Hey all, need some advice and help regarding a recent ebay transaction. I recently sold some boxes of Terastal Festival. Out of almost 2000 boxes sold, one Ebay buyer has messaged me today to claim that ALL 6 of his boxes have been resealed and replaced with packets of Japanese chips inside.
This is very suspicious to me on a few counts- first, he claims that he did not video the opening, but if you open one box and realise it was resealed, why would you not video opening the rest? Secondly, how is it possible that out of all 2000 boxes I have sold, only his order and ALL of his boxes are resealed? Thirdly, on these modern jp boxes, there is the tamper proof strip in tact to prevent resealing. And finally, the packets of chips in question weigh 16 grams, as compared to 185-188 grams per box of terastal festival. I have a post office receipt of his package weighing 1.1kg.
Despite all these, I know ebay will side with the buyer should a case be raised. Does anyone have any advice on how I can go about this situation? Any help would be appreciated, thank you.
Unfortunately like you said, eBay will side with the buyer. Thereâs really not a whole lot you can do besides accept the return, as frustrating as that is. Sadly this is one of the huge pain points of selling sealed on eBay, or really anywhere online.
Pretty clearly a scam. I would call eBay right away and try to get someone who understands trading cards. If you donât, hang up and call again. Theyâll probably tell you to accept the return, but you might be able to get out of refunding at the end.
You might be able to stop the refund by saying that the buyer didnât return the item in the condition you sent it to them in. Or, if you get someone from eBay who understands trading cards, they may recognize the âmy box was resealedâ scam and refund the buyer out of eBayâs pocket as opposed to yours.
Assuming you have a pretty decent seller rep (which I am assuming you do if youâre dealing in the thousands of boxes) you can get on seller support and explain basically exactly what you just did. Theyâll tell you to accept the return and then mark it as âdifferent item returnedâ
the end result is that ebay will refund the buyer out of their own pocket, and youâll be clear of any penalties
Another tip that you might already know, but talk to the eBay facebook messenger instead of talking on their website chat, people on messenger actually have higher permissions than the ones on the website support and tend to think through the issue instead of just following a very simple flowchart.
Recently someone I know had almost this identical scam happen to him for a $2k graded card of some kind. The buyer pretended that he sent some random other graded card. In the end, the buyer successfully got his refund, but the seller did get completely covered by ebay. He does have a huge sales history though which probably helps
Oh even I didnât know this. Iâve had issues in the past with poor customer service/ebay knowledge on the website. Iâll have to use their fb messenger in future.
So what you first want to do is contact eBay on Twitter or Facebook. They have real agents there that can bypass most things a rep from the phone or online chat can.
Explain with them the situation, and how it does not add up. 2000 boxes sold and only 1 person claiming all 6 were resealed.
The likely outcome is that you will have to accept the return but then once arrives select the dispute / not as described option and reach out to that FB / Twitter chat again to follow up with them.
Shouldnât have issues, you have plenty of evidence.
Its important you take pictures of your product with the shipping label next to it every single time. With sealed product always take pictures of all the angles and on a scale showing the weight! I know it takes some time but its worth it and has saved me in the past. An ebay rep actually recommended I do this and its helps so much when they are reviewing the case. He said the more pics you take the better. Take pics of the tamper proof tape you put on the packaging and of the package on the scale at the post office. Then of the post office receipt. This will help when they are reviewing the case. You must point out the time the pics were taken as well (this is provided on your phone) Usually they side with the buyer but these extra steps are vital. Trust me. Your reviews help as well. In the future please follow these steps.
Thank you everyone for your help, I followed some of your advice and gave them a call. They have closed the case in my favour. Really happy about this, was expecting the worst! Although I am still bummed out that the buyer is getting his refund. He is a UK ebay user, ID is Omakuserid and he runs an online shop called ketchum collectables, which is especially disappointing given that he is a seller himself.