eBay/Paypal scams

[docteurseb]

I just had an 'interesting' experience today with an Apple Watch I sold beginning of November.
It was shipped insured and with signature and it got delivered the 1st week of November.
I never ever heard of the buyer since, all seemed well.
This morning I got an email from PayPal saying a case had been opened because the recipient filed a claim with his bank to charge back the amount claiming it hadn't been delivered. Yes, of course, who waits 3months to realize they $1k+ watch wasn't delivered...

So of course PayPal put a hold on that old translation and I end up a negative balance while they 'review the claim', and also ask to put some cash back in my account to get back to a neutral balance. Great.
Apparently this stuff can take 30-75 days to resolve and it may not go in the seller's favor.

Likewise this person is no longer a registered eBay user, his Twitter account suspended, etc...

While I have the signature receipt from USPS, it's barely readable.
Of course it's just a few days over 90 days which means you can't even discuss that with eBay, plus eBay probably couldn't care less with the person not even being registered with them at this point...

So here I am stuck waiting for PayPal to review a case from a guy who is an obvious scammer. Fun.

To be fair in about 20 years on eBay this is the first time I have this happen, but it goes to show how easy it is for scammers to get away with it.

Good luck all, hope you don't have a similar experience anytime soon.

 

[NedRyerson]

It was probably about 20-25 years ago (!!!!) that I last had to deal with an eBay scammer.  I listed a flatbed scanner, and the winner tried to claim that because of getting scammed on eBay historically, he'd pay me 50% up front and then the remaining 50% once he received the scanner.

I declined the offer, relisted, and left negative feedback on him (and I wasn't the only one; his account was suspended soon after).

It's interesting that you're getting hit now, probably one or two days before the claim window expires.  Since you have proof of delivery, I expect that this jerk won't prevail (I hope....).  Still sucks that you're out the money while defending your honor, and first time or not, this just ain't right.

In another set of transactions, I listed a marching band uniform by request of my employer, to see if we could recoup any money on them. I sold the hat and uniform separately, but it was way more effort than it was worth with the price we listed.  Then the buyer had the gall to leave me negative feedback because the uniform was in used condition.....LIKE I'D SAID AND PHOTOGRAPHED IN THE LISTING.  And I refused to refund his money.

I negged him back saying something like "read the listing more thoroughly next time; if you don't like what you see, don't bid."

After that experience, I told our purchasing manager that I was not going to list anything else on eBay on behalf of the organization.  Too much hassle for the ROI, and probably illegal for us to do anyway.

 

[docteurseb]

Yep, it looks like it will be fine. The hardest part is talking to the right person at PayPal.

I went to the post office this morning trying to get a detailed printout that shows both the tracking and the full address on the same document (something neither the original receipt, nor signature receipt show). "Funny enough" it shows he requested to have the package held at the post office and picked it up a day later.

Because of that the PayPal representative released the hold on the transaction so no longer have a $1k+ negative balance, and said that in this case I was covered by the Seller protection even in the case of a bank charge back since I provided all the necessary documentation.
Also, he's been doing that to multiple people from what I was told...

In the end it should be all good, but that stuff is time consuming/draining/depressing. Good thing it happens very rarely (at least for me so far).

 

[PhilHill]

Unfortunately sometimes people are what they are. Glad it worked out well for you in the long run, but that doesn't change the BS you had to go through.  :icon_thumright:

 

[swarfrat]

The scary thing is not that it happens - that's bound to happen given enough people and opportunity. The scary thing is how hard eBay/PayPal/YouTube/Amazon make it to actually get in touch with someone who can help you when things go wrong.

 

[NedRyerson]

The scary thing is not that it happens - that's bound to happen given enough people and opportunity. The scary thing is how hard eBay/PayPal/YouTube/Amazon make it to actually get in touch with someone who can help you when things go wrong.

Google and Microsoft when you're an enterprise customer, too.  Which means for the average person, forget it.

But I agree here; predators like this will just move on to the next target and hope the next one is more lax in documentation.

 

[docteurseb]

The scary thing is not that it happens - that's bound to happen given enough people and opportunity. The scary thing is how hard eBay/PayPal/YouTube/Amazon make it to actually get in touch with someone who can help you when things go wrong.

Google and Microsoft when you're an enterprise customer, too.  Which means for the average person, forget it.

But I agree here; predators like this will just move on to the next target and hope the next one is more lax in documentation.

The timing was good though, after 3 months I had just tossed the original USPS receipt in the paper trash basket thinking I had no use for it anymore.
Thursday night is when we take the trash outside for collection early Friday.
Thursday morning is when I got the PayPal notice, so had it happen once day later I would no longer have had the receipt (normally I scan receipts for archival but was lazy to do it this time)...

So h