Why Now? Why Me?

[Nintendude]

Earlier today, I checked my e-mail to find out that a eBay Buyer, sent a request for my information to obtain my phone number to contact me, they did'nt even bother to contact me by e-mail or eBay message. In a short while I then recieved a eBay Buyer Dispute, with the Buyer demanding a Full Refund from me because the DVD's were damaged. Now there was one maybe two very small scratches on Disk 1 but no other DVDs. The buyer never sent me a E-Mail or eBay message to try and work it out before they started the dispute they tried to contact me by phone which is currently disconnected, nothing else. Now within 20 minutes of the dispute opening, it was closed by eBay and a refund was given from my money before I could even make a response to it. Now I have to sell some more of my items that I've collected over the year to pay for hospital bills and medication because this idiot screwed me over. I sent them a message after the Dispute was closed demanding that they have 2 weeks to return the item ith tracking confirmation info sent to me to track it back to my address or a police report would be filed for theft. I tried to call the buyer with the blacked out number in the first image but it rings up to a company. If I was'nt having a hard as hell time paying hospital bills and medication costs I would'nt be worried or even upset about this moron and my item but with everything I have going on, it just hurts me more with having to sell more of my stuff, with what little I have left. I also don't like to do this but if anyone would like to help me in any way possible you can send me a PM. Here are images of what I mention.

 

[bulldogresler]

In my opinion, this is most likely a scam.

I had a similar case with a guy in NJ who would go around sending false checks and then saying how his secretary wrote the wrong number for the money amount and that he wanted the left over money wired back to him. Then after I refused because I knew it was a scam, because the return address and check were from a fake company located in Baltimore, and he emailed me a fake police report stating that i had with held his the package from him and stole his money. He must have been doing this to multiple people because he actually mixed up my name with someone else the first report, and on the second one he got the package wrong, saying i was selling a workout bench. I told him pretty much to screw off and that I would be filing a police report on him for fraud/scam. Never heard from him again.

 

[Nintendude]

I doubt I'll hear back from this idiot. He probably took the DVDs, made copies and damaged ther disks further before making his claim. Like I mentioned this is definatly hurting me in the long run with hospital and medication bills.

 

[bulldogresler]

I doubt I'll hear back from this idiot. He probably took the DVDs, made copies and damaged ther disks further before making his claim. Like I mentioned this is definatly hurting me in the long run with hospital and medication bills.

I'm sorry man that really sucks.

 

[seaninja]

Why didn't you just say no refunds. you might have gotten a little bad feedback, but you know that the disks were not damaged so badly that they wouldn't play. I wish that I could help you out, but sadly I have no job and as a result, no money. Sorry
But in the future you should take several pictures or shoot some video of the items that you sell so that if the buyer decides that they want a refund because it was damaged, you could have proof that it wasn't before you shipped it.

 

[Liamthedevastator]

Definitely contact Ebay directly. Tell them that the buyer didn't make adequate attempts to contact you and never emailed, then closed the dispute within 20 minutes to steal your money.

S*** like this makes me so incredibly angry. I'm sorry that this happened to you.

 

[alecgates15]

Why didn't you just say no refunds. you might have gotten a little bad feedback, but you know that the disks were not damaged so badly that they wouldn't play. I wish that I could help you out, but sadly I have no job and as a result, no money. Sorry
But in the future you should take several pictures or shoot some video of the items that you sell so that if the buyer decides that they want a refund because it was damaged, you could have proof that it wasn't before you shipped it.

Saying no refunds doesn't mean a thing anymore. A friend of mine sold a textbook for $6, no refunds, and a refund was requested because it was slightly scratched otherwise they would file a dispute.

The buyer is always right it seems.

 

[Nintendude]

The buyer did'nt close the dispute eBay customer service did and when I contacted them there was'nt much they could tell me other than I lost my money it's my problem with trying to get the DVDs back, and Sean I did state no refunds but eBay does'nt care about that if you're the seller and the buyer says something is wrong eBay sends them a refund no problem. The seller is just pissed on basically in these kind of deals.

 

[seaninja]

And this is why ebay sucks. Again, I wish I could help you out.

 

[Walter Spase]

So lets follow this process.

Your auction states the item condition as "DVDs are in pretty good condition only a couple tiny scratches on one of the DVDs, but all the DVDs play perfectly fine".

Auction ends in the evening on Saturday Feb 19th. The buyer wins the auction & pays for the item.

Item is shipped and you leave positive feedback saying "Thanks" on Monday Feb 21st. Expedited Shipping (USPS Priority Mail®) would take 2-3 days using a flat rate box.

Buyer receives the item at the latest by Thursday Feb 24th, and after receipt of the item feels as though the item was not as described in the auction.

Sunday Feb 27th, e buyer requests your contact information and attempts to contact you but your information with eBay is no longer up to date because you had a disconnected phone number listed. They then file a case with the Resolution Center and let them know your information is not valid. Instant refund....

Here is the reason why...

eBay says:
Our contact information policy requires that all members have updated contact information on file with us at all times. If you request the seller's contact information, and find that it is incorrect, please let us know.

Falsifying or omitting contact information such as a member's name, address, and/or telephone number when registering on eBay is not permitted. It is also not permitted to use fax or disconnected numbers as a telephone number.

If you believe an eBay member is using false contact information, please report it using the Customer Support link at the bottom of this page.

Violations of this policy may result in a range of actions, including:

• Listing cancellation
• Limits on account privileges
• Account suspension
• Forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings
• Loss of PowerSeller status

And I will also let you know, that posting that user's information publicly like this is a violation of eBay's user privacy policies and could result in loosing your eBay account if they were to be made aware of it.

 

[Nintendude]

Still the buyer never contacted me by e-mail or by eBay message. And eBay never gave me a chance to respond to the claim it as just closed 20 minutes later. I even contacted eBay through eBay Chat to chat with the Support Staff, to try and have the claim re-opened or for my item to be sent back before they refunded the person with my funds. As for posting anything about the buyer I think all I showed in those photos is the eBay user name, I blacked out the persons phone number. My number was only disconnected this week.

 

[noble 1]

this happened to me once a year or two ago, i lost about $250 and is the reason i quit using ebay. i am sorry this happened to you, and i hope you can get everything sorted out.

 

[SchizophrenicMC]

Is it okay if I call Spase a harsh term? I mean, that was kinda mean, man. Show some sympathy, why don'tcha? I don't think I've seen a single "nice" post from you. It's not my place to make such demands, but come on, what happened to being personable? (Call me out of line, whatever.)

Nintendude, this is why I steer clear of e(vil)Bay. It's the land of ripoffs and theft. While I have to admit, Spase has a fairly valid point, it was a complete rip for eBay to do that to you, and it alone would make me leave the site. I find, in general, Amazon's seller-site relations are far better, and I'd look into that.

Sucks about your medical bills, and I hope everything goes for the better.

 

[Nintendude]

I'm letting the 3 auctions I have left on eBay run thier course then I'm demanding to have my account closed.

 

[Sir Tsaboc]

That same exact thing happened to me a month ago, except it was quite a bit more than $22. I never got a chance to respond to my claim either. The buyer had the entire thing planned, and really gave me a lot of trouble.
This kind of thing makes me so angry, I hope everything works out Nintendude.
Now that I know this happens quite often, I am steering clear of ebay.

 

[Walter Spase]

Nintendude, I know you from this forum for 3 years and I have always had a positive opinion of you. I want apologize if my earlier attempt at an explanation for why it happened that way was not obviously sympathetic. I am sorry that your having to go through a hassle that costing you money when you had no intention of a deceitful act. I was sad to see you go and I am happy to see that you have come back. I'm sorry as always that life throws people curve balls that end up with bills that are hard to pay.

Now having said that, I hope you know that I respect you and I am saying this as a friend. The circumstances that allowed the refund may not have been a malicious attempt on your part to deceive a buyer. I am sure your listing description was accurate and the item you sent was as described.

The problem seems to be centered around an unhappy buyer. That same buyer followed eBay's procedure in an attempt to contact you regarding what they felt was an item received that did not match the description. They may not have used every method available but they made some attempt. There are policies that protect individuals in the event a seller does attempt to deceive a buyer. One of those policies is maintaining account information. In your case it was accidental and I'm sorry your having problems paying bills after an honest mistake.

However, to assume that buyer was attempting to scam you though would be making the conclusion that they set out to steal from you. The seller paid on time, received the item, weren't happy with their purchase, tried to contact you based on information you provided in your eBay account, and when they couldn't contact you they contacted eBay.

It was eBay who determined you were technically in violation of their policies which justified an immediate refund to the buyer. An eBay employee wont reverse that decision because there is a very clear violation of their rules and policies. Reversing that decision could cost them their job. Even if you were to attempt to justify it to eBay saying that is money you needed to pay bills and it's all an honest mistake, they could quickly point out that you were bidding on items and winning auctions at the time you were selling items to pay bills.

Honestly, I don't believe anyone set out to commit fraud in this situation, but unfortunately, you were in violation of an eBay policy and this I just a hard lesson learned. Makes even harder when you need the money to pay bills. Rule enforcement sucks when there rules made for good reasons but must be followed even in circumstances like these.

My request as far as this forum is concerned is that you remove that eBay user's name from the photo before a forum member harasses someone on your behalf and makes even more problems for you. Everyone should know by now we don't allow open disputes, but I would like to allow this thread to remain on the forum as people can learn a lot from this about eBay policies they may not be aware of.

I know at this point your probably upset and you have already contacted the buyer about returning the item to you or you will file a police report, but you may consider sending another correspondence asking politely that they return your item to you in the same condition they received it. After all they did receive a refund and it would only be fair to have them return your item. I would say to myself if I were in your situation, "I messed up, I admit that much, but it is never to late to be polite". You never know, maybe you will have a buyer who reciprocates that politeness and returns your item to you.

 

[HellJumper27]

This sucks dude. He is probably just scamming you. I hope you can get this worked out