How to avoid being scammed by a Buyer?

[oblong]

Setting up an account from 0 sells is a pretty dreadful prospect when you read about all the buyer bias ebay has and how important it is in the early stages to maintain a 100% feedback. Do you request signature of the buyer when they receive the packet from the mailman? But doesn't that shoot up the cost of delivery? Do you get the mail to send back the signatures to you? And is that enough, is it possible to be scammed even with their signature in the hands of the mailman? I keep reading about some sellers selling books to tons of college kids who claim they never recieve their stuff, I wonder how commonplace is this?

[xxxhustlerxxx]

sending items out with proof of delivery is the best way. make sure the tracking number is viewable online, that way paypal can see it. without a tracking number paypal have no proof the buyer has received the item.

[jamblix]

In my experience the majority of buyers on eB are honest and no matter what people may have you think scams happen very rarely. Well this is in my experience I can't speak for everyone else, actually come to think of it I can't think of a single instance of a buyer specifically try to scam me and I've sold to A LOT of different buyers. There are more important things to worry about :D...

[rsot]

Not to mention you mitigate the damage with your profit lines to plan ahead for potential losses.

[seanws30]

How to avoid being scammed by a Buyer? DONT SELL!!

but really, just have good descriptions and ship with tracking.

in a perfect world, ebay would force buyers to have paypal, or a linked credit card that would auto charge them if they bid on your item and then won the item, making the sale iron clad. obviously they could dispute the transaction, but im sure ebay could find a way to make buyers accept some sort of agreement that would make it hard for them to dispute the transaction

[accutinting]

I do agree with most of you on this but what I have noticed myself is alot of other sellers bidding on my items and not paying this holiday season. Its totally obvious and I dont think that is what the stealth accounts should be made for but unfortunately it is being used for that. Not sure if anyone is running into alot of this?? I do not agree with these tactics but this seller is nailing me on all my names but I just found his big selling accounts looks like what comes around goes around....any advice??

[BiN4RY]

Depends on what type of scamming you're talking about.

If you meant the buyer claims the item was never received, ship with a tracked service. Make sure you spend that extra dollar or so to get delivery signature for items that values over $250.

If you meant the buyer claims the item was damaged on arrival when it isn't, ensure you take photos of all sides before shipping and record things such as serial numbers if applicable. When in doubt, offers an insurance claim with the post office and see how they would reply. But really, dealing with these kind of scams are the hardest to overcome, as eBay/Paypal tends to side with the buyer.

[accutinting]

Thanks for the response BIN4RY..
The problem I'm having with this buyer is that they are coming in at the last second on alot of my accounts and different products and they keep winning. Then they dont even pay at all. I have about 20 of these all together with various buyer names but I know they are all the same person, also I just checked a package to see if it arrived to the buyer and it said address is not deliverable..so after doing some research I see the address is totally bogus...haha so I feel like this person is out for me but not sure why as I do not sell extremely cheap nor am I hurting there sales as there items keep selling. Any advice or just another name of the game? Thanks

[newjerseymax]

I get this a lot. I think its normal. Last year I opened 120 non-paying bidder cases. I don't even pay attention anymore. I have it set up to open case automatically after 4 days and once non bidder case closes I either ship out or automatically re-list depending on the outcome.

[elitepowersales]

Originally Posted by accutinting

Thanks for the response BIN4RY..
The problem I'm having with this buyer is that they are coming in at the last second on alot of my accounts and different products and they keep winning. Then they dont even pay at all. I have about 20 of these all together with various buyer names but I know they are all the same person, also I just checked a package to see if it arrived to the buyer and it said address is not deliverable..so after doing some research I see the address is totally bogus...haha so I feel like this person is out for me but not sure why as I do not sell extremely cheap nor am I hurting there sales as there items keep selling. Any advice or just another name of the game? Thanks

You can either set the item to immediate payment required or you can manually end the early a few minutes early. Manually remove the last high bid from the ⊗⊗⊗⊗ high bidder and then when the previous real bidder becomes high bidder once again, manually end the auction and send them a paypal invoice. You can then add the id they currently using to you blocked bidders list and remove all their bids.

[accutinting]

Thanks alot..good idea on how to eliminate the same person from winning all the time on my different acct. Also I did just increase how much i'm selling on each account... so I guess maybe the competition is starting to see who I am and trying to eliminate me. Well thanks alot everyone for responding with your tactics & ideas. Much appreciated

[techbayelectronics]

Take screenshots and pictures of the shipping label attached too the box before you send it...