1st ever problem with eBay buyer in 6 years

balsingh

Having been an eBay user for 6 years with good 100% feedback through buying and selling, today I have encountered my first problem buyer.

I sold a used Cd player which was perfect when I sent it out in the post last week. It sold for £27 so I got a Cert. of posting when sending it.

The buyer emailed me this mornign stating that it didnt work and that will pursue it through eBay if he didnt get a refund.

I told him that I am happy to give a refund if the item doesnt work. My main concern is that the same buyer also bought another CD player of someone else a week earlier and left hi bad feedback saying the player didnt work. I am worried now that he is a bit of a con artist who is just complaining so he can get his money back.

Any ideas what I can do. He hasnt left me bad fedback yet buy has threatened to do so.

He says he wont return the CD player unless I go and collect it and I cant do that as he is 100 miles away.

I was tempted to just refund him to avoid the hassle and put in a claim with the Royal Mail as it could have genuinely got damaged in transit .... but when I read his feedback regarding the other CD player, I got a bit suss. His feedback rating is 7 and 100% but he did leave bad feedback for the other guy who sold him a CD player.

What should I do?

soolin

You must insist he returns the CD player at his own cost to you before you refund.

If he does not do that then his only recourse is to start a paypal claim against you, so let him. I say that because firstly it is not certain that he will win a chargeback, if he makes a habit of these claims then he may well lose. Even if he does win the chargeback he must prove to paypal that he has returned the item to you before you have to repay him.

Pending a possible chargeback withdraw your funds from paypal, not because this will protect them in any way, but just purely so you don't lose the use of them while your paypal account is tied up.

It is worth noting as well that a claim against the RM will be difficult unless he co operates as you will need to prove it was damaged in transit, so will need all the packaging and such like.

Soo

slowen

I would tell the buyer that he needs to send the CD player back to you and upon your inspection if it turns out to be faulty you will refund his money including postage but if it has been damaged on purpose you won't, even though he says you must collect the buyer knows you wont as the distance invloved and just thinks you will refund the money to avoid the negative feedback.

I would stick to my guns on this as there is always an idiot on ebay who tries to blackamil you into refunding them otherwise they threaten with a negative.

I would let him open an ebay dispute and just say you have asked for the buyer to return the goods and if it turns out to be faulty you will refund his money and postage

Out of interest how did he pay for the CD player?

At the end of the day some idiot will spoil your 100% positive feedback as it has happened to me with 1 negative and it does your head in but some people will try and rip you off so you have to stand by your guns and if another buyer see's 500 positive feedbacks and 1 negative they will just go with the psotive

balsingh

He paid using Paypal.

He has just emailed me describing the problem. On your advice, I have told him to send the item back at his own cost. I told him that if the item is genuinely faulty as he described, I am happy to refund in full + his postage costs.

ministox5

I wouldent worry ebay or paypal wont do anything to help him. just ignore any emails.

slowen

ministox5 wrote:

I wouldent worry ebay or paypal wont do anything to help him. just ignore any emails.

The buyer can open a dispute and file for a chargeback against the seller so I would not just ignore it

balsingh

I have told him to riase the dispute through eBay/Paypal and let them deal with it. Eventually, it will get sorted. If the CD player is faulty, I will give him a refund. I just want ot make sure the process is followed correctly.

soolin

ministox5 wrote:

I wouldent worry ebay or paypal wont do anything to help him. just ignore any emails.

Like slowen says if you believe that ebay or paypal won't do anything then you really need to read the paypal terms and condition if you ever intend to sell anything on ebay.

Soo

balsingh

A quick update on this. I told the buyer to return the item for a refund if faulty or raise a dispute through eBay. Instead, he just left negative feedback (my first one ever ). I contacted him to ask why and he said that he just bined the CD player and couldn't be bothered with it anymore. I have raised a 'mutual feedback removal' thing but I doubt that will have any affect as I gave him a positive feedback for paying promptly. I have responded to his feedback saying that it was unfair as he didnt return the item for a refund. Is there anything else I can do to get the feedback removed or my score returned to 100%? I dont like it being on 99%!!!

Winston_the_Dog

Respond to his feedback by calling a f**k*n b**t**d b***o*k headed w**k**r with s**t for brains.

The self appointed bead fumbling ebay police spend hours looking for this sort of thing and will soon have it removed taking his feedback with it!

Stuart_P

balsingh wrote:

Is there anything else I can do to get the feedback removed or my score returned to 100%? I dont like it being on 99%!!!

hate to put a dampner on things, but unless he does agree to withdraw the feedback (he may do after sleeping on it), it will take 2000 unique positives to wipe out 1 negative

good luck