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

[legoray01]

Communication to a fraudulent buyer, knew something was up when he was trying to figure out how to pay for item in two transactions - the item was for $200.    Other thing I noticed is his account name switched in the middle of the communication.  

My email to the account....  

Hi there - Ebay has sent me an email late last night that the account that we are discussing is a Fraudulent account "BEAC - 1787" and has instructed me not to do business with you.    Before this sale can be completed you will need to resolve the account issue with ebay and they will need to send me an email verifying your account Beaca-8307 is a valid account in good standing.  

Obviously some type of mistake but we just want to make sure so that our seller and buyer protections are in place.  They look for patterns and obviously switching account names from   Beac - 1787 to Beaca - 8307, trying to get this paid in two transaction and demanding shipping immediately after payment are all flags to ebay that something is not kosher.

Again, I am sure it is a mistake on ebays part and once you get that resolved you can proceed with your purchase.  But before I engage any further I absolutely will need an email from email that the account issue is resolved.  
 

[fuzzy_bricks]

On 8/8/2020 at 7:53 AM, legoray01 said:

Communication to a fraudulent buyer, knew something was up when he was trying to figure out how to pay for item in two transactions - the item was for $200.    Other thing I noticed is his account name switched in the middle of the communication.  

My email to the account....  

Hi there - Ebay has sent me an email late last night that the account that we are discussing is a Fraudulent account "BEAC - 1787" and has instructed me not to do business with you.    Before this sale can be completed you will need to resolve the account issue with ebay and they will need to send me an email verifying your account Beaca-8307 is a valid account in good standing.  

Obviously some type of mistake but we just want to make sure so that our seller and buyer protections are in place.  They look for patterns and obviously switching account names from   Beac - 1787 to Beaca - 8307, trying to get this paid in two transaction and demanding shipping immediately after payment are all flags to ebay that something is not kosher.

Again, I am sure it is a mistake on ebays part and once you get that resolved you can proceed with your purchase.  But before I engage any further I absolutely will need an email from email that the account issue is resolved.  
 

I never would have replied to the guy once eBay told me he was fraudulent, and I darn sure wouldn't encourage him to try another transaction.

[legoray01]

56 minutes ago, fuzzy_bricks said:

I never would have replied to the guy once eBay told me he was fraudulent, and I darn sure wouldn't encourage him to try another transaction.

Sarcasm

[Brystheguy]

PayPal stepped in on a unauthorized charge and cancelled it. What do I have to do on the EBay side of things in these situations? It still shows as pending.

 

[freakchem]

I've been selling on ebay for about 2 years and I'm the kind of casual seller (about 5 sales per month). Most of the transactions go well. Accidents happened a few times and I chose to swallow it. 

But I got one negetive feedback recnetly that makes me feel uncomfortable. I sold a Minecraft set for about $90 to someone who registered on Ebay May this year. And received a negetive feedback a few weeks later "Box was resealed. One of the begs was cut open. Hoping all the parts are there." 

First of all, the buyer never contacted me ahout anything and just left a negative feedback. Also, the claim is also false. It is in its origial seal and I did take pictures of it. In terms of open plastic bags inside, this is something I have no control over and I know it happens.  I reported this buyer and I have no expectation. I also tried to remove this feedback but found none of the reasons Ebay provided applying. Does any fella have any insight on the solution there? Thanks!!

(I guess we are not allowed to post any details regarding the transaction and the buyer?)

[Pseudoty]

7 hours ago, freakchem said:

I've been selling on ebay for about 2 years and I'm the kind of casual seller (about 5 sales per month). Most of the transactions go well. Accidents happened a few times and I chose to swallow it. 

But I got one negetive feedback recnetly that makes me feel uncomfortable. I sold a Minecraft set for about $90 to someone who registered on Ebay May this year. And received a negetive feedback a few weeks later "Box was resealed. One of the begs was cut open. Hoping all the parts are there." 

First of all, the buyer never contacted me ahout anything and just left a negative feedback. Also, the claim is also false. It is in its origial seal and I did take pictures of it. In terms of open plastic bags inside, this is something I have no control over and I know it happens.  I reported this buyer and I have no expectation. I also tried to remove this feedback but found none of the reasons Ebay provided applying. Does any fella have any insight on the solution there? Thanks!!

(I guess we are not allowed to post any details regarding the transaction and the buyer?)

Once I had an “original sealed” set that I bought from target myself off of the shelf. Got it home to build and it was filled with puzzle pieces. I had an assembly square from amazon that had two open bags inside of the sealed set. I have seen others post rare but similar stories with sets bought directly from the lego store, perhaps they were returns. So you never know. 
 

Anyway have you tried to contact the buyer and work it out?  If they agree to revise the feedback they will have to call eBay which may be an inconvenience for them so you may have to incentivize them. 

[Shortbus311]

I've been selling on ebay for about 2 years and I'm the kind of casual seller (about 5 sales per month). Most of the transactions go well. Accidents happened a few times and I chose to swallow it. 
But I got one negetive feedback recnetly that makes me feel uncomfortable. I sold a Minecraft set for about $90 to someone who registered on Ebay May this year. And received a negetive feedback a few weeks later "Box was resealed. One of the begs was cut open. Hoping all the parts are there." 
First of all, the buyer never contacted me ahout anything and just left a negative feedback. Also, the claim is also false. It is in its origial seal and I did take pictures of it. In terms of open plastic bags inside, this is something I have no control over and I know it happens.  I reported this buyer and I have no expectation. I also tried to remove this feedback but found none of the reasons Ebay provided applying. Does any fella have any insight on the solution there? Thanks!!
(I guess we are not allowed to post any details regarding the transaction and the buyer?)

I had a buyer claim that a bag 5 was missing from a sealed 41340 friendship house I sold recently. And instead of contacting me about it they just left negative feedback (was a newer Ebay buyer). I sent them a message saying that they should always contact the seller before posting negative feedback to see if they can resolve the issue. I told them that I would be willing to send them the missing parts (from bricklink) or offer them a $20 partial refund if they would be willing to revise their feedback. I then sent them a feedback revision request on Ebay (can send up to 5 per calendar year I believe). They accepted the partial refund and changed their feedback from negative to positive.

[thelovemachine]

A lot of times lego would give them the missing bag if they have it.  I had buyer contact lego once and he got the missing bag.  

[freakchem]

39 minutes ago, Shortbus311 said:

10 hours ago, freakchem said:

I've been selling on ebay for about 2 years and I'm the kind of casual seller (about 5 sales per month). Most of the transactions go well. Accidents happened a few times and I chose to swallow it. 
But I got one negetive feedback recnetly that makes me feel uncomfortable. I sold a Minecraft set for about $90 to someone who registered on Ebay May this year. And received a negetive feedback a few weeks later "Box was resealed. One of the begs was cut open. Hoping all the parts are there." 
First of all, the buyer never contacted me ahout anything and just left a negative feedback. Also, the claim is also false. It is in its origial seal and I did take pictures of it. In terms of open plastic bags inside, this is something I have no control over and I know it happens.  I reported this buyer and I have no expectation. I also tried to remove this feedback but found none of the reasons Ebay provided applying. Does any fella have any insight on the solution there? Thanks!!
(I guess we are not allowed to post any details regarding the transaction and the buyer?)

I had a buyer claim that a bag 5 was missing from a sealed 41340 friendship house I sold recently. And instead of contacting me about it they just left negative feedback (was a newer Ebay buyer). I sent them a message saying that they should always contact the seller before posting negative feedback to see if they can resolve the issue. I told them that I would be willing to send them the missing parts (from bricklink) or offer them a $20 partial refund if they would be willing to revise their feedback. I then sent them a feedback revision request on Ebay (can send up to 5 per calendar year I believe). They accepted the partial refund and changed their feedback from negative to positive.

Looks like the way to solve the issue is to talk the buyer directly rather then talk to Ebay.... 

Lesson learned! Thanks everyone.

[Sandwraith]

On the topic of disputing feedback.... I think it was last year i ordered one of the SDCC exclusives from an ebay seller. A month or two after the order i contacted the seller a couple times asking what was up as the item was being shipped and in peoples hands. Each time i contacted i got no response. At this point i figured either the seller oversold, or sold too low (price rose dramatically after my order) and was just ignoring me, or they never had any to sell to begin with. So i filed the INR case after not hearing anything from the seller in weeks.

Sure enough ebay promptly refunded me once the case was opened and i left negative feedback. This feedback wasn't mean or rude, something along the lines of "Never shipped, no contact from seller, would not recommend". Almost immediately afterwords i received positive feedback from the seller that said something like "F@!# this c@#!sucker" Had a good laugh, quick phone call to ebay got the feedback comment removed, but not the additional +1 positive feedback, so thanks for the free positive bud  

Sellers account disappeared after this, so either it was a scam account that was removed, or ebay temp banned them or something for the language (they did mention they were going to penalize the account due to going against TOS with the language).

[exracer327]

Yeah, ebay calls them a "false positive".  Kind of ironic in light of current virus testing.  They will typically remove the false positive after a phone call.

[Darth_Raichu]

Paypal did me a solid for once.  I woke up to these emails:

First email: You have a payment on hold for 24 hours

Second email: Payment Review Complete - Payment Cancelled

Quote

We've completed our review of the transaction below and found the payment may not be authorized by the PayPal account holder or may be the result of suspicious activity. As a result, we’ve cancelled this transaction.

 

[exracer327]

15 hours ago, Darth_Raichu said:

Paypal did me a solid for once.  I woke up to these emails:

First email: You have a payment on hold for 24 hours

Second email: Payment Review Complete - Payment Cancelled

 

Nice!  Congrats!  Hopefully this is a sign of things to come.

[Serejai]

Buyer orders item with 5-7 day economy shipping.

Buyer receives item in 5 days.

Buyer demands a partial refund because I didn't overnight the item to them, stating that I should have known they needed it ASAP and a professional seller would have upgraded their shipping free of charge.

[stackables]

8 hours ago, Serejai said:

Buyer orders item with 5-7 day economy shipping.

Buyer receives item in 5 days.

Buyer demands a partial refund because I didn't overnight the item to them, stating that I should have known they needed it ASAP and a professional seller would have upgraded their shipping free of charge.

That would be a buyer I would like to know their ebay name....definitively someone to block

[legoray01]

I got an ebayer doing something fishy.

 

I have a 2 item listing on ebay and they sent me a message saying that they already had 1 of the items and did I have something I could substitute for another item.  I said sure and sent them a list of substitute items on the same price range of $40 - $60 dollars. 

 

The charge on the original listing was $85.  Both items were vehicles from the City theme so I subbed in options for 8 different vehicles - you know, apples to apples.  

 

They come back and ask if I have 60204 (Lego Hospital) - I say no.  (mind you none of my 20 plus active listings have Lego Hospital or anything close to that.) 

 

Then they come back and ask about any trains.   

 

That is when I look and see that they have 4 feedback from 2015 and nothing since.  They are trying to fish for me to include a high value item to make the deal a $250 - $400 dollar deal.

 

All warning signs that this is not right.  Now I am a good seller with great feedback but low feedback (compared to others) in the couple of 100.  I'm willing to work with someone reasonable and even low feedback individuals if they stay in the right path but there are lots of folks selling just the 1 item, there are lots of folks selling the hospital, there are lots of folks selling the trains.    Go ask them questions but you have no reason to come to me to make a package deal to include items I am not even selling.

 

I politely told them I was backing away and that I am only offering my original listing and nothing more and if they  want other items there are lots of reputable dealers on ebay who can sell them these items.

 

Then I contacted ebay and told them of my concerns.  

 

Points of the story...

 

1.) I don't have to sell you anything that is not listed on my posts 

2.) I can be reasonable and I want to help buyers but be concerned about how fast something can morph out of scope

3.) Ask yourself why someone would do something that doesn't make sense to you and it will often lead to the fact that it makes sense to them and the result is not good for you.

4.) Communication doesn't mean you have to keep communicating  (These guys will go away if they realize the fish is not biting) 

5.) Tell ebay - take the extra step to protect all sellers.  Make ebay aware of who these accounts ar and what they are doing.

6.) Low feedback doesn't mean they are a scammer but it is a sign.  I am lot more willing to send something small to a new buyer then a $500 set.  We all started at "0" once and we built up feedback overtime but I did not do my first transactions for 100s of dollars with "0" feedback.

7.) If someone with minimal feedback is communicating with you and you fell like you are talking to someone with lots of ebay experience - ask yourself why?  After some of the exchange I expected to look at their profile and see lots of feedback and I saw four feedback all from five years ago - the warning bells started to ring a lot louder.  If they had 100s of feedback with recent entries - that is one thing but this was entirely different.   The experience of the person  I was talking to was not equal to their representation (Be aware of the virgin hooker rule!!!) 

8.) These guys seem to come out on Thursdays and Fridays - I believe their goal is to try to gt the item shipped on Saturday " fast delivery needed" etc. This prevents ebay anti fraud folks from catching up to them before the item gets in the system.  

9.) IF you are communicating with someone watch the account name - I have seen it vary slightly but DRNUCRAD and DRNURCAD are too different accounts and there should be no reason the account name should change in the middle of an active communication exchange if you are a legit buyer - you only need 1 account.   

The goal - I can only assume is to get me to make a custom listing of some type valued at $250 to $500 dollars - I ship the item once paid and then the payment is rescinded due to it being fraudulent.  If I ship on Saturday that gives the item almost 48 hours of travel time before the fraud is processed through the bank, etc.   I believe you will also find these folks targeting geographic areas -  This scam will not work (as well) if I am shipping East to West because the travel time is too long and the package can be intercepted (though that costs money).  Not an exact science but my best guess.    

 

Anyway - this is the second Account in the last month that has tried something like this.  Be weary - list it and sell it is the best policy.  This isn't complicated.  Hey - even ask "IF I will knock $5 off" and that is okay.  But when the exchange goes further than that your warning bells should start triggering. 

 

Trying to make that sale may not be worth trying to recover from the sale if it goes bad.  

 

 

 

[Datoyman]

Wow that buyer really dodged a bullet... I wonder why he would start with your 85$ listing if his intent was a 250-400 fraud why not just start with an item priced 250-400?  

Edited August 22, 2020 by Datoyman

[legoray01]

2 hours ago, Datoyman said:

Wow that buyer really dodged a bullet... I wonder why he would start with your 85$ listing if his intent was a 250-400 fraud why not just start with an item priced 250-400?  

Not sure - unless his intent was to try to get to a deal that was outside ebay or their seller protections.  

 

[stuco191]

Hey Ya'll not sure if this the best place to ask this but I know we were all forced to switch to "Managed Payments" in eBay. My account went live with managed payments on aug 12th and unfortunately this first set I sold was $1400 (my largest single sale) on Aug 16th. Set says sold and paid in ebay but funds are still processing and haven't hit my bank account. Three other transactions have all hit since then. $1000 (my second largest single sale) on Aug 20th, $35 on Aug 21st and $150 on Aug 21st - these are all marked paid but no funds in bank account. Am I good to ship the items or should I wait for payment to populate in my account? Thanks to all you eBay experts to someone who is a relatively small time seller compared to you all. 

Edited August 22, 2020 by stuco191

[SLL]

just made two sales after switched to managed payment. Is there any way to view the funds on ebay? 

[Jivepicnic]

just made two sales after switched to managed payment. Is there any way to view the funds on ebay? 

If you go to the selling area on the browser version of the website, there’s a Payments tab where you can view the pending and transferred payments. I don’t know of a way to view it on the app, which is inconvenient. You do get an eBay message for every transfer they make into your linked bank account.

[Shortbus311]

Hey Ya'll not sure if this the best place to ask this but I know we were all forced to switch to "Managed Payments" in eBay. My account went live with managed payments on aug 12th and unfortunately this first set I sold was $1400 (my largest single sale) on Aug 16th. Set says sold and paid in ebay but funds are still processing and haven't hit my bank account. Three other transactions have all hit since then. $1000 (my second largest single sale) on Aug 20th, $35 on Aug 21st and $150 on Aug 21st - these are all marked paid but no funds in bank account. Am I good to ship the items or should I wait for payment to populate in my account? Thanks to all you eBay experts to someone who is a relatively small time seller compared to you all. 

The funds are not released to your account in Ebay managed payments until after the buyer receives the items.

[hockeyweasel]

Released with shipping confirmation. I have money transferring for two sets I dropped off at FedEx Monday afternoon and got the "we sent your payout" this Wednesday morning.

[Serejai]

This may be a stupid question but what is managed payments? It sounds kinda bad. Why would I want to switch into that and have my money held up instead of just being paid instantly like I currently am?

[minicoopers11]

14 minutes ago, Serejai said:

This may be a stupid question but what is managed payments? It sounds kinda bad. Why would I want to switch into that and have my money held up instead of just being paid instantly like I currently am?

AFAIK, it's not optional and is gradually being rolled out. I've been drafted into it as of two days ago. We'll see how this goes...

Edit: basically eBay acts as the payment processor now instead of Paypal.

Edited August 26, 2020 by minicoopers11