Selling Old iPhone - Scammed on eBay

[jlmitnick]

I'm really steamed about this but I keep wondering what the possibility is that he is not lying and someone opened up the box and siphoned the iphone while it was in transit. I've heard reports of people having their new iphones arrive only to be an empty box. I am trying to predict how likely it would be that someone would open up a non-descript box looking for an iPhone.

It was only an iPhone so the box weight was a pound so that would probaly be rounded up to a pound even if it was empty.

I insured it via fedex. Does anyone know if they will refund any or all of my money?

Also eBay said they will refund the buyer the money as soon as he returns my phone. But he says he has no phone. So how does that work. If he doesn't have it, how can he return it?

Well that is the whole point of the insurance - if the item gets lost or damaged in transit. I've never had to file a claim though, so I don't know precisely how it works.


I guess I was just pretty lucky...just sold my 3GS 32gb for $441 and the buyer immediately gave positive feedback upon receiving it. But yes, as others have said, ebay does in theory have seller protection as well if you ship to a confirmed paypal address, get signature confirmation, and insure it.

Is this guy in America? Was it a confirmed paypal address? What is his feedback? (on my auction I said explicit that people with fewer than 5 feedback would have to contact me first in order to bid or I would cancel their bids...seemed to ward off most low feedbacked people)

 

[bumzo1]

if you used paypal and required a signature then you're covered under seller protection and you'll get your money. Happened to my friend and it all turned out well. I hope it does in your case too.

 

[Goldinboy17]

Well that is the whole point of the insurance - if the item gets lost or damaged in transit. I've never had to file a claim though, so I don't know precisely how it works.


I guess I was just pretty lucky...just sold my 3GS 32gb for $441 and the buyer immediately gave positive feedback upon receiving it. But yes, as others have said, ebay does in theory have seller protection as well if you ship to a confirmed paypal address, get signature confirmation, and insure it.

Is this guy in America? Was it a confirmed paypal address? What is his feedback? (on my auction I said explicit that people with fewer than 5 feedback would have to contact me first in order to bid or I would cancel their bids...seemed to ward off most low feedbacked people)

And I thought selling my mint one for $398 was a good deal! I did all that. Insured, signature confirmation, tracking number, confirmed address. Still hoping my buyer doesn't start some b.s.

 

[iVoid]

I'd reply to the complaint that the BUYER should contact Fedex with the insurance info and put in a claim.

Basically, it's your word against his. And Fedex might be more neutral than ebay/paypal is. And if ebay/paypal still doesn't void the complaint, then you should contact fedex (for all we know, someone at fedex swiped it from the box.

I've gotten screwed by Paypal's "Buyer is always right' attitude as well. Apparently even offering insurance which the buyer declined isn't enough to make it the buyer's problem if things are broken in shipment.

 

[butters149]

how much is insurance for $700? also which is the best shipping company for seller protection?

 

[jlmitnick]

how much is insurance for $700? also which is the best shipping company for seller protection?

Check the fedex, ups, or usps sites for the costs.

I think so long as you get signature confirmation, tracking numbers, all that stuff, you're good to go, and all three of those offer that.

 

[Goldinboy17]

how much is insurance for $700? also which is the best shipping company for seller protection?

This insurance price depends on the carrier. I just stick to USPS. I insured, required confirmation and tracking, plus sent two day mail all for $15. Though, the insured amount was only $400. I'd say for $700, you can expect to pay about $20 through USPS. Possibly double through Fedex, which in my opinion, is the most reliable.

 

[harcosparky]

Cashier checks carry even more possible frauds. Paypal is the way to go even if you don't feel safe because you can always get seller protection from them.

Best Bet - United States Postal Money Orders

Simple process.

1) You receive Postal Money Order

2) Take Money Order and item to be shipped to Post Office

3) Post Office, checks Money Order and if it is good cashes Money Order and puts CASH in your hands.

4) You hand item to Post Office Clerk to ship it.

HOWEVER -

That m%#her fu#%ers at Ebay no longer allow you to advertise you take Postal Money orders or anything else other than Paypal and such.

 

[VenusianSky]

Buyer protection can be a problem for casual sellers. For what it is worth, I take pictures just before I seal the shipment. I know it could mean nothing, but you never know, it could help in a dispute. Having some seller feedback probably helps a bit as well. I imagine items like iPhones are a target for scams like this. Apparently, ebay's legal team feels that favoring the buyer is best course of action for most disputes.
Ebay probably sides with larger dealers (ebay stores) in such buyer claims. Though, ebay is making big money from those businesses.

 

[butters149]

it says on paypal that seller protection doesn't protect against items that were claimed as extremely not described.

 

[Rooftop voter]

couldn't you have turned off the camera and then asked the lady for your package back? then stolen the phone out of the box and then re-sent it? You could work some tracking number magic too. I mean ebay is so *****

I don't know. I guess anything is possible but I think it would be kinda far fetched to try and theorize this to paypal. On a side note, I would have gone back and gotton an affidavit from the lady at the post office sayin' that didn't happen as she said she'd remember me since she thought what we were doing was smart.

 

[Rhonen]

Warning to everyone. I ebay'ed my old 3GS for $265. 10 Days after the guy received it, I emailed him asking to leave feedback. Next morning, I get an email saying he's filed a complaint with eBay saying there was no iPhone in the box. (Supposedly everything else was in the box, just not the iPhone, which was in a box inside a box inside a box when I shipped it). eBay immediately sided with him. So now he has my iPhone (or someone else does) and I am out $265 bucks

I did insure it with fedex, but I am still waiting to see if that gives me any relief.

Sellers beware. Apparently, you are at the mercy of the buyer. It was an expensive lesson for me to learn, at a time when I really really needed that money.

Can you report the phone stolen, then? If the buyer claims he never got it, and you claimed you sent it, claim it's stolen, then.

 

[Sun Baked]

Best Bet - United States Postal Money Orders

Simple process.

1) You receive Postal Money Order

2) Take Money Order and item to be shipped to Post Office

3) Post Office, checks Money Order and if it is good cashes Money Order and puts CASH in your hands.

4) You hand item to Post Office Clerk to ship it.

HOWEVER -

That m%#her fu#%ers at Ebay no longer allow you to advertise you take Postal Money orders or anything else other than Paypal and such.

The Post Office doesn't do a lot of checking for fake bills, just money orders.

So there is always the chance that some fake bills will be payment for your cashed money order.

So check the money in front of the pyscho postal worker with the ak-47, before walking out. Just in case

 

[zacware]

I'm waiting until I calm down before I post details about who this guy is.

I'm hoping fedex comes through for me as well.

He had a decent series of positive feedbacks.

The irony is that I had made a high reserve for the item so I could pick out who I wanted to make a second chance offer too since I've had previous problems with strange bids

Actually, the guy who had the highest bid had a real strange bid history. He had dozens upon dozens of positive feedback, but they were 10 or 12 a day for the previous few days. And a lot of them were iphones. Who would post positive feedback that quickly after an auction ended, especially for a high priced item like an iphone. And multiple iphones one after another.

So I went down the list of bids and picked the best next one, and I wound up in this situation.

The ebay person seemed clueless. The guy reported it as "item received not as represented", and the ebay person thinks he should just return the phone. But he says he has no phone! I tried to explain the situation in more detail but have gotten no response. It would seem that they didn't really "investigate" the matter, but just make a quick form letter style decision.

I called Apple and AT&T and neither of them said they could help in this situation (disabling or locating the phone)....even though I have the serial and the IMEI number.

 

[ddoolin]

I'm waiting until I calm down before I post details about who this guy is.

I'm hoping fedex comes through for me as well.

He had a decent series of positive feedbacks.

The irony is that I had made a high reserve for the item so I could pick out who I wanted to make a second chance offer too since I've had previous problems with strange bids

Actually, the guy who had the highest bid had a real strange bid history. He had dozens upon dozens of positive feedback, but they were 10 or 12 a day for the previous few days. And a lot of them were iphones. Who would post positive feedback that quickly after an auction ended, especially for a high priced item like an iphone. And multiple iphones one after another.

So I went down the list of bids and picked the best next one, and I wound up in this situation.

The ebay person seemed clueless. The guy reported it as "item received not as represented", and the ebay person thinks he should just return the phone. But he says he has no phone! I tried to explain the situation in more detail but have gotten no response. It would seem that they didn't really "investigate" the matter, but just make a quick form letter style decision.

I called Apple and AT&T and neither of them said they could help in this situation (disabling or locating the phone)....even though I have the serial and the IMEI number.

I got a few lines in and stopped. NEVER sell to someone who has placed so many bids on so many iPhones. They're scammers 99% of the time.

EDIT: Read farther down. Glad you didn't sell to him. There was nothing suspicious about the next guy? The scammers are almost always easy to pick out. I feel for you. :[

Buyer Protection and Nigerian whores are entire reason I don't sell ANYTHING on eBay. I'm so sick of that site, I hope it goes up in flames...

 

[parker770]

I am going through problems as well selling my old 3G on eBay. I started the auction at .99 with no reserve, and it ended at $220. I was happy, and the buyer had good feedback. A week went by with no word from her, so I sent some emails through eBay and Paypal requesting payment. Another week with no response, so I did some digging.

I was able to find a picture of her in the local newspaper, as well as her facebook account, so I sent her a friend request along with a message asking about the payment. She approved the friend request, but ignored the message. So, I took it a step further and wrote on her wall, asking her to please pay for the item she agreed to buy on eBay. She never responded, so I went ahead and relisted the item.

I went to leave her negative feedback, and I CAN'T. Ebay has disabled the option for a seller to leave negative feedback for a deadbeat buyer!!!! What the hell kind of ***** is that?? The only two options for feedback you have are "Positive" or "Leave feedback later"

I still can't believe they would do that, doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of feedback in the first place??

 

[ddoolin]

I am going through problems as well selling my old 3G on eBay. I started the auction at .99 with no reserve, and it ended at $220. I was happy, and the buyer had good feedback. A week went by with no word from her, so I sent some emails through eBay and Paypal requesting payment. Another week with no response, so I did some digging.

I was able to find a picture of her in the local newspaper, as well as her facebook account, so I sent her a friend request along with a message asking about the payment. She approved the friend request, but ignored the message. So, I took it a step further and wrote on her wall, asking her to please pay for the item she agreed to buy on eBay. She never responded, so I went ahead and relisted the item.

I went to leave her negative feedback, and I CAN'T. Ebay has disabled the option for a seller to leave negative feedback for a deadbeat buyer!!!! What the hell kind of ***** is that?? The only two options for feedback you have are "Positive" or "Leave feedback later"

I still can't believe they would do that, doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of feedback in the first place??

Sellers can't leave negative feedback.

The system is completely ****ed. Try to sell it legit on Craigslist. I got $500 after having it listed for two days for a like-new 3GS, no ********, brought a friend along to sell.

 

[iVoid]

Sellers can't leave negative feedback.

The system is completely ****ed. Try to sell it legit on Craigslist. I got $500 after having it listed for two days for a like-new 3GS, no ********, brought a friend along to sell.

How much did you get for you friend?

Yeah, it's ridiculous that sellers can't leave negative or even neutral feedback. Our best option is to not leave feedback and report them for non-payment (which is hard for sellers to check up on).

After one scummy buyer complained about a few cat hairs in negative feedback, I basically stopped giving seller feedback unless I got good feedback from the buyer first.

 

[insidmal]

i just got $170 for my 3g on ebay, buyer has lots of positive feedback from people with even more so it should be legit

 

[ChocolateApple]

eBay and PayPal is effin horrible. Use CraigsList.

I love Craigslist. I sold mine through one of those companies that buys iPhones, and got a decent price, but I had a Craigslist buyer willing to pay more. However, they contacted me after I'd shipped it to the company.

I like being able to size the person up via personal communication. There are many safe areas to meet in NYC, but I choose my lobby or bank. I also have a counterfeit detection kit, so no one will be getting over on me in person.

 

[Gjamm00]

I hate selling things on eBay. Sold the old phone back in the day...the buyer used it for 3 weeks and then complained to eBay that it was defective because it stopped working and I had sold it to him knowing that it was defective. Damn eBay made me take the item back and refunded his money after that POS used it for 3 weeks. Turns out he dropped the phone and had damaged it, but since he was an older user and had more feedback, eBay sided with his story.

 

[jim.lynch]

I'm from England, your laws may be different, but to my mind the phone is stolen (either in transit or by the buyer) and you still have legal title to it. Report it as stolen to the police and get it bricked!

 

[Wicked1]

Next time have UPS pack it then it will be much easier to verify I did that last time I had to ship something expensive works well.

 

[glocke12]

Similar thing happened to me when I sold my 2g phone...I was out like $300.00.

ebay/paypal is a total and complete racket.

Warning to everyone. I ebay'ed my old 3GS for $265. 10 Days after the guy received it, I emailed him asking to leave feedback. Next morning, I get an email saying he's filed a complaint with eBay saying there was no iPhone in the box. (Supposedly everything else was in the box, just not the iPhone, which was in a box inside a box inside a box when I shipped it). eBay immediately sided with him. So now he has my iPhone (or someone else does) and I am out $265 bucks

I did insure it with fedex, but I am still waiting to see if that gives me any relief.

Sellers beware. Apparently, you are at the mercy of the buyer. It was an expensive lesson for me to learn, at a time when I really really needed that money.

 

[Eddyisgreat]

Apparently even offering insurance which the buyer declined isn't enough to make it the buyer's problem if things are broken in shipment.

Because that's not how things work.

Insurance is there to protect you, the seller . Any seller who thinks that it's not their problem once it leaves post is typically in for a rude awakening. If the item is broken or goes missing, all the buyer has to do is file a SNAD which, technically, it is, and post it right back to you. This is especially true considering the fact that all carriers will only speak to you (the one who printed the label and the insurance), and not the buyer in the case of an incident.

But one can profit off of, or not lose out on, this idea by simply requiring insurance be purchased with the item.

Next time have UPS pack it then it will be much easier to verify I did that last time I had to ship something expensive works well.

Unless the employee provides an notarized affidavit itemizing the list of the boxes contents, I fail to see how this would help.