Are fruitcakes running rampant on eBay lately? Selling, buying, listing, feedback, etc...

[Brickshopper]

33 minutes ago, tasiatunes said:

I had the same instance several times.The buyer was overseas one in China.I called Ebay and there response was once it reaches the freight forward delivery your responsibility is done.

It depends on who you talk to .I sent a large set to that freight forwarding place in Oregon going to China.No problem its been over 2 months.

I just sent a pirate ship to a freight forwarding in New York going to England.This is done by the buyer since I do not ship overseas.

Yes I have have sent to the freight forwarders in FL and OR to buyers in China before without problem most of those buyers had established accounts with feedback in the hundreds or thousands.

This order sent up red flags immediately account opened in 2018 makes first purchase ever this month a very low priced 1-2$ item with free shipping (feedback manipulation to get from 0 feedback to 1). Now there have been 4 more purchases for very low 1.00 free shipping items and now the buyer has a feedback score of 5. No history of buying from US sellers no purchases prior to this month even though the account has been opened nearly 2 years??? 

Honestly I am thinking something fishy is going on here and I have learned to trust my gut there is very little chance I send this 350 lego set plus the 30 or 40 shipping and hope paypal or ebay would protect me against any claims.

[zaphoid]

11 hours ago, Brickshopper said:

Got an order for a rather Large Lego Set to a freight forwarder in OR. (350$) I have shipped to these addresses before with some success. I just have a bad feeling about this order. The buyer has been an ebay member since 2018 has 1 feedback ever and was in the last month from a novelty China Seller most items 1-2.00$ free Shipping. This buyer is located in China and I am almost sure about going with my gut and cancelling most likely would be about 30-40 to ship to OR with USPS I am trying to dodge a potential scammer, hijacked account,  empty box scam, stolen credit info etc and probably will have to just eat the 15.00 in paypal fees. Any thoughts?

Like others have said, once it gets the the address, you're covered.  I've shipped a lot to these forwarders and have had zero issue.

[$20 on joe vs dan]

I wouldn't do it for someone with no track record of similar purchases. 

Even IF protected...not worth the hassle.

[enotoga]

On 1/7/2020 at 2:30 PM, Grynn said:

Here's one (any advice appreciated as I'm absolutely fuming)

 

Toycentric has been my best customer for the past 1-2 years. Only issue I've had is since I changed my handling time to 3 days, I get a message 2 days after the sale consisting of "Tracking number?"  Which I learned to ignore after realizing they never respond.

 

Nov 30 they open a case for a Rebels Assault Carrier, stating that the box had been filled with random bags and pieces of other sets - they didn't know where I sourced my sets, but the item sent was not correct. Now, 99% of what I sell on eBay is bought directly from a store or ordered online, and I inspect seals and overall condition. I checked my records and all of those sets came from the same Walmart on the same day. The box condition was quite good, there's virtually no chance someone bought this set, opened it and shoved junk back in, and returned it to Walmart for me to buy. So I replied to Toycentric stating as much, telling them I know they dropship, and that the third party buyer must be running a scam, for which I am not responsible. To no one's surprise, I got no response.

 

So about a week later I call eBay. To shorten the story, I called eBay 4 times over the next two weeks, as the automated system emails poured in, telling me to provide a return label since the return was automatically approved, etc etc. Every time but one I had to fight with the robotic idiot who first answers the phone in order to get to the escalation team who has actual brain cells to handle the situation. Each time I was told not to worry about it, that the buyer was not eligible for buyer protection through eBay anymore anyway, and that I would not be held responsible for the return amount despite the automated system being allowed to run it's course like the unstoppable AI juggernaut it apparently is. I spend 3-4 hours on this to make sure I didn't get screwed. I was given multiple reference numbers, notes made on the case, etc. etc.

 

End of December rolls around and I get an email from Paypal telling me the claim has been decided in the buyer's favor. I go and check and see I have a negative account balance equal to the original (minus fees) amount for this item. I'm pissed. I call eBay and after talking to a total jerk in the buying department (voice recognition was failing so I got routed to the default place I guess) I was made to call back. Got to the escalation team once again, and had to (as usual) get to the supervisor level to find out that toycentric had failed a chargeback through Paypal directly, there's nothing eBay can do about it, yada yada yada. At least he was nice.

 

So I just got off the phone with Paypal who basically told me to get f'd - because they sent me a notice on Dec 18 demanding a response by Dec 28 and I ignored that email (somewhat unintentionally, being assured by eBay this would all work out in my favor, though I didn't even recognize at the time it wasn't from eBay themselves).  I explained the whole situation in detail and this asshat said nothing I said was valid and my 8 years of essentially flawless business didn't matter because I simply didn't respond in their time frame and they already refunded the buyer. He constantly pointed out I only responded to eBay and not to Paypal and I constantly argued that there was no way I could know the claims were separate, having come from the same return case. He said he could appeal it for me but wouldn't because it would be rejected anyway due to the failure to respond. I told him that was completely unacceptable, and either something would be done about the amount or something would be done about the jacked up system that allows this crap to happen. He said I would have to WRITE to corporate, gave me the address, and I demanded his name and supervisor number.

 

2211 North First Street

San Jose, CA  95131

Attn Paypal Corporate

 

 

 

 

And yes, I blocked toycentric as a buyer a few days after this whole debacle started. I am always patient with customer service reps until they A: Fail to listen to my words more than once, B: Show obvious failure to comprehend the situation AND resist my requests to be transferred or C : Repeat the canned drivel they are given after I point out that their canned drivel does not address the issue I am calling about. Unfortunately, I have learned that the way these people are trained it is almost impossible to get past them without being an *******.

 

And for what it's worth, the "return" showed up in my original (more beat up) box, with only the odd numbered Arctic Base Camp bags (curious), plus what appears to be some Minecraft (mostly very basic) bricks.

 

I wish I didn't have another couple of years to get rid of what's left I want to sell. I'm so over eBay and their buyer buttlicking, plus the eBay / Paypal conspiracy. Between that and Lego trying hard to ruin the collectible value of their product, what started as an amazingly fun and profitable hobby / side business over 8 years ago had turned into mostly just a headache these days.

 

/rant off

That sounds horrible and thanks for sharing the details.  I don't know much about ToyCentric but this definitely sounds like their customer ran a scam on them, and they passed the buck to you.  That sucks.  It's their customer who ran the scam so it's ToyCentrics liability.  There are ways that you can force people to do the right thing.  It's just a matter of time, money, and peace.  If they're doing business legally in any US state they have a registered corporate agent who receives legal process for the business - you get this info from the "Corporations Database" in their state on their state's corporations website - every state has one.  Next you send the business a 30 day demand notice by certified mail - ask for exactly what they owe you plus ALL your costs (including time) - estimate $1500.  Also let them know that if they don't respond and settle within 30 day you'll sue for triple damages under the "Unfair & Deceptive Business Practices" statute in your state.  If they don't respond to your satisfaction, then you use your local small claims court to initiate the legal action - it's both cheap and easy.  When their registered agent gets a trial date in the mail from the courthouse, for a case that has now ballooned into a $4500 lawsuit, you'll have their attention.  You'll usually be able to settle at this point because they'll suspect that you're more trouble than it's worth.

But some business owners are stupid and they may ignore you and ignore the court date.  If you win the judgement, and you probably will, you can turn it over to a collection agency if they don't pay.  There are lots of other things you can do and people you can get involved.

Sometime going this route is not worth the time and effort......but sometimes it is.   You learn a lot and word gets out.  Your state's Attorney General's office is there to help you.  Good luck!

Edited February 25, 2020 by enotoga

[Alpinemaps]

Before we all become the fruitcakes, lets steer this back on course to eBay fruitcakes please.

[jaisonline]

Hi, Please try to keep this thread about LEGO.

[nolan808]

I was just wondering if anyone else has had any experience with people buying there lego from china on ebay but with a uk address, or other country's addresses it dosn't really matter.

Basically lately I've had quite a few popular items being sold via ebay that's been bought from Chinese sellers with a Uk address, is this normal? I'm guessing there buying to sell in there own country. I've noticed quite alot of 70618 being bought up by people, are these worth more in china and the chinese are stock pilling them in the Uk.

I'm not saying anyone's up to know good as for my items at least they are paying straight away with a registered uk address regardless of there feedback. I am happy to send but a little cautious due to how quickly things are selling and how many some people are buying from multiple sellers.

I'm obviously really happy to sell things quick but it would be good to know if others have had any experience with this.

Any opinions would be great.

[$20 on joe vs dan]

3 hours ago, raulaco said:

I was just wondering if anyone else has had any experience with people buying there lego from china on ebay but with a uk address, or other country's addresses it dosn't really matter.

Basically lately I've had quite a few popular items being sold via ebay that's been bought from Chinese sellers with a Uk address, is this normal? I'm guessing there buying to sell in there own country. I've noticed quite alot of 70618 being bought up by people, are these worth more in china and the chinese are stock pilling them in the Uk.

I'm not saying anyone's up to know good as for my items at least they are paying straight away with a registered uk address regardless of there feedback. I am happy to send but a little cautious due to how quickly things are selling and how many some people are buying from multiple sellers.

I'm obviously really happy to sell things quick but it would be good to know if others have had any experience with this.

Any opinions would be great.

So you observed there are UK Buyers buying a ton of LEGO sets and you suspect they are China based resellers?

How do you know they are China based?  what types of LEGO or no clear trend?

[SLL]

3 hours ago, raulaco said:

I was just wondering if anyone else has had any experience with people buying there lego from china on ebay but with a uk address, or other country's addresses it dosn't really matter.

Basically lately I've had quite a few popular items being sold via ebay that's been bought from Chinese sellers with a Uk address, is this normal? I'm guessing there buying to sell in there own country. I've noticed quite alot of 70618 being bought up by people, are these worth more in china and the chinese are stock pilling them in the Uk.

I'm not saying anyone's up to know good as for my items at least they are paying straight away with a registered uk address regardless of there feedback. I am happy to send but a little cautious due to how quickly things are selling and how many some people are buying from multiple sellers.

I'm obviously really happy to sell things quick but it would be good to know if others have had any experience with this.

Any opinions would be great.

I know chinese ppl on ebay bought stuffs and sent them to their uk forwarding address, just like they do it here in the states.

as long as the address checks out, nothing to worry. Among all my sales on ebay and BL, chinese ppl are the top buyers if not the best.

as to one specific set price, in recent era, you can pretty much gather such info within a min online. Go to Taobao or Xieyu, which are two websites chinese use a lot for selling/buying lego. Your answers are there waving to you.

[nolan808]

3 hours ago, $20 on joe vs dan said:

So you observed there are UK Buyers buying a ton of LEGO sets and you suspect they are China based resellers?

How do you know they are China based?  what types of LEGO or no clear trend?

Well the fact there location on ebay is China is a dead giveaway, also if a seller is buying 10 plus of the same item in a day then yes I class them as a reseller. 

[nolan808]

3 hours ago, superlegolover said:

I know chinese ppl on ebay bought stuffs and sent them to their uk forwarding address, just like they do it here in the states.

as long as the address checks out, nothing to worry. Among all my sales on ebay and BL, chinese ppl are the top buyers if not the best.

as to one specific set price, in recent era, you can pretty much gather such info within a min online. Go to Taobao or Xieyu, which are two websites chinese use a lot for selling/buying lego. Your answers are there waving to you.

Thanks for that advise, both those sites will be very helpful for me.

[SLL]

46 minutes ago, raulaco said:

Thanks for that advise, both those sites will be very helpful for me.

there was a typo, it's Xianyu not Xieyu. sorry about that.

[Phil B]

Not a fruitcake story but just an EBay question: One of my (non-LEGO) items I sent to a customer arrived defective. I want to send a return label so I can inspect it, and then send out a replacement. How do I do this? Do I need to purchase a label outside of EBay? Does Paypal.com/shipnow allow me to create a return label (where I am not the sender)? Any tips?

[SpaceFan9]

You can use paypal multi-shipping to generate a label that will originate at your customers zip code and arrive at yours.  I do this quite often for relatives that send packages to me.

It's possible that the return address will be yours, but as long as the 'shipped from zip code xxxxx' is correct, it will get delivered properly.  (or you can edit the return address in an image editing program, which I've done in the past too.)

 

 

[Phil B]

You can use paypal multi-shipping to generate a label that will originate at your customers zip code and arrive at yours.  I do this quite often for relatives that send packages to me.
It's possible that the return address will be yours, but as long as the 'shipped from zip code xxxxx' is correct, it will get delivered properly.  (or you can edit the return address in an image editing program, which I've done in the past too.)
 
 

Thanks. Couldn’t find the multishipping option but in the end just added the customer’s address as one of my addresses, printed a regular shipping label to send him a replacement and included a second label where he was the sender and I am the recipient. Hopefully that works.

[SpaceFan9]

4 hours ago, Phil B said:

Thanks. Couldn’t find the multishipping option but in the end just added the customer’s address as one of my addresses, printed a regular shipping label to send him a replacement and included a second label where he was the sender and I am the recipient. Hopefully that works.

 

You're welcome.  If the origination and destination zip codes are specified correctly, it should go through without trouble.

And here's the multi-order shipping link worth bookmarking, 'cause its impossible to find via normal click-routes: http://www.paypal.com/mos (which resolves to https://www.paypal.com/shiplabel/createbulk/)

[Shortbus311]

Not Ebay, but a fruitcake nonetheless.

[Cathy G]

49 minutes ago, Shortbus311 said:

Not Ebay, but a fruitcake nonetheless.

Fruitcakes are everywhere...have you been to a Walmart lately?

 

 

 

 

 

[Phil B]

BrickOwl store search term stats:

[Shortbus311]

So, tried calling Ebay today about a issue and the message on the answering service said live support has been shutdown. Same with live chat. Seems the only way to get help with issues right now through Ebay is via email... great...

[exracer327]

Ebay live chat is down too?  What, none of their support team have a computer at home?

[whoisbiggles]

Like a lot of businesses - eBay has a disaster recovery plan that ticks all the boxes on paper and fails miserably when put into action.

Here in Oz - Dell computers has a 6 month backlog for all laptops.

One organisation I provide services to - their entire disaster recovery team all got infected with virus, thanks to one member coming back from overseas who unknowingly had the virus.

 

 

[Mgip21]

Looking for a little help 😬. Sold a $380 set to an Oregon address. When I go to print shipping In red eBay say “failed to obtain service from Usps. Ship to province is invalid or unsupported” & “there is a problem with the ship to address. Please amend here”. So the address is correct on the left little window but then when you click on the problem address it says instead of Oregon it has Alabama and allows me to change it but then once I do it says seller protection  might not be available if I shipped a different address.  I will be shipping to the correct address on the label and the one customer provided.  I’m not sure where the Alabama came from.   Any suggestions. Of course I can’t put a call into eBay and online not available. 
thank you 

Edited March 19, 2020 by Mgip21

[Alpinemaps]

Looking for a little help . Sold a $380 set to an Oregon address. When I go to print shipping In red eBay say “failed to obtain service from Usps. Ship to province is invalid or unsupported” & “there is a problem with the ship to address. Please amend here”. So the address is correct on the left little window but then when you click on the problem address it says instead of Oregon it has Alabama and allows me to change it but then once I do it says seller protection  might not be available if I shipped a different address.  I will be shipping to the correct address on the label and the one customer provided.  I’m not sure where the Alabama came from.   Any suggestions. Of course I can’t put a call into eBay and online not available. 
thank you 

Ask the buyer? Tell them what you’re seeing and let’s see what their response is. Let them know that you won’t send it unless the address is verified.

[Phil B]

12 minutes ago, Mgip21 said:

Looking for a little help 😬. Sold a $380 set to an Oregon address. When I go to print shipping In red eBay say “failed to obtain service from Usps. Ship to province is invalid or unsupported” & “there is a problem with the ship to address. Please amend here”. So the address is correct on the left little window but then when you click on the problem address it says instead of Oregon it has Alabama and allows me to change it but then once I do it says seller protection  might not be available if I shipped a different address.  I will be shipping to the correct address on the label and the one customer provided.  I’m not sure where the Alabama came from.   Any suggestions. Of course I can’t put a call into eBay and online not available. 
thank you 

have you tried going via Paypal to ship (assuming this was paid through Paypal)? Or just doing www.paypal.com/shipnow and manually enter the address?