Advice on buyer scam

blackcateddie

Am hoping someone can offer a little advice.
I sold some hifi equipement last week on ebay on behalf of my Dad, item was working prior to listing and i stated that it was used , original condition and working. buyer paid £320 by paypal and then turned up to collect the same day.
whilst here he detailed lots of scams people have done to him ( he buys and sells alot on ebay) and that it's easier to settle than go through the hassle of paypal apparently for him.

Lo and behold six days later i get an email saying my item doesn't even switch on! it'll cost apparently £150-£200 to fix and that he might 'have to return it if we can't compromise'!!! This is precisely the scam he was telling me about.

What's the best thing for me to do? This is a very heavy item with lots of cables and i'm concerned that he's taken it apart, maybe removed something ( the parts are valuable as spares) and that it won't be worth anything if he does return it, I'm not giving him a partial refund since I think he is trying it on so want it all back in one piece. If he goes through paypal do i have any comeback if it's not in the same condition as when he picked it up? bearing in mind I have a large number of photo's which formed part of my listing.

I'm aware that having read this forum now I should have insisted on cash on collection but what's done is done and now I need to salvage something from this..gosh.. i could kick him !!!!

Any advice would be welcome please:beer:

zenseeker

If he opens a PayPal dispute you will have little option but to refund the buyer, but they will have to return it by trackable method first...but...

Unless you have proof that the stereo they return is the same as the one they collected, they could fob you off with a broken stereo and there is little you can do about it Do you have photographs of the stereo, or preferably serial numbers jotted down somewhere?

I fear the worst for this...it's stuff like this that puts me off selling on eBay ever again

blackcateddie

tbh it's an extremely rare amplifier...i doubt he could give me another one lol, have yet to see one on ebay which is why i'd be miffed if he's tampered with it. I have close up photo's of it too.

Does he have to post it back before I refund, and what do i say if he does excalate it and only want a partial refund.?

To be honest, my first reaction was to demand it back and refund him anyway, however if i do that , I don't have any comeback if he damaged it. So I figured I need him to escalate it anyway before i do anything else. At least i could insist on insurance for transit and then maybe that might cover any damage?

ChrisCar_2

Sounds like he was trying to scare you and succeeded.
There's all sorts of nasty things he can do. Remember he told you about them.
But what you can do, is call his bluff.
Ask him which bit is broken, he must know as he knows what the repair costs will be.
Then ask for more details "cos it looks OK on the photos" - remind him you have photos and/or serial numbers
Let him go to paypal if he wants too.
When paypal ask you to complete the form, tick the box that says you will refund if/when he returns it to you by trackable means.
Do not accept him personally returning the goods, you don't want to be dealing with him face to face.
Tell him "it's Paypal's rules" after all it is.
Let him worry that you might try some of the tricks he told you about, on him.
If he deals on ebay a lot, with luck he's already sold it and wont be able to post it back.
It could be worth checking what he's had listed recently.

Paypal doesn't always side with the buyer.
Most of it's system is automated so the person who ticks the right boxes wins.

ChrisCar_2

He has to return it by trackable means before you refund him.
If he wins the paypal case, you don't need to do anything, paypal will take the money from your account and give it to him.
If you have cash in your paypal account, take it out before the despute exculates or they will freeze it "while the dispute is looked into".
If you don't have any cash in your paypal account, they will let you know when/if they want some....
During a dispute you usually get some none too polite messages.
Answer them all politely and in as few words as possible but always using paypal's dispute system. Quoting his messages if necessary.
If a human should actually look at the dispute, you want to be the calm, reasonable one.

Stand your ground and hopefully, he'll move on to an easier target.
Good luck.

soolin

If this is a buyer who knows how to work the system and possibly has a less than honest side then you have major problems.

All he has to do is open a paypal chargeback for item not received and he will win a full refund without having to do anything else. Obviously this requires him to be well dodgy, but it can't be ruled out especially as he seemed to go to great lengths to explain he knew all the tricks. He might even be trying to scare you into refunding a part of the money to stop him going for a full chargeback.

Also please let us get over this 'it must be returned by a trackable means' before a refund is given nonsense. That is only to protect a buyer against a dodgy seller and I take exception to the fact that you assume OP is dodgy in this instance. Tracking only protects the sender against a claim for non receipt, in this case a dodgy buyer can 'get' the seller as tracking is not available and likewise an innocent buyer can be scammed by a dodgy seller who can falsely claim non receipt if item is returned untracked.

Basically though assuming both parties play by the rules and if paypal get involved this could go either way . Buyer has a right under ebay/paypal rules to get the item he paid for, and if it was sold working then it must be fully working . It just depends which party paypal choose to believe. Just reading the OP I am a little inclined to think that buyer is after a partial refund having pre warned you he knows all the con tricks!

blackcateddie

This might make you all laugh!!!!

Spoke to my Dad who is gutted to be called a liar so to speak, he mentioned that it needs to be wired in a particular way through a pre amp for it to work, otherwise it will be 'open circuit' and not switch on. I emailed this over to the buyer along with a comment 'looking forward to hearing all is well'

His response this morning...

Please forget this issue and you will hear no more from me!!!!

Now either he's broke the thing into peices trying to switch it on and can't now return it or.....heehee....he hadn't turned it on!! lmaoo

Just one more question to you kind folk on here, now I have an email saying that this is not an issue and he's going to go away ...do I assume this is over with , or still fear the worst.

Oh well..you live and you learn lol