Worried about being part of a buy and switch scam

cleopatra4485

Recently sold a TV in auction on ebay. The buyer actually came around to collect the TV and insisted he see it working. He was happy and left with the TV.

I immediately left him positive feedback. After a few days I saw he left me with really bad feedback - stating TV faulty, not as described *beware*. I have only sold 5 items before that (one of which never left me feedback) so was 100% straight down to 80%

I contacted him asking what he was playing at as he had viewed it before he handed over the cash and he stated that it was making a high humming sound and he left the bad feedback as I had stated a 'no returns' policy.

I have been saying to him that generally if an item is not as described, then you have every right to request your money back, but I feel like I have just fallen into a trap as I know the TV was working, he saw the TV working and is playing on the fact I don't want the negitive feedback as I am still so new on ebay. (he states he will withdraw the feedback, once he has had a refund)

I am a bloody idiot as I have no paperwork for the TV, didn't write down the ID number of the TV.

I am not sure what to do... shall I refund him the money, or just ignore him now as he did view and collect and pay in cash??

masterbrown

High humming sound sounds like a bad connection to me, I'd refund, get it back, check it and if its ok resell it rather than try and deal with him. And get your feedback removed if he will, just be as nice as possible until he's removed it

Barneysmom

But why would he go to all the bother of buying it then returning it, it doesn't make sense?

timeportal

cleopatra4485 wrote: »

he states he will withdraw the feedback, once he has had a refund

Lots of ppl on here know more than me, but I'm sure if you have that in writting then it's enough to get that feedback removed as its against ebay policy to use feedback removal as blackmail

cleopatra4485 wrote: »

I am a bloody idiot as I have no paperwork for the TV, didn't write down the ID number of the TV.

He doesn't know that, I'm sure you must have put an invisible postcode mark on there as part of your household security

timeportal

Barneysmom wrote: »

But why would he go to all the bother of buying it then returning it, it doesn't make sense?

Because he has an identical one already with a buzzing problem maybe, or am I just a bit cynical?

cleopatra4485

Barneysmom wrote: »

But why would he go to all the bother of buying it then returning it, it doesn't make sense?

Well I read that there is a scam going on at the moment, where people buy a broken TV for next to nothing and then buy a fully working TV and send back the broken TV to the person who has sold the working TV. He would end up with a fully working TV and his money back and I end up with the broken TV

Poosmate

I don't know much about Ebay, I've never sold anything, but can you contact them? Don't they have some kind of arbitration procedure? I mean, if he came to your house and saw the tv working and it was buzzing, he wouldn't have bought it there and then, so the fact that he took it away has to go in your favour. Also, who is to know if he drove home like a looney and hadn't secured the tv properly in his car? If there's any damage it could have happened in transit to his home.

Otherwise, he could be doing the buy and switch scam and I'm sure Ebay would want to stamp that out if possible.

Hope you get it sorted.

Poo

Dr.Shoe_2

A lesson to us all to make sure you mark your property in some identifiable way.

MyBlackSon

Just ignore him he's trying to pull a fast one

Barneysmom

OP could you call his bluff? ask him for the serial number and see if he comes back with it? Then if he returns the telly and it is your one and it's ok, no harm done?

masterbrown

See I don't think he's trying it on, just think he's a bit stupid, from what OP said he did'nt contact them asking for a refund, he just left a negative, and it was'nt until seller contacted him to find out why that he mentioned the fault. As I said before a loud humming is usually just a bad connection or something similar, unless its a really old tube TV.