Grrr eBay...

[crunchywasp]

A “dish” best served cold

[pubjoe]

Could be a con carne waiting to happen.

[crunchywasp]

Sometimes you’ve just got to casserole with the punches.

[zak]

Sometimes you’ve just got to casserole with the punches.

[cools]

Had this message come through last night.

We had to cancel bids and purchases on the following item(s) for the buyer, *REMOVED*, because they were made without the account owner's permission:
*REMOVED*

We’ve also made it easy to relist your item if it was removed. Although the item is no longer available in search listings, you will find it in the “Sold” section of My eBay. For more information, please visit:
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/relist.html

--Selling tip--
To help you avoid this situation in the future, consider setting a Buy It Now price and requiring buyers to make an immediate payment. For more information on immediate payments, visit:
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/pay/requir ... yment.html

We also recommend you take the following actions if this buyer won the item:
- If you haven't received payment, don't complete the sale or send the item to the buyer.
- Don't communicate with the buyer directly.
- Verify any payments you've been notified of by logging in to your PayPal account (or other online payment service).
- If the buyer requests refunds or additional payments, don't send any money without contacting eBay first.
- If you've already sent the item, try contacting the shipping carrier to find out if you can stop shipment.

The buyer had paid very quickly after the auction end. Global Shipping Programme, I sent it out within 24 hours. Checking the guys feedback I see lots of stuff (over a long time) that fits with what was sold, so I'm suspicious of a hack report by the buyer. This has the scent of a refund scam attempt going to kick in after he receives the item...

[SuperPang]

Their policies are a joke. It's a free for all for buyers.

My dad collects gramophones. A few months ago he sold a soundbox (basically a cartridge) for 40 quid plus shipping to Australia. It was exactly as described and well packed. When it arrives the buyer says it doesn't fit properly. He tries to offer some advice, assuming it's just down to user error but the buyer reports the item as faulty to ebay and immediately leaves negative feedback "Warning do not buy aa items are faulty." His first negative in several years and 3000 positive feedback.

In his complaint he provides a couple of pictures to ebay which show the soundbox and needle incorrectly fitted, basically just not pushed on properly, staged. At this point he asks for a part refund. My dad says no, tells ebay the guy is trying to pull a fast one. Ebay insist on a return so my dad reluctantly agrees to refund the full amount including return postage when he receives the item, knowing full well he could make a loss. The buyer tells ebay he can't afford the return postage. Ebay ask if dad can arrange a prepaid label, not without the package dimensions which the buyer ignores requests for.

Weeks of messages back and forth with different people from ebay ensue, by which point we've spotted about a dozen negatives in the buyers "feedback left for others" with responses from the sellers that make it bloody obvious he does this all the time and even sells some of the items on. He points this out to ebay who say they have another department who would've picked up on any fraudulent activity.

My dad did everything ebay asked of him but the buyer went dark and they eventually closed the case in the buyer's favour, refunded and let him keep the item. They won't even remove the negative feedback.

[geotrig]

does common sense actually exist any more .... I just cant see how any decision could come down in the buyers favour there but as you said total joke

@cools is their any way to recall your package with the GSP ?

[SuperPang]

Ebay support were nice enough and tried to help but they don't seem to be allowed to use their initiative. They just follow procedure. Some buyers know how to play the system.

[thomj]

Cools, I am sure you'll be fine. Even if it wasn't GSP You are covered under seller terms and GSP adds an extra layer of protection. If you have tracking showing delivery to the GSP depot, or it is marked as arrived at their depot in ebay's system then you will 100% win any claim. They may still end up with the item and refund but you won't be out of pocket.

Pang, depending on how much trouble you want to go to you can appeal the case. I have had success doing so in the past. If you already have all of the evidence to hand: maybe screen shot his previous negatives, the photos showing he didn't fit it correctly etc. Hopefully he may even have relisted the soundbox now which would totally seal it. And especially his refusal to give info for a return label, compile that into a little summary and submit an appeal with the evidence. Just depends if you want to sink the time in. If you win the appeal the negative automaticlly disappears.

[cools]

It's taken me hours just to find the form to contact eBay. I've asked them to stop it there but I don't hold much hope of that happening. We'll see - it's not a huge chunk of money (which I've already withdrawn from PayPal anyway).

thomj: I'm relying on that. Tracking hasn't picked it up yet.

If he does turn out to be pulling a fast one I'll be off to Neo-Arcadia forums with a scammer warning (he's near Marseilles)

[thomj]

GSP are able to stop parcels but in practice they rarely do. Last time I had something similar I went on the ebay live chat support and they submitted the parcel request for me, only took a couple of minutes. They said it was too late to stop the parcel on that occasion although I suspect the just couldn't be arsed

[SuperPang]

Pang, depending on how much trouble you want to go to you can appeal the case. I have had success doing so in the past. If you already have all of the evidence to hand: maybe screen shot his previous negatives, the photos showing he didn't fit it correctly etc. Hopefully he may even have relisted the soundbox now which would totally seal it. And especially his refusal to give info for a return label, compile that into a little summary and submit an appeal with the evidence. Just depends if you want to sink the time in. If you win the appeal the negative automaticlly disappears.

Thanks. Had it been a more expensive item we would've taken it further but life's too short. It's ridiculous that you have to go to such lengths to prove what should be obvious to anyone who takes a few minutes to look at the whole picture. Part of the problem is that you get a reply from a different agent every time.

[thomj]

Agreed. Lately I've been using the live chat more than phone so there is a log. The new operator can read and won't contradict any previous guidance but agreed. The system is pretty convoluted and easily open to different interpretations by staff

[skykappah]

Just turn into a buyer only. There’s too many scammers about and having worked in retail in the past dealing with online sales. If you sell using Amazon or eBay.... you won’t last long if you stand up against the scammers. You will have your shop/account account revoked after 1 strike on amazon with no appeal.
eBay listens but ultimately can do squat once it reaches the buyer but at least they don’t permaban your entire IP address and friend’s IP address you’ve logged in with.

On a business sense, this is how it works... they get so many new sellers over ones getting banned or scammed that they can afford to neglect the sellers. The turnaround is better for them to not help the sellers or at least not be effective. They can afford to close their eyes because the money just keeps rolling in.

The god awful saying that the customer is always right is a button that is permanently taped to on, on their desk. You always read or hear about consumer rights but what is the opposite of that? Never heard of it have you.

It’s all geared towards inviting scams inevitably.

[geotrig]

Just turn into a buyer only.

Its a pain buying from ebay and even amazon these days,I nearly avoid amazon compared to how much i used to buy stuff off there anymore (mainly delivery related extended for here), its also a pain trying to filter through to find a seller at times that is located in Ireland(non existant)/ uk /europe etc rather than china"but advertised as being local ", now some are grand and they deliver fast but its driving me to shop in B&M more and more if at all possible and not being totally ripped off by it , the price disparities at times make that difficult though.

rant over !

[cools]

Cools, I am sure you'll be fine. Even if it wasn't GSP You are covered under seller terms and GSP adds an extra layer of protection. If you have tracking showing delivery to the GSP depot, or it is marked as arrived at their depot in ebay's system then you will 100% win any claim. They may still end up with the item and refund but you won't be out of pocket.

GSP can do one, it's being switched off in my account from now on.

An "item not as described" is always a valid request (even if "no returns" are allowed). But international returns are NOT handled within GSP at all, so essentially both you and the buyer are on their own to figure it out...

Hadn't realised that general final value fees were 10% either. Ridiculous.

[pubjoe]

Hadn't realised that general final value fees were 10% either. Ridiculous.

And £1 Total fvf most Friday to Mondays. It’s stupid. It deters custom in non-offer periods more than Steam, the Nike store... much more than any example I can think of.

Wish they’d just fix it back to 5% and leave it at that.

[thomj]

I got wrapped up in a GSP return like that once but only the one time. It was a true ballache. It definitely has many problems but I still use GSP as to me the benefits still outweigh the downsides.
Fees have been 10% for as long as I can remember!

[markedkiller78]

GSP is great when there are no problems.

I bought a GBA a few years back. It was not in the condition it was in the pictures. eBay said deal with the seller, which I did, “the damage must have been caused by vibrations during transit” he didn’t know what to do, so contacted eBay who said tell the buyer to go through disputes. I did and we both waited for weeks to pass to get to the next step in the dispute process

It took about 8 weeks, but I got a full refund and was told to keep the GBA. afaik it was eBay that paid the refund, not the seller. I imported it from the us and paid the VAT in advance to eBay. That had nothing to do with the seller, but made it all the more complicated.

eBay were useless throughout. Telling me one thing and him another. Free GBA though

I occasionally use them to sell high value stuff, like cave kits. I can guarantee the packages are not “insured” in the traditional sense, but I honestly thing the seller has a better chance of keeping the money if it got lost than actually trying to insure it for £2k with DHL/UPS etc

[pubjoe]

Fees used to depend on the category (video games and electronics were 5%) and would max out at about £50 or £75 iirc. But yeah that was a long time ago now. Ten years?