Faulty items scam?

[johnnyleeds]

Hi folks!

I recently got a negative feedback comment from a buyer who said the car stereo they bought from me on Ebay was faulty. If the guy had emailed me before leaving the negative comment I would have happily refunded him.

Anyway since this happened I have had a flood of complaints from buyers claiming that the items I sold them were faulty – even though I had thoroughly tested the items before listing / shipping them. Now I realise that the odd item will have a fault, or perhaps become damaged in the mail, but I’ve had three items out of my past ten sales where the buyer is claiming the item is faulty – yet I know for a fact it was working perfectly when I mailed it to them.

Maybe I’m being paranoid, but I feel as though some unscrupulous buyers have seen the negative feedback comment about me having sold a faulty item, and they are now scamming me by purchasing a perfectly good item from me then swapping it for a broken model that they already own… I don’t know does this sound far-fetched? I’ve heard of stuff like this happening before, but it seems to have got ridiculous. In the past I’d maybe have 1 buyer complain about a faulty item every few months, but 3 in the same fortnight!!!

I;ve thought of doing something like marking my items with a UV security marker pen, so that I can see if they have exchanged my item for a dud of their own, but even if it did show this that wouldn’t hold any water as far as Ebay are concerned. I don’t know what to do, if my account, because of this negative feedback comment is going to attract scam merchants then I’m going to have to open a new account and hope that it doesn’t happen again in the future. Anyhow any comments / suggestions on the subject will be gratefully acknowledged

Ta!

Johnny

[TGMT²]

Sounds to me like your negative feedback customer sent messages to your other customers on your feedback list. Check and see if the complaints are coming from people who have already left feedback.

By the way you worded your post, I can't tell if this happened to you on your previous sales or post sales since the negative ???

[MM78]

I think Mob mentality also occurs on Ebay, all of the sudden everyones item is not working.

[johnnyleeds]

Hi TGMT, the people who have complained about items being faulty havent yet left me feedback, how would the person who left me the negative feedback be able to contact my other buyers though?

Sorry if my message sounded confusing, what I meant is that I was given a negative feedback comment over a car stereo which turned out to be faulty. ever since then I have had 3 furthur complaints about items been faulty in just the past 2-3 weeks.

However before this negative feedback comment I virtually never got a complaint about an item being faulty. Maybe its just a coincidence, I never got into any dispute with the person who left the original negative comment, I just said to them that if they'd contacted me first I would have given them a full refund. They would have to be very twisted to be following up buying a faulty car stereo by going to the trouble of trying to ruin me on Ebay!

[TGMT²]

Originally Posted by johnnyleeds

Maybe its just a coincidence?

Based on the new information you have posted, It's probably just a Coincidence like you said.

You will know more once you get into the returns process. Also it wouldn't hurt to make a couple of phone calls to your customers and feel them out regarding the situation.

I usually have 1 or 2 returns a month for whatever reason, but 2 months ago I had a personal record of 4 and last month I had ZERO. What I am trying to say is, this just might be a bad month for you and things will be back to normal shorly.

Anyway, keep us updated.

[GreenBean]

Is feedback revision possible?

[johnnyleeds]

Hi Greenbean, I dont know if they would revise the negative feedback comment, I never asked them, judging by the way they did it without even contacting me first I doubt they would. I do put a message in all my auction descriptions saying that if any buyer ever has a problem that I'm more than happy to come to a satisfactory arrangement whether that be by refund or a partial refund. Obviously they didnt take any notice of this.

Also I've just received a vintage Roberts radio that was returned to me from a seller who said it was faulty. Now when I sold the radio it was fine, but on return it is faulty, I dont know what to think, it appears that the buyer has broken it - the fault lies in the switch that changes between bandwidths, it wont select the FM bandwidth anymore, but it was working fine when I sent it in the first place. The thing is I'm now £37 out of pocket as I have to refund the buyer - plus £3 in postage, plus the radio I had sold is now broken!

I dont know, it would be like me going into a shop, asking to look at an item, then breaking a knob off and saying I dont want it any longer as its broken! Whats that old saying - you break it, you bought it? It appears this doesnt apply to Ebay buyers! What a jip!

[baloch]

Hi JL could the fault be from a loose connection in the switch which could happen through shipping. If you are able to fix it then fix it and send it back to the buyer and make sure you make a video of you testing it and send that to the buyer too so there is no way he can say it is not working.

[johnnyleeds]

Thanks for the advice Baloch, I was just looking at the radio, I took the back off and it turns out thats exactly what the problem was, the outer switch had come off the inner switch, so I reconnected them, tested that it worked and it did, then I refitted the back and its now working perfectly.

Can I just send it back to the buyer or do I have to refund him? The thing is the radio sold for £37, and previous sales had only gone for about £25 so I partly think the guy wanted a refund cos maybe he thought he'd paid over the odds price or something. Anyway I sent the buyer a message saying that the problem must have occured during transit, and I've now fixed it. Do I have to refund the buyer or get negative feedback?