www.theguardian.com/money/2019/jan/28/ebay-buyers-return-mailing-label-scam-fraud
FYI, it appears this is a serious flaw in the returning process. Currently there is nothing to stop it being done to anyone.
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absolutely insane.
eBay: We take seller issues very seriously. We will look into this right away. 
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eBay: We offer 100% seller protection in cases like these. Simply write an article and have it published to one of the top 10 major news outlets and we’ll have your refund processed in 6-8 weeks. Thanks for selling on eBay!
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Yet another reason why I don’t sell on ebay anymore. It’s a scammers paradise because they favor buyers over sellers. Which from a business POV makes no sense to me. Buyers are a dime a dozen but without dedicated, happy sellers you have no platform.
Sadly this isn’t new. I got scammed when I sold on Amazon about 5 years ago using this same tactic
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I’ve sold 10,000+ items on eBay and had issues on less than 1% of transactions. This has amounted to well under 1% loss of gross transacted value as many times given my record eBay has sided with me, or remained neutral in that they refunded the buyer out of their pocket instead of my own. That would be about 100 total issues. The extreme issues those of which are similar to the OP are probably about 0.1% or about 10 times. Even that is a bit high as I think I can remember each individual blatant fraud attempt and there are several, but I don’t think double digits.
It does suck when it happens but the extent to which it happens is frequently overblown. For the money and given what they offer there is nowhere else remotely as seller friendly as eBay. Where else can I sell an item and pay only 10% of the final value to sell it to the millions of potential buyers that I reach?
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Just echoing what Dan said, the actual scam ratio is lower than any other platform by a wide margin. There is also a higher frequency with lower end product, as this hits a wider and younger age range = more potential issues. Overall ebay is the best option.
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Yours is a much better sample size than what I can provide so maybe it’s just my bad luck but I’ve not had good experiences with selling on Ebay. I particularly don’t like that the buyer has 180 days to file a claim through PayPal and that they work as separate entities. I’ve won a claim through Ebay but the buyer opened a claim through PayPal several months later and won. This ultimately cost me $600, it isn’t the only issue I’ve had but significant enough to leave me feeling sick to my stomach and to never want to sell on Ebay or use PayPal (unless it’s a trusted person) ever again.
Does ebay not take 10% plus the 3% from PayPal?
I personally sell through Mercari. The reach isn’t as far but there’s quite a few users on there and oddly enough I normally get premiums through Mercari over Ebay. I think this is due to the way Mercari works with balances. Most people just use the balance they make from selling their used stuff to buy things they want and never bother transferring it to their bank. It sucks having to wait on your money for a few business days but they only take 10% and if I ship with tracking the buyer has 48 hours to rate me once it shows delivered, otherwise the app auto rates me, I get my funds and the sale is final once ratings are given. Sales being final is the main thing I like over ebay. I also think it’s easier to list items and I like the layout better.
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Exactly, its not Ebay that I have had the issues but I royally hate Paypal. Look at their reviews view BBB. I like how they have an A+…
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@chopkins1994 eBay is indeed ~10% and then ~3% paypal. However even if you leave eBay you frequently have some fee accepting payment around 3% and often are still using paypal. It really is the best option by far for most collectible sellers and commands premiums far exceeding their cost.
I feel like my introduction to PSA was likely very similar to your introduction to eBay and just was soured by a bit of disproportionate bad luck. To date I have submitted about 5,000 cards to PSA and have similarly about a 0.1% major issue rate and maybe a 1% issue rate overall it’s just they were heavily front-loaded and you can find some of my early threads on this forum about those issues. I got off to a bad start with PSA and had worse than realistic ideas of their service quality and I feel like you are in a similar spot with eBay. Having stuck with them I’ve experienced a nice smoothing and regression to the mean wherein I have had fewer issues recently. I’d recommend you do the same with eBay.
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I appreciate the statistics. It does help put things into perspective. I may give them another chance in the future but for now I’m doing well with mercari and would like to continue building a reputation with the users there. I’m avoiding PayPal, paying 10% total in fees, finding really good deals and selling the majority of my listings at market price or a little above. So, I’m enjoying it for now. Hopefully it won’t change for the worse anytime soon.
Is this scam limited to Royal Mail as the article states “Royal Mail’s tracking does not include the full address, just the postal town”? Does USPS have the same flaw?
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