Competitors....

[cherrqell]

Customer bought an item, I sent it priority mail, USPS shows that the item was delivered a day earlier, then buyer claims he never received it.

I have a suspicion it may be another seller.

I offered to refund full amount plus shipping, and I told him he can keep it when it arrives, plus I would throw in another item for his troubles.

Is there any way to find out if this buyer is another seller, or is there a way to get some other information about buyer so I can know if he's just f-ing with me.

This is a two week old account that is going pretty good with 2 positives, and one buyer cancellation. It is presently under review for going over velocity limit.

Haven't added the bank account yet, cause if I get booted, why burn a good account I can use later.

Anyone here, or PM me? Thanks

[123]

No way to know if its another seller and know real way to know if he messing with you. The only way would be signature confirmation and if he files a claim he will most likely win. Losses like this is just another part of doing business. Just get another account ready in case this ones goes down.

[E-Nertia]

Never experienced it, but another member once said that even Signature confirmation doesn't really save you... chalk it up as a lose and move..... You can always hope that if it is another seller messing with you that they go down in flames one day!!

[jeffweico]

I don't want to go into too much detail, but one guy did this to me. I didn't immediately realize what was happening. He placed 3 different book orders on Half.com with me. All being shipped to different people. This was over a 2 week period.

Over the next 2 weeks, he requested refunds on all of them, but on different days, all threatening negative feedback because the items were never received. I started to wise up as I use tracking on ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING that I ship. If I sold a gumball, I would put tracking on it.

Now, once in a while, it CAN happen that the item really was not received. Delivery persons can mistakenly deliver to the wrong address, or whatever.

I decided not to make an issue of it, because I didn't want a problem and we all know that eBay/Half/Amazon/PayPal almost ALWAYS side with the buyers.

A month later, he ordered from me again. I didn't immediately ship the order, as I was thinking of simply canceling it. Most of the books I sell are in the $30 - $50 range, so the losses do add up.

The same morning I was mulling this over, I got a call from eBay's (they own Half) fraud department. They had a multi-party call with a police detective on the other line, as well as a representative from Amazon. I freaked at first, because I had no idea what was happening, but I knew I didn't do anything wrong.

Turns out, my buyer had discovered a new business model. List mid-priced books on Amazon and be the lowest price. Have a seller on Half.com fill the order, even if it costs more than he sold it for. His customer gets their book, he gets his money and everyone is happy. Except the Half.com seller, who gets the refund demand a week later.

I filled out the fraud affidavits they sent, and I hope this jerk sees the inside of a prison cell. This is fraud, plain and simple.

The detective mentioned that he felt that my buyer thought he would get away with it because he didn't sell any super-expensive books. Nothing that anyone would request signature confirmation on, and nothing where the loss was so big that it would raise too many eyebrows.

Apparently, someone at Half.com noticed this guy was requesting a lot of refunds after one seller who was a victim multiple times and refused the refund had a claim filed against him by this idiot. So it is nice to know that eBay combats real fraud as well as messing with us as sellers.

Of course, I would not assume that this is the case the OP is facing. But my point is, if your buyer is committing fraud, eventually it will catch up with him.

And, YES, Half.com reversed all of the refunds.

[123]

Thats an awesome story Jeff, thanks for sharing. Good to know that sometimes ebay does help the sellers out.

[inthezone]

Wow Jeff. What a story. I am glad you got all the money back. When did this happen?

[pod]

Originally Posted by jeffweico

if your buyer is committing fraud, eventually it will catch up with him.

If they push the envelope too far, you bet! I received a call from Visa a couple years ago saying not to ship an order. The idiot was buying stuff and using PP to file claims. But he got greedy and filed claims on 2 dozen purchases over 3 months... Sometimes these clown push too far. Not sure what they would do to him but I bet it wasn't pretty.

[jeffweico]

Originally Posted by pod

If they push the envelope too far, you bet! I received a call from Visa a couple years ago saying not to ship an order. The idiot was buying stuff and using PP to file claims. But he got greedy and filed claims on 2 dozen purchases over 3 months... Sometimes these clown push too far. Not sure what they would do to him but I bet it wasn't pretty.

I have no idea what happened to the scammer in my case, but I'm guessing the police were not involved as a lark. This happened during the early summer.