eBay – The buyer is always right?
Recently it’s has come to our attention that eBay customer protection program can be used and abused by both sellers and buyers to their own advantage, however 99% of the time, its misused and abused by the buyers.
Take for example, digital sales, you sell a digital item on eBay and you send the code to the customer, via their own eBay email or PayPal email, depending on how you work.
The buyers gets the key 100% guaranteed, but… they can easily go back to the seller and stat, that the key does not work. Under good faith the buyer can send another key, now the buyer has two keys. The buyer has another angle to play, opens a case with PayPal or eBay, stating any of the following issues.
- Product broken
- Product not received
- Product not as described
- Purchase was not authorised
Due to the aged protection program on eBay and PayPal the seller is not covered at all for any digital sales and the buyer will get a full refund while the seller will be left out of pocket, this is a fact as in the UK the new laws in place for PayPal in the USA are not implemented yet. (FACT)
We tested this ourselves, we sold a key to a person we knew, they purchased the said key, then opened a case via PayPal stating the purchase was not authorised, low and behold regardless of what proof we had, that the key was sent and activated, the customer kept the game and got their money back. eBay again kept there final sellers fee and messed us around once again.
Clap Clap eBay, that’s the way to treat your sellers.
We then decided to do some more checks on eBay’s so called protection program, this time we asked a different seller to help us.
For information we are not going to reveal names within this segment , case number, just understand that this is a true story and names have been changed to protect the innocent.
So we placed an add on eBay a NEW peripheral for gamers, we had ‘Best Offer’ and ‘Buy Now’, after sometime we accepted an offer, only a small reduction, but it was still a reduction nether the less. Before we sent the item we took a photo and a short video, just in case anything happens, as we have been messed aroiund in the past.
The Item was sent, Second Class, Recorded and Signed For, as always, never trust delivery personnel or customers, as it’s easy to say, I never got the item, and claim their money back.
Item arrived mid morning and was signed for, a few hours later the customer made contact with us claiming the item was used. Our reaction was blunt, not a chance was it used, and we will not accept a return. The buyer did not send any evidence at this time, and days had passed and in the end a case was opened with eBay by the buyer, this time showcasing the evidence.
(now we can not confirm that the product was not tampered with by the delivery personnel or what the product was like before we purchased it ourselves from the warehouse, all we know, is when we sent it, it was brand new and unused)
So the buyer, not only took hours to claim that the product was used, but now had plenty of time to make it look used (10 days).
By this time ourselves and the buyer had resorted to harassment, slander and verbal abuse but most of all, accusations.
eBay decided it was best to send it back to us, so we can confirm the authenticity of the product, of course, by now the product was USED and no longer NEW. So when we called to stat it was used the case was closed and the buyer was refunded.
Between the buyer opening a case and eBay closing the case, did we get a chance to prove anything our end, the answer is NO!. However, we were able to reopen the claim and show our evidence, low and behold, it made no difference, why? Because we should of resolved the issue with the buyer within the first 8 days? Now by now the case was only opened for 24hrs and closed as soon as eBay had seen the evidence, so 8 days, what 8 days?
Maybe they mean the 8 days in which we did not communicate and were both adamant that we were right?
Regardless of the buyer sending there evidence to eBay when the case was opened, we were not given that chance and when we were given that chance we got a massive HAHA from eBay.
Now we were not expecting to get our money back in full, just the final sellers fee and a refund for the return, not much to ask for since we had payed for a service and eBay had not provided the service.
Now we had many conversations with eBay and each time we did, they hide behind their waffle, there links and treated us like shit under thee big corporate shoes.
Links like this
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/credits.html#mainContent&uniqueid=null&cksm=null
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/seller-protection-faq.html
It was ultimately tough shit, but think back to why the protection program is there, its to step in when the buyer or seller or both cannot sort things out, right? Well, as you can clearly read, eBay only cared about the buyer, and when the seller provided there evidence it was… ignored and put to one side.
So if anything, we have learnt, is eBay may be a great selling platform and have a so called great protection program, but it’s clear as day, that it can be misused, abused and sellers can be screwed over, by a system that is clearly in place, to only to protect the buyer.
eBay will most likely come back to us with some more links and hide behind another wall, might even threaten us to shut us up, or you never know, they will make contact with us for case details, speak to the buyer and come to a mutual agreement with compensation for agro, stress and anxiety caused.
