| JRaynor101 | 12-19-2013 09:19 PM |
A Happy Story
Among the people rightfully complaining about buyers making fraudulent claims and otherwise scamming sellers, I thought I'd share this gem.
Back in early november, I'd sold a item to a guy in France. It was an older item, pretty bulky and rare, so valuable. It was over a 2kg weight limit so I had to send Express, which I'd put in the listing.
Fast forward a few days, the buyer receives it and gives me the story that he got charged customs (True enough it was a pretty absurd amount, more than half the value I declared) because the package was sent. Buyer said he wasn't happy, but I replied apologetically saying I couldn't really be held responsible for the customs charges.
He then sends me another message demanding I refund him the customs charges or he'd leave me negative feedback. I ignore this, report the message to ebay and leave it at that. Thankfully, he'd used ebay to send that threat so I could use it as proof of what he did. After a few days, presumably because I hadn't replied, I get an item not as described case opened against me and negative feedback. The feedback stated it came damaged and I refused to refund money, the case on paypal said the same. In the case, the buyer is requesting I part-refund the value of the customs charge. I refused this, and didn't offer anything at this point bar my side of the story copy+pasting eBay messages.
Anyway, at this point I give eBay a call. The woman, fair enough, was very helpful - she read through the stuff, looked as the messages and said she should remove the feedback. Said she couldn't do anything with the paypal case, but sure enough I had that neg removed and gave me phone numbers etc to get in touch with paypal. I phoned paypal afterwards, who say nothing but I need to wait as it's being looked at.
Almost a month later, Paypal finally decides that the item is to be returned to me, at the cost of the buyer. Fair enough, I'm thinking - I refund him the money when I get it back and he's lost out on both customs charges and what (at the cheapest) would be about €45 of postage charges. Even if he returns it at this stage, I've not exactly lost. However, I get another message from the buyer - "Please paypal me some money for the shipping, gift payment is ok." hahahaha, I think. I politely (maybe not politely, I don't know) refuse.
Then the buyer uploads a tracking number - of a domestic french parcel. Instantly, I check the number and phone Paypal. The rep there confirmed with me it was invalid, removed that from the case and said in accordance with their regulations I have to wait just a little bit and the case will be closed. Sure enough, nothing happens and I get my money back.
So all in all, I keep my money, buyer keeps item, I get negative feedback removed and block the buyer. Success story, I think.
Now I'm tempted to leave a positive feedback with something that'll hopefully get under his skin..."had some problems, worked them all out!" or the likes. | 
