eBay - am I being scammed?

StewartR

StewartR

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Stewart
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On 3rd December last year I sold an item of audio equipment on eBay. It's essentially a CD player / amplifier / had disk unit in one box and I sold it for a bit over £200. The buyer has a feedback score of over 900 with 100% positive.

On 2nd February I received a notification from eBay that the buyer has requested to return the item. The message from the buyer says: "This item is faulty, you have sold me goods under false statement. The disk has faults and keeps rejecting my music then has to go through a start up to fix the problems! Nit acceptable when I ve spent so much money on it! A partial refund will be acceptable"

I'm suspicious. The unit was working fine when I sold it, 3 months ago. And if the hard disk is faulty, why on earth would the buyer accept a partial refund? I think this is a scam. I think there's nothing wrong with it, and the buyer just wants a bit of money out of me.

What are my options? I'm worried that eBay has a reputation for siding with the buyer, however unreasonable they're being.
 
Had it for 2 months before finding fault? They're trying it on.

Unfortuntately eBay will side with them and not you so be prepared to kick up a fuss so that eBay/paypal don't whip the funds back off you
 
I would reject their partial refund and ask them to return the goods, using a signed for or tracked service, and give them a full refund once the goods are returned in the condition they were sent, they will either do this, or if they are trying to get some cash out of you, cancel the returns.
 
I'd be worried it was a bit of a scam too, even if it has broken in between Dec and Feb then that's the risk you take buying second hand goods off eBay and I certainly wouldn't be trying it on to get some money back if it were me.
 
Bear in mind that even if you empty any "cash" out of your e-bay/paypal account they can claim it back from your credit card.
2 months and they want to claim it's broken, the cheek of it.
 
For a private sale that's far too long to wait before making a complaint. This partial refund, does he want it and to also keep the unit or will he be sending the unit back? If the latter I'd be suspicious that you may not be getting the same unit back or if parts had been swapped out.
 
Ebay's rules are now biased far too much in favour of the buyer which is why I will never sell anything of real value on there.
 
gman said:
This partial refund, does he want it and to also keep the unit or will he be sending the unit back? If the latter I'd be suspicious that you may not be getting the same unit back or if parts had been swapped out.
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As I understand it, the partial refund means the buyer keep the item. That's a reasonable way to handle a problem if, for instance, an item picked up minor damage during transit. But I don't think it's appropriate here. I can't see why somebody would want a partial refund if the item is "not acceptable".
 
As mentioned above, refuse to accept and offer to refund the full amount. Call their bluff.
 
StewartR said:
@Byker28i , @MatBin - Can either of you two amplify this, please? Your comments appear to be contradict one another....
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Ebay will immediately find for the buyer and refund the amount from your paypal account. I wasn't aware they took it from your credit card if you had no funds.
I've had this happen to me, also seen it reported many times. People know ebay respond this way so play the system to either get a partial or full refund.

I won't sell on ebay now and very careful what I buy, which is minimal. There's usually other sources at similar prices with better protection.
 
i think they are definitely trying it on and if i my memory serves they are too late to open a dispute anyway
i think the dispute time frame is 30 days after the estimated delivery date or 30 days + 7

i would point out to ebay disputes that they have had the item for more than 2 months and according to your time frame a dispute must be put in within 30 days of receipt of the item or 45 days from date of payment

might be worth a read

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/money-back-guarantee.html#timelines


just to add
they can open a dispute any time they want but to try and escalate it to get a refund i don't think they will get very far considering it's well beyond the 30 day time frame
 
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I'd agree with the above - if it's two months it's too long. Send them the link above for their information.
 
StewartR said:
@Byker28i , @MatBin - Can either of you two amplify this, please? Your comments appear to be contradict one another....
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Afaik one of the reasons eBay/PayPal get you to give over credit card info is exactly for this situation, they have access to back charge you via your credit card if you have no other funds they can directly access.
 
MatBin said:
Afaik one of the reasons eBay/PayPal get you to give over credit card info is exactly for this situation, they have access to back charge you via your credit card if you have no other funds they can directly access.
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I can confirm this from personal experience.

Some years ago I discovered some fraudulent pending transactions on my PayPal account. When PayPal refused to suspend the transactions; I asked what would happen if I had no funds to cover the transactions and was told by PayPal that they would charge my debit card regardless even if it made me overdrawn.

I tried to delink my debit card from my PayPal account and found that I could not - PayPal will not allow you do this if there is a pending or disputed transaction in progress.

As I couldn't afford to go overdrawn by several £k the only way I could stop the payment from being taken was by actually closing my bank account.

Needless to say; Ihave never used PayPal again.
 
This thread has opened my eyes a bit on selling on eBay. Currently have over £1000 worth of Canon gear on there. I’m considering removing it now.
 
After that length of time he cannot go through ebay, so he's just trying it on.
 
THIRTYFIVEMILL said:
Yes he can. eBay increased the limit from 45 days to 90.
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That's terrible Dunc- I can understand that with brand new goods in shops etc, but not for second hand gear from Ebay.

As others said and I echo, that's why I don't sell on there any more.

Oh and @Matt- i'd seriously think about removing it. Not worth the hassle of selling, getting a good price, only to find that you've spent the money and Mr Scammer wants his money back.
 
Is there a time limit for a buyer to place a case?
Generally, buyers will have 30 days after actual (or latest estimated) delivery date to file a case — the same as with the current PayPal dispute resolution system. Exceptions may be made to buyers based on factors such as member account information, listing information, item location and postal method. Sellers will be asked to work things out with the buyer, if the seller and the buyer are unable to come to agreement, we won’t require reimbursement from the seller for the case.

Taken from
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/seller-protection-faq.html
 
Byker28i said:
Empty your paypal account now - do not have funds in it.
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boyfalldown said:
Further to that, remove any cards linked to the account too
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Interesting development to report. The return request was raised through eBay. The buyer hasn't raised a dispute on PayPal. So I can empty the PayPal account and unlink my cards, and then if the buyer does raise a dispute on PayPal, I'm safe.

...Or at least, that's what I thought. It turns out that the buyer has raised a PayPal dispute, but PayPal didn't bother telling me about it.

So basically, if I don't find a way to resolve this satisfactorily, my money is at risk.

upload_2018-2-10_10-50-11.png
 
This is the reason I stopped using ebay/paypal to sell items some time ago!
 
See what I posted above - they have 30 days. I'd raise a complaint that the time period has elapsed, you suspect you are being scammed
 
StewartR said:
Interesting development to report. The return request was raised through eBay. The buyer hasn't raised a dispute on PayPal. So I can empty the PayPal account and unlink my cards, and then if the buyer does raise a dispute on PayPal, I'm safe.

...Or at least, that's what I thought. It turns out that the buyer has raised a PayPal dispute, but PayPal didn't bother telling me about it.

So basically, if I don't find a way to resolve this satisfactorily, my money is at risk.

View attachment 119968
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That's really bad form on both the part of eBay, Paypal and the buyer!

Unfortunately, a buyer can chargeback via Paypal for up to 120 days after purchase, depending how they paid in Paypal of course - https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/chargebacks - I hope you get it sorted mate.
 
date says Dec 3rd on the dispute raised?
so he did raise it in very quick time?
 
IanD said:
That's terrible Dunc- I can understand that with brand new goods in shops etc, but not for second hand gear from Ebay.

As others said and I echo, that's why I don't sell on there any more.

Oh and @Matt- i'd seriously think about removing it. Not worth the hassle of selling, getting a good price, only to find that you've spent the money and Mr Scammer wants his money back.
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I have removed all items from eBay now.

Hope you get this sorted OP. Surely the seller needs some sort of protection from these scammers too.
 
Mr Bump said:
date says Dec 3rd on the dispute raised?
so he did raise it in very quick time?
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No. PayPal doesn't give me any information directly regarding when the dispute was raised. However by looking at my detailed monthly statements I can see that it was definitely not raised in December or January. I expect it was almost certainly done at the same time as the eBay return was requested, i.e. 2nd February.
 
I’m pretty sure the PayPal dispute is automaticly raised when the ebay one is, they are one and the same.

I had a very successful ebay shop. I closed it because as a seller, you are 100% screwed if someone decides to complain. I had so many obviously false complaints, some saying the items never arrived literally minutes after the person paid for it, and yet ebay/PayPal still took the money from my account and never gave it back.

Whole thing is one giant scammers paradise now and as a seller you are on your own.

In this case, refuse the partial refund and demand they send the item back, fully tracked. You can then offer a full refund. You will still end up out of pocket as they will break the item before sending it back, or they will escalate it further and make you send the refund first and then miraculously the item will get lost in the post.
Had that happen to me before too.
 
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