I’ve generally avoided selling stuff on ebay unless it’s fairly bulky items which are paid for cash on collection. I’ve just sold a fairly expensive item however, and a friend has just been telling me how she ended up losing a £250+ wheelset when ebay sided with the buyer who was telling lies – basically sending in photos of a different item to what he’d received, ‘returning the item’ but then sending back an empty box so he had proof of posting, but kept the wheels. Even with insured postage and tracked delivery there doesn’t seem to be much the seller can do to protect against dishonest buyers. The guy who’s bought my item has a feedback score of only 5. Should I avoid the risk and make up some excuse to cancel the order, or just take the risk?!
Cheers,

If you concerned about the risk, don’t use ebay. Most folks on there are fine, but there are also a huge amount of idiots looking to exploit it. The guy might be perfectly genuine (everyone has to start somewhere with feedback), there is no way to tell.

What I do is I have one PayPal I receive money into and another I pay people with, when I receive money I transfer it to the other account and either leave it there or forward it to my bank account. I think PayPal can sometimes hold your money from being taken into your bank account but my method has never failed.

Interesting. Has ebay tried (and failed) to claim an automatic refund from you then?

What I do is I have one PayPal I receive money into and another I pay people with, when I receive money I transfer it to the other account and either leave it there or forward it to my bank account. I think PayPal can sometimes hold your money from being taken into your bank account but my method has never failed.

What does that achieve? If a claim goes against you and the money taken out of PayPal it will just take from your bank account/credit card if there is no balance in the PayPal account.