Annoying buyer - what are my chances with a Paypal claim?

Crowqueen

Whatever their feedback someone has spent money on something and is entitled to sometimes feel that they have wasted it. Occasional, casual buyers should be treated the same as shooting star TRSes - it's not just fair, it's the law of the land.

And no, FYI I'm not a difficult buyer myself. I sell occasionally, I make sure I list things appropriately, but I also recognise when some people can have issues (I've made mistakes myself, we're all human, I've always tried to sort it out though and have never had a case raised against me) and always treat my buyers fairly, whether they have 1 or 1,000 FB.

A difficult buyer in your opinion might be perfectly reasonable in another case - that is ultimately why they stopped sellers from leaving negs, as people were too frightened to complain to someone about something that wasn't worth what they paid for it just in case the seller labelled them a difficult buyer and negged them.

Begize

Where I've had "strange" behaviour from buyers (or sellers), I always like to leave polite feedback explaining what happened so other people can see if they try the same tricks again.

For example, the person who bought a fully working item then claimed it was broken when received. Something didn't ring true, but as the postage to return would have been more than the item was worth, I told them to dispose of it. I left postive feedback "buyer reported item broken when received, full refund, sorry".

Funny enough, when I looked a few months later, a few other sellers had obviously had the same problem, done the same thing and the account was no longer registered.

rainbow_carnage

Of course, everyone's entitled to get what they paid for, whether their feedback is 10 or 10,000. But in these 'not as described' cases, it's hard to know which party is lying (or simply doesn't understand the conventions). The seller says one thing, the buyer another.

It's not unreasonable to use feedback to decide who's in the right. A seller who has hundreds of happy customers and no complaints is less likely to be lying than a buyer who's been accused of dishonestly in previous transactions.

I can't remember a time when I had to file a claim against a seller with a high 100% positive feedback score. People with high scores tend to resolve minor problems much more amicably.

zenseeker

rainbow_carnage wrote: »

The auction stated that I've tried it on, taken off the tags, but never wore it.

So you lied and contradicted yourself, well done.

How did you try it on without wearing it? You wore it, it is used, not new.

nellytheelephant

Trying something on doesn't mean its 'used'. You'd have to assume anything you sold on eBay was worn in that case because someone may have tried it on in the shop!

Snakeeyes21

rainbow_carnage wrote: »

Snakeseyes21, you must be one of those difficult buyers with unreasonable demands. There's a world of difference between trying something on for 30 seconds and actually wearing it. If you can't tell the difference between the two, I pity your sellers.

I had my tongue firmly in my cheek on that one

JPS29

@OP, this was the reason I started another thread about keyboard warriors and ebay defenders. You've come on here asking for advice and people are trying to pull you to bits.

rainbow_carnage

zenseeker wrote: »

So you lied and contradicted yourself, well done.

How did you try it on without wearing it? You wore it, it is used, not new.

How do you buy stuff in shops? I'm entirely serious. Would you not buy something that another customer had tried on before you? Can you tell whether it's been tried on?

Would you not buy a book that another customer has flipped through and put back on the shelf? Or do you think the shop should automatically move the book to the 'used' section because someone's hands had touched the pages?

I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of the population is happy to buy something in a shop that another customer has looked at and, yes, tried on. Otherwise, shops would not let you try stuff on without buying. And for the few who consider an item 'used' because it has been tried on once, I clearly state this in my auctions.

I neither lied nor contradicted myself. What I did was cater to the needs of a tiny minority of people with issues.

rainbow_carnage

Snakeeyes21 wrote: »

I had my tongue firmly in my cheek on that one

So you did. My apologies. I should've read your post more carefully.