ebay Return Policy Scam

[Derek]

As some of you may know, ebay is now offering full return policy even include original postage to the buyers. However, based of recent experience, a few buyers are taking advantage of the sellers by returning some BS. Here are some examples:

1) Buy & pay quickly, once received the item, they will say something wrong with it and ask for full refund. They will open a dispute in ebay quickly, swap / exchange out the part that they originally want, & ship the item back via trackable shipper. Once the package has been delivered, ebay will automatically refund on your behalf. Now you are left with a broken watch.

2) Same trick as above, but probably the buyers may damage the watch themselves and want a refund.

3) Same trick again but return you with a screwdriver, a stack of blank FedEx form, or even a wrench (just to make up the weight).

What I am trying to point out is that not only you have to be careful with sellers, know your buyers too.

[mcjp6]

You are right, with the protection that both Ebay and Paypal now offer buyers it seems that a lot of scammer sellers are now becoming scammer buyers.

Your advise is sound, know your seller and your buyer and take every precaution with shipping, tracking and validated address' and so on.

Originally Posted by Derek

or even a wrench

unwittingly topical I think.

[alexthegreat123]

I'm videotaping everything I'm getting and everything I'm sending

[Mosco]

Originally Posted by alexthegreat123

I'm videotaping everything I'm getting and everything I'm sending

Easy when you have 2 watches for sale

[Derek]

I now stated in my return policy that buyer must bring the item back to my store in person. Just like you buy something from Target or Walmart and want a exchange / refund. You MUST take it back in person. Once I sold a rare vintage Seiko divers to a buyer. He either broke the internal bezel part or swapped it. Sent it back for refund. Took me months & $$$ to fix it.

[SeanLandsnaes]

Ebay continues to make it harder and harder to safely sell on there site. This opens the door to more fraud...IMO

[Mosco]

Originally Posted by SeanLandsnaes

Ebay continues to make it harder and harder to safely sell on there site. This opens the door to more fraud...IMO

You're 100% correct - my business has taken a 180 degree shift, from 80% being done on ebay, to about 20%.

[rxonmymind]

That's what I don't get about these scammers. Make an HONEST business and in the long run you'll net 100x what you would have on a few scams. Back in the day I sold a few vintage Superman comic books and (knock on wood) never had that issue. Knuckleheads I tell you!

[theken]

I sold Leica cameras and lenses for many years on ebay under my user id aztecphoto. My feedback was 100% after more than 200 transactions.
Since ebay acquired paypal, auctions are now effectively conditional sales.
I do not think the risk is worthwhile when selling a Rolex or other fine watch on ebay because there is very little protection for a legitimate seller.
Do Rolex watches actually sell for enough over the going TRF prices to make the fees cost effective and the risk acceptable?

[dieseldragon]

It seems a crazy situation that its now the seller who has more risk than the buyer.

Before you, as a seller, stood a chance of having a problem, although a very slim one. As a buyer you had to trust the seller, which was made easier by looking at their feedback.

Now it seems a new user to ebay could buy from an established seller, claim there is a problem and thats that, they get their money back and the trusted seller is then left out of pocket with a tarnished reputation because of a scammer.

eBay is a monster that needs its head chopping off. Its a very useful platform for reaching buyers and almost feels like there is no other choice, but if you have ever had a problem, you try talking to them. For example if you sell from ebay France (for example) to a buyer on ebay UK or Germany, eBay can not mediate disputes between different languages.

[springer]

The "con artists" on ebay are only limited by their imagination when in comes to separating you from your hard-earned money or product.

This is good advice contained in the original post. Thanks for posting.

[dhh]

Amazon.com is interesting too. Go search for rolex daytona's there and you will see a few for $6500. I emailed Amazon asking their policy for refturns and fraud from their 'resellers" and they have a max of $2500. I asked for pictures of one of the daytonas from an amazon seller and he sent pics of a watch from TRF. Problem is he says there are no books or papers and the TRF post has the complete watch with everything.

I email amazon to say he is a fraud and does not have a watch in his possession and they replay back with some canned call center response with a clear indication that they have no clue what I am talking about.

Weird stuff

[jeff hess]

Derek,

I mentioned your note to my wife and she recounted the following. Three weeks ago a guy bought a beautiful antique Meissen porcelain expensive vase. Buyer emailed and said it arrived broken. Demanded refund. Katrina said sure, return it. Buyer refused, filed a dispute with ebay and backcharged paypal. Katrina raised heck and buyer said he would indeed return vase. Received package and instead of broken Meissen vase received a flashlight and some metal shards same weight as Meissen. Katrina learned long ago of buyer scams and now has a security camera directly over our receiving and shipping area. She provided ebay and paypal with footage of Meissen going out and flashlight coming back, Buyer is now kicked off of ebay. This has happened in the past with watches, jewelry etc many times. Be careful out there.

[Lol-x]

Unreal

[ssdawood]

Thank you , the post was very informative

[greekbum]

Some will say its the cost of doing business I guess.If Ebay were smart they would offer fraud insurance for sellers and buyers so there is no risk but than again this costs and soon it will cost you 15%-20% to transact business on Ebay.As a buyer and seller on ebay I have scaled back allot over the last year.In watches I think there is more than a few very experienced con artists with various accounts that look to take advantage of a naive seller.With various tactics. There is the can you give me a partial refund trick that a guy has tried on me more than once where he gets the watch but isnt happy he says but still wants it but to avoid return shipping etc wants a few hundred back every time .Now I feel these same guys have bumped it up a notch with the return policy leverage. If the seller is on top of his game like Jeff above the risk is minimized but still there. Its the small time guy or person that just wants to sell his watch that is exposed to getting burned because he doesnt know all of the risks of buying and selling on ebay.

[Derek]

Originally Posted by jeff hess

Derek,

I mentioned your note to my wife and she recounted the following. Three weeks ago a guy bought a beautiful antique Meissen porcelain expensive vase. Buyer emailed and said it arrived broken. Demanded refund. Katrina said sure, return it. Buyer refused, filed a dispute with ebay and backcharged paypal. Katrina raised heck and buyer said he would indeed return vase. Received package and instead of broken Meissen vase received a flashlight and some metal shards same weight as Meissen. Katrina learned long ago of buyer scams and now has a security camera directly over our receiving and shipping area. She provided ebay and paypal with footage of Meissen going out and flashlight coming back, Buyer is now kicked off of ebay. This has happened in the past with watches, jewelry etc many times. Be careful out there.

Hi Jeff, ever since few years ago when ebay started not to allow seller to leave neutral or negative feedback to buyer, the situation has changed drastically. Buyers become the kings and ebay had cared less to the sellers. I had some negative feedback & chargeback which were totally unreasonable. Since ebay has the most traffic of all auction sites in the world, I had no choice. I would suggest that if we can also post here on any fraud buyer you come across, that will be helpful to everybody.

[WARVET]

All true I will not sell any more cameras or watches on E-bay.