture of the fake phone. My phone on the listing was red leather, the photo they sent me is of brown fake croc back. not what I posted.

[velvet-underground]

you poor thing . hope it all works out ok but with ebays leaning towards buyer   "protection" at every step of the way and little help for sellers i dont have much faith. on another note and just a word of advice..if that is a pic of you and your baby next to your ebay name, maybe you should consider using a generic pic or something else. really you dont know what freaks are out there. good luck with the phone i hope you get it resolved to your satisfaction x