Yes, I've been screwed on EBay. I'm a photographer and was replacing some of my B+W filters with those made by Breakthrough. I'd tested out a couple of the Breakthrough filters, and found them better (less color cast) then the B+W filters I'd been using - so I put a like new B+W filter up for sale on EBay. Buyer snaps it up quick, Paypals me money and I ship the filter. Buyer comes back and says filter is no good and wants to return it. The filter I get back is trashed, it's not the one I sold. I contact Paypal, send them my photos of the filter I sold and the filter that got returned. Paypal sides with the buyer, I'm out a filter. It wasn't a huge sum of money, but I leaned selling things without s/n's might not be a good idea on EBay.
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Anyone got cheated in eBay before?
- Thread starter Son of Matrix
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@merkinmuffley Yeah, serial numbers and photos (even macros!) are good. I think people too often allowed to buy something, destroy it, and then cry to PayPal for a refund. Just don't sell any fast primes on ebay. 
Avoid-Bay. Sometimes (like Amazon), it can be a matter of a "merchant" selling something that they think is "this version or that version" -but they have no real technical knowledge of the thing they are selling, or they are simply thieves.
So there are two possibilities: [a] They are maliciously deceptive, or They are ignorantly deceptive.
Avoid-Bay. Sometimes (like Amazon), it can be a matter of a "merchant" selling something that they think is "this version or that version" -but they have no real technical knowledge of the thing they are selling, or they are simply thieves.
So there are two possibilities: [a] They are maliciously deceptive, or They are ignorantly deceptive.
I'm likely in the process of being cheated.
I sold an Apple Watch back in December last year. I received an email from the buyer with a correction to the postcode, sent the item off and heard no more. A couple of weeks ago I get an email from Paypal saying the buyer's bank has taken the money back on the basis that the buyer claimed they had "not authorised the purchase". Given that they contacted me with a postcode correction, it's clear that if their account was not hacked then they knew perfectly well they made the purchase and are now attempting to defraud me of the purchase price, with support from their bank and PayPal. Reading through the Chargeback section of the Paypal community site seems to reveal this is a problem that keeps occurring, with some people getting chargebacks months after a transaction has gone through and getting taken for the sale price, plus fees on top. To put it simply - there is no protection for sellers. The presumption seems to be that buyers are defrauded by sellers, but not the other way round.
I sold an Apple Watch back in December last year. I received an email from the buyer with a correction to the postcode, sent the item off and heard no more. A couple of weeks ago I get an email from Paypal saying the buyer's bank has taken the money back on the basis that the buyer claimed they had "not authorised the purchase". Given that they contacted me with a postcode correction, it's clear that if their account was not hacked then they knew perfectly well they made the purchase and are now attempting to defraud me of the purchase price, with support from their bank and PayPal. Reading through the Chargeback section of the Paypal community site seems to reveal this is a problem that keeps occurring, with some people getting chargebacks months after a transaction has gone through and getting taken for the sale price, plus fees on top. To put it simply - there is no protection for sellers. The presumption seems to be that buyers are defrauded by sellers, but not the other way round.
This is one I didn't know about. EBay is a den of crooks, I avoid doing anything there.
One additional tale of woe, FWIW.
I had an old high-end preamplifier that I sold to a fellow across the country. (I’m on the US West Coast. He was in New England.)
I had the original shipping container from the manufacturer. As you would expect from a high-end product it was heavy cardboard with rubberized padding, literally a box inside a box inside a box. The box must have weighed at least 5 or 6 pounds.
I communicated with the fellow through ebay’s email system and he asked that I put the box inside another, larger shipping box. He told me he’d pay for the extra shipping. The total sale originally was about $150 plus the shipping he had paid for. But the additional box and weight and size added another $65 to the cost. He said he'd pay for the additional cost, but he never did.
When I contacted ebay they made a song-and-dance about how I should not have used their email system and I should have taken some other action. Even though they saw the emails, they basically said “Too bad. We can’t help you.”
YMMV. Good luck.
I had an old high-end preamplifier that I sold to a fellow across the country. (I’m on the US West Coast. He was in New England.)
I had the original shipping container from the manufacturer. As you would expect from a high-end product it was heavy cardboard with rubberized padding, literally a box inside a box inside a box. The box must have weighed at least 5 or 6 pounds.
I communicated with the fellow through ebay’s email system and he asked that I put the box inside another, larger shipping box. He told me he’d pay for the extra shipping. The total sale originally was about $150 plus the shipping he had paid for. But the additional box and weight and size added another $65 to the cost. He said he'd pay for the additional cost, but he never did.
When I contacted ebay they made a song-and-dance about how I should not have used their email system and I should have taken some other action. Even though they saw the emails, they basically said “Too bad. We can’t help you.”
YMMV. Good luck.
Hoping for the best, and most likely you're fine. I have purchased three things on eBay, one laptop which I got in perfect condition, one Apple 128K mouse that they said worked but came with a broken pin. I'll never ever use them again unless I can pick it up in person.
If you've already withdrawn the money from your PayPal account, just close your PayPal account/dissociate it with all of your cards, etc.
The reason for the postcode change is that you lose any PayPal protection if you don't ship to the confirmed address.
For the record, I don't go near eBay any more. When trying to sell my iPhone 6 I sold it no less than 4 times. One didn't contact at all, one did the above, paid with a note to ship to Nigeria (I refunded before it became a chargeback). One emailed to negotiate "escrow" payment, and one won the bid, and then said "I'll offer you £100 less than the auction price so you don't have to go through the hassle of re-listing".
Now I just trade in to electronics shops - yeah you might get 5-10% less cash, but it's worth it not to deal with the above crap.
Raise the issue with eBay immediately, and if you don't get a response from the buyer today then call the police.
[doublepost=1488961829][/doublepost]I've stopped selling stuff on ebay now as I find the experience terrible - it's weighted too much in the favour of the buyer.
Twice I have had people return stuff as faulty, when it is clear they have damaged it just to be able to get a refund because the listing said 'no returns'. Doesn't matter if you put no returns on your listing, if it's deemed to be damaged then the buyer automatically gets a 30 day warranty.
I fully support replacing something if it's faulty, but when stuff is been deliberately damaged and there's nothing you can do, but take the hit. You can't even leave negative feedback for buyers any more to warn others against dodgy buyers and ebay will not back you up in this case.
The best one was trying to sell an Apple watch. Someone bought it and paid straight away. Ebay then cancelled the bid claiming the transaction was fraudulent and advised me to relist for free. Fair enough these things happen. Paypal however wouldn't return the money to they buyer, or let me return it. the only thing I could do was respond to a question in the case that they opened and pretty much say that I accepted liability for the error and would subsequently be charged £13!!! I had absolutely no control over these events but because the customers credit card company, who didn't actually release any funds, but had to do some work, decided to charge £13 for their efforts - and this has to be passed onto the buyer. After a long fight, they decided I wasn't liable for something I had no control over.
I've also had people refuse to pay once they've won a bid, and pretty much say 'tough, relist it'. They just don't comprehend what is wrong with their timewasting behaviour.
Overall eBay has become a place that is horrible for normal trust worthy people to sell, but a paradise if you are dodgy scumbag.
Exactly. Ebay offer a 30 day guarantee - you can't opt out of this as a seller. I won't be using them again until they change this policy.
PLEASE READ THIS IN FULL AND ADHERE TO IT LIKE GOSPOL.
Ebay are tricky to work with but if you follow my lead, you won't go wrong.
When ever you decide to buy something on ebay always check the sellers feedback. But check the selling feedback. That indicates how he's been selling and what sort of customer support he gives. Has to be min 100 sales.
If they have anything lower than 100% feedback, look at what's been said in the details of the feedback. If it's red, avoid at all cost.
If you decide to buy something always email them and see how soon they reply.
When ever you pay for anything on ebay, always pay by Paypal and CREDIT CARD. This way your covered both ways and NEVER into anyone's bank account.
Yes I've a bought a few items on ebay but always get my money back if anything goes wrong, why because you have to follow the rules above.
And I sell quite a few items on there too but you have to make it work for you.
If anyone needs advice on anything to do with ebay, just email me and I'll try my best to help you out .
I don't like people losing out.
Thanks
Ebay are tricky to work with but if you follow my lead, you won't go wrong.
When ever you decide to buy something on ebay always check the sellers feedback. But check the selling feedback. That indicates how he's been selling and what sort of customer support he gives. Has to be min 100 sales.
If they have anything lower than 100% feedback, look at what's been said in the details of the feedback. If it's red, avoid at all cost.
If you decide to buy something always email them and see how soon they reply.
When ever you pay for anything on ebay, always pay by Paypal and CREDIT CARD. This way your covered both ways and NEVER into anyone's bank account.
Yes I've a bought a few items on ebay but always get my money back if anything goes wrong, why because you have to follow the rules above.
And I sell quite a few items on there too but you have to make it work for you.
If anyone needs advice on anything to do with ebay, just email me and I'll try my best to help you out .
I don't like people losing out.
Thanks
One of the biggest eBay fraud cases ever involved fraudulent sale of MacBooks- nearly a million dollars worth.
I've had three scam attempts in the last 24 hours.
The latest was selling an iPhone 7, being paid and then getting the "this is a gift for my son please send it to a different address" message. I cancelled the order and reported the buyer to ebay. Last night I had a purchaser that wanted to pay then have a friend collect the phone - only the account the request was made from was a different account to the one that paid. Then I had an email from the real account owner wanting to know why I had taken £xxx from his account. The worst one, which is as yet unresolved was a buyer who said her PayPal was not connected to her ebay account and could I invoice her through PayPal and she would pay. I phoned ebay to ask if this was OK and they said yes so I went ahead. Received the "you've been paid email" and posted the phone. Only it looks like the "you've been paid" email was fake because my PayPal summary still shows the money as being unpaid. Hopefully Paypal will protect me on this one as I have proof of postage this time, though having dealt with PayPal before I'm not overly optimistic. Seemingly, eBay has become a den of thieves.
[Update]Paypal are claiming they owe me no protection because I didn't print the postage label via their page.
Whilst on the phone to Paypal I was told that the account that I sent the invoice to was flagged and known as an account being used for fraudulent transactions. I've raised an official complaint with them as they should have warned me or better still blocked the account when they realised it was being used for criminal behaviour. By not doing either they are complicit in the fraud. If they refuse to acknowledge this then it's going to have to be the Small Claims Court, unless I can find a lawyer willing to take the case on on a 'no win no fee' basis.
Paypal are an ugly company.
The latest was selling an iPhone 7, being paid and then getting the "this is a gift for my son please send it to a different address" message. I cancelled the order and reported the buyer to ebay. Last night I had a purchaser that wanted to pay then have a friend collect the phone - only the account the request was made from was a different account to the one that paid. Then I had an email from the real account owner wanting to know why I had taken £xxx from his account. The worst one, which is as yet unresolved was a buyer who said her PayPal was not connected to her ebay account and could I invoice her through PayPal and she would pay. I phoned ebay to ask if this was OK and they said yes so I went ahead. Received the "you've been paid email" and posted the phone. Only it looks like the "you've been paid" email was fake because my PayPal summary still shows the money as being unpaid. Hopefully Paypal will protect me on this one as I have proof of postage this time, though having dealt with PayPal before I'm not overly optimistic. Seemingly, eBay has become a den of thieves.
[Update]Paypal are claiming they owe me no protection because I didn't print the postage label via their page.
Whilst on the phone to Paypal I was told that the account that I sent the invoice to was flagged and known as an account being used for fraudulent transactions. I've raised an official complaint with them as they should have warned me or better still blocked the account when they realised it was being used for criminal behaviour. By not doing either they are complicit in the fraud. If they refuse to acknowledge this then it's going to have to be the Small Claims Court, unless I can find a lawyer willing to take the case on on a 'no win no fee' basis.
Paypal are an ugly company.
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Doesn't happen all the time with Paypal, but protection is better than the bank charging you directly and flipping you off and say "Sorry, talk to the seller" Your on your own..
At least Paypal stands up for you sometimes, which is always good even if its not all the time.
Damn you should have used PayPal.
I got scammed as a seller back in 07-08. I sold a 1800 MacBook Pro at that time. The seller said he never got it and reversed charged my account. I had no recourse to get my money back. Lost cause and lesson learned to never sell on eBay a laptop.
PayPal/ebay for better or worse protects their buyers.
Paypal conditions are not very clear when it comes to sellers (I am one)...
I always felt safe when buying, and never when selling
I always felt safe when buying, and never when selling
I agree. They protect the buyer but not the seller. Therefore do you due diligence, weight the risk vs reward.
For me, I never sell anything online unless if I cant afford to eat the loss.
For me, I never sell anything online unless if I cant afford to eat the loss.
The thing is I sold dozens before I lost $1800 to a scammer. Medium range iBook or iMac, lots of video games and textbooks before that one incident. Ruined it for me.
Unfortunately, the folks who play this game usually set themselves up with good feedback by buying and selling a lot of really cheap items and doing exactly what they should do in those purchases/sales. Once they have a 100% or so rating based on a good number of transactions, they go to town with their scam.