How do I get out of this Ebay scam?

Wellworthit

I sold a phone last month, £337.
I have it listed on the site, only UK buyers, however the buyer said sorry he had not noticed, he paid right away, and after discussions about postage £38 against £8, he wanted the cheaper postage.
So now 1 month to the day, surprise surprise, it has not arrived. There are no tracking facilities to the Philippines.
The only way out that I can see is to shut down both my paypal and e bay accounts.
Anyone have any better ideas?

Browntoa

thats not a way out , ebay will start legal action to reclaim the money and you will still end up paying

got the feeling there is no better advice than put it down to experience

Oliver14

Sorry i'm afraid you will have to refund if you dont Paypal will force it. If you try and do a runner they will hand the debt over to Debt collectors and from reports the ones they use aren't the most pleasant.

I know its after the fact but you can put blocks on so non UK bidders cant bid. If you were going to send it you should have sourced a courier with full tracking.

Sorry there is no good news

soolin

I'm only going to add to the gloom I'm afraid. Selling phones is not usually a problem, there are a few of us on here who make regular sales, however as a new seller I think they are best avoided until you get to grips with how ebay and paypal work and how to protect yourself.

You have no chance at all of winning this and you will end up refunding. Although it hurts it is best to do it before it all get sout of hand and debt collectors are persuing you and making things unpleasant.

If you do decide to follow the advice on here and want to continue selling on ebay then here are a couple of useful threads for you.

Tips for new sellers here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1623183

and importantly, tips for paypal seller protection here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3146680

martindow

Agree that unfortunately you are going to have to take the loss here. It is never a good idea to let buyers dictate postage options - you should choose the service that covers you with insurance and tracking.

custardy

Wellworthit wrote: »

I sold a phone last month, £337.
I have it listed on the site, only UK buyers, however the buyer said sorry he had not noticed, he paid right away, and after discussions about postage £38 against £8 here , he wanted the cheaper postage.
So now 1 month to the day, surprise surprise, it has not arrived. There are no tracking facilities to the Philippines.
The only way out that I can see is to shut down both my paypal and e bay accounts.
Anyone have any better ideas?

that was the point ot stop it
without proper insurance you were always open to this
for all you know it may not have arrived

soolin

custardy wrote: »

that was the point ot stop it
without proper insurance you were always open to this
for all you know it may not have arrived

You make a point that many of us tend to overlook. We all asusme phones going overseas = scam whereas of course it might simply have got lost in the system. OP even if it is lost though you have no way of reclaiming for loss assuming you used Royal Mail as they do not cover phones going overseas over the value of £46 regardless of what service you used.

pinkshoes

Ouch. A £337 mistake! There is nothing you can do other than learn from your mistake, as it was your responsibility to send via correct postage method.

Don't close your account down and try and run away, as they'll just send debt collectors after you.

Pay the money and move on.

Sorry.

Oliver14

The problem is everyone always thinks selling online is so easy. So they never spend 10 minutes stop to check the best and safest way to do it. In part its ebays fault as they have always promoted how easy it is to sell and buy without Highlighting sellers responsibility in all this.

If i was going to sell through any other avenue be it bootsale, shop, Jumble sale or Newspaper I would know what is required so why do people not do that for ebay?

I really think there needs to be a limit the the value of goods that can be sold on ebay for new sellers. That way if a mistake is made they wouldn't lose the amounts similar to the OP. There are probably huge holes in that idea but its sad the amount of people who lose large amounts of money due to not understanding the basics of things like Postal insurance and tracking.

I really feel for the OP as that's a lot of money to lose.

macfly

Yet people seem to find their way to this forum after having been scammed.
I also sell phones, and did a lot of research before listing.
There's a lot of misinformation on this forum, but mostly good advice.

Wellworthit

Thanks for all your advice.
I am not a new e bay seller, which makes this mistake on my part even worse.
There was no way to track this package even at £38. And yes I should have stopped the sale at this point.
I had thought I had no foreign buyers by saying on my choices UK only.
I will try to fight this in the best way I can, I have saved the e mails asking for the cheap postage.
I know that I am going to loose out here but wont go quietly.