Sold Item Buyer Doesn't Respond and Doesn't Return After Receiving Refund
Summary: The discussion concerns a problem in which a buyer does not respond and does not return a sold item, despite having received a refund. The conversation among the participants explores potential solutions and shares similar experiences.
Hello, I don’t understand how anyone can side with thieves at this level.
I sold a PC on eBay, and two days after the sale the buyer opened a return. I never received anything, neither the courier tracking number nor any replies to my private messages with the gentleman in question.
After a few days, charges started appearing on my payment method and funds were taken from my eBay wallet, so after a few months I filed a report with the Carabinieri, who also... didn’t know what to say except *You were scammed* ...
Item sold on January 30, arrived after two days, I NOTED that the buyer has ZERO feedback and signed up on the eBay platform on the same day he bought my computer.
Now I’m wondering, after various disputes with the bank, which keeps replying through eBay that I’m not in the right and that the buyer must be refunded the full amount, even though he has been absent from eBay for 3 months now and doesn’t reply (fake numbers and accounts)
I’d like some help from you, since yet another call to eBay says that unfortunately you have to send a registered letter to eBay and see what they can do. Meanwhile I’m getting at least one email every two days saying I owe the rest to pay the scammer.
Could this REALLY happen? Have we really come to the point of siding with thieves too?
For now I’ve blocked sales and the card so I won’t pay until this is resolved in my favor.
I have never gotten my item back nor a tracking number I don’t see why I should lose both the PC and the money .. Thanks to anyone who replies, I’m really disappointed both by the protection that eBay has toward sellers, even non-professionals, because such a stupid thing ended up in favor of a thief who knows how many others he’ll do since he’s getting away with it.
tonik831
OP1 year agoAlso, I now learn from the web that...
In the case of a sale on eBay, the return process works like this: the buyer must initiate a return request, explaining the reason and attaching photos if the item is damaged. The seller has three working days to respond and can accept the return, reject it, or offer a partial refund. If the seller accepts, the buyer must return the item within 10 days, choosing a trackable shipping method. The seller refunds the buyer within 2 working days after receiving the item
The buyer, after initiating the return, was kindly contacted by me several times (I have proof) without any response.. Then privately by phone, zero, the number always off, and what can I say, he's right.. For me, no, and I'll go ahead without refunding the amount.
sika700
·1 year agoYou forgot to write that if the return request is for an item that doesn't match the description... as in your case... after accepting the return, which you can't refuse, you also need to provide a prepaid return label.
Then everything is in the buyer's hands; if they don't ship it, then you're in the right.
Reason why it was better to do it that way.
Also remember that the support guys sometimes don't even know eBay's rules themselves.
Have a good day.
daxsisko
·1 year agolet’s say that for someone experienced with eBay sales, these things are normal business....... so, you can end up finding the “different kind of honest person of the day”: the few ways to defend yourself from these people have been repeated over and over on the forum (and not only.....)
just to give a few examples:
avoid selling on the platform items that are “desirable”, easily resold and high-priced, and that, alternatively, could also be sold with in-person pickup (so not necessarily on eBay.....);
evaluate the buyer, and if you have serious doubts (which is rather subjective....), you can also proceed to cancel the purchase....
but above all, read eBay’s sales rules carefully and, of course, follow what is indicated: if in doubt, get informed (for example through eBay support, the forum, web searches, friends or acquaintances who have already often used the site to sell, etc.) ..... all this, of course, preferably before......
vonbalden
·1 year agoRemote selling, as you will gather from the replies already received, is full of pitfalls since all the correct steps are standardized according to precise procedures that you need to know well, just like the correct pronunciation of a foreign language. That is why when you sell a relatively expensive item such as a computer, the seller takes action before even celebrating the sale. And includes in the package one or two return labels already printed out from his printer so as to make any unexpected change of mind easier. You can also include them with a short message in Italian and English, which psychologically puts people on alert: In caso di ripensamenti/In case of second thoughts. The scouts' motto ( Estote Parati ! ) often applies to sellers too. Best regards
marioelegio
·1 year ago...... if you don’t settle the balance directly or if you don’t unblock the card, eBay will hand your case over to a debt collection agency. That way the collection fees will also go up.
Unfortunately you didn’t handle the return, so you won’t be able to get help either from eBay or from whoever handled the payment.
The only thing you can do is send a return request letter.
Since with the refund the PC has become your property again, you write to them that you will send a prepaid return label so they can send the PC back to you. If they don’t make the return within 15 days, you get the label refunded and report them for misappropriation.
hi
mario
sika700
·1 year agoHello,
let's say you scammed yourself...
Following the return request, which was probably with the reason of item not as described, you were the one who had to provide the return label with tracking.
If you didn't do that, eBay sides with the buyer... it's all written out in how the eBay customer guarantee works.
Best regards.
tonik831
OP1 year agoHello and thanks for the reply, I didn’t know that I had to handle the return myself, maybe I’ve always only bought on eBay so I didn’t read everything carefully, which I will do now.
But the thing that strikes me most is the support I contacted by phone 15, 20 times: nobody, neither an Italian nor a foreign operator, answered my explanation with: Have you created a return label?
One more thing: the guy in question doesn’t reply to messages on eBay, has 0 feedback, and opened the account on the very same day he bought the PC, which is very strange,
I also called the mobile number listed in his profile but nothing, phone switched off.
In the end I think that even if I created the return and sent it to him, he wouldn’t even look at it, obviously because there’s no dialogue from his side at all.
I must have been wrong and with that I’m asking you how and where I can read the rules regarding returns.
Support confirmed to me that the user created a profile and was on the platform only to buy that product and paid without registering, so as a guest via PayPal. There are no other traces but then at least reply and we can work it out; instead no, a robot-like reply, neither my messages nor anything sensible or thought-out. In the end he was still a scammer and eBay says there’s nothing it can do. Tomorrow I’m sending a registered letter (with a complaint attached) to eBay Germany headquarters and we’ll see what they say. Thanks again to everyone for the replies, I understood more things here in a few minutes than in 20 years on eBay and especially after hours on the phone with no operator telling you the same thing .. my God what a mess..