[Closed] Small scale eBay con ... what am I missing?

Do people really try it on for £10?

Multiply than by 4 or 5 and they're £50 up, cash out and set up another fake account, or hack someone else's and repeat... Small scale fraud draws less attention, carry out enough small scale fraud and you can probably make a living... Or become a banker...

The first step to running a successful returns based scam would surely be to avoid 'no returns' listings?

Sounds to me like a case of mechanical ineptitude - had a similar request when I sold a BMX stem clearly described as accepting 22.2mm bars. Guy got in touch requesting a refund as the bolts were 'nakerd' (sic) 😆 - he'd tried to fit standard 25.4mm bars 🙄

Not sure if scam, he just sounds like an idiot to me. Nothing else you can do as you have gone above what you should have done anyway.

Selling stuff on eBay does open your eyes to how little sense a lot of people have and has caused me to limit my selling at times as it just gets annoying.

Similar thing last week, sold an item, which I described wrongly (my fault), buyer complained, so I said dont bother returning it, keep it, and I'll also refund you - (less than £20 inc. post), I really couldnt be bothered relisting it etc.
The item (a shifter) usually sell for £40, so I wasnt happy with it going for less than £20 anyway, but sh*t happens.
Then I get an email from the buyer, saying he should get more than the refund, as he'd never get another at such a good price, and that was my fault.

It is a fairly common scam. Many people refund without needing a return on cheap items if it is faulty as they don't want to receive negative feedback.
He was hoping you would just refund him and tell him to throw it away.
Similar to the other con of saying it didn't arrive - but if they do that too often I wonder if the post office investigates?

Similar thing last week, sold an item, which I described wrongly (my fault), buyer complained, so I said dont bother returning it, keep it, and I'll also refund you - (less than £20 inc. post), I really couldnt be bothered relisting it etc.
The item (a shifter) usually sell for £40, so I wasnt happy with it going for less than £20 anyway, but sh*t happens.
Then I get an email from the buyer, saying he should get more than the refund, as he'd never get another at such a good price, and that was my fault.

Then I get an email from the buyer, saying he should get more than the refund, as he'd never get another at such a good price, and that was my fault.

😆

There are some weird people on eBay. I sold a Apple Digital TV USB stick. Buyer got it for £6 plus £6 shipping - a bargain, they're £80 new and I was hoping for at least £20.

When it arrived he objected to the shipping cost because I'd not spent the full £6 (you win some you lose some on shipping if you don't weigh and measure first) and 'not as described' because I'd not posted it with the outer box. I offered to post him the box but he wouldn't do that.

Paid his postage, got the item back. Relisted as £25 fixed price, went in 2 days.

saying he should get more than the refund

I hope you pointed out that he did get more being as he now has the shifter and his money.

They happen along in threes or fours at once, like buses. Nowt for ages then a rash of chumps just chumping the f- about, wasting your time and sapping your will to live.

I think scammers like "no returns" listings. Gives them the opportunity to falsely claim not as described and ask for an extortionate partial refund. I'm currently going through this atm. The way to solve this is to flat out refuse any partial refund and offer a return only.

I'm expecting not to hear from my current scammer again.

When it arrived he objected to the shipping cost because I'd not spent the full £6 (you win some you lose some on shipping if you don't weigh and measure first) and 'not as described' because I'd not posted it with the outer box. I offered to post him the box but he wouldn't do that.

I've had a dick do that - had to point out that postage is only one of the Ps in P&P and the parcel tape / bubble wrap / brown paper isn't free.

Thanks all for sharing your thoughts and experiences. In over 200 transactions this is the first muppet I've come across on eBay, but he doesn't seem as bad as others. It's going to be interesting to see what (if anything) he returns to me in the post this week.

Here's what happened next ...

So the buyer did send me the part back (at my expense). Well when I say he sent me it back, I mean he sent me SOME of it back.

He removed the bolt and fixing hardware and replaced those bits with some old worn out parts from an old one he clearly already had. The pins on the hardware are bent. The U-clip that holds the bolt in place isn't tight, and the bolt is so sloppy in the arm of the tensioner that it's clearly had a lot of use. It's not the same component I sold that had little more than 6 months light commuting Spring-Autumn. In fact, I'd never have sold a part in that state.

Leading up to the return his comments were ...

"It does not go on my vertical dropout i put my gear derailer back on to test it make sure it wasnt my bike still the same problem would think its the bolt on the tensioner would like a refund today"

"The bolt appears to look slightly smaller on the tensioner from the standard one on my gear derailer as that goes on without issues."

"The bolt on the tensioner must be defective as these usually fit all bike dropouts with the allen bolt Must be the bolt i know how to install them and have done on my previous bikes without a problem i think as it was on your bike for awhile it might have got so use to your bike that it wont go in my thread hole as my gear derailer i tested it and went on without this issue thats my take on it."

"As its obvious these bolts do thread perhaps it was threaded in to yours so no good for another use"

He seems to have a bolt fixation, and I'd half expected that the item would be returned without "my" bolt still attached to it.

I'll mail him tonight and tell him I got his return and will happily process his refund once he returns the rest of the item. I'll report the miss-use of returns to eBay too. In the end I guess I'll lose out as eBay will invariably side with the buyer.

People are shit unfortunately and yep they will try and be cheeky for low value stuff.

Female friend sold some old clothes on eBay, one top was flagged up as damaged, when she got it back it was clearly used and abused for a Saturday night round Cardiff (where it was posted to).

eBay sided with buyer, friend lost out on the sale of a £15 top as it wasn't fit to resell.

Bit of advice. Ring Paypal and have a chat with them, explain the situation and what has happened. I assume you have good pics of the original condition and offer to upload pics of the returned item for them to compare.

Paypal are well versed in the scams these idiots try to pull on ebay and have been more helpful than I expected with my recent scammer that I detailed above.

Thanks psycorp

I had a quick chat with eBay - should I also talk to PayPal separately?

eBay person was very helpful too. Will be doing the pictures tonight and have some follow up with them.

The money is insignificant, but this is now a matter of principle.

now a matter of principle

Your probably right about eBay siding with them but I'd suggest make sure you include original photos and ones of the stuff returned if discernably different in your communication with both

- Beaten to it, damn slow loading on my phone.

simons_nicolai-uk - Member

There are some weird people on eBay. I sold a Apple Digital TV USB stick. Buyer got it for £6 plus £6 shipping - a bargain, they're £80 new and I was hoping for at least £20.

When it arrived he objected to the shipping cost because I'd not spent the full £6 (you win some you lose some on shipping if you don't weigh and measure first) and 'not as described' because I'd not posted it with the outer box. I offered to post him the box but he wouldn't do that.

Oh god I had that, I was moving house and had a pile of PS3 games that hadn't seen the light of day in months, years even, so I punted them all on eBay - 99p starting price, £1.50 P&P - most of them sold for less than £5 including delivery, so it was hardly the sale of the century - I was going to post them off in a load of old A5 envelopes I had, but I couldn't find them so I ended up buying some A5 jiffy bags, for £2 each - at this point I knew the whole thing was probably going to lose me a few pennies an item by the time I'd paid the post office and driven there etc but I'd gone too far down that road now.

So I posted them all, heard nothing back, forgot about it until next time I looked on eBay - 2 negative feedback, two little shits (they wrote like children anyway) had taken it upon themselves, completely in isolation of each other it seems to give me nagative feedback because the postage was £1.20ish and I'd charged them £1.50 postage, never mind the jiffy bag, never mind the 9 mile trip to the post office - nope, because the little sticker on the bag said £1.20 and not £1.50 - there you go mate, have this.

2 quid for a Jiffy bag?

dirtyrider - Member

2 quid for a Jiffy bag?

1 small shop in a small village pricing.