Ebay woes

OpenToSuggestions

OpenToSuggestions

OpenToSuggestions

Soldato
Joined
5 Aug 2006
Posts
11,376
Location
Derbyshire
Evening all.
After all these years of ready Ebay threads, today is my turn :D.

Some delightful person is claiming I have sold them a fake polo shirt.

Not only was the item brand new 10y ago (unworn) from a Lacoste shop in Detroit, but I even provided them with a Facebook photo from 2012 from when I went on a shopping trip. He is really being an arse by claiming it is a fake amongst other things.

Anyway, he has requested a refund and there is no 'reject' button. I have reported the buyer to Ebay but I have had no response.

Ebay only allows options for refund, partial refund or return?

It was only £17, but it makes me wish I had just given it to a charity shop or thrown it in the bin to be honest.

This has really put me off Ebay as a casual seller.
 
turbot1984 said:
I always felt Ebay was good back in the day. It was like a club, a fair place to trade. Now it's broken.
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It was. But so was the internet in general when it took a little knowledge and understanding to access. The movement to make the internet 'accessible for all' kinda never understood that all meant even the stupid.
 
EBay used to insist the buyer had to prove it was fake - ie confirmation from the maker. Now the buyer holds the cards.

You can fight this with EBay and send your proof, but will stil most likely lose or just tell him to return and refund (make sure it's the same shirt you get back).
 
ivrytwr3 said:
EBay used to insist the buyer had to prove it was fake - ie confirmation from the maker. Now the buyer holds the cards.

You can fight this with EBay and send your proof, but will stil most likely lose or just tell him to return and refund (make sure it's the same shirt you get back).
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This. Its unheard of for them to side with the seller. Never again will I sell on ebay
 
I still sell on ebay. Its really the only viable place.

I agif you get a dodgy buyer you're screwed though.

I have never lost a case as a buyer.
 
Choices are;

Offer the return at your expense, hope you get the actual t-shirt back not a fake or empty packet. There's a decent chance the buyer might not bother too.

Don't offer the return and ebay will automatically side with the buyer leaving you without the money or t-shirt.
 
Rroff said:
I don't know why anyone bothers with ebay TBH.
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It's nothing like it used to be for sure, but still represents one of the best places to sell your unwanted used stuff. I seem to have decent success moving on video games once I've sold them, typically clawing back almost 100% of the price. CeX/GAME/others aren't viable alternatives.

There are some things I wouldn't entertain selling on eBay again, like cars, and many normal auctions tend to be hit and miss generally as you never know if someone is going to bother paying in the end.

However I tend to set and forget nowadays, I recently had two part worn tyres for sale which weren't a common size, where would I get rid of them normally? I put them up as BIN on eBay, left them in the garage, and a month later a guy 300 miles away arranged collection and I got £100 for them. I'd forgotten about them.
 
wingman said:
It's nothing like it used to be for sure, but still represents one of the best places to sell your unwanted used stuff. I seem to have decent success moving on video games once I've sold them, typically clawing back almost 100% of the price. CeX/GAME/others aren't viable alternatives.

There are some things I wouldn't entertain selling on eBay again, like cars, and many normal auctions tend to be hit and miss generally as you never know if someone is going to bother paying in the end.

However I tend to set and forget nowadays, I recently had two part worn tyres for sale which weren't a common size, where would I get rid of them normally? I put them up as BIN on eBay, left them in the garage, and a month later a guy 300 miles away arranged collection and I got £100 for them. I'd forgotten about them.
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I think it very much depends on what you're selling. Anything where the buyer can potentially claim it's either fake or not working, I'd be very wary - e.g. as in the OP's case of designer clothes, or any kind of electronics is going to attract a lot of chancers. Something like part worn tyres, especially if as you say they come and collect, its going to be difficult for them to claim they were broken or not as described afterwards.

Kill_Phil said:
This. Its unheard of for them to side with the seller. Never again will I sell on ebay
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I thought this as well, but I did recently (well, about 2 years ago) win a case as a seller for a faulty phone. I did however waste quite a lot of time having to put together a lot of evidence for ebay to prove it, but with clear photos, screenshots of the listing etc. clearly showing it was faulty they did decide in my favour eventually.
 
Haggisman said:
I think it very much depends on what you're selling. Anything where the buyer can potentially claim it's either fake or not working, I'd be very wary - e.g. as in the OP's case of designer clothes, or any kind of electronics is going to attract a lot of chancers. Something like part worn tyres, especially if as you say they come and collect, its going to be difficult for them to claim they were broken or not as described afterwards.
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Absolutely, it's all dependant. Take FB Marketplace for example, I'd basically never use it, but it's great for moving on furniture for a few quid, and I prefer doing that than throwing useable furniture away at the tip.
 
wingman said:
Absolutely, it's all dependant. Take FB Marketplace for example, I'd basically never use it, but it's great for moving on furniture for a few quid, and I prefer doing that than throwing useable furniture away at the tip.
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The advantage of Facebook marketplace is that the buyer has to pick up the item and cash is exchanged (in my experience).

I no longer sell on ebay, largely because this forum has given me many examples of how it can go wrong.
 
potatolord said:
The advantage of Facebook marketplace is that the buyer has to pick up the item and cash is exchanged (in my experience).

I no longer sell on ebay, largely because this forum has given me many examples of how it can go wrong.
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Sure, I can understand that.

I've been on eBay about 15 years and have roughly 500 feedback built up in that time, probably a 70/30 split from selling to buying, and I think I've only had one or two genuine issues. I can't even recall what they were... There are definitely bad eggs on there but generally people are good, which is why it works.

I'd never sell something of value that I couldn't track back properly, I've heard horror stories (here included) of graphics cards gone missing etc. General rule of thumb is don't sell what you can't afford to lose.

Unfortunately now it's turned into another avenue where corporations can sell their goods, so you're competing with them at the same time.
 
Kill_Phil said:
This. Its unheard of for them to side with the seller. Never again will I sell on ebay
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Agreed.

I did however manage to get eBay to side with me (the seller), that was only after the buyer explained that even with a refund he wouldn't be sending it back and that it was ******. I did ask him why it was that he wanted a refund but was refusing to send it back. After a load more abusive messages from him eBay finally sided with me, it did take a couple of weeks to get my money back (£400), when I finally received the funds back in my account I had a few more messages from the buyer stating that I had conned him out of the refund, after that I just blocked him.

The last one I had was some Cisco phones I decided to sell, only for a few ££, I just wanted rid. The guy who clearly didn't know how to set them up wanted a partial refund as he could probably use the handset. From that I just asked him to send them back for a refund. Cisco phones aren't the easiest things to setup in SIP and the guy was clearly an idiot. I did message eBay after this, explaining that when returned I tested them and they all worked, didn't help with any costs or anything, but, still.

I'm now selling some Hi-Fi on there, however given the value of items I've made them collect only.

For the sake of £17 just take the hit on postage and give him a refund, making sure of course that it is the original item being returned. I wouldn't even bother relisting, give to friends, family or charity, even Facebook marketplace is a good option for a few ££.
 
Sending a couple of holiday snaps isn't going to help prove it's genuine. I'm afraid it's already a lost cause
 
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