Sorry if this is in the wrong section but I need some advice from someone who knows about eBay please.

I sold a blackberry storm 9500 on eBay at the beginning of Jan, fully working as I was using it until it was sent. A couple of very minor marks on the side of the case but other than that it was in immaculate condition.

The tracking information shows the phone was delivered on 7th Jan. On 20th Jan I received a message from the buyer saying the camera had broken after 2 days and after that things started going wrong with the phone. He said he took it to a phone shop and they've told him its water damaged. I never had any issues with the phone and like I say it was in full working order when it was sent and received by the buyer.

He opened a case against me on 24th Jan saying the item was not as described, 17 days after he received the phone! He then tried messaging me again but I didn't respond as I wanted to keep it all within the resolution centre so eBay had easy access to all communication. Since he opened the case the buyer has failed to respond so I escalated the case to customer support yesterday. They have decided the case in his favour and told him to return the phone for a full refund. The phone is now useless to me and I have had to pay postage, eBay fees and paypal fees to sell and send it to a dishonest buyer who can't even be bothered responding.

Is there anything I can do? I chatted with an agent earlier on who robbed me off with the usual 'im escalating your case to the resolution centre. They will be in touch within 48-72 hours' which I have been told before and they have done nothing about it

Hi Jen, sorry to hear about your bother on eBay.

Sorry to say but eBay always choose the buyer.
There is no way of PayPal being stopped from taking your cash.

I had a similar experience with a games console I was selling not so long back.
I sent it 1st recorded, it was signed for, 2 weeks later same thing (item not as described) eBay were in their favour.
Console was returned fully working but with accessories stolen.

Have you got the phone and if so is it the same one? It sounds like you have been scammed.
This is why more and more people are refusing to take PayPal payments, I bought a machine off someone down south and had to pay cash because of all the scamming going on.

How it works is someone buys say a laptop for £500, they pay you PayPal. They take the goods and go, a week later they open a dispute with PayPal claiming they did not receive goods etc.
PayPal give them their money back, they still have the laptop and your £500 shorter.
There is far too much of this going on lately and Ebay don't care as the money just keeps pouring in for them.

eBay needs to buck up their ideas and get back in track, give the sellers more protection instead of the scammers.
And why did they stop letting the sellers give the buyers bad feed back?

Ebay is a Joke.

cant you just close your paypal account and ebay account?

No as they have your bank details, driving licence etc.

They will get the money back someway even if it means bailiffs.

Its so wrong as there are a lot of scams going on on there at mo and the buyer has all the protection.

The phone could of been used for spares and the buyer is making out its broken to get there money back after repairing their own phone. It happens all the time, some sellers state that items have been marked so they will know if an item has been tampered with.

The phone in this thread has been tampered with, by a shop or otherwise it's wrong, in reality the buyer shouldn't have tampered with the phone at all, by doing so they should lose all rights to claim anything back.

If its a private sale it's sold as seen whereas I'm listed as a business seller so people have more rights (they have 7 days to send the item back to me for a refund).

Did you check that the phone that was sent back to you was actually the one you sold?

Sorry to say, but some people buy to replace their own broken item, which they then claim was the one that they just bought.

Saying that he took it to 'a phone shop' could just be to cover-up the fact that he had been poking in the back, should it be examined on its return.

Sorry to say so, but it happens.

Quite right norton which is why more and more people are insisting on cash only which in turn results in non payers/messers etc.
As a seller eBay rules state you must offer PayPal which is also pants, eBay own PayPal now so they are getting twice the fees (now we know why it's compulsory to offer PayPal).

Need to be very careful when selling on there now.

.

I had the opposite done to me , I paid for an item £254 never received it. I eventually after weeks of hassle got the item , I could not believe it . It was as described ie new parts etc etc etc , but what they had not mentioned was that the new parts where not the correct standard for the item , ie he bought the very cheapest parts you could ever get which devalued the item to less than half I had paid for it . So beware , if it says new parts check they are the manufactures recommend parts and not some crap I could make in my garage .

Sorry for the late reply. The phone has not been returned to me yet. The buyer has still not responded to the case since he opened it. EBay messaged me this morning basically saying they have made the correct decision I'll be phoning them in the morning to tell them my views

Don't phone and scream at them, it will get you precisely nowhere, especially if you go through to the India call centre where they follow a set script and your input means absolutely nothing to it.

eBay and Paypal do this all the time, they know a lot of them are scams, but these days all they are interested in is lots of buyers, yes the sellers pay their fees, but if they had no buyers then nothing would be sold, so they "permit" certain things to happen, the sellers scream and shout, but as they need eBay more than eBay needs them they eventually just go back to selling again.

I've had it happen to me, more than once. I think the Post Office lose/steal (generally by agency staff) something in the region of 0.07% of mail each year. If someone has paid by PayPal and you don't use recorded delivery I've had that jump to over 4%, that's a SIX THOUSAND PERCENT increase. All the buyer has to say is "didn't get it", and if you don't have proof of delivery, they'll get their money back.

The seller will now be told that they have to post the item back to you, and as soon as they supply PayPal with a tracking number, they'll get their refund.

You now have to wait for the parcel to be returned, check the tracking number to see if it has really been sent, and if it hasn't after a few days, appeal to PayPal.

If when the parcel arrives the weight doesn't feel right to you or it rattles etc Then I would video the opening of the parcel, if what is inside it isn't what was meant to be in it, again, appeal to PayPal and upload the video, you'll get your money back fairly smartish then.

No system is without faults, I hate PayPal I really do, you get done over every single time you accept it, but sometimes you have to build this into your cost of business (call it leakage/wasteage, whatever the latest buzz word is).

You can call on the person, I've made a couple of long distance house calls (you'll find no one does it to anyone local) and my recovery success rate is remarkably good

There are other ways to recover your losses from PayPal (without doing the same to anybody else) but its not something to discuss in a forum.

Take it slow, PayPal does very little very slowly, just give it time and play the game.

I had a similar thing happen with a phone, long story short, the buyer said he hadn't had the phone despite me having signed for papers.

Ebay ruled in his favor, even though his buying history was phones. I had contacted all the previous sellers to find out if he had done the same thing to them. Lo and behold, he had.

Ebay still ruled against me despite the evidence. By this time it was too late as the buyer had filed a claim through his credit card company.

I told them I was writing to the Financial Services Ombudsman, which I did. The case was dropped, all monies refunded including charges! The buyers profile removed within 48 hours.

If you want any more info PM me.

Ebay love to shaft the seller.

Quick update - the phone has not been sent back as yet. He has until esrly hours of tuesday morning to return it.

BUT ebay gets worse! I sold a netbook as spares or repair on 14th jan, the buyer contacted me earlier this evening saying he wants some of the money back or to return for avfull refund as its scratched (mentioned in listing along with part of the casing missing), the screen goes on and off (told in listing that the battery is loose) and that the power cable is damaged (listing did not include a power cable but I sent it anyway so he had a way to charge it up). He says he has taken it apart and that its a fault on the motherboard and hes 100% sure I knew about this as theres 2 screws missing from the case so its been taken apart before.

It wasv working when I sent it and I know nothing about computers so would never dream of taking one apart! Yet again, over 3 weeks have passed since he won the netbook until he contacted me. He has got quite nasty in his messages to me this evening. I have spoken to ebay on the phone and she checked my listing and said I have been truthful in the listing but he says hes going to leave me negative feedback and open a case tomorrow. Hopefully ebay will stick to their word this time and remove the negative feedback and find in my favour as it was listed as spares or repair. This guy has 10 feedback, the most recent feedback being another netbook, and an acer aspire laptop. Not to mention ram for a mac. Looks to me like he wasblooking to make a lot on selling this on as he only paid 33 for it and fully working versions of the model have sold between 80 and 100!

It's happening all the time now, sellers have realised that eBay always find in their favour, and that PayPal give them their money back, so it's just scam central at the moment.

In the last few months I've sold a headset that the buyer has claimed don't work with his iPhone 5, despite my having the same one from the same batch for my 5, and them being sold by Apple for the 5, eBay found in his favour, so he comes back as goods not as described, which eBay can kick you off for.

I've had another goods not as described because it was broken in the post, negative feedback for a clear Post Office problem (it was packaged properly but crushed, it was even put in a "sorry" envelope by the post office.

Sending stuff abroad is like giving money away, so much of it is either scammed PayPal accounts or they want to return it I've lost count.

Another item I've just sold has been returned as faulty, it's not the one I sent (security stickers on mine plus notes of serial number etc), PayPal don't care, they refunded the money.

Some items I refuse point blank to take PayPal for, then you get in trouble for not accepting it.

I can see eBay changing a lot in the next few years, because if it doesn't someone else will come in with the exact same product that works.

It's quite annoying eBay clearly know this is happening yet they will not resolve the problems.

It's restricting what can and cannot be sold on there, then there's the idiots that leave negative feedback before asking any questions, I had one c"*@ who blatantly lied about an item I sold them about 2 months ago, they were reported. If it wasn't for the fact they were in Devon I would of went knocking on their door.

The amount of blah accounts on their too!

I always check a bidders feedback and what feedback they have left for others, if they come across as an asshole their bid gets deleted and they get blocked.

I also have all restrictions in place blocking any fools from bidding/buying and blocking anyone with no credit card on file, 0 feedback etc. unfair on the genuine bidders but helps filter the fools out.
Probably lose a fair amount of bids out doing this as well but if it helps a smooth transaction then all is good.

Ok another quick update on the phone. The buyer received the phone 5 weeks ago. He was given until tomorrow to return it to me. He has posted the tracking number today. It was collected from him by parcelforce at 15.53 today 11th feb using parcelforce 48 service which means theres a good chance it may not arrive tomorrow. Why has it taken him 9 days to send when he was only given 10 days for it to be returned?

Gets better, checked today and he is no longer a registered user on ebay!!! Does anyone know if I can refuse the parcel if it doesnt arrive tomorrow which is the deadline? I cant contact him. I have tried talking to customer support but that got me nowhere (I am a specialist department so cant answer your concerns. I have escalated your case to the resolution centre and they will get back to you within 48 hours - too late if it arrives on wednesday)

Ok another quick update on the phone. The buyer received the phone 5 weeks ago. He was given until tomorrow to return it to me. He has posted the tracking number today. It was collected from him by parcelforce at 15.53 today 11th feb using parcelforce 48 service which means theres a good chance it may not arrive tomorrow. Why has it taken him 9 days to send when he was only given 10 days for it to be returned?

Gets better, checked today and he is no longer a registered user on ebay!!! Does anyone know if I can refuse the parcel if it doesnt arrive tomorrow which is the deadline? I cant contact him. I have tried talking to customer support but that got me nowhere (I am a specialist department so cant answer your concerns. I have escalated your case to the resolution centre and they will get back to you within 48 hours - too late if it arrives on wednesday)

If he's no longer a registered user then getting your money back is likely to be easier, as he quit as soon as he posted a tracking number (and the funds were released to him).

Video opening the packet, twice if you have to It's quite possible that what is meant to be in it isn't, all he needs to send is a tracking number.

Phone didnt arrive today but is now in the liverpool depot. Ebay have told me I cant refuse the parcel even though it is extremely dodgy since he is no longer registered on ebay. Absolurely furious!

Just a last update. Thank you for all your replies.

EBAY - CASE WON!!!!

Phone arrived back today, recorded opening it. Phone was just in box, no protection on it so its been rattling round in the box. Box was wrapped in a piece of paper which was the postage label printed off. The phone sent was not the same one I sent, no marks where the damage on the one I sent had been, back cover near enough white with damage when the one I sent was immaculate. They claimed it had not come on since the beginning of jan, it's turned on for me! There are messages on bbm and what's app sent last Wednesday.

Phoned ebay, they closed the case in my favour, I have the phone and I get to keep the money he paid!

Oh yeah and ebay are idiots, they refunded him this morning before the parcel arrived here so now they have to get the money back off him!