Home › Forums › Customer Issues › Buyers Can Get Free Stuff by Lying?
- This topic has 15 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 5 months ago by
Retro Treasures WV.
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03/17/2017 at 12:31 am #14711
Is there any way to dispute a return request if the buyer lies? If you get it back, it’s their word against yours, so who decides? How many times can a buyer do this? I wonder how ebay determines which buyers are scamming the system?
In my case, the buyer provided pictures that showed that the items were okay, but then said they weren’t lol. Ebay said they couldn’t make a ruling based on pictures, and I should just refund. Whaaaa?
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03/17/2017 at 7:34 am #14716
Just curious: how long have you sold on eBay? These things happen. You have to decide how much you want to fight a return. It sounds like you want to fight, so get on the phone. If one rep doesnt give you an answer you want, then hang up and call back. At some point, it is just their word against yours, but you can push it pretty far. When we have a grumpy buyer, we always remember that 99.99999% of our buyers are cool and awesome.
If we think a buyer is taking advantage of the system, we always have the buyer return the item for a refund. Three reasons:
–We may pay more in shipping costs, but we can then see the item that he said was damaged. Sometimes it is damaged and we are at fault. If it’s not damaged, then we can fight the return again.
–The buyer also does not get to keep the item if he is trying to scam us.
–It makes the buyer take an action. Sometimes grumpy buyers will just keep the item rather than have to mail it back. They like to send grumpy messages, but dont like to do anything else.If you were selling on Amazon, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. Amazon would just automatically refund the buyer.
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03/17/2017 at 9:08 am #14718
Jay gave good advice. Any business that deals with customers will have scams / returns / disgruntled customers. In the retail world its called shrinkage. Yeah it sucks to know you’ve been scammed / lost money, but you have to think of it as a cost of doing business.
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03/17/2017 at 10:50 am #14721
Good point, “If you can’t take the heat(or bullshit)….” I’m probably going to quit soon. I may return when and if ebay adjusts its policy on buyer fraud, tipping it more in our favor. We should at least be able to leave negative feedback to warn sellers. I’ve been selling since 2001, Jay. At some point, you just get tired of watching people get away with theft. eBay helps them defraud by siding with the buyer in cases of obvious fraud! They turn a blind eye to it. Thanks for hearing me out. It is what it is and I’m not cut out for it.
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This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by
Alex.
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03/17/2017 at 1:10 pm #14726
Understood. No one sells on eBay if it keeps them up at night.
Just curious: are most of your interactions on eBay bad? Just seems like you’re cutting off your nose to spite your face. If eBay is making you money, you definitely wont make money if you quit.
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This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by
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03/17/2017 at 2:11 pm #14734
Yes, the buyer can lie and Ebay will back them up. It is very frustrating trying to deal with Ebay customer serivce. I had a buyer in Canada who was awful to deal with. He ended getting to keep the item and I had to refund him, according to Ebay. I was not happy (quite angry) but had to keep reminding myself about shrinkage costs. Also, this case is my motivation to get the size of my store up to move up to an anchor store so I can get access to US based Ebay customer service.
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03/17/2017 at 2:14 pm #14735
To be clear, eBay will only let the buyer keep the item and pull a refund from you account if you refuse to do a return.
This is why we make buyers return the item if they want a return, and we disagree with their reason. This way the buyer cannot keep the item. We can also see the condition to better understand the problem.
If we feel we’re at fault, we just do the refund and let the buyer keep the item.
But bottom line: no one forces us to do anything.
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03/17/2017 at 2:37 pm #14738
Nope that is not true, at least it wasn’t in my case. The buyer refused to return the item. Insisted that I needed to furnish a prepaid label to send it back. I’m in the USA & he’s in Canada. I could not find a way to do it. I asked him to mail it back it back to me and I would reimburse him for the postage. He refused to do it and Ebay backed him up. Ebay said since he claimed the item was NAD I had to furnish prepaid postage for him to ship it back. (He lives in one of the neighborhoods that Martin (Things I find in the garbage) cherry picks from. I was tempted to ask him to pick up the item for me just so my buyer couldn’t keep it free of charge.) I spent hours on the phone with Ebay on this case. I got a different answer every time I spoke to someone. It was one of most frustrating experiences I have dealt with in quite a while.
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03/17/2017 at 2:41 pm #14740
Understood. That sucks if that was your experience.
We’re part of the Hassle Free returns program, so buyers must open a case to return an item and get a refund. They can print a label through the system. It’s easy.
If the buyer chooses to not use hassle Free Returns, then eBay ignores the buyer because there is a system in place. This has been true for us in every single case we’ve dealt with.
And to be clear, our return rate is usually under 3%. And of those 3 in 100, maybe only 1 in 500 is a difficult buyer. We like these odds.
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03/17/2017 at 2:46 pm #14743
But if they are International (as in my case) they cannot print a label through the Hassle Free Returns system. He also sells on Ebay and I think he figured out this loophole and exploited it.
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03/17/2017 at 3:48 pm #14747
i’ve had buyers in other countries open return cases and i have accepted the return and then just chosen “can’t provide shipping label for customer’s country”. and they have to provide one themselves. i had to call ebay to ask about it, because it wasn’t obvious.
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03/17/2017 at 4:20 pm #14749
The return was automatically accepted. Since he was in Canada, he couldn’t print out a return label. I explained to the buyer he needed to mail the package himself since it was an International transaction. I told him I’d pay him for the postage too. He refused to do it. I talked to multiple people at Ebay and all said I needed to provide him with a prepaid label. I talked to Canadian Post (very nice lady) and she said it was impossible. She said he would need to go to the post office and mail it since it was an International package. He refused. Customer service at Ebay sided with him. Said it didn’t matter if it couldn’t be done, if I couldn’t get him a prepaid label then my buyer did not have to return the item. It was like I was in an alternative world where logic made no sense. I was so frustrated. I pleaded with them to transfer me to a US based representative, because the overseas reps had no idea how the postal system works over here. They wouldn’t do it. It was an awful experience.
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03/17/2017 at 7:43 pm #14754
you say “The return was automatically accepted.” you have the option to not automatically accept returns if the buyer’s claim is that it’s your fault (INAD or item damaged). i only have returns automatically accepted if they buyer claims responsibility. that way you can talk to your buyer and try to work things out if they’re blaming you for the issue.
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03/21/2017 at 12:01 pm #14969
I has a GSP issue with a Canadian item. I also talked with the rep and I was told that I had to provide a label. It didn’t matter that I literally cannot do this and ebay does not care. In this case I just apologized and refunded the buyer since the item was definitely not as described (pallet merchandise I did not thoroughly inspect).
If ebay is going to have the GSP program, then they need to also provide some form of returns recourse. Now I just hope for the best when I ship something international. International customers through GSP are usually the best customers that never complain. Until ebay fixes the returns issue I’ll just keep playing the odds.
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03/17/2017 at 4:50 pm #14751
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03/21/2017 at 1:25 am #14943
Glad to help you with topic/content this week. lol Good luck in all your endeavors.
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