How to Protect yourself as a seller on eBay?

[pickleboy]

Ok so I am curious how other sellers protect themselves from being gamed on eBay.  Sadly, no matter how good our customer service is there will be shady people out there or people who you just can not please.  It's not that hard to game the eBay buyer protection system if you really want to.  I had an individual today tell me that the item I sent him was in fact opened and of course he either wants a big discount or he wants me to pay return shipping. I have no choice but to pay for return shipping and have already offered a discount. I am giving them the benefit of the doubt that I did screw up.  However it makes me think,  I can't say for certain that it was never opened and resealed by someone prior to me owning it but...this person very easily could have ripped the seal and said it he got it that way...

What do you do to protect yourself as a seller? 

I only have about 150 sales and this is the first time this has happened.  Does this happen often?  Or have I been lucky that it took so long to happen to me? 

Thanks-

 

Pickleboy

[exciter1]

You've been pretty lucky.  Make sure to take pictures of items before and after you box them up.

[LowestFormOfWit]

Some people knowingly exploit whatever they can. They just don't have ethics.

Some are trying to save a buck, and some literally get sick pleasure out of inconveniencing others.

The way eBay's deck is stacked for the buyer, though, all you can do is roll with the punches and accept things like this every now and then as a cost of doing business.

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

Yeah unfortunately Ebay sees this as "seller's problem". When they removed Buyer Feedback, this killed any fairness in the game. At any time I can leave negative feedback as a buyer for anything I purchased for no reason. The Seller has nothing to combat it.

 

Pictures are definitely the best way - but is the time you spend doing this worth paying return shipping 1 out of 20 sales? Who knows.

[MartinP]

I would just be honest to the buyer for all his questions and answer them in detail!

[Darth_Raichu]

The feedback situation obviously put the sellers on an uneven ground to the buyers.  Outside of having good pictures and description to match, there is not really anything sellers can do to protect themselves.  On the bright side, 1 out of 150 is not bad.  Other sellers have experienced worst odds than that

[emes]

State your policy for returns in your auctions. I NEVER pay return shipping, even if they demand it. Make them file a case and jump through the hoops if they want to do a return. 

 

If they want to do a return make them pay to ship it back. I've also never had a case where eBay/PayPal didn't support my defined and clearly stated return policy when it was clearly stated in the listing. 

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

State your policy for returns in your auctions. I NEVER pay return shipping, even if they demand it. Make them file a case and jump through the hoops if they want to do a return. 

 

If they want to do a return make them pay to ship it back. I've also never had a case where eBay/PayPal didn't support my defined and clearly stated return policy when it was clearly stated in the listing. 

 

Actually this is straight up good advice. No one that I have ever talked to has been discouraged from buying from someone with this policy. Normally its good to do this, and then you can make exceptions when it is obviously your fault to be nice. But you have something when they try and pull one on you.

[emes]

Actually this is straight up good advice. No one that I have ever talked to has been discouraged from buying from someone with this policy. Normally its good to do this, and then you can make exceptions when it is obviously your fault to be nice. But you have something when they try and pull one on you.

 

Another thing to consider, when you have an issue with a seller, you should immediately put them on your excluded buyers list until the issue is resolved. This will prevent them from buying more things from you and causing you more problems. Once you resolve the situation, if you have the slightest hint that they are a scammer, leave them on the excluded buyers list.

 

Also, remember that if someone leaves you feedback that you're not happy with that you can respond to the feedback. Check out the feedback forum on eBay for more information.

 

One more thing...not all buyers realize that sellers cannot leave them negative feedback. It's in your best interest as a seller to do nothing to make them think otherwise. Just because you can't leave negative feedback for a buyer, doesn't mean you have to tell them. Let them think you can hurt them....

[Anakinisvader]

I've only had a few bad buyers in the course of my many years on Ebay.  I did have one buyer complain about the condition of the box (even though I correctly defined condition in the listing).  When he asked for a discount I asked him if he was a member of Brickpicker.   (since many people here talk about getting discounts)  He said no.  I let him know that the listing was correct, I would not offer a discount,  and he would have to pay return shipping (as per policy) if he wanted a refund.  I never heard from him again. 

 

By the way, keep all e-mail correspondence.  You can use this if a case is filed (for threats of leaving negative or demands for discounts) and should help you in the case.

[beartrapper]

^{Would it be unethical to create a list on here of bad buyers?}

[choppers605]

there is no way to protect yourself from everything, if a seller wants to get you they will, just hope for the best.

 

i have been on ebay since day one, here is my list of bad buyers

Edited July 2, 2013 by Grolim
List removed

[Lateral-G]

The unfortunate thing is that ebay can lock out your paypal account or withdraw funds to refund the buyer.

 

ebay is heavily biased towards buyers...it wasn't always this way.

 

Don't get me wrong, I buy quite a bit from ebay and have had to use the buyers protection in the past because of some unscrupulous sellers. But the way ebay's rules are now it's too easy for a buyer to file a complaint and it's the seller that has to jump through hoops to prove they are legit and on the up and up.

 

On all the cases I filed as a buyer all I ever had to do was claim I never got the item and within a day or two I had my money refunded.

 

When I sell items I always ship using options with tracking and delivery confirmation. I save all receipts and invoices from the shipper and take pictures. It's a real hassle but as the seller the onus is on you to prove you actually shipped the item...and even then ebay has recourses available to them to make you life miserable. I have talked with more than a few traders that have had buyers make false claims and it took months to get any sort of resolution.

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

You mean you don't have Alisher71 on that list? The greatest Ebay scammer of all time:

 

http://community.tuliptools.com/thread-1796.html

[theegypt]

For items I sell that are high dolar amounts, I always go into paypal to make sure they have a "confirmed" paypal address.  This means their address has been linked to their bank account, so you know you are shipping to the paypal account owner as opposed to someone who hijacked the account and changed the shipping address.  Also if you sell anything above $250, you are required to ship with signature confirmation per paypal.  I agree with the poster above, the buyer should pay return postage unless they are returning b/c of a mistake you made.  You can specify this in your settings.  If you feel someone is trying to scam you, you can always nicely remind them that mail fraud is a felony and you will be closely documenting the return process (if they are returing an item to you).  From what I hear postal inspectors are some tough hombre's and not to be messed with. 

[Lateral-G]

You mean you don't have Alisher71 on that list? The greatest Ebay scammer of all time:

 

http://community.tuliptools.com/thread-1796.html

Many of the buyers who lost money are blaming eBay for allowing this to happen.

In response, eBay spokesperson Chris Donnelly said they only "provide the space. How people come together and trade on the space is really up to those individuals."

Even so, eBay does rank sellers by feedback. Alisher71 had a positive record for the last two years.

Donnelly says feedback is "not the only thing they ask people to look at because no one parameter is going to capture everything. Some of the other things we recommend you look for in sellers is what kind of return policy they have, what kind of payment do they accept."

 

ebay doing the texas two step....not surprising.

[Lateral-G]

For items I sell that are high dolar amounts, I always go into paypal to make sure they have a "confirmed" paypal address.  This means their address has been linked to their bank account, so you know you are shipping to the paypal account owner as opposed to someone who hijacked the account and changed the shipping address.  Also if you sell anything above $250, you are required to ship with signature confirmation per paypal.  I agree with the poster above, the buyer should pay return postage unless they are returning b/c of a mistake you made.  You can specify this in your settings.  If you feel someone is trying to scam you, you can always nicely remind them that mail fraud is a felony and you will be closely documenting the return process (if they are returing an item to you).  From what I hear postal inspectors are some tough hombre's and not to be messed with. 

Good advise...but in practice not very effective.

 

You have to get local PD's and post offices to be motivated to do something. Most aren't. They will give you lip service and go thru the motions but I wouldn't put my faith in them to help you resolve your issue. Short of you actually going out and dragging the offender back yourself and depositing them on the desk of the inspector or local PD you won't see much in the way of results.

[emes]

Good advise...but in practice not very effective.

 

You have to get local PD's and post offices to be motivated to do something. Most aren't. They will give you lip service and go thru the motions but I wouldn't put my faith in them to help you resolve your issue. Short of you actually going out and dragging the offender back yourself and depoiting them on the desk of the inspector or local PD you won't see much in the way of results.

 

It's not that you'll actually do these things or that anyone will actually listen. It's the threat alone that's often enough to discourage bad behavior. We had a seller recently that was trying to scam an eyeshadow palette, and all it took was making her ware that I could make her life difficult, then she was nice as pie. That's how I take what theegypt is saying....

[Jackson]

It's not that you'll actually do these things or that anyone will actually listen. It's the threat alone that's often enough to discourage bad behavior. We had a seller recently that was trying to scam an eyeshadow palette, and all it took was making her ware that I could make her life difficult, then she was nice as pie. That's how I take what theegypt is saying....

Was the buyer saying the item didn't arrive?  United States buyer?  Did you just say that mail fraud is a felony or something else?

[Diabolos80]

How do we protect ourselves when selling used sets? I worry that I'll sell a set and the buyer could take out a fig or some rare pieces, then return it. What would I do then?

[emes]

Was the buyer saying the item didn't arrive?  United States buyer?  Did you just say that mail fraud is a felony or something else?

 

No, she was attempting to claim that the item she received was damaged. I did a quick check on her id and found that she had ordered the same item from another, and that seller had left false positive feedback.

 

My wife told her that this item has a unique code embedded in it, and that while she was welcome to return it, that she would have to pay for return shipping, and if we received an item back different than the one that was sent that it would be destroyed, she wouldn't receive a refund, and that we'd immediately open a case with eBay and have her banned. She backed down.

[emes]

^{Would it be unethical to create a list on here of bad buyers?}

 

 

there is no way to protect yourself from everything, if a seller wants to get you they will, just hope for the best.

 

i have been on ebay since day one, here is my list of bad buyers

 

 

 

There are sites on the Internet where you can see this type of information. Personally, I ignore them because you really have no idea why someone was added to such a list.

 

I think this is a fairly bad idea to be shown through BP. While I think the members here are generally straight shooters, we're ultimately taking someone's word that we really don't know that someone is a scammer and deserves to be on a list like this.

 

While I the intent here was good, people can end up on excluded buyer lists for various reasons, none of which mean they are necessarily scammers. For example, I'll often put people on an excluded list if they ask a question that's clearly answered in the auction listing. This doesn't mean they're a scammer...it just means I don't want to waste time with them.

 

There's really no way for the BP admins to police this type of list, nor should they be policing this or determining how or why someone is on one. Given the variance in seller's behavior as well I'd say the reasons that someone could end up on such a list will be different from seller to seller.

Edited July 2, 2013 by Grolim
Removed quoted list

[choppers605]

How do we protect ourselves when selling used sets? I worry that I'll sell a set and the buyer could take out a fig or some rare pieces, then return it. What would I do then?

There is nothing you can do, that's the loophole these thieves are using.

[Grolim]

There are sites on the Internet where you can see this type of information. Personally, I ignore them because you really have no idea why someone was added to such a list.

 

I think this is a fairly bad idea to be shown through BP. While I think the members here are generally straight shooters, we're ultimately taking someone's word that we really don't know that someone is a scammer and deserves to be on a list like this.

 

While I the intent here was good, people can end up on excluded buyer lists for various reasons, none of which mean they are necessarily scammers. For example, I'll often put people on an excluded list if they ask a question that's clearly answered in the auction listing. This doesn't mean they're a scammer...it just means I don't want to waste time with them.

 

There's really no way for the BP admins to police this type of list, nor should they be policing this or determining how or why someone is on one. Given the variance in seller's behavior as well I'd say the reasons that someone could end up on such a list will be different from seller to seller.

 

I agree emes.  I've removed the list.  We have no way of verifying it so best not to have it published here.