Problem with a dishonest buyer
Hello, a little over a week ago I sold two 18-gram gold jewelry pieces for 450 euros, which is very little compared to their value, and only today he says they weigh 16 grams. He keeps asking me for part of the money back and although I weighed them several times, I absolutely did not notice this difference, so I think it is just an act of extortion. A few hours later he asks for a refund for goods not delivered and writes in chat that he would like the difference of 2 grams, asking me to give him back 50€. I am more than willing to refund the full amount if both jewelry pieces are returned to me, but the buyer ignores me and keeps insisting on wanting those 50€, threatening to turn to “the proper authorities” and making up various excuses. I have little experience, so besides contacting eBay, what else could I do to resolve this quickly?
andreeg01
OP2 years agoGood evening, as I suspected, after being forced to accept the return, the box arrived empty but eBay has already issued the refund (without yet taking the money for the item) because the dispute was closed in his favor without even checking whether the jewelry had been sent back to me or not. I contacted eBay again and they submitted a request for a courtesy refund and, being inexperienced, I don't know what that entails. I wonder, how are sellers supposed to defend themselves against scams like this? I think this will still be my last sale here because the whole situation has really annoyed me quite a bit.
heavenwelkin
·2 years agoGood evening andreeg01
If ebay gave you a courtesy refund it means that both the seller and the buyer were refunded.
If it involves small amounts that aren't too burdensome, ebay in some cases protects the seller in situations like these.
Unfortunately, when you decide to sell remotely, you have to take into account that you might run into a less-than-honest buyer.
These are uncommon events, but they can happen.
ebay, with the help of artificial intelligence, tries to do its best to make this marketplace populated by honest and fair users.
Coming back to your case, if this same buyer were to receive other similar reports, they could be permanently removed from the platform.
Online sales at a distance through electronic payments are never free of risk and 100% safe, so you have to take into account the possibility of coming across less-than-honest buyers; you first set a price limit for the item up to which you're willing to take the risk.
The pitfalls of online sales can be different, from a dishonest buyer, to a dishonest courier, to a package that gets damaged or lost or arrives at the recipient with a huge delay.
In short, if you make 100 sales and 97 of them go well and 3 end up with problems or losses, let's say that's understandable, it's part of life; you have to account for it and accept it when it happens.
This time ebay patched things up, and I'm happy for you.
Best regards.
heavenwelkin
·2 years agoI think you weren't just frustrated, but you must have also felt a certain amount of discomfort, especially because the bureaucracy you have to deal with in these cases is certainly no walk in the park.
I congratulate you on managing to complete the whole bureaucratic process.
Even on subito with tutto e subito you can run into similar scams, or on other marketplaces where you pay with PayPal or credit card.
To avoid running into similar situations you should get paid upfront by bank transfer, on ebay it's forbidden but even on other marketplaces it's pretty hard for someone to send you a bank transfer on trust since it wouldn't be covered in any way.
And I think that even you would hardly trust sending a bank transfer to a stranger in exchange for a promise to ship the item.
So as an alternative option there would only be cash in person or a cashier's check.
Which would limit you a lot in sales because you would be tied to your own area unless you were to travel a few hundred km yourself to bring the item to the potential buyer.
Potential buyer who at that point would have the upper hand and could decide to negotiate further on the price or not complete the sale.
Kind regards.
andreeg01
OP2 years agoThe situation is getting ridiculous; they opened a return request again for item not as described (since I won the previously generated dispute), now claiming that some parts are missing and in the comments they write: "They scammed me, they only sent me the bracelet clasp". Also, just taking a look at the messages is enough to understand that what they are doing is not right. At this point I reported them a second time, wrote to eBay, and blocked them. How could the listing be closed permanently?
heavenwelkin
·2 years agoGood evening andreeg01
If the messaging shows that the buyer first made one statement and then made another one that is completely different, you need to contact eBay support and point out that the buyer has appealed by providing a different version.
Please make sure you contact eBay support via chat or by phone to speak with a real operator, because sometimes disputes are handled automatically and it could happen that in the end the buyer might get the upper hand.
You need to wait for the outcome of the appeal the buyer made; once you have won it, you're all set, you don't need to do anything else since the buyer has been blocked.
Kind regards.
heavenwelkin
·2 years agoGood evening andreeg01
Contacting ebay right now could be useful in case of a possible unpleasant situation later on, so let ebay know what the buyer is trying to do.
If I understand correctly, the buyer does not want to return the items but is trying to extort a partial refund on the excuse that there is a 2-gram difference.
The ebay rules on this are fairly clear, namely that a buyer has only one option to start from, which is this link:
https://www.ebay.it/help/buying/returns-refunds/restituisci-un-oggetto-cambio-di-un-rimborso?id=4041
He can open a return request for an item not as described.
Or he can simply ask you for a return, which you do not have to accept if in your return policy you stated that you do not accept returns and you are a private seller.
What the buyer is trying to do right now goes against the site rules.
If you have already reported him to ebay, you can safely stop indulging him and tell him to open a return request if he is not satisfied with the purchase.
If he were to ignore your request and leave negative feedback directly, you can contact ebay support again to ask for the removal of the feedback since you have shown yourself
willing to take the item back in exchange for a refund, but the buyer did not want to do so, trying to extort money from you with a claim that is yet to be proven and, out of spite, left you negative feedback.
Please note that these communications between you and the buyer are carried out within ebay email/chat/messaging and can be reviewed by support.
Kind regards.