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I think I got scammed on eBay (Help)

Unfortunately, I think I'm probably going to have to learn a lesson. I should have never given anyone benefit of the doubt. Never shipping overseas again.
I advise anyone who sells their phone on eBay (like our 4S's next year) ship only in the US with delivery confirmation and insurance so you are TOTALLY covered..


But I really think apple should implement a way to track and shut down phones that have been compromised by disabling the IMEI through iTunes..
I mean, It's not like it's NOT possible..

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deafgoose said:
The seller always looses. Welcome to eBay!

I sold $1800 worth of GPS tracking/training dog collars on my eBay store and the buyer did a chargeback saying he did not authorize the transaction. When the chargeback was approved, he went to the post office and picked up the package.

I fought this sooooo hard with eBay and lost.

They just dont care. Trust me.

Insult to injury, sellers are not allowed to leave buyers negative feedback. Totally flawed system.
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This is so lame. I'm sorry to hear about that. eBay is really flawed. I know they have a buyers protection plan, but I think they should have one for sellers as well to equal the playing field..
 
r3dsh1ft said:
Unfortunately, I think I'm probably going to have to learn a lesson. I should have never given anyone benefit of the doubt. Never shipping overseas again.
I advise anyone who sells their phone on eBay (like our 4S's next year) ship only in the US with delivery confirmation and insurance so you are TOTALLY covered.
Click to expand...

You mean signature confirmation.
 
you can put in a claim with usps (since you have insurance) saying that the buyer states the item was missing. usps may request to see the package itself (not sure if pictures would be sufficient or if they need the box back) which could be some trouble, but they may work with you on that since it's international. i know paypal will look at all factors (sellers history, buyers history) and is about as fair as they can be. within the US, they require a police report before they'll give in to a buyer for this type of problem - but if the case was opened on ebay and not paypal i'm not sure what their policies would be.
 
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This is why I never ship overseas. The whole customs thing is so stupid.
 
Last year I shipped an iPhone to FL, with signature confirmation, insurance. I also took a video of the entire process (me packing into box and dropping it off at post office)

Buyer claimed nothing was in box.

eBay sided with me as I had videos, signature and insurance.
 
Similar sentiments about eBay here. They always side with the buyer. When I sold my iPhone 4, I shipped same day via UPS. Unfortunately, UPS was slow and it took a week and a day to get to Sacramento. The buyer was berating me for the slow shipment even though it wasn't my fault that UPS was slow. He gives me a negative feedback and I had no recourse. So, I've stopped selling on eBay and don't patronize the company at all.
 
AndrewR23 said:
Last year I shipped an iPhone to FL, with signature confirmation, insurance. I also took a video of the entire process (me packing into box and dropping it off at post office)

Buyer claimed nothing was in box.

eBay sided with me as I had videos, signature and insurance.
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I guess you can never be too careful. Nice tip. I have an iPhone that I need to sell as well, I'll keep this in mind.
 
r3dsh1ft said:
Okay, so I recently sold my old iPhone on eBay to some dude in Russia. He has 100% feedback, so I thought I would be safe. I put insurance on the package just in case. (signature confirmation was not an available option for overseas)

So just the other day, he filed a case on eBay saying that he did not receive the package. (I purchased the shipping label via ebay, and the tracking number says he received the package, but he notes that the phone wasn't in the box.)


He says he contacted the Russian post and they are investigating.

I'm scared that I'm going to be out of pretty much 400 bucks. I've heard that eBay ALWAYS sides with the buyer. It just isn't fair. I'm an honest seller with hundreds of perfect feedback.

I just don't understand why he filed a case. He's already guaranteed the money since I bought insurance. My instincts are telling me he has the phone. It's not fair that in the end I'm left with no phone and he's ending up with 400 dollars.

I contacted ebay right away, and they assured me that they wouldn't allow him to get a refund if the package says it was delivered.

I'm still scared though. I don't know what to do.
I have the serial and IMEI number. Any help would be great.
Thanks
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YOU ARE OUT OF LUCK!!! EBAY & Paypal are the biggest FRAUD alliance. They ALWAYS stand behind the BUYER even though they are CHEATING!! Millions of cases like this happened every year and ebay always stay behind the buyers. Buyers are always right even they are SCAMMERS!!!

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AndrewR23 said:
Last year I shipped an iPhone to FL, with signature confirmation, insurance. I also took a video of the entire process (me packing into box and dropping it off at post office)

Buyer claimed nothing was in box.

eBay sided with me as I had videos, signature and insurance.
Click to expand...

You are just one of the few exceptions!! We wholesale some seasonal Christmas items and took payment through paypal. The buyer hold the items for 2 months and could not sell. These were seasonal items and he wanted to get a refund. We had agreed upon before the deal that there would be no return because these are seasonal items. They buyer just dispute through paypal saying the items were not as described. Paypal side with them and refunded the money to the buyer!!

To make it more ridiculous, the buyer had never returned the merchandise back to us. We have all the delivery record and signature from the buyer. The buyer has NOTHING to proof he had sent the item back to us. Paypal still stand behind that cheater. We asked why the fund were withdraw from our account before the items were returned. Paypal said he would send it back to us later!!! OF course he NEVER did that!!

PAYPAL + EBAY = BIGGEST SCAMMER for small business
 
How much insurance did you put on it?
You can call the post office and start a claim.
I received the check from the insurance company within a month.
Also I got refund from the express mail from usps because the package arrived later than the except delivery date.
Good luck with your claim.
 
hmm let us know what happens...

when i sell on ebay, i always require a paypal payment. on top of that, i only ship to confirmed US addresses. i've never had a problem and i've shipped out multiple phones. insurance and delivery confirmation/certified is a must when i'm selling.
 
NEVER send stuff to Russia. I had a (Russian) friend who had the same problem shipping an expensive watch over there. The Russian customs people look through the boxes and steal what they want.

He went to the USPS and they said they couldn't cover the item regardless of insurance because it's against some rule regarding having a battery. They told him knowing the rules involved were his responsibility not theirs.

He had to get the news involved to finally get a check in the mail months later.
 
How about next time you sell an iPhone leave it on with GPS tracking and auto accept all wifi hotspot. So you can use find my iPhone or something.

So if you see the freaking dot near the buyer's shipping address you'll know something is fishy lol.
 
jephersun said:
hmm let us know what happens...

when i sell on ebay, i always require a paypal payment. on top of that, i only ship to confirmed US addresses. i've never had a problem and i've shipped out multiple phones. insurance and delivery confirmation/certified is a must when i'm selling.
Click to expand...

Good judgment comes from Experience.
Experience comes from bad Judgment

NEVER SELL INTERNATIONAL
ONLY PAYPAL CONFIRAMED ADDRESS
INSURED PLUS SIGNATURE
PAYPAL SELLER PROTACTION
NO SELL TO NEGATIVE BUYERS,
NO SELL TO BUYER WITH LESS THEN 5 FEEDBACKS
CALL BUYER ON THE PHONE B4 YOU SHIP
 
If the Russian customs people didn't take it, then somebody in the Russian postal service took it. They look for packages from the US, because they think that they have something of value in them. I have sent several packages (nothing of real value) via USPS to friends in Russia, and none of them made it to the final destination.
 
I was born in the USSR and although I don't live there anymore from what friends and family tell me I wouldn't be surprised if customs took it or someone else on the way
 
doodads said:
if the russian customs people didn't take it, then somebody in the russian postal service took it. They look for packages from the us, because they think that they have something of value in them. I have sent several packages (nothing of real value) via usps to friends in russia, and none of them made it to the final destination.
Click to expand...

it's not just russia also to slovakia

also note that b4 x-mass they know that gifts are comming your chances to sent somthig without loosing it close to 0
 
Sorry, to hear that OP! I have sold several expensive items on ebay. Most time I'll only ship within US with a few exception, like the country I'm shipping to and if the buyer has a lot of positive feedbacks (I'll go to their ebay profile and check what kind of items they've purchased/sold). Got scammed once when I sold a brand new SONY laptop. :( I was still new to ebay at that time and was stupid enough to trust the buyer. Learned my lesson!

Buyer is always protected. It sucks being a seller, but from the buyer's perspective, it's really great. I once bought a blackberry on ebay for $400. Seller was a reputable seller and had over 50,000 reviews with 99% positive feedback (when you have that many feedback, you're bound to have some negative ones). After 2 weeks, the BB hadn't been sent yet. I sent an email to the seller and they said they will ship it immediately, a few days had gone by and when I checked ebay again, seller is GONE. It's no longer a registered ebay user. I file a claim with paypal and my money was immediately returned. Soo.. it's not all bad with ebay and paypal.
 
This post highlights the exact reason I now never use eBay or PayPal, and never will again. They both left me hanging on a $1500 MacBook Pro.

OP, you're hosed and neither eBay or PayPal are going to help. Sorry...

Craigslist is the only way I sell electronics now. I still get "please ship this immediately to my son in X", but have had good luck with local buyers that I usually find in all the scammer crap.
 
Just ship within the US only. That's the only way I sell phones on eBay and I've done a few already. Sorry for your loss and I know how much eBay and Paypal suck :(
 
In a previous job when I ran an online store, I had a customer file a charge back with me saying he never received the product, the box was empty. I called UPS and asked to see what the weight they scanned in was... they gave me a weight that was a lot more than an empty box and I knew I was covered.....

Long story short, call the shipper, ask what weight the package was scanned in at. Im pretty sure they have to record that somewhere along the lines...
 
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