ebay woes - buyer c...
 

[Closed] ebay woes - buyer claims I've sold counterfeit stuff!

Posts: 3371
Free Member
Topic starter
 

I sold some Rapha shorts on ebay recently. Got a good price for a good pair of shorts, I thought. I bought them from the sample sale some time ago so I know they're genuine and not fake.

Buyer now demanding a refund, threatening to tell ebay (ooer!) and has already left bad feedback because he's decided they're fakes. They're not.
Aside from being pretty pissed off that someone's accusing me of shifting snide gear, there doesn't appear to be anything I can do other than ask him why he thinks they're fake and hope he doesn't claim a refund via Ebay.
Or am I missing something?


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 4:13 pm
Posts: 251
Full Member
 

beware ebay telling them to destroy the 'fake goods' to stop them being resold - I've seen reports of this happening and ebay/paypal refund issued on them seeing a photo of the destroyed item.

Hope you get it sorted.


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 4:15 pm
Posts: 19
Free Member
 

I've seen this happen too. E bay ask the fake item is not returned.


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 4:16 pm
Posts: 3371
Free Member
Topic starter
 

without seeing any proof either way?


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 4:16 pm
 iolo
Posts: 194
Free Member
 

Paypal will side with the buyer. It happens every time.
The buyer probably knows this. Bastard.


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 4:19 pm
Posts: 251
Full Member
 

[i]without seeing any proof either way? [/i]

I don't know.

I wonder if the buyer knows though and will just ask you to refund half 'to save the hassle' and hope to keep a complete pair fo shorts?


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 4:20 pm
Posts: 3371
Free Member
Topic starter
 

bloody roadies :-/


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 4:25 pm
Posts: 4910
Full Member
 

Don't they know who you are! 😉

Taken from the eBay site:

Follow these steps if you think your item is counterfeit:

If you believe your item is counterfeit, or isn't as described, contact the seller first.
Give them a chance to sort things out for you.
If you still need help, let us know your problem. We're available 7 days a week.
You can notify us online via the eBay Resolution Centre or our customer service representatives who are available Monday to Friday 08:00AM – 10:00PM, Saturday and Sunday 09:00AM – 6:00PM.
We'll work with the seller to help sort things out.
[b]We'll contact the seller and ask them to solve your issue within 8 days.[/b] After 8 days if the problem can't be resolved between you and the seller, you've paid using PayPal and your claim qualifies for coverage with eBay Money Back Guarantee, eBay will arrange for the purchase price plus original shipping to be refunded through PayPal.
If you didn't pay with PayPal
If the seller hasn't resolved your issue you can still contact us and we will contact the seller to try to resolve the problem.

May help?


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 4:27 pm
Posts: 497
Free Member
 

leave feedback to warn other sellers if you can.
does not help you but might stop them doing it to someone else


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 4:28 pm
Posts: 4593
Full Member
 

Can you dig out a receipt/bank statement to appease them?


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 4:28 pm
Posts: 43888
Full Member
 

"sample" - may be a bit different from the normal retail item in some way, hence the suspicion.


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 4:30 pm
 hora
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Girl I used to with did this- claimed sunglasses were fake, Ebay told her to keep them and she was refunded. She even joked that tbh they were probably the real thing but she 'wasn't sure'. I was gobsmacked when she wasn't asked to return them.

Hope you get it resolved. Worsecase, save his details and 'win' a future item hes selling, receive it and claim its fake/hit him with a neg too. Its not petty, its revenge.


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 4:33 pm
Posts: 3371
Free Member
Topic starter
 

nope, it looks identical to the pics in various reviews of the shorts from the time (about 4 years ago).


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 4:33 pm
Posts: 17388
Full Member
 

Sounds like a con artist.

Publish his username.

He might get a dose of his own medicine...


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 4:42 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Again a reason why I gave up selling on eBay. Their attitude and PayPal's (owned by eBay anyway) is always to support the buyer if they kick up a stink. Reversed payments and frozen accounts especially in PP when a buyer makes an accusation and then they get refunded, disappear and you have a fight on your hands to reverse the situation. That on top of large fees on the seller generally.

Will be interesting to see how things go when PayPal is split off from eBay. Particularly if this mean other forms of payment will be supported by eBay.

All that said, yes the 'sample' may be the reason for their belief it's a fake. Similar with OEM versions of products and 'seconds' in clothing (seconds being official but imperfect in some small way). eBay listings should make it clear that this is what the item is else you may get this situation.

Some people are trying it on, some are just quite wary of fakes. They'll look for small details like the labels etc which if different to what they expect if they're well up on the stuff then they might think something's fake.


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 4:50 pm
Posts: 3371
Free Member
Topic starter
 

the shorts were bought in a sample sale, but don't say 'sample' on them.


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 5:02 pm
Posts: 43888
Full Member
 

I know we're getting away from the main point here but counterfeit clothing tends to be very, very similar to the original item. A Sample may also have subtle differences to the final product. It's not hard to see how someone could mistake the two cases. Why not explain this to the buyer and offer a refund?


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 5:04 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Ask him to return and you'll refund and hope he does, otherwise you may lose shorts and the money. I'd even suggest offering to pay for return postage. It's a pain, but some eBay buyers are ****s.


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 5:06 pm
Posts: 6252
Full Member
 

hit him or ebay/paypal with a small claims, especially if you have the original purchase receipt. a judge can decide if it's fake. ebay can't. and the fraudster probably has a stash of fakes if asked to send it to Rapha (or whoever) for them to examine.


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 5:07 pm
Posts: 19
Free Member
 

What HORA said. My experience was identical.

E bay asked you not to return the item to stop circulation. This is as well as the refund.

Seems to be a fairly common scam these days.


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 5:21 pm
Posts: 6
Free Member
 

It sounds like you have sold to an idiot

Sadly eBay won't be at all bothered

My missus got negged before crimbo as some fool worked out she'd made 20p on the postage

Unfortunately the missus had not realised eBay now take 10% of shipping costs too and was actually out of pocket for it

I'd still be steaming though if I were you and be cautious of having the cash claimed back, you need to take advice on how to avoid that. As you've 2 consecutive negs maybe fold the account and start again?


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 5:22 pm
Posts: 4058
Full Member
 

It's stuff like this that made me stop bothering with eBay.

Waste of time and energy.


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 5:27 pm
Posts: 5167
Free Member
 

Out of interest, did you list them as being 'sample' items?


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 5:30 pm
 Andy
Posts: 3348
Free Member
 

Get on the phone to ebay asap and talk it through with them. They are usually very helpful once you are speaking to them and may well arrange for the goods to be returned and the negative feedback removed.


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 5:30 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

What Andy ^ states!


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 5:43 pm
Posts: 40432
Free Member
 

EBay seems to make people go paranoid, you see it in some of the responses on here too.


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 6:23 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

I may have missed this but did you state clearly in your ebay ad where and how you originally purchased the shorts?

As above, samples can have minor defects or differences to the final production items.


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 6:56 pm
Posts: 794
Free Member
 

Empty your PayPal account now.


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 7:05 pm
Posts: 47
Free Member
 

I've sold for years on eBay (hint if you sign into eBay.com you can find out just how much you've sold over the years. £19,000 on my account!)

I have only had one negative in that time and I spoke to eBay and they sided with me the seller. I have had loads of goods sent to me that I have bought that have been substandard and have sent back and eBay have paid for the return of the goods to the seller's too.

Talk to EBay, if you bought the items online then there is likely a paper trail somewhere for you to find?


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 7:05 pm
Posts: 20947
 

Don't they know who you are!

Imma ring up the mail, 'tv personality denies selling knock off shorts to unsuspecting cyclist'


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 7:18 pm
Posts: 66084
Full Member
 

The whole "ebay always sides with the buyer" is nonsense. Not to say they won't sometimes side wrongly with the buyer, but I've done a ridiculous amount of selling over the last 16 years and I've never had a single claim upheld against me. They don't make it easy mind- there's a lot of hoops to jump through, some of them not very clear, and IMO it's totally designed to make you give up. But I'm the sort of gobshite that'll spend an hour on fighting a claim to save 50p.

I've had the counterfeit thing twice and didn't do anything particularily clever to fight it- asked for reasoning and evidence, argued with it, did what ebay asked, stayed really on top of it. I think one dude genuinely thought he'd bought a fake. But anyway, knocked it around for a while, one happy customer, one thwarted fraud.


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 7:22 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

a judge can decide if it's fake.

That's exactly what the courts need to be spending time doing.

Deciding if second hand cycling shorts are fake or not 😐


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 7:26 pm
Posts: 4155
Free Member
 

People buy 4 year old secondhand cycling shorts..... 😯


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 7:31 pm
Posts: 20947
 

From a guy that does as many miles as the op...


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 7:35 pm
Posts: 4363
Full Member
 

Maybe he's decided to buy Renton's bike but hasn't quite got the cash do needs the refund from these...


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 7:35 pm
Posts: 7373
Free Member
 

Mattbee = cock


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 8:10 pm
Posts: 4363
Full Member
 

Renton, get over yourself. Xxx


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 9:21 pm
Posts: 3900
Free Member
 

the shorts were bought in a sample sale, but don't say 'sample' on them.

Did you describe them as "samples"?


 
Posted : 23/01/2015 9:30 pm
Posts: 3371
Free Member
Topic starter
 

all sorted. Rapha were brilliant in helping out and confirmed that the shorts were genuine, when they really didn't have to. So cheers to them.

I didn't state that they were bought from a sample sale as it's irrelevant where I bought them. The shorts weren't different from the full-priced item, they were just end of line stock.

Buyer was upset because they were different to the ones that he used to have. why this meant that he had to accuse me of lying and selling on snide goods is still beyond me. It's not how I'd have behaved anyway.


 
Posted : 26/01/2015 5:28 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Glad it ended well. I'd hope that Rapha would have that level of customer services given their prices TBH!


 
Posted : 26/01/2015 5:31 pm
Posts: 405
Free Member
 

So is the buyer now keeping them?


 
Posted : 26/01/2015 7:13 pm
Posts: 3371
Free Member
Topic starter
 

He is. Or he's selling them. Or chucking them in the bin. Not arsed TBH.

his crappy feedback hasn't been removed yet though, so the matter isn't completely closed yet....


 
Posted : 26/01/2015 7:59 pm
Posts: 7121
Free Member
 

You have the buyers email and home address to sign him up for home visits from solar panel salespersons, Jehovah witnesses and he might even put an advert in the local paper for cheap special massages


 
Posted : 26/01/2015 8:13 pm
 Andy
Posts: 3348
Free Member
 

his crappy feedback hasn't been removed yet though, so the matter isn't completely closed yet....
Ebay will do that if you speak to them on the phone


 
Posted : 26/01/2015 8:22 pm
 m0rk
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

http://www.glittershipper.co.uk/product/glitterbomb-envelope/

If you put a custom message in along the lines of.... "this is genuine glitter" it might amuse


 
Posted : 26/01/2015 8:29 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Don't be hard on the buyer - there's a lot of fake stuff on eBay. I've had it from both sides - selling a north face puffa bought from an outlet store and buying various items. Don't blame him for asking if they're not what he was expecting.


 
Posted : 26/01/2015 8:55 pm
Posts: 3371
Free Member
Topic starter
 

He didn't ask. He left feedback saying I was into snide goods, then I had to prove otherwise. he also immediately reported me to Ebay, who were straight on my case. Hardly "asking".


 
Posted : 26/01/2015 9:44 pm
Posts: 17388
Full Member
 

terrahawk - Member
...Buyer was upset because they were different to the ones that he used to have. why this meant that he had to accuse me of lying and selling on snide goods is still beyond me. It's not how I'd have behaved anyway.

He's probably one of those full body arses, so they didn't hide his essential nature. 🙂


 
Posted : 27/01/2015 5:09 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Remind him that 'you know where he lives' 😈


 
Posted : 27/01/2015 6:58 pm
Posts: 43888
Full Member
 

[quote=terrahawk ]He didn't ask. He left feedback saying I was into snide goods, then I had to prove otherwise. he also immediately reported me to Ebay, who were straight on my case. Hardly "asking".
The problem is that there's a very short window to report dodgy transactions to ebay. A bit of fannying about back and forth with emails can easily see that passed, and then it's too late. I believe the recommended action is to open a dispute even as you are contacting the seller.


 
Posted : 27/01/2015 7:01 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

I believe the recommended action is to open a dispute even as you are contacting the seller.

Yes, I think that's right but that doesn't affect feedback. If he posted bad feedback straight away that's just shitty.


 
Posted : 27/01/2015 9:06 pm
Posts: 3371
Free Member
Topic starter
 

feedback posted and dispute opened.
I'm just pissed off at the amount of time I've had to spend defending myself.


 
Posted : 27/01/2015 9:22 pm
Posts: 187
Free Member
 

"sample" - may be a bit different from the normal retail item in some way, hence the suspicion.

A lot of the time (IME) samples are just in specific sizes like Mediums or larges as opposed to being different to a 'non sale' item, don't know how correct my information may be but it's from my experience.


 
Posted : 27/01/2015 10:58 pm
Posts: 6409
Free Member
 

I've been to a Rapha sample sale, was mostly overstock stuff, no actual samples, lots off cross stuff and sky kit


 
Posted : 27/01/2015 11:19 pm