Being scammed on Ebay

[Tykey]

Well it had to happen eventually, looks like i've been scammed on Ebay. I sold a quite expensive joystick on there last week, hardly used in as new condition, original box, tested it as fully working before sending it out. Just had a return request saying it doesn't work. The buyer joined Ebay last week and has 3 feedback. Am I right in thinking there is nothing I can do? I don't think there is. I'm kicking myself a bit as I usually won't sell to any such new / low feedback accounts but i didn't check this time. Pretty gutted . I expect i'll receive a useless/worthless joystick back, might not even be my joystick.

 

[Tykey]

Did they reach out with any questions first or just a straight refund request? If no contact first it feels like it's probably a scam unfortunately.

They joined ebay on the day of buying my joystick. this is what they sent me with the refund request :

"I am an IT Technician. This item is faulty and will not be recognized by my system and another system i have tested it on. I have tried a firmware update but it fails, suggesting there is a technical fault with the joystick. I have spent 3 hours trying to make it work."

I know full well it worked fine when I sent it out.

Sounds like a scam. Try and fight it. Threaten with police crime investigation of it is a scam.

Sometimes these people are stupid and buckle. Other times they completely know what what they are doing

I don't think there's anything i can do but i will state this, worth a try.

 

[Tykey]

Can you firmware update the joystick? If so, there's a degree of knowledge at least implied a bit there.

Might well be that the buyer is doing something wrong but doesn't sound too scammy - if they are genuinely new to eBay then they may not be familiar with the comms processes.

Failures can and do happen, I buy a lot of old server kit and have had a few DOA items, some of which sound like they've been bashed about quite a lot during transit.

The brand new ebay account, the fact the joystick was barely used and tested before sending out, it was packaged in all the original boxing so well protected during transit, i doubt it developed a fault on the way there.

 

[Tykey]

Never send things to brand-new accounts, always cancel the sale.

yes a hard lesson learnt. i usually look out for new account buyers but got complacent.

 

[Tykey]

You have their address. They have a letterbox…..

I would...but they also have mine too!

 

[Tykey]

well good news, i phoned ebay and explained my concerns with it being a brand new account and the buyer stating the device wasn't recognized by his pc yet he was able to get part way through a firmware update (how does that work exactly). they have agreed i don't have to refund the item, but the buyer is still getting a refund from ebay as a goodwill gesture as i am in good standing with ebay.

 

[Tykey]

Be interesting if it still got returned and the item was ok

yes indeed, it is being returned and i will test it and if it works i will contact ebay to find out how i can return the funds to them (yes really i will do that, i believe in good/bad karma etc ).

 

[Tykey]

"IF" he sends it back

that's right, i accepted the return request before phoning ebay and them sorting it out. he has the return label i generated but doubt he posted it within the hour between the label being generated and ebay stepping in, i'm not expecting it back tbh.

 

[Tykey]

I received the joystick back yesterday, on close examination it appears the buyer had attempted to attach the joystick stick to the base (they separate for packaging purposes) the wrong way around. not sure how or why he did this as there are big arrows on both base and joystick so you know which way to align them. doing it the wrong way around breaks the connection plug on the base so it doesn't work. so the buyer wasn't a true scammer, the joystick didn't work but it didn't work because the idiot broke it trying to assemble it. i'm going to try to fix it, there are guides available on how to do it it seems quite straightfoward.

 

[Tykey]

AS a seller do you have any comeback for incorrectly assembled and user damaged?

i guess it is a he said she said issue and ebay almost always side with the buyer........... but that sucks.

hope it is fixable.... however unless under heavy discount i know i would not want to buy a user repaird item tbh so even if you fix it, unless it is totally undetectable, you will likely still be out of pocket

(if i bought it unless it stated in the add as a user repair i would likely dispute it if the damage was visible)

Ebay have refunded him but from their own funds not mine after i explained the situation. On the case details they said it was because i received the item back not in the same condition i sent it which is correct. The fix seems fairly straightforward even for a luddite such as myself, basically it's a bit of disassembly, then glueing the base connector back into place, then reassembly. The manufacturer of the joystick have sent me a pdf with clear pics+instructions on what to do, there's only 3 or 4 steps.