Ripped Off

loobylou066

Hi everyone, just looking for some advice. I have used ebay for many years, but haven't sold anything for a while now. I have been decluttering at home & had a few items I no longer wanted or needed so thought I would sell on ebay. One was a sub woofer speaker worth around £300. Eventually someone bought it & I agreed to pay postage. I paid for 24 hr tracked via Royal Mail. The item was posted on Monday. On Tuesday Royal Mail tried to deliver it but nobody at home, the same on Wednesday, same on Thursday. I messaged the buyer to see if there was an issue, he said he had rearranged delivery for Friday. So yesterday, finally he has the item, he messages me to say the item isn't working properly, I message back to say it was working perfectly here, which it was, after a while he messages back to say it is damaged. It was in mint condition when it left me, packaged very securely, not a scratch on it, he sends me photos of the speaker bashed up on one side & requesting to return, So not only am I £24 postage out of pocket, I now have to accept what was a mint condition REL speaker worth £300 that is now bashed up & worth next to nothing. Surely this cannot be right or fair ?  I have read that sometimes buyers will damage items themselves to force a return & unfortunately I think this has happened to me. Can anyone offer any advise ?  many thanks in advance

Green_hopeful

No advice but it’s frustrating. I sold a dvd player. I wrapped it really carefully. it must have been dropped really hard in transit because all the insides were mashed. I refunded the money straight away (my buyer seemed genuine) but it was disappointing on all levels. 

RFW

Unfortunately you can't be certain that the buyer is lying. I send everything securely packed and recently had an item returned as undeliverable, it looked like it had been in a blender. Obviously that's not the case here but items can get damaged in transit no matter the packaging.

If you can find evidence that the buyer has damaged the item then you could conceivably take out a small claim to get the money back. However that is highly risky, will cost you more money and you're unlikely to win.
Your best hope would be to contact Ebay and tell them your suspicions, if the seller has history of doing similar then you may get them to cough up for providing you a duff customer. Again, a long shot but a cost free one.

loobylou066

Thanks for the replies. It has just seemed like a strange situation all along. I had a feeling he was going to say there was a problem before he actually did. When I printed the postage label off his name was just some symbols not even a properly written name, then he seems reluctant to even receive the item for days then when he does it 'doesn't work" then after a time it is bashed up, he even said that the box was ok, but it would be impossible for the item to be bashed up like that with no damage to the box, none of it makes any sense unfortunately.

martindow

How was it packed?  Items need a lot of packaging to have a good chance of arriving in one piece.  They will not be treated with a great deal of care as they are transferred to and from vans or along conveyor belts.  If you sent it in the original box with no additional outer box it would be vulnerable to damage I'm afraid. 

loobylou066

i always send things very securely packed, it was a box within a box, corner protectors in situ, extra padding around the whole item. Fragile stickers all over the outer box, it would literally have to have been thrown around like a football & even then I would be surprised if it was damaged. I have sent lots of items over the years & nothing has ever been damaged like this before, it just doesnt ring true to me

spud

My advice from a similar experience where the buyer clearly used/removed parts from an electrical item, then returned it as not working (was partially disassembled). You have no choice but to accept the return. On receipt, First do check if the item you receive back is the item you sent. Serial number etc. Assuming it is, on receipt, contact eBay and advise it’s damaged and non usable. In my case eBay both refunded the buyer (annoying) but the also fully refunded me as it was unusable. Finally, trust to karma as there are clearly some unscrupulous players out there. Hope it works out for you. 

EffieTrinketsWig

For future reference you can buy cheap sheets of tamper proof uniquely numbered security seal stickers from ebay.   

It is a good idea to put them over places on electronics that would require them to be removed to open the item up, include them in your photographs to discourage any would be thieves from swapping out parts.

RedImp_2

Unless the buyer already had a “bashed up” version of exactly what you’ve sold (which he’s swapped) I’m not sure what the buyer gains by sending it back unless I’m missing something.

Money_Grabber13579

RedImp_2 said:

Unless the buyer already had a “bashed up” version of exactly what you’ve sold (which he’s swapped) I’m not sure what the buyer gains by sending it back unless I’m missing something.

Presumably the advantage to the buyer is that they get to return something which they thought they weren’t going to be able to return. 

Buyer buys speaker. Changes their mind and wants to return. Seller says no. Oops, it’s arrived damaged. Seller now has to refund as it can’t be proved it was the buyer who damaged it.

i’ve recently had someone claim that the box I sent them was empty. Being skeptical, I probed a bit further and they sent me pictures of the packaging and where it had been taped up. However, the photo from Royal Mail confirmed that the tape wasn’t there when it was delivered to them.

RedImp_2

Money_Grabber13579 said:

RedImp_2 said:

Unless the buyer already had a “bashed up” version of exactly what you’ve sold (which he’s swapped) I’m not sure what the buyer gains by sending it back unless I’m missing something.

Presumably the advantage to the buyer is that they get to return something which they thought they weren’t going to be able to return. 

Buyer buys speaker. Changes their mind and wants to return. Seller says no. Oops, it’s arrived damaged. Seller now has to refund as it can’t be proved it was the buyer who damaged it.

i’ve recently had someone claim that the box I sent them was empty. Being skeptical, I probed a bit further and they sent me pictures of the packaging and where it had been taped up. However, the photo from Royal Mail confirmed that the tape wasn’t there when it was delivered to them.

That’s possible but I can’t see why a buyer would set out to do this - I.e. being ripped off