A few weeks ago, I wrote about some recent Ebay returns. Here’s an update on both of them.
The Nintendo 3DS – turns out the item was working fine. I went to Gamestop, asked if I could test a charger before buying one. They reluctantly did it and it charged just fine. I was going to message the buyer, but the dummy installed a downloadable game that is pretty popular, and so I could probably sell it for more than before.
Playstation 4 story
The Playstation 4’s – sit down for this story folks. So after I agreed to take back the return, which Ebay and I both agreed was fishy; I mean, the odds of all 5 PS4’s being defective is close to 0. But I didn’t want to anger him in case he decided to actually break the PS4’s, and so I never messaged him or anything. I just went through the automated return system. I thought I was on the hook for about $80 of return shipping costs, but surprisingly Ebay only wanted $40 for the return shipping cost, which was a) cheap and b) it was an official label. After a few days, he messaged me asking me for the address because he had problems printing the return label. This made absolutely no sense, and I was so pissed I didn’t even want to message him back. Then a couple of days later, I get an email from Ebay saying the buyer shipped back the items. I guess he overrode the Ebay labels and entered in his own return tracking info.
A quick aside – I’m on vacation at this point, and had him ship the PS4’s to my friend who was at home to receive them. I even told my friend to record himself opening the box just in case. After a few days, on a Saturday, my friend gets a USPS delivery notice. Come Tuesday during the day, before my friend could pick up the item, he escalates the case to Ebay. This is never a good sign. I messaged him that I was traveling and couldn’t pick up the item yet. He then replies with this – “Ebay told me that since I had trouble printing the return label to contact you for reimbursement for shipping in the return. The receipt is in the messages I sent with the tracking number. Thank you.” At this point, I was livid and thinking, “There’s no way in hell I’m refunding you for your shipping fees when I gave you the shipping labels.”
Calling up Ebay
I immediately call up Ebay on my vacation to tell them the situation. The rep said, “Well because a delivery attempt was made and the value was over $1,000, we automatically refunded the buyer.” I mean this just makes your blood boil right? This made ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE. I told him, “What if there were rocks inside the box?” He goes, “Well, if that happens, call us back and we’ll appeal the decision.” Sure enough, later that day, I get an email from Ebay saying the buyer won the case and my $4,000 was deducted from my Paypal account. Quick aside – how hard is it for Ebay to write an algorithm to guess who is trying to scam whom (a seller with 10+ year history and a 100% rating or a buyer with 5 negatives against him in the past year.) It really can’t be that hard! Ebay could have waited on the case for me to answer him. Now if the buyer had 1000+ feedback and a seller with 10 feedback, then by all means, refund first.
Picking up the package
The next day, my buddy picks up the package and sends me this picture:
I immediately call him up and go, “You f#$*@ing with me?” He laughs and goes, “Nope, I’m not. I even have a video of me opening it. The guy scammed you man.” I then call up Ebay and tell them the situation. They then appealed the case and told me I needed to get a police report and upload it to the appeal. Here’s what they needed:
Hello Vinh,
Hello We’re contacting you about the Playstation 4 (xxxxxxxxxxxx) that you recently sold. I’m sorry to hear there was a problem with the item. I understand that they sent you a bag of sand.
We need your help to resolve this case. Please file an incident report with your local law enforcement agency (police department). Filing an incident report is generally free of charge and is easy to do. The report documents that there’s been a problem.
Here are the details that must be included in the report:
— Description of the item received
— Name of the officer filing the report
— Officer’s badge number
— Station location (city and state)
— Station phone numberWe’ve placed this case on hold for 10 days to allow you to get an incident report. Once you have the report, you can scan it and upload it via this link:
https://ocsnext.ebay.com/ocs/mudcwf?deptName=USMemberAppealsIn the comments section, please add, “Service Request Number 1-xxxxxxxxxxx,” case ID, and item number to allow us to track and link your documents with this concern. Once you have selected your documents, you will want to select the General document type. Click Send and wait for the confirmation to appear to ensure that your documents have been submitted for review.
Please note the following requirements for attachments:
- You can send your documents to us in the following file formats: *.gif, *.jpg, *.png, or *.pdf.
- For security reasons, we do not accept any other formats or aggregated (compressed) or executable files.
- The total size of the documents cannot be greater than 20 megabytes (MB).
- A single file cannot be larger than 2 MB.
- You must select a document type for all files that you send.
If your files don’t meet these requirements, then you’ll see a generic error message and will be asked to start over. If this happens, please double-check these requirements and try uploading the documents again.
We must receive your documentation within 10 days of the date of this email so we can investigate your case. If we don’t receive your documents by then, your case will be closed. Unfortunately, we can’t give extensions to the time period. We’ll reply with an update on your case within 72 hours of receiving your declaration.
Thanks for all your help.,
Thanks,
eBay Customer Service
Filing a police report
I then called up my police department and filed the police report. The call took about 5 minutes. The cop didn’t need any pictures or anything; I just told him the story and that’s what he wrote into the police report. I asked him if I needed a copy of the report (I had forgotten,) and he said, “Well most times they don’t. They just want you to file one because if you went this far, then you’re telling the truth since filing a fake police report is illegal.” After the call, I reread the email and I did need the police report. I was able to request the police report from my city’s web site. Luckily it was free and only took ~4 hours to get it. I then uploaded the police report to the appeal.
The appeal
It took Ebay about 2-3 days to finally get back to me. During this time, I’m thinking, “What if they refunded him the money already and he takes all his money out of Paypal. Even if I won, if they can’t get the money back, I’m still screwed.” Anyway, I eventually got this email from Ebay:
MC999 xxxxxxx , we’ve reversed the outcome for case (xxxxxxx)
Dear Vinh
Thank you for contacting us about case xxxxxx for the following item:
xxxxxx – Playstation 4
We’ve reviewed your concerns and have reversed the outcome of the case. We will process a credit within 48 hours to your financial instrument.
Because we decided in your favor, this case, any feedback left, and all detailed seller ratings left, will not affect your seller performance. In addition, any feedback left for this transaction will be removed.
If you have other questions, please contact us. You can reach us by going to the eBay website and clicking “Help & Contact” in the upper right corner and then selecting “Contact eBay.”
Thanks,
eBay
Sure enough, I check Paypal and see:
Final thoughts
In the end, justice was served and the scammer lost. Now I know why he didn’t want to use the Ebay return label; it’s because he didn’t want his information as the return address. The one he wrote on it was obviously fake. It cost him $100 to ship the bag of sand, which made me happy. The odd thing is that this idiot has over 170 feedback on Ebay and has active items he is selling. And when I shipped him the items, he used his real name and address. So I don’t know why he’d try to use a fake return address when I had his real address. I’m going to call up his local police department and file a police report against him for pulling this scam.