All Ebay Sellers Be Aware of a new Scam that will leave you high and dry!

*EDIT 2/22/16*
So here is the bottom Line: With all of my proof, Ebay didn't care about the Fraud, Paypal did not care he committed Fraud, Even my local Police Department said they would take a report, but wouldn't even hand it over to detectives. There is a HUGE loophole in Ebay, and as long as they allow deception, theft, and fraud to take place, hide behind policies and refuse to even listen to a 17 year seller, I'm taking my selling off of their site. This opens up every seller to fraud on a daily basis, it creates a breeding ground for scammers, and the scammers are now there and I assume multiplying like rabbits. You are left exposed, in an open field, naked and you have to hold your breath every single time you sell an item, and pray at night that someone doesn't come up with ANY, and I mean ANY excuse to return it- because if you get back: An Empty box, a box of phone books, a box of dog droppings, Ebay says "As long as the buyer shows a tracking number we refund them"
With this type of one sided "marketplace" I have a better chance of going back to straight scrapping, at least I can stand in front of a scale and see my items being weighed and getting paid.
I have learned more than I ever care to know how to get screwed in the past 2 weeks, and its a shame. Your item can be gone, your money you had.. for a brief minute in your Paypal account will be gone, and you'll be left with a worthless item, while someone enjoys the fruits of all your hard work.
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Ok, I am posting this not for pity or praise. I want to share a recent Selling Experience with you on Ebay and tell you all to BE CAREFUL!

I sold a Sunblade 150, it was pristine.
I packed the item in a Dell Computer Box, Put 1" House Foam on both sides of it and sandwiched it together, placing bubble wrap on the face and taping the foam together.
I bubble wrapped the Keyboard, Mouse and all other components separately and placed them in that box. I filled any "dead space" with enough bubble wrap to choke a horse so the computer could not shift.
Note I FAILED to place bubble wrap on the bottom of the computer.

But I took that box (H-Taped all seams top and bottom with strapping tape) and placed that box in a 2nd box. Filling any dead space (approx 1-2" all the way around) with crumpled newspaper.
Off the computer went.

Here is the scam:
Immediately upon receiving the item the buyer claims shipping damage and sends pictures of the heatsink breaking both lugs of the CPU socket. I see tool marks on the heatsink and ask for it to be returned.
The buyer immediately quotes Fed Ex shipping requirements that the item needed 2" of air cushioning on all 6 sides of the unit and because I didn't do that it was Damaged and I owe him all his money back!
Note: There is NO Carton (Cardboard shipping box damage at all)

I receive the item back, I inspect it, I see tool marks where the CPU has been Pried from underneath with a tool, not doubting myself and my observations but wanting to be 100% positive I take the computer to an IT repair shop, I have them assess the computer and draw their conclusions- they are the same- tampered with- NOT SHIPPING DAMAGE.

Ebay awarded him ALL of his money back. They stated because he had it returned- their policy is to give the buyer his $ back. I fought back and said "If I can prove tampering, that voids his buyer protection, which I did with indisputable proof" They still gave him his $ back, I now have a negative feedback after 16 years of flawlessness. I have also pulled all my auctions because I think setting myself up to get scammed again is just not smart.

My moral is this: Watch your backs out there. If you see or hear of this scam.. be glad you read this and will know that it is a scam.
I cannot offer any advice to fix it- Ebay hosed me, they didn't stand up for me, they didn't protect me. My only recourse now is to report it as fraud to the Police and file and IC3 report.
If you feel you have been scammed on Ebay, REPORT THE BUYER, again, I have no idea if this will do any good as this case is still fresh.

All I have now is this: Destroyed computer, with the extra bonus of having to pay to ship it, and pay to ship it back, a negative feedback (Because I stood up, called him out and asked him to explain,) and I'm out the $300 sale price.
Good Luck out there!

Sounds like you got a clown at ebay. I have had this same thing happen and ebay did side with them since they returned it. however they gave me my money as well stating sellers protection. I think i would call and talk to someone at ebay and get someone who knows what they are doing. Its like pulling teeth but if you dont mind spending time ont he phone you can reach someone there with a brain.

I am sorry to hear about your troubles. This is exactly why I am running out of space. I have working items that I am not willing to trust to the mail. All I have done ebay wise is ask questions on this forum.

To the dudes post: the customer is always right. Even when its wrong

To answer some questions. I have spoken to at least 12 people at Ebay, I told them if I prove Tampering I should get my money. They won't give me a cent. Wish their was a number to call of a rep that knows something. I've called all times of the day, the night, the weekday and weekend. None said I can have my money back.. just the same answer- "He sent it back, so he gets his money back" I've heard cases of where the seller got $ back and scammer got $ back.. but I have no idea how to get it. I think Ebay's massive insurance policy should cover this.. but they won't let me have a penny!

This guy IMO is teaching sellers a packing lesson. I have spoken with another seller who also got hit with the same scam, from this guy, with the same verbiage! He is just as upset as I am! He also lost a $300 item, and I know of one other seller within the last month or so that probably got hit with the same.. another $300+ dollar item.

Someone in my travels of this asked me "What would be the point.. stealing a $300 computer?" My response is "$300 from me, $300 from the next guy, $310 from the next guy" $910 worth of items that with some repair can be as good as new. And if he will do this to get the item (Claim damage) I'm pretty sure he will claim damage to anyone selling him replacement parts to fix them.. $910 of free items/$ in a month is a pretty good living for a thief as a side job!

Originally Posted by AuburnEwaste

I don't understand the point of this. How is it a scam if the buyer didn't get anything out of it?

The buyer costs the seller two cases of shipping- to and from.

But, Sledge forced the buyer to return the item. If he didn't, the buyer would have a $300 computer.

By the way, I saw photos of the PC. In my professional opinion, I don't see how the damages present could be anything other than the result of tampering.

There is no protection for an ebay seller that I have seen except under the following which happened to me.

About three years ago I had a buyer demand a full refund before he sent an item back for no good reason. I was very reasonable with my request asking what to was wrong with the item.



His response included a threat to give me negative feed back if I didn't refund his money. I contacted ebay and got told repeatedly to refund the money. That went on until I got one of the ebay reps to read the messages between the buyer and me. Ebay sided with me and removed the negative feed back and I didn't have to refund the money.

The next scam I got with ebay was the buyer contested the payment from their ebay account that was connected to a credit card. The contested payment was initiated at their bank. The card holder claimed they didn't authorized the purchase and someone else must have.

I lost about $10 on that. I was pissed. An ebay rep said they could contact the bank of the credit card used and have them investigate. The bank came back and sided with their card holder and ebay charged ME $30 on behave of the bank. I did not know this $30 charge was coming.

There are many ways to get ripped off. I'm still selling on ebay but understand why anyone could get Pissed and quit. Mike

Originally Posted by AuburnEwaste

I don't understand the point of this. How is it a scam if the buyer didn't get anything out of it?

So 2 weeks ago I had a $300 piece of equipment and sold it. I then had $300 in my Paypal account, right now I have $0, Minus $40 in shipping fees, Minus another $40 for the 3rd Party Assessment and a scrap computer. Feeling like I got pretty scammed on my end!

First of all...stop fearing your feedback percentage.

I'd rather take a neg and NOT get scammed again by other scammers who see my feedback response. Why? Because they read it and know I will not budge, ever.

Second, recently I bought tamper tape. A whole roll of it, I stick it to anything that should not be coming apart. In addition for items WITH tamper tape on them, that tape is visible in the pictures. In addition to THAT it's in the return policies and the descriptions. What you describe isn't so much loss of money as it is loss of TIME. Time is precious and I can't buy more of it therefore I'd just as soon be done with someone trying to scam me in the first place. Document everything you send, send pictures of the ACTUAL item even when you relist always take new pictures...even of CPUs...why? Because ebay knows when you use new pictures.

Lastly, I don't expect everyone to spend their time or remember to do all this stuff so take it into consideration about selling things yourself versus collecting money by short selling it to a buyer here.

Some additional advice sledge...that sunblade had a serial number...both on the board and when you look it up using bios or in the OS using cpu-z or something similar. Documentation. I cannot possibly say that enough. My ma holds the video camera when I receive returns so I can unbox them and inspect their serials/tamper tape and so forth.

I have a webcam set above my shipping station, that feeds into a computer system, where it's stored by date. I can easily retrieve the footage from whatever day I shipped, and watch myself pack (And hear my bad Def Leppard singalong that I'd rather not)

I've never had to use the footage in a case, but one buyer was claiming that they didn't receive part of their order. I told them that I'd personally review the security camera footage to see. They never responded....

I bet after Mudlucky reads this he just figured out why my workstation has a webcam lol.

Cheap insurance! Plus, it's not like any of us don't have extra computers lying around

AGW:
EXCELLENT advice sir! I'm going to look for some of this "tamper tape"
To answer your questions. I take pictures of my items (actual items, never stock pictures) on this particular item I took pictures of all 6 sides of the computer as well as 2 pictures of it inside, as well as the booted to bios screen!
I did assess that this was indeed my motherboard, I actually did take a picture of the serial number that was on the side of the PC case and it was in the auction as well.

Matador and I have been having discussions and the idea of having a record of all packing via webcam is starting to seem like a good idea.. although seems like B.S. we all have to do that- but alas, it appears we have to in order to survive on Ebay.

Hipo:
In this case he got nothing from me personally, I wanted it back. But within the last month or so, 2 Other sellers have been scolded for their "inadequate packaging" and he has KEPT the items. Some repairs and he is sitting on $610 worth of stuff. Had I fallen for it, he would have $910 worth of stuff.

Believe me, I know that this sounds insane, I know that there are people saying "What is the point?" And I'm thinking THAT is what he is hoping for- $300ish items, under the radar. But committing fraud is fraud.. whether it is $300, $20 or $10,000. He wanted "something" for "nothing" I caught him, sadly the other two sellers did not. But I am in contact with 1 of the 2. I explained what I was told by him and he is FURIOUS.. he got the same story and scolding that I did, and initially he allowed him to keep it. Now he is trying to dig in a bit deeper on it!

There's no way to prove the claim that I'm about to make, but just think about it for a second:

Another IT shop and I both agree that Sledge's computer was opened and broken via force that was the result of tampering. Now, was that tampering done before, or after the return request was initialized? Because, if it was after, that means that the item arrived in perfectly working condition. In this case, the buyer has a free, undamaged computer that they can do whatever they please with, and the seller has just lost the sales price and shipping costs.

I can't prove whether the buyer damaged the computer before contacting Sledge, or after to retaliate, but you never know....