Being conned and would appreciate advice.

[paulburrows15]

Hello all,

A buyer has recently made several purchases across two of my eBay accounts (selling fairly similar items).

He has recently messaged both accounts and stated nothing has been received.
A total of 5 orders placed across both accounts, spread out over a week.

I spent some time messaging the fella, who has incredibly poor english (if you could call it english) and eventually got something out of him.

I also said to the buyer that other sellers has been in touch stating he'd also said he'd not received their orders.

This is a reply I received on account A:

"The only one I received I from seller "Account B" item no "12345" that is nat your I still nat received it yet so tow 
Chose resend or refund sorry but no chose thank you"


I replied:

"Hello "buyer", 

"Account B" has been in contact and stated you said you haven't received any orders from him. However in this email you said you have received an item from him?

I will have to pass this information onto "Account B" and also eBay so they can investigate this matter."

No info has been passed on yet.


Buyer replied:

"Yes I have revived item from heh and I told hem ther ana then witch I have nat rev cited I want them thank you 
"


Since then a total of 5 cases have been opened. Including a case for the item no "12345" which is clearly stated to my other account he'd received.


My option would be to simply re-send all 5 orders (costing me £20) or try contest this. Although I can't imagine I could successfully contest any other than the item he admitted to receiving to my other account shower lying to the account that sold him the item.

I believe he's received all 5 orders however is simply conning me because the items weren't sent recorded due to the small value.

Sorry for the very poorly explained situation however I hope you can interpret most of it.

I know it's not worth the hassle for the sake of £20 but it is very frustrating being conned and him admitting to one account an item had been received.

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated.

[JamesNorth101]

Hard to say which the best move is.

The problem you may run into by sending all 5 items again via recorded delivery is that he may then try to claim that they are not as described, then your down another £20

If you can face just refunding him for all the items then this is the most sensible move as otherwise you do run the risk of having 5 cases decided against you which can really hurt your accounts

Another option is to tell him that both the Royal Mail and the police are looking into this to see who may have stolen his items and that they will be coming to his house to ask a few questions. This often scares scammers into closing the cases pretty fast.

[Twocoolt]

Originally Posted by JamesNorth101

Hard to say which the best move is.

The problem you may run into by sending all 5 items again via recorded delivery is that he may then try to claim that they are not as described, then your down another £20

If you can face just refunding him for all the items then this is the most sensible move as otherwise you do run the risk of having 5 cases decided against you which can really hurt your accounts

Another option is to tell him that both the Royal Mail and the police are looking into this to see who may have stolen his items and that they will be coming to his house to ask a few questions. This often scares scammers into closing the cases pretty fast.

If the buyer has already filed one claim he cannot open another dispute on the same transaction. Once one dispute is file then he/she cannot file another one.

[JamesNorth101]

They can open claims on PayPal after having one closed on eBay now

[Haidukken]

Anything under £30-50 is not worth the trouble. Just throw the money at him, make him feel like you were at fault and just pretend that you are sorry.
If you send recorded replacements then you'll lose the stock, time and postage cost.

With these cases I always find it easier to just refund the buyer and try not to think about it too much. I know that it sucks, I know its not fair... But in most cases its just not worth the time and trouble- When a buyer refuses to communicate with you using even SEMI decent English, it just makes everything super super annoying.

It sucks, it really does.

[Haidukken]

Originally Posted by JamesNorth101

Another option is to tell him that both the Royal Mail and the police are looking into this to see who may have stolen his items and that they will be coming to his house to ask a few questions. This often scares scammers into closing the cases pretty fast.

I've never used the police story as part of my communications, but I do tell "problematic" customers that I run a business account with Royal Mail and I have some advantages- Not all are true, but I make it sound like I'm a serious person who is just looking after my customers and I'd hate to see them experience delays or lost parcels.
Most of the time I get a positive response within couple of days and my parcels appear "out of nowhere" and positive feedback will be there waiting for me.

You don't need to make up some Die Hard 2 kind of story, but a technical explanation of how business users have more accurate ways of tracking, even as far as local Post Office tracking down day and time of the parcel delivery, by investigating local Royal Mail employees and your usual mailman.
Works wonders, in most cases.

If its international, just refund and move on- No point to waste more money and time on people who are out there to get you.

[JamesNorth101]

I do agree there, Police is a bit OTT (I have said it a single time when they claimed that someone else signed for their special delivery item)

Saying that Royal Mail are investigating it a lot of the time does do the trick very well

[MM78]

Originally Posted by Haidukken

a technical explanation of how business users have more accurate ways of tracking, even as far as local Post Office tracking down day and time of the parcel delivery, by investigating local Royal Mail employees and your usual mailman. Works wonders, in most cases.

Boom...right there, that's a good one to go with....and if it don't work, give the scammer his/her money back, put them on block.

[ovidiu]

Agreed, police is a little over the top, save that one for the expensive claims.

[Twocoolt]

Originally Posted by JamesNorth101

They can open claims on PayPal after having one closed on eBay now

Sorry, I meant they can't open two claims on PayPal on one transaction or two claims on Ebay but they can open one in ebay then after it is closed they can put a claim in paypal. I wasn't clear.

[JamesNorth101]

You can (or at least) used to be able to open 2 claims on PayPal

You can have 1 for non deliver and then a second for item not as described. I know because about 16 months age tried that with me.

They were daft enough to open a not as described case and when they lost that they opened a non delivery case. They then even tried to file a charge back for non delivery as well

[xhan]

£20

let it go

[paulburrows15]

For those of you who interested in the outcome:

I wanted to try one last thing before giving in.

I decided to check his feedback and see who he recently had dealings with. I contacted the latest 4 sellers and asked whether he had been trying anything on with them.

Turns out the buyer had also opened cases with 3/4 of those sellers for not receiving his orders.

I decided to state this in the cases he had opened and that each of us were investigating.

Today positive feedback has been left stating the items had been received.

And he's also closed the cases opened with another eBay member which they are grateful for.

May help some of you if anyone comes across an idiot like this one.

[GreenBean]

paul'

Very well done.

Well pleased you kept control. Comes down to the handling of the issue.

You sure won this round.

[JamesNorth101]

That is a really great outcome Paul!!

[Twocoolt]

Wow! Awesome win for you. Great job Paul!