eBay scammer - do eBay/Paypal care?

kevinyork

I will try and keep this as short as possible.

Sold an item on eBay-advertised as and sent using RM 2nd Class Post. 3 days after sending it the buyer emails to say he has not received item and wants an immediate refund or he will leave us a negative. We responded advising re RM delivery timescales, possibility of the strike affecting it etc and asked for a few days patience.

Response comes back saying he’s not happy, should not have to wait that long and wants a refund. We politely respond again, reiterate what’s been said and ask if the item isn’t received by the 7th day we will refund or replace.

2 days later he emails again. Says it still isn’t there and he wants his refund. We respond, advise we asked he wait till 7th day (i.e. just one day more) and then we will resolve the issue. He replies saying he’s going to start a Paypal dispute and does so. He then leaves a damning negative for us.

However, he initiates an item not received dispute, and then immediately escalates it but changes it to an item not as received dispute. Strange that as he said he didn’t have it. A light come on and we think ‘Brilliant, he’s screwed up’. Anyway we accept via the dispute that we will take it back which means he has to send it by a trackable means. Later that day a recorded delivery reference appears on the dispute for the alleged return and on checking it the number relates to an item delivered in Southampton in May. Clearly he's used an old reference or guesses a reference which relates to another item.

We contact Paypal, give them all the emails, point out that the dispute was changed from not received to not as described and that the RD reference isn’t correct. They immediately reject his claim and say they are referring it to their fraud department. We contact our eBay account manager and forward his email threatening a negative and it is removed. 24 hours later he is no longer registered.

Thinking this is the end of the matter, 1 week later we receive an eBay message from someone we haven’t traded with saying 'give me my money back or I swear I will leave you a negative'. We knew it was him but politely responded (after blocking the ID) pointing out we have no record of a transaction with that eBay ID. He responds saying 'It’s (the original eBay ID name) REMEMBER!!!'.

This new eBay ID was set up the day his previous one became no longer registered. He had made 20 purchases in a week so we contacted some of the people he had bought off and guess what....they had all had emails within days of purchase demanding refunds or they will get negatives. Many had already refunded to avoid the negative. We forward the details of this account to our account manager and this one becomes no longer registered.

So for us, apart from wasted time responding to emails and disputes and liaising with Paypal and eBay we came away unscathed. However it shocked us that clearly this goes on and clearly eBay/Paypal have no way of stopping it. Our eBay account manager said they were powerless to stop him registering new eBay accounts. We thought if you were kicked off then you could not register another account. Clearly not. He is probably scamming people using another new account as I type this.

For us the underlining issue here is that he would be unlikely to get away with this if sellers had not lost the ability to leave negatives for buyers. However, as eBay say, the buyer is always right.....even when they are a scammer.

frivolous_fay

I'm glad you had so much assistance from eBay / paypal and were so successful in getting the accounts shut down... Must be because you have an account manager

The rest is par for the course though - it's always been easy to set up new accounts - you only need a new email address and to be a bit choosy about the rest of the details you submit. eBay MIGHT keep an eye if an IP address was used on more than one account - but this is far from foolproof.

Your guy could have got away with it if he was less of a moron - he handed the evidence of his multiple accounts to you on a plate.

itsnotfair_2

What level of business seller do you have to be to have an account manager?

kevinyork

itsnotfair wrote: »

What level of business seller do you have to be to have an account manager?

I believe you can opt for one at Powerseller Gold and above

theonlywayisup

itsnotfair wrote: »

What level of business seller do you have to be to have an account manager?

Don't hold your breath. Mine is called Denise and she is about as useful as a chocolate fireguard.

kevinyork

theonlywayisup wrote: »

Don't hold your breath. Mine is called Denise and she is about as useful as a chocolate fireguard.

Actually, ours is generally even less useful than that but on this occassion actually did something.

fatherazhara

.... yeh... welcome to eBay