Hi y'all, I recently tried to sell some silver coins on ebay and a bidder didn't pay. Then, I sold another item and a bidder with a different username, but same name and address won the bid. He paid this one pretty promptly and when I asked for payment of the other 2 first, he replied simply demanding I send him the item he paid for, or refund his money, with no explanation. I smell some sort of scam but can't figure out what he's up to. I am reluctant to send him the coin only for him to renege on the payment through paypal, which is possible. I am also afraid that my refusal to send him the item he paid for will result in negative feedback. Though I am happy to refund his money if I can't get a resolution. Any thoughts and advice would be appreciated with this tricky situation.
What does the feedback on the accounts look like? Are they low? I'm not sure hes up too either but this does seem strange. Perhaps taking the option of the refund would be safer, you would mostly be hit with a negative feedback though. I would open up an unpaid item case on the item the seller did not pay for and see what happens. You can hold out on shipping the other item they bought for a day or two because of the holidays.
Refund his money; open up cases on the unpaid items. There could be the unspoken threat to trash your reputation, but (s)he would probably not do too well if you have made a refund - make sure you do not accuse him of being the other failed purchaser, use the words 'seems to be' or 'appears to be' or 'shares the same name and address as a failed payer' or some such. eBay scams are common with anything worth a bit of cash - I was looking for a Windows installation disc this morning and came across three unique IDs selling cheap, each with 15 positive transactions from the same sellers - obviously a assembly-line quick and dirty ID creation. Other markers - no available links to the items and prices; feedback for purchases only. Gone a few hours later.
It really depends on the feedback or sale history if it is suspicious or not. Lots of sellers have multiple user names linked to the same accounts depending on what they are selling under each username. Some people use one account for buying and another account for selling, or use one account for buisness and the other for personal use, Things like that.
Separate accounts for buying and selling also appears as hideous maneuvres to me. Why would one wanna hide what he bought in the past for people he sells to now? If it's to hide a buy low sell higher story, it could be called legit, but still, as a buyer you also know then who's the side with the shortest straw haha. And business and personal, well ok, but one may wonder why the same name / address and maybe even also bank account. Normally the bank account should be at least different, since many laws require a seperate one, and if a seller gives under two usernames a same bank account, he must have another reason, and a legitimate one is abit harder to find.
All very true as well which is why you need to look at the feedback. If they have 0 or little feedback that is the biggest redflag you can get. If you read thier feedback and see it is made up of many small purchases from the same companies that is a huge flag also. I use the same account for everything since I have no idea what I will be listing next, but if you were selling coins and bullion and also junk you find at yardsales Id have an account for each. People wont trust you as much if your selling a kilo coin, 1890 morgan dollar along side a used tickle me elmo and broken playstaion.
send the money back suck up the fee's add both user names to blocked list and get on with life they are few and far between but they are there, use all the tools you can to protect yourself and trust your gut instinct.
That last is funny-worded, could be quite true, though I wouldn't have a problem with it. Of course, my case isn't being a precious metal dealer as an income, just a stacker that will sell now and then, upon needs or foreseeing of needs, combined with price targeting. I ceased using ebay anyway, and since a local such site was taken over by ebay, and recently changed in such a way that my old software makes it nearly useless, cant even access my settings, my nondealer silver sources became close to zero. But I do understand the way you look at it, and for some1 that has a higher activity on the market, it's indeed a point.
If your feeling says so, follow it. cancel the sale. make it agreed with the buyer. once agreed, refund the monies. trust us....it is not worth a penny for the hassle
Do an "Ebay scam" search on youtube and should find other sellers that this happened to. They advise to cancel the sale.
It is easy to keep positive feedback on a buyers account. Just pay promptly. It is easy to be wrongly tagged with negative feedback as a seller on eBay, despite your best and honest efforts to satisfy the buyer. Anybody considering selling more than an occasional item might want to strongly consider a sellers account.
You don't need to be threatened by negative feedback, ebay take into account your previous dealings, if your account suggests no other issues then they will remove the neg' feedback, just like they do when people give you a positive but give you low ratings on shipping etc. Your probably reading too much into it, just go ahead with the transaction like normal, registered post with tracking is all you need.
Always call ebay and discuss it with them if you have issues. They can give you good info as well as establish a basis for anything that may transpire with the sale. Just click on help at the top left of the page in your My Ebay. I am an established ebay seller and since they have given so much power for the buyers to essentially screw you over as a seller, I have found this to be my best defense. Funny thing, I have a friend that had 100% positive feedback that lost his account because he wouldn't let buyers screw him over and it blasted his dashboard and took him out.
It goes back to the reputation of the seller and buyer, if the seller has a good standing then ebay will protect the seller. If the buyer has multiple accounts that can be proven, like same address etc, then ebay will always go in favour of the seller.
Thanks for all the advice guys, Looks like he cancelled the transaction in paypal, with no reply. Just wondering do I have to click "issue refund", or does it refund automatically?
That's what I think too, multiple accounts have a reason, and while it's possible to find a legit one, it's way easier to find bogus ones, and one can then question whether or not the legit reason is important enough to outweight the bogus ones. Reputation is not power / force. It's not something that is decided on a moment, it's something that is earnt over time, along a variety of elements. Yet, it can all of sudden change, and that's something that's hard to take into account. I also sit with an undelivered order, a ceased dealer business, and no reacting anymore. All positive feedback, all good experiences, fast handling and clear communication. All of sudden changed. I've the habit to give ppl that earn it a break, but this time it came at the cost of a couple thousands euro's with nothing in return. On the other hand, the same risk gave me some much cheaper prices than competitors for the particular coins. Guess I'm now seeing the ugly side of that risk.
