Possibly Scammed By Ebay Buyer

Soldato
Joined
29 Mar 2007
Posts
4,481
Location
Swindon UK
Sold (private sale) a secondhand Blu-Ray steelbook of the Maze Runner on Ebay a few days ago (replaced it with the 4K version), buyer now claiming it has been received scuffed, scratched and dented. Certainly wasn't in that condition on dispatch and was well packaged. Either it has been damaged by the GPO or someone sat on it at the other end.

Guy now wants a refund and to return the item. He's uploaded some photos purportedly of the damage but the link he sent just goes to some odd Japanese or Chinese site that requires a log in. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the item before sending - who takes a photo of a £15 Blu-ray. Sent normal second class postage with proof of posting only, so the GPO aren't going to entertain a claim.

At the moment I've replied politely telling him to take a hike and pointing to the fact I sell on a "No Return" basis. However I suspect if it comes down to a dispute, Ebay are unlikely to side with me. If I refund the money plus pay £1.20 for return postage, I get back an allegedly unsaleable item, so I know exactly what's likely to happen here - the guy expects me to refund the money and tell him to bin the item, ergo he gets a free film as the disc is perfectly okay.

Do I stand my ground or do I fold if/when he comes back to me and put it down to a side-effect of dealing with some of the muppets on Ebay?
 
Man of Honour
Joined
15 Jan 2006
Posts
32,369
Location
Tosche Station
What was the feedback of the buyer like?

Regardless of the above, the only thing you can do in your circumstance is to tell him to send it back and you will refund accordingly upon observing of the damage.
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Aug 2006
Posts
6,339
'No returns' means absolutely nothing and most likely highlights to the buyer that you are not au fait with EBay rules.

Stand your ground, stamp your feet - the end result will be if you do not refund him EBay will pay him and put you into debt with them.

It's a pain in the a$$, but EBay is so heavily one sided. You have to allow him to return the item and then you can go into dispute with EBay, but i suspect you will still have to refund - but give it a try!
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
29 Mar 2007
Posts
4,481
Location
Swindon UK
What was the feedback of the buyer like?

Regardless of the above, the only thing you can do in your circumstance is to tell him to send it back and you will refund accordingly upon observing of the damage.

He didn't leave any yet so suspect he is waiting for the outcome. Mind he hasn't replied yet either so it was worth it just to deter a potential scam, even if I do end up refunding.

First time in many years I've hit this kind of issue, of course it could be genuine damage but again never had any problems putting old DVD's in the post before.

I take the point about "No Returns" being meaningless, so don't know why they have it as an option, TBH. Ebay works if everyone is honest but sadly that seems less and less the case.

If he comes back, he can keep the wretched thing and have a refund, no point in being more worse off than I need to be.
 
Joined
12 Feb 2006
Posts
17,192
Location
Surrey
have you reverse googled the image? if you don't know how post a link to the images he uploaded and we can take a look for you. If you're confident the disc was ok, then he either has a scratched disc to hand which he uses to get free films, or he googled scratched disc, sent you the picture and hoped for the best.

e.g. if he sent you this picture how would you know it's not the dvd you sent him?

http://cdn.instructables.com/FL4/6J6M/FI9DRC7N/FL46J6MFI9DRC7N.MEDIUM.jpg
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
8 Dec 2002
Posts
20,077
Location
North Yorkshire
All this stuff about you'll loose out just doesn't ring true. Everytime one of these threads come up I always mean to tell my experience of this scenario.

I sold some Fifa coins with a paper guide to circumnavigate their rules :p Some guy claimed he didn't get the coins then , said he hadn't received any guide etc etc. So I played the game sent him a paper guide got proof of postage etc. He returned it to me which he was within rights to do with Ebay...

I rung Ebay up told them what happened they told me the usual line of tough luck. I asked if she could hang up on me she said no , I then asked if she had call targets to meet she said yes. I alluded to the fact that I had all day to get this sorted out.

I went through the whole the line has gone dead trick ,then the horrific hold music , then the supervisor and eventually they said they would reverse the money and it would take 48 hours... Again I stuck to me guns and funnily enough my money was back in PP account while I waited on the phone.

The entire thing took 3 hours or so. So you can get your money back you just need to be very persistent , firm polite and have time spare!
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Feb 2008
Posts
13,670
Location
Home
Tell him you will accept the return.

Also tell him this "once i have received the item i will check the security measures i put on the item to ensure it is the same item i sent,all the info on the security has been documented by video and photo,once all these check out i will issue the refund,if the item is not the item i sent i will contact the police"
 
Soldato
Joined
4 Apr 2003
Posts
7,964
Tell him you will accept the return.

Also tell him this "once i have received the item i will check the security measures i put on the item to ensure it is the same item i sent,all the info on the security has been documented by video and photo,once all these check out i will issue the refund,if the item is not the item i sent i will contact the police"

Quote,

I have done this on a number of occasions and surprising how quickly the return claim stops.

I usually give a opening paragraph about how I take my service seriously so for buyer and seller protection all items are smart water marked and packing process etc is filmed etc.
 
Soldato
Joined
2 Dec 2004
Posts
13,980
Location
Under The Desk, Wales
Tell him you will accept the return.

Also tell him this "once i have received the item i will check the security measures i put on the item to ensure it is the same item i sent,all the info on the security has been documented by video and photo,once all these check out i will issue the refund,if the item is not the item i sent i will contact the police"

Great idea
 
Man of Honour
Joined
9 Jan 2007
Posts
164,576
Location
Metropolis
Tell him you will accept the return.

Also tell him this "once i have received the item i will check the security measures i put on the item to ensure it is the same item i sent,all the info on the security has been documented by video and photo,once all these check out i will issue the refund,if the item is not the item i sent i will contact the police"

This will sort him out. :D
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Feb 2008
Posts
13,670
Location
Home
Quote,

I have done this on a number of occasions and surprising how quickly the return claim stops.

I usually give a opening paragraph about how I take my service seriously so for buyer and seller protection all items are smart water marked and packing process etc is filmed etc.

Had to do this last year on a dlsr kit,tried it on with me,told him that in my job (working with police) i have to be 100% sure i do my job correctly,never heard from him again.
 
Soldato
Joined
8 Jun 2005
Posts
8,401
Location
United Kingdom
Sold (private sale) a secondhand Blu-Ray steelbook of the Maze Runner on Ebay a few days ago (replaced it with the 4K version), buyer now claiming it has been received scuffed, scratched and dented. Certainly wasn't in that condition on dispatch and was well packaged. Either it has been damaged by the GPO or someone sat on it at the other end.

Guy now wants a refund and to return the item. He's uploaded some photos purportedly of the damage but the link he sent just goes to some odd Japanese or Chinese site that requires a log in. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the item before sending - who takes a photo of a £15 Blu-ray. Sent normal second class postage with proof of posting only, so the GPO aren't going to entertain a claim.

At the moment I've replied politely telling him to take a hike and pointing to the fact I sell on a "No Return" basis. However I suspect if it comes down to a dispute, Ebay are unlikely to side with me. If I refund the money plus pay £1.20 for return postage, I get back an allegedly unsaleable item, so I know exactly what's likely to happen here - the guy expects me to refund the money and tell him to bin the item, ergo he gets a free film as the disc is perfectly okay.

Do I stand my ground or do I fold if/when he comes back to me and put it down to a side-effect of dealing with some of the muppets on Ebay?

Maze runner steelbook is quite collectible as it's completely sold out. If you aren't aware there are websites like hidefninja that are dedicated to steelbook collectors who put a lot of time into their collections. If your steelbook had some kind of ding/dent/scratch even if minor and wasn't described it's likely you've sent it to a collector who expected a perfect copy, and their going through this process as it wasn't what they expected.

If that's the case the buyer will raise this issue with ebay and side with them, you'll then be forced to pay for the postage back through ebay to receive the item back. I went through this process selling a steelbook myself over Christmas, I just relisted it and described the minor "ding" in the corner to stop the same thing happening twice.
 
Caporegime
Joined
26 Dec 2003
Posts
25,666
Surely a collector wouldn't be expecting perfection having payed only £15? the linking to a Chinese/Japanese website sounds a bit suspicious as well.

I'd do what schizo suggests, blag about having photos/serial numbers (since you didn't take them) and tell him that you'll refund him once you have confirmed it is the actualy item you sent.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
4 Jul 2008
Posts
26,418
Location
(''\(';.;')/'')
Tell him you will accept the return.

Also tell him this "once i have received the item i will check the security measures i put on the item to ensure it is the same item i sent,all the info on the security has been documented by video and photo,once all these check out i will issue the refund,if the item is not the item i sent i will contact the police"

Doesn't hurt to try something like this. Maybe make it sound a little more coherent though :p
 
Back
Top Bottom