Thought I’d write this as maybe a warning to others & maybe a bit of therapy for myself ... Back in February this year i sold an iPhone 8 on eBay for £430, a couple of days later the buyer requested via eBay to return the phone claiming it to be faulty, the phone was in perfect working order & immaculate, I’m extremely fussy / bordering on anal ! I refused to except the return, I did a bit of research & noticed that he had been buying broken phones & parts from various eBay shops He even had the phone sent to Argos for collection, to avoid giving out his address He had a comment on his feedback thread saying ‘ do not deal with this person, he sent me back a broken phone’, further down the page there was a similar commmet, these were hard to spot, as ebays rediculous ruling that only a green positive mark can be left for buyers, but the comment left can be negative I couldn’t resist messaging the bastard & telling him I knew he was a pond life scammer & would not be accepting the phone back, I had no reply from him After that I contacted the sellers that had left bad feedback asking of there experiences with him, they were very helpful & gave me the info, I rang eBay & explained, I was told that eBay could not step in until 10 days had passed, in which time they would of hoped that buyers / sellers sort the matter out between themselves I heard no more about it until PayPal rang me on Saturday to say my PayPal balance was in debit to the tune of £430 ! , a refund had been made to the buyer, I couldn’t believe it, the PayPal chap told me that they had sent me emails asking for my side of the story, but I’d failed to reply, as I was taking to the chap, in my mind I thought bloody junk folder, sure enough there were the emails sent from PayPal ! I explained this, but he wasn’t interested, I’ve since contacted the claims dept at PayPal , but they have refused to reopen the case. So this scammer has had his money refunded & kept my phone, I’ve just written an email to PayPal, I await there response.
Being turned over is one thing but having Ebay side with the guilty party is unacceptable. Good luck with it. I lost faith selling on Ebay after a similar but not as costly scam from a lady who insisted goods were smashed up and insisted on full refund before returning to me. She also left my only ever negative feedback. Ebay do not support sellers. Not sure what the answer is; only accept purchase from 100% rated buyers with over xx feedback? Probably not allowed.
If you hadn't missed the emails I'm sure you would have been fine - but keep at them! I sold some timing belts via Ebay to a foreign land far away - no complaint via Ebay. Then 3 weeks after delivery PayPal contacted me as the seller had claimed his credit card had been used without his permission! So he had the parts delivered to his address, done nothing about it for 3 weeks, then complained through his credit card company! I told them the story and they sided for me luckily...
Oh, and out of thousands of transactions over the last 4 years that's the only one I've had - so not all that bad. Maybe it's just that Ducati owners tend to be good eggs
In the case of Phones, I always take the imei number of the phone I'm sending and a picture showing it for ebay purposes should there be any problem and always send it special delivery to the persons address. I always include this act in the description of the phone being sold. So far on phones, I've not had an issue.
Well known con to get your phone fixed is to simply use someone else's for parts. If I break my screen I simply order a phone in perfect condition, swap the screens and send it back. IMEI and serials are all still intact. The whole thing has basically meant I will try not to sell those types of goods on ebay.
I rarely sell anything on ebay entirely because of these scammers. eBay is totally biased toward buyers. Sorry that this cvnt ripped you off.
Paypal, why I will never use it. Once bitten twice shy. Almost exactly the same scam as played on me with the inevitable paypal refund to buyer. It took a over a year to get squared up, even with the filth involved so don’t hold your breath!
Keep on at both Ebay and PayPal, you're in the right and appear to have corroborating evidence he a scammer. It'll be tedious and drawn out but you'll get there eventually. I hate people that do things like this, they're low life scum with no feelings/conscience towards fellow humanity. One solace you can take is that Karma exists. What goes around comes around and one day his comeuppance will be delivered.
The little lady sold a Gucci hand bag to a Uk buyer that requested it was posted to Spain a couple of years ago - 9 days after PayPal refunded the buyer as they claied the bag was not genuine, they had a letter from the local Gucci shop stating the bag presented was not Genuine, As it’s not legal to post fake items the bag could not be returned. No serial number even quoted. No money no bag She waited four months for this scum to list something worth while - listed a genuine Dior bag nearly new best part of £600 purchased with my eBay account - went to Bicester Village and made a donation to a charity and got a letter to confirm the bag was a fake( Tesco carrier with Dior written on it ) Got our money back and sold it for £500 - had to wait but used the same scam back ! - dish best served cold, More than one way to get your own back.
It's exactly because of this sort of thing I use tamper proof stickers on the items I sell. If you try to remove them the foil half detatches to reveal the word 'VOID'. Got stitched up in the past where the buyer kept my working item and returned their faulty/broken item and claimed a refund. Ebay and PayPal always side with the buyer.
I sold a mint pair of large floor standing speakers on eBay a couple of years ago. They were packed so well it would have taken about half an hour to get into the box and they would have survived a drop from the roof of my house intact. Scammer sent me pictures of speakers with a hole in one of the drivers, and bite marks on the cabinets and torn covers from what I assume were his dogs. It was so blatant, I did however have loads of high res pics that I gave to Paypal after he opened a case. It took me about a month to sort out and the funds I got for them were removed from my account while it went on. I’m loathe to sell anything on there now as I always seem to get messed about at least once a year.
