Diagnostics of alleged issue vs eBay scam.

[faded_glory]

I sold a 2014 13" MacBook Pro on ebay. Three weeks later I received a message from the buyer claiming that the machine was periodically freezing, required several reboots a day and now wouldn't boot at all. So I accepted the Return. This morning the machine arrived and booted perfectly first try. I rebooted it and ran the Apple diagnostic thing which returned a "no issue found" report. So I took the bottom plate off to see if perhaps the vent was clogged with dust - it was spotlessly clean. So I wiped it and reinstalled High Sierra and then ran etrecheck and Maccheck - both came back with a clean bill of health. I've imported my iPhoto collection and 40,000 emails (both fairly processor intensive). The machine continues to run perfectly.
I'm at a loss as to how to proceed. I suspect the buyer changed his mind and thought that claiming the machine was faulty was more likely to get him a refund as I'd put "no returns accepted" on the listing (though that is worth precisely nothing as far as ebay is concerned).
Are there any other apps that I might try? Or have the 3 "all good" results said as much as needs to be said and it's just a case of relisting it and hoping for a better quality of buyer?

 

[raqball]

Happens all the time and honestly probably best to just refund the buyer and sell it again. eBay will refund your seller fees so at most you are only out the original shipping cost. Sadly PayPal allows 6 months for a buyer to file a claim and they will almost always side with the buyer even if they offer up lame excuses, Also, it does not matter if you list it as no returns as all the buyer has to say is not as described.

Sell it on craigslist for cash only or try swappa. I've had good luck with both but a cash in hand craigslist sale wold be best. If sold on swappa you are still at the mercy of PayPal's 6 month claim period.

 

[Fishrrman]

The problem was with the buyer, not the MacBook.

Just be glad that you got it back in good condition (without having the buyer trash it and STILL want the money back).

 

[faded_glory]

Happens all the time and honestly probably best to just refund the buyer and sell it again. eBay will refund your seller fees so at most you are only out the original shipping cost. Sadly PayPal allows 6 months for a buyer to file a claim and they will almost always side with the buyer even if they offer up lame excuses, Also, it does not matter if you list it as no returns as all the buyer has to say is not as described.

Sell it on craigslist for cash only or try swappa. I've had good luck with both but a cash in hand craigslist sale wold be best. If sold on swappa you are still at the mercy of PayPal's 6 month claim period.

I'm in the UK so no Craigslist.
We have a site called gumtree, also now owned by eBay though not, I think, bound by the same conditions.
Cash in hand deals worry me, there's a risk of fake cash or theft with violence. I'm in my 50's with respiratory issues and no one to stand guard, so to speak.
[doublepost=1518463544][/doublepost]

The problem was with the buyer, not the MacBook.

Just be glad that you got it back in good condition (without having the buyer trash it and STILL want the money back).

Yes, agreed.
I spent an hour playing a full screen tower defence game this afternoon - again, no problems at all and temperatures immediately after the game were well within normal.
[doublepost=1518463579][/doublepost]Thanks for the replies.

 

[ctdw]

Had a similar issue with eBay sale. Person stated the unit was getting too hot to even hold...this had never happened to me while using it. He claimed this was happening on a new install even before he restored his backup. Very difficult person and was clearly just trying to return it (it was a Retina MacBook 12 so he probably determined it was too small). I ended up letting him return it since I did not want to deal with a bad review or issue with eBay. Of course when it came back I could not reproduce the issue and let him know that when I processed his refund. I blocked him from bidding on my items going forward.

I have sold a lot of stuff on eBay and I really only had two return issues so overall I have done OK.

 

[lambertjohn]

I suspect the buyer changed his mind and thought that claiming the machine was faulty was more likely to get him a refund as I'd put "no returns accepted" on the listing (though that is worth precisely nothing as far as ebay is concerned).

I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is exactly what happened. Sadly, we don't live in an honest world. There's always someone out there who will tell a lie to get what they want. I imagine the buyer found a better deal somewhere else and got a sudden case of buyers remorse on his purchase from you, thus the tall tale. I'm sorry it happened to you.

 

[Sterkenburg]

I can completely understand your situation, OP. I stopped accepting PayPal payments after being similarly tricked by a douchebag who exploited their policy of accepting any made-up excuse from the buyer, and forcing the seller to bear the burden. Unfortunately, proving that the other party is lying is often impossible, so there's no way out but to comply even when you're 99% sure that you're dealing with a dishonest person.

Unfortunately people will go to any length as long as they know they can get away with it. These days I always ask for cash, or a wire transfer if the buyer can't meet in person with me.

 

[New_Mac_Smell]

I'm in the UK so no Craigslist.
We have a site called gumtree, also now owned by eBay though not, I think, bound by the same conditions.
Cash in hand deals worry me, there's a risk of fake cash or theft with violence. I'm in my 50's with respiratory issues and no one to stand guard, so to speak.
[doublepost=1518463544][/doublepost]

Yes, agreed.
I spent an hour playing a full screen tower defence game this afternoon - again, no problems at all and temperatures immediately after the game were well within normal.
[doublepost=1518463579][/doublepost]Thanks for the replies.

Don't do a cash deal if you can help it, as annoying as PayPal and stuff is it protects both the buyer and seller and offers a clean traceable source of money. If you deal with cash it comes down to a he said/she said thing and as you said the worry. If you absolutely must deal with cash, then use a public space such as outside a police station, provide a written receipt and ask they sign it, just to give you some piece of mind.

You just had a ropey eBay user though, next time try restricting bidders to a certain rating, make sure you clearly describe the product and hope for the best.

I had a buyer recently who was a pain, sold a 20 year old diesel that was headed for the scrappy (Was worthless), but still had some use as like a temporary car or farm vehicle or something - so listed it if someone wanted it. It was worth like £50 so was being sold in the state it was in, absolutely filthy. Described it as being dirty and needing a clean, as well as the faults and stuff. Buyer left me negative feedback because it was dirty, they were also based in London - and thought a 20 year old diesel would be a good buy? Thankfully didn't ask to return it, they came and collected it but hadn't brought enough cash which I let them off with as I really couldn't care less. But that was a fun time dealing with eBay to sort this person out, they re-listed the car using my photos without asking, slagging me off in their auction (Obviously that one didn't sell...). Had like 3 months of rubbish for it just for trying to give someone a bargain car instead of scrapping it (Was only 60k miles!). So I don't like/use eBay now...

 

[bhatiak]

I'm in the UK so no Craigslist.
We have a site called gumtree, also now owned by eBay though not, I think, bound by the same conditions.
Cash in hand deals worry me, there's a risk of fake cash or theft with violence. I'm in my 50's with respiratory issues and no one to stand guard, so to speak.
[doublepost=1518463544][/doublepost]

Just request to meet at an Apple Store to do the trade, and you can very easily check for counterfeit cash I assume?

 

[faded_glory]

I had a lengthy email from the buyer yesterday, assuring me that he works in IT, that the problem occurred without apparent cause "when typing on Pages, when browsing, when using Logic Pro". That he'd spent hours on the phone with Apple, who could not diagnose the issue and said "bring it in" (this bit has me wondering - it's a 2014 model and as such there's no free telephone support, though I've never had to phone Apple so I can't say for sure). He claims surprise that the machine booted first try, though in retrospect his story has changed in small ways every time he's emailed me. When I sent him a sharp email telling him the machine had booted first time and that I could find no issues with it and had thus reported him to ebay for abusing the Retuns process he claimed that he'd said the boot failure was intermittent. He claimed no such thing. But the Email doesn't have the ring of someone making stuff up, so now I'm wondering if it's safe to list and sell again or whether to break it down and sell it for spare parts - the screen is in perfect condition, as is the case. The battery is at 96% health with only 100 cycles on it. It looks new. Even if I take a loss on it and sell it with a warning I'm still open to it being returned by whoever buys it up to 30 days after the transaction regardless of any caveats included, unless I sell it as "for parts or not working", which would be slightly absurd.

 

[Ma2k5]

When I sold mine, I used https://mresell.macworld.co.uk/ in UK (there are probably similar services but they paid the most at the time).

Might not get an offer as high as eBay, but after eBay and PayPal selling fees, the difference is worth the peace of mind.

 

[faded_glory]

When I sold mine, I used https://mresell.macworld.co.uk/ in UK (there are probably similar services but they paid the most at the time).

Might not get an offer as high as eBay, but after eBay and PayPal selling fees, the difference is worth the peace of mind.

Bingo. That was the solution I was looking for, without knowing it. They offered me a reasonable enough price.
Thanks.