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

[SLL]

8 minutes ago, locidm said:

Another $500 sold, shipped after 24 hours. 6 days after item sold, another message from Paypal notifying me of unauthorized purchase. That's 4 of 5 of sold listing >$400 being fraudulent purchases. 

Anybody else have this high rate of fraudulent purchases? Or am I being targeted somehow? Drop shipper scammer is looking likely since they're all going to different addresses in different states.

appears the high ticket item is the target? did you sell anything cheaper and how did that transaction go?

if you deliver to the paypal confirmed address, in theory you should be protected

[locidm]

52 minutes ago, brickvoyeur said:

That's a helluva run of bad luck. I haven't had any issues thus far in 2020.

How old are the accounts buying from you? What do their feedback levels look like?

A dropshipper would have to have another listing somewhere, use a stolen PayPal account to dropship the item to their person. The dropshipper would then ship the item to the legit buyer, and provide them the tracking number you provided to them.

If only eBay had a giant database, and a way to search by tracking number to see if someone else uploaded it as tracking for another listing. In fact, they likely do.

Account since and # feedbacks: 2004 (38 feedbacks), 2017 (4), 2011 (77),  2010 (109).

47 minutes ago, SLL said:

appears the high ticket item is the target? did you sell anything cheaper and how did that transaction go?

if you deliver to the paypal confirmed address, in theory you should be protected

Yes and yes, I have a range of other lower priced transactions and none of those had any issues.

So far I haven't lost any money, but it's certainly disheartening to see so many scammers. Makes me hesitate to list higher priced items, and more so to ship one when sold.

[SLL]

1 minute ago, locidm said:

Account since and # feedbacks: 2004 (38 feedbacks), 2017 (4), 2011 (77),  2010 (109).

Yes and yes, I have a range of other lower priced transactions and none of those had any issues.

So far I haven't lost any money, but it's certainly disheartening to see so many scammers. Makes me hesitate to list higher priced items, and more so to ship one when sold.

yes, it sucks. receiving those kinda emails is always nerve racking.

For the high ticket item, I always tried to contact the buyer, either through email or phone#, to get a feeling. Sometimes, a scam can be stopped right there. If no reply and the ship date is approaching, I would add as many security measures as I can, like requiring signature, purchasing extra insurance, using fed/ups.

[brickvoyeur]

Not advocating this, but it is possible for a legit seller to reverse the scam on the dropshipper.

Print the label right away, squat on your "handling time".

When the "not authorized" email arrives, slap the label on a random box and dump it at the post office.

You, as the seller, get to keep the money less shipping, and you still have your product. Item will show delivered which will qualify for seller protection.

The dropshipping scammer's buyer receives an empty box, in which they submit a SNAD case of their own against the dropshipper.

The dropshipper can't give you negative feedback without outing themselves, as they already claimed it was an unauthorized purchase.

Not ethical by any means.. and once again not advocating. But it is a fun use of my quarantine brain.

 

[locidm]

10 minutes ago, SLL said:

yes, it sucks. receiving those kinda emails is always nerve racking.

For the high ticket item, I always tried to contact the buyer, either through email or phone#, to get a feeling. Sometimes, a scam can be stopped right there. If no reply and the ship date is approaching, I would add as many security measures as I can, like requiring signature, purchasing extra insurance, using fed/ups.

I might have to do that too in the future. It seems that I can't rely on eBay to catch them.

If they do reply and you find out it is a scam, what do you do? initiate canceling of the transaction through eBay and then refund?

[SLL]

13 minutes ago, locidm said:

I might have to do that too in the future. It seems that I can't rely on eBay to catch them.

If they do reply and you find out it is a scam, what do you do? initiate canceling of the transaction through eBay and then refund?

then I would stop the transaction, take this to ebay or paypal.

Granted, cancelling the transaction may cause your paypal fee (outrageous for expensive item). Then it will totally up to paypal's discretion, you may or may not get your fee back.

But to me, at least I still get to keep my $500 item, at the cost of ~$16 fee. Worry free night, sleep tight.

[RightDwigt]

I sold a mid-range set on eBay ($70 shipped) which was supposed to be delivered to a PO box. Maybe I should have seen this coming, but UPS back charged me $17 for an address change to the buyer's actual home. I had no choice, PayPal automatically took the money out of my account. I have reached out to the buyer and asked him to pay the $17. It has been a week with no reply so I just sent another kind message explaining the situation.

If it's the buyer's address that caused the issue, doesn't it seem right to ask them to pay the charges? I understand the message is not one a buyer would be excited to read, but we are both established eBayers and I do think it's reasonable to request the buyer pay that.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is there anything else I can do other than kindly ask the buyer to pay the charge? It just seems like an unfortunate loophole that punishes any shipper. Why am I responsible for a recipient's address that can't be delivered to?

[SageFly]

I had a new one yesterday as a buyer on ebay...

Early last week, I bought and paid for an item as usual using Paypal (≈$250 item). Item arrived 4 days later as expected. I was happy.

Yesterday, I receive an ebay message from the seller: "Hi I see the item was delivered. I wanted to tell you that I had a problem, with my PayPal they are holding funds that you sent me I guess there is problem and I can't claim the funds. so I need to cancel this and refund you and is there any way you can send a check or money order or send it another way then PayPal? the that amount for the item. I will have to refund you on PayPal since can't claim your funds?"

I kindly replied and said that I do not wish to send payment via mail and do not make payments outside of ebay/Paypal unless it is some other guaranteed electronic service. I was fine up until this point and was willing to work with the seller if he could come up with some way for me to make payment that didn't put me out money transferring funds and could be traced through ebay if he wanted to file a claim that payment wasn't received.

Almost instantly, I received a refund from paypal and the ebay order was cancelled. I didn't agree to this, nor was I given an option.

After that, the seller starting blasting off a total of 14 messages that explained his problem with Paypal (a 90 day hold on all funds for fishy payments), threatening to file police reports for not paying and demanding that I send the item back if I'm not willing to send payment by  check, MO, Venmo or Cashapp. They stated an unwillingness to work with Paypal to resolve their issues and just wanted me to meet their demands.

I spent an hour with 2 ebay representatives chatting about the situation and their final recommendation was to document payment through ebay messages (invoice and payment confirmation) and that I would still be covered. I knew this option was against their terms of service, but with them stating it was a valid option, I decided it was an acceptable resolution. Venmo is now being setup (still waiting on bank deposits) and I have contacted the seller with my Venmo ID so an invoice can be sent, letting them know it would be 2-3 days before the account is confirmed.

Today, I am still receiving frantic messages from the seller stating a check or MO would be fine if I don't want to wait for Venmo, etc... This person is either in a lot of trouble or has nothing better to do than worry about a $250 ebay transaction. Spending all that time conversing with Paypal would have likely resolved things better for him than the path that he chose. One message stated that Paypal is holding $9k of his funds. 

I'm normally very nice and accommodating as long as you're professional and courteous, but forcing me into a messy situation that I really shouldn't have any part of doesn't make me want to help. 

 

[SLL]

9 minutes ago, RightDwigt said:

I sold a mid-range set on eBay ($70 shipped) which was supposed to be delivered to a PO box. Maybe I should have seen this coming, but UPS back charged me $17 for an address change to the buyer's actual home. I had no choice, PayPal automatically took the money out of my account. I have reached out to the buyer and asked him to pay the $17. It has been a week with no reply so I just sent another kind message explaining the situation.

If it's the buyer's address that caused the issue, doesn't it seem right to ask them to pay the charges? I understand the message is not one a buyer would be excited to read, but we are both established eBayers and I do think it's reasonable to request the buyer pay that.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is there anything else I can do other than kindly ask the buyer to pay the charge? It just seems like an unfortunate loophole that punishes any shipper. Why am I responsible for a recipient's address that can't be delivered to?

this is unfortunate, and I guess in this situation you have to work with buyer to get it solved. I don't know if ebay will be of any help buy you can certainly talk to their cs.

in the future, in your listing, there is a section called "exclude shipping locations", you can check the PO Box option so any address with PO Box will not be able to purchase from you.

 

[exracer327]

10 minutes ago, SageFly said:

I had a new one yesterday as a buyer on ebay...

Early last week, I bought and paid for an item as usual using Paypal (≈$250 item). Item arrived 4 days later as expected. I was happy.

Yesterday, I receive an ebay message from the seller: "Hi I see the item was delivered. I wanted to tell you that I had a problem, with my PayPal they are holding funds that you sent me I guess there is problem and I can't claim the funds. so I need to cancel this and refund you and is there any way you can send a check or money order or send it another way then PayPal? the that amount for the item. I will have to refund you on PayPal since can't claim your funds?"

I kindly replied and said that I do not wish to send payment via mail and do not make payments outside of ebay/Paypal unless it is some other guaranteed electronic service. I was fine up until this point and was willing to work with the seller if he could come up with some way for me to make payment that didn't put me out money transferring funds and could be traced through ebay if he wanted to file a claim that payment wasn't received.

Almost instantly, I received a refund from paypal and the ebay order was cancelled. I didn't agree to this, nor was I given an option.

After that, the seller starting blasting off a total of 14 messages that explained his problem with Paypal (a 90 day hold on all funds for fishy payments), threatening to file police reports for not paying and demanding that I send the item back if I'm not willing to send payment by  check, MO, Venmo or Cashapp. They stated an unwillingness to work with Paypal to resolve their issues and just wanted me to meet their demands.

I spent an hour with 2 ebay representatives chatting about the situation and their final recommendation was to document payment through ebay messages (invoice and payment confirmation) and that I would still be covered. I knew this option was against their terms of service, but with them stating it was a valid option, I decided it was an acceptable resolution. Venmo is now being setup (still waiting on bank deposits) and I have contacted the seller with my Venmo ID so an invoice can be sent, letting them know it would be 2-3 days before the account is confirmed.

Today, I am still receiving frantic messages from the seller stating a check or MO would be fine if I don't want to wait for Venmo, etc... This person is either in a lot of trouble or has nothing better to do than worry about a $250 ebay transaction. Spending all that time conversing with Paypal would have likely resolved things better for him than the path that he chose. One message stated that Paypal is holding $9k of his funds. 

I'm normally very nice and accommodating as long as you're professional and courteous, but forcing me into a messy situation that I really shouldn't have any part of doesn't make me want to help. 

 

This whole thing sounds fishy.  Sounds like he's trying to convert money from his (frozen) paypal account so he can access it.  Hence the MO or check priority.  Makes me wonder if his paypal account has been hacked or he's been selling stuff that isn't kosher.  I know you've already put more time in this than you should, but I'd be tempted to call paypal about this.  They could at least look at the guy's account and verify what is going on.  Maybe the refund wasn't authorized.  Something is definitely off.

Edited June 25, 2020 by exracer327

[Phil B]

20 minutes ago, SageFly said:

I had a new one yesterday as a buyer on ebay...

Early last week, I bought and paid for an item as usual using Paypal (≈$250 item). Item arrived 4 days later as expected. I was happy.

Yesterday, I receive an ebay message from the seller: "Hi I see the item was delivered. I wanted to tell you that I had a problem, with my PayPal they are holding funds that you sent me I guess there is problem and I can't claim the funds. so I need to cancel this and refund you and is there any way you can send a check or money order or send it another way then PayPal? the that amount for the item. I will have to refund you on PayPal since can't claim your funds?"

I kindly replied and said that I do not wish to send payment via mail and do not make payments outside of ebay/Paypal unless it is some other guaranteed electronic service. I was fine up until this point and was willing to work with the seller if he could come up with some way for me to make payment that didn't put me out money transferring funds and could be traced through ebay if he wanted to file a claim that payment wasn't received.

Almost instantly, I received a refund from paypal and the ebay order was cancelled. I didn't agree to this, nor was I given an option.

After that, the seller starting blasting off a total of 14 messages that explained his problem with Paypal (a 90 day hold on all funds for fishy payments), threatening to file police reports for not paying and demanding that I send the item back if I'm not willing to send payment by  check, MO, Venmo or Cashapp. They stated an unwillingness to work with Paypal to resolve their issues and just wanted me to meet their demands.

I spent an hour with 2 ebay representatives chatting about the situation and their final recommendation was to document payment through ebay messages (invoice and payment confirmation) and that I would still be covered. I knew this option was against their terms of service, but with them stating it was a valid option, I decided it was an acceptable resolution. Venmo is now being setup (still waiting on bank deposits) and I have contacted the seller with my Venmo ID so an invoice can be sent, letting them know it would be 2-3 days before the account is confirmed.

Today, I am still receiving frantic messages from the seller stating a check or MO would be fine if I don't want to wait for Venmo, etc... This person is either in a lot of trouble or has nothing better to do than worry about a $250 ebay transaction. Spending all that time conversing with Paypal would have likely resolved things better for him than the path that he chose. One message stated that Paypal is holding $9k of his funds. 

I'm normally very nice and accommodating as long as you're professional and courteous, but forcing me into a messy situation that I really shouldn't have any part of doesn't make me want to help. 

 

Since he refunded you without you requesting it, isn't this even more his problem and not yours? I see no obligation on your side to have to make it right. If what he proposes doesn't pass your "gut feel" filter, don't agree to this. You paid via Paypal as agreed ... let him fix that.

[RightDwigt]

24 minutes ago, SLL said:

this is unfortunate, and I guess in this situation you have to work with buyer to get it solved. I don't know if ebay will be of any help buy you can certainly talk to their cs.

in the future, in your listing, there is a section called "exclude shipping locations", you can check the PO Box option so any address with PO Box will not be able to purchase from you.

 

Thank you, this is the suggestion I needed. Unfortunately, as with many mistakes or costs, you have to learn the hard way the first time or two... But the PO box blocking is a good safeguard. I will do that.

[SageFly]

34 minutes ago, Phil B said:

Since he refunded you without you requesting it, isn't this even more his problem and not yours? I see no obligation on your side to have to make it right. If what he proposes doesn't pass your "gut feel" filter, don't agree to this. You paid via Paypal as agreed ... let him fix that.

I contacted Paypal and they said they have no more skin in the game since I have my original funds. They stated they wouldn't hold funds beyond 21 days worst case and I honestly don't have to do anything unless I want to... They offered no information on the status of the seller's account.

I guess as long as everything is documented, I should be fine. I just want to avoid paying outside of ebay and then being hit with a non-payment dispute.

[Jackson]

1 hour ago, RightDwigt said:

I sold a mid-range set on eBay ($70 shipped) which was supposed to be delivered to a PO box. Maybe I should have seen this coming, but UPS back charged me $17 for an address change to the buyer's actual home.

How was it even possible to print a UPS shipping label to a PO box?

[fuzzy_bricks]

1 hour ago, SageFly said:

After that, the seller starting blasting off a total of 14 messages that explained his problem with Paypal (a 90 day hold on all funds for fishy payments), threatening to file police reports for not paying and demanding that I send the item back if I'm not willing to send payment by  check, MO, Venmo or Cashapp. They stated an unwillingness to work with Paypal to resolve their issues and just wanted me to meet their demands.

Reminds of this bit by Jeff Foxworthy.  I'm not sure what you should do, but if they guy is willing to take a check, he's probably not trying to scam you, although there is quite a bit of information on a check and there may be something they can do with a check.

 

[SLL]

25 minutes ago, Jackson said:

How was it even possible to print a UPS shipping label to a PO box?

some 3rd party shipping service providers do allow you to ship to PO Box.

The regular UPS account can't, otherwise there will be an address correction fee, I believe would be $14.

Edited June 25, 2020 by SLL

[Darth_Raichu]

1 hour ago, SLL said:

some 3rd party shipping service providers do allow you to ship to PO Box.

The regular UPS account can't, otherwise there will be an address correction fee, I believe would be $14.

Printing UPS label for sending to PO Box is easy.  Getting UPS to actually deliver the package to PO Box is something else entirely

[Mark Twain]

When eBay is the fruitcake . . . https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/27/technology/ebay-silicon-valley-security-reputation.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage

Some highlights from the NYT article:

Quote

 

Last summer, members of eBay’s private security team sent live roaches and a bloody pig mask to the home of a suburban Boston couple who published a niche e-commerce newsletter.

The harassment campaign, which also included physical surveillance, sending pornographic videos to the couple’s neighbors, posting ads inviting sexual partners to the couple’s home and an attempt to attach a tracking device to their car, was detailed earlier this month in a federal indictment against six former eBay employees.

 

 

[Hardwired]

19 minutes ago, Mark Twain said:

When eBay is the fruitcake . . . https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/27/technology/ebay-silicon-valley-security-reputation.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage

Some highlights from the NYT article:

 

What will really get you is when you discover that one of them used to be an executive at Nextdoor, promoting neighborliness.  Not sure I would want to live on that block.

[MarleyMoose]

17 minutes ago, Mark Twain said:

When eBay is the fruitcake . . . https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/27/technology/ebay-silicon-valley-security-reputation.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage

Some highlights from the NYT article:

 

Doesn't surprise me. A lot of hating going on.

[Alpinemaps]

1 hour ago, Hardwired said:

What will really get you is when you discover that one of them used to be an executive at Nextdoor, promoting neighborliness.  Not sure I would want to live on that block.

Have you ever been on Nextdoor?  Talk about a toxic environment. 

[Darth_Raichu]

3 minutes ago, Alpinemaps said:

Have you ever been on Nextdoor?  Talk about a toxic environment. 

Sometimes I have to wonder if these people are so used to anonymity of Twitter.  Nextdoor is completely different.  I know where they live and most of the time, their faces

[Darth_Raichu]

1 hour ago, MarleyMoose said:

Doesn't surprise me. A lot of hating going on.

This was beyond hate.  Those were intimidation tactics done by eBay to silence their critics.  Ironically, the traffic to that couple's blog is tiny compared to the number of sellers and buyers visiting eBay on hourly basis.  I wonder if the former eBay CEO quit because of this.  His exit was suspiciously close to the start of this investigation.

 

[Hardwired]

45 minutes ago, Alpinemaps said:

Have you ever been on Nextdoor?  Talk about a toxic environment. 

Not only have I been on Nextdoor, I am a founding member, the first in my state since 2012. And even I have left it now because I could not keep the beasts at bay. Between masks and Trump, it just got to the point where I had to walk away.  Sad because it really started out with the best of intentions.

[BrickLegacy]

44 minutes ago, Darth_Raichu said:

This was beyond hate.  Those were intimidation tactics done by eBay to silence their critics.  Ironically, the traffic to that couple's blog is tiny compared to the number of sellers and buyers visiting eBay on hourly basis.  I wonder if the former eBay CEO quit because of this.  His exit was suspiciously close to the start of this investigation.

 

He absolutely did.