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]

Hello everyone,

No news yet at all from anywhere, the buyer is not responding to any requests for information and ACORN has not replied to my second email yet. But having a Police Reference number definitely makes me feel a little more secure.

I decided not to advise the byer to proceed with a pay pal dispute instead of the ebay one (as the pay pal person advised) and just leave it up to buyer what steps to take next.

Just wanted to ask again, in case someone missed my previous message - does anyone know by any chance how the ebay dispute process is handled? what are the steps? do they lock my funds in pay pal immediately as soon as dispute is opened? what is their policy with regards to posting items back? this could take months of waiting until the buyer posts this fake back and untill I actually receive it and then the fight to prove my case. would my funds be locked for months and months if it takes this long?

to the person who asked about TAG, unfortunately, they are not picking up phones and not returning messages, I might need to go there in person when (if) the case proceeds further.

[bright_tomato]

Oh gosh, I really hope so. I also hope he will just be stingy enough not to want to spend his own money on trackable return postage.

[zelly888]

With PayPal the buyer has 180 days to open a dispute so he can keep the phone for 179 days and then decided to open the dispute.

[kopenhagen5]

Just an aside BT, did you google maps their house.

Interesting to see if it's a shack falling apart or decent dwelling.

But as suggested, take a break from it. 

(We will still be here, tuning in to the ebay story of 2015)

[clarry100]

If the funds are in paypal now and not frozen I would download them to your bank account now and then move them into an account that is not associated with paypal. In fact make sure that account is a ZERO balance so they can't just dip in.

That way at least you should have control of the funds until they decide what is going to happen. Posession is 9/10 after all.

[cherry*135]

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@clarry100 wrote:

If the funds are in paypal now and not frozen I would download them to your bank account now and then move them into an account that is not associated with paypal. In fact make sure that account is a ZERO balance so they can't just dip in.

That way at least you should have control of the funds until they decide what is going to happen. Posession is 9/10 after all.

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Is that how it works? Who is going to dip in? Paypal? Will they put a hold on the sellers Paypal account for the amount of money in disupte?  If disupte is won,  will they take the amount disupted and leave the seller a negative balance?

[onei0403]

Negative no all's are so depressing.... I know I was brought up with them...

[lyndal1838]

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@bright_tomato wrote:

Hello everyone,

No news yet at all from anywhere, the buyer is not responding to any requests for information and ACORN has not replied to my second email yet. But having a Police Reference number definitely makes me feel a little more secure.

I decided not to advise the byer to proceed with a pay pal dispute instead of the ebay one (as the pay pal person advised) and just leave it up to buyer what steps to take next.

Just wanted to ask again, in case someone missed my previous message - does anyone know by any chance how the ebay dispute process is handled? what are the steps? do they lock my funds in pay pal immediately as soon as dispute is opened? what is their policy with regards to posting items back? this could take months of waiting until the buyer posts this fake back and untill I actually receive it and then the fight to prove my case. would my funds be locked for months and months if it takes this long?

to the person who asked about TAG, unfortunately, they are not picking up phones and not returning messages, I might need to go there in person when (if) the case proceeds further.

---

Technically ebay is supposed to wait till the seller receives the returned item before issuing the refund but unfortunately there have been several posters reporting that their funds have gone before they receive the item.

I would not worry too much about that though....there are still avenues of appeal if that happens to you and ebay may may be a bit more careful of the rules when they become aware of the Police Report.

Are you ringing the TAG Heuer 1800 freecall number?  If that is the importer/agent in Australia then you may find they are on holiday for another week or so.  The retail stores are open but the agebts close down over Christmas.

[bright_tomato]

Well that's it, case is opened in Ebay. Here we go. 😞

For some reason Acorn is still not replying to me :(.

Wish me luck.

[lizzy6107]

Very best of luck, and lets hope common sense prevails.

And that when they cant prove you did the wrong thing, that they don't take the money from you, & that they compensate the scammer themselves, otherwise, it's a total joke.

xxx