Caution to eBay sellers

Originally posted a question regarding this issue in this thread.

Basically, I shipped a perfectly working motherboard to a guy in New Zealand (NromulousZ) and he received and claimed it would restart every time he tried to load Windows. I offered him several suggestions to troubleshoot the issue, but he immediately filed a claim with eBay.

The claim went exactly as I knew it would. I gave all information requested by eBay about the sale and my attempts to help the buyer, but within 12 hours (of the estimated 7 days), eBay had already decided in the buyer's favor.

Now the original purchase price (including what I paid to ship it to NZ), which was placed on hold immediately when this began, is set to be refunded to the buyer when the tracking information he provides to eBay indicates that "a package" has been delivered to me.


So what I'm thinking is that this system is set up to perfectly aid someone to: buy a non-working item, then buy an identical, functional item, file a claim and ship back the non-working item. Buyer ends up with a fully functional item at the non-functional price.

I'm sure no one will abuse that...


It's quite disappointing in the end. I've been an eBay customer for almost 10 years I think (~550, all positive feedback) and a new member with only 40 feedback (for 0.99 cent items and knock-off kimonos - LOL) is still able to scam me with eBay as their assistant.

Really makes you appreciate OCF classifieds all the more! (They all apply right now haha)

Coincidence, I'm sure.

I don't have an ebay account, nor a bank account/paypal account for that matter, but one thing is for certain: I do not ship outside the US-48.

Now about the switch-a-roo thing: When selling an item like a mobo, chart down all serial numbers before shipping. If and when the buyer tries the switch, confirm with ebay about the serial numbers to be sure they match.

As for the ordeal you're dealing with, sorry it went south on you. I live with a simple motto:

Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice, shame on me.

Good luck hope it works out for you-

i had that happen before
what i did?
called ebay and complained
guess what? they gave me all my money back and i kept the item
trust me call them you have been there just as long as me and they even said oh you have been here seen 01 and the buyer only here seen 06 (then pretty much i won after that)

I was definitely planning to call in if/when I receive the item back.

Not sure if I will continue selling on eBay. If I do, I will definitely be taking much greater precautions.

I wonder if you state in the description that it is working, but you are selling AS-IS with no returns, if that would cover you from this sort of thing. I already ordered a blacklight marker. It's truly a shame that people can be so crooked.

That's crazy. But I had a similar situation with a video card. The people that bought it worked for an ebay store as well. Forgot the name. Shipped a working 7950-GX2, they got it claimed it didn't work. Before I could tell them to update drivers, they filed a claim. Sent it back to me, worked fine. They were just idiots. Then they left me negative feedback. I rarely if ever sell on there now. It's not worth the hassle.

man that sucks, i have had a similar experience with ebay when i sold a compound bow to a guy a few years back. i described what i was selling with detailed photos so there was no confusion, dude said it wasn't what i advertised and gave me negative feedback. he kept it anyway. come to find out he was a reseller and was just trying to give his competition a bad rep.

ebay and paypal also charged me % fees on a sale that the buyer never paid and has refused to remove them. -$50

it's ok, i didn't need to eat that week anyhow.

i no longer do business with ebay or paypal.

its a shame people fall for their marketing. they are not a trustworthy business.

its only a matter of time until they rip you off.

It not just selling things what about buying items my wife purchased a item 14 day's ago still not arrived yet. But they have taken the money from our account and the seller say's. We have to prove it has not arrived by checking with the post office etc, so much hassle. Also since she has the postage ticket the post say's we have to chase her baaaaah! AJ.

I only do business on here, too many stories like this keep me from even wanting to go to eBay.

bmwbaxter said:

I only do business on here, too many stories like this keep me from even wanting to go to eBay.

Click to expand...

QFT! I have some gear Im sure would sell on ebay but its just such a pita that id rather it just sit in my garage...

Why not try the Ads section on here, some new members would be happy for that IMO! AJ.

I use the classifieds section here all the time. I dont list everything I have on there though, some of it is not really relevant to this site.

Nebulous said:

Now about the switch-a-roo thing: When selling an item like a mobo, chart down all serial numbers before shipping. If and when the buyer tries the switch, confirm with ebay about the serial numbers to be sure they match.

Click to expand...

I, myself, have sold at least a half-dozen motherboards on ebay. Only had to take a return twice, first was due to buyer's inexperience with computers and buying incompatible parts, second was due to buyer (or USPS) damaging a motherboard.

Ever since I started selling I've been cautious around there, and before I ship an item I take good pictures of any serial or model numbers on the item (as well as numbers that have nothing to do with a serial no.). For a motherboard this usually means between 3-5 different numbers somewhere on the board. That way if I have to take a return if a single one of those numbers isn't correct I know something isn't quite right.

I've had people try this time after time lol. I sell jeans online a lot of times used jeans expensive stuff I shop around at garage sales etc and find for 10 bucks like True Religion for instance.

I know all about the fake jeans etc lol weird I've become pro at it these days. Anyway I'll get buyers all the time either trying to tell me they have been modified wanting a refund or part of money back and try to hold my money for ransom through paypal.
Or they will try to pull the refund trick and say I sold them fake jeans.

On my ads i use up all 11 pictures. Then on top of that I take tons of extra pictures with a tape measure etc included in pics.

So funny how many times people have tried to pull scams on me and I win without even trying very hard. I just keep seperate files on each pair of jeans with all the info and extra pictures etc with the date on each picture so it can show that I took the pics at the sametime as the ones i use for my ads.

I had one guy even call me a "ahole" in a email back to me after I OWNED HIM HARD. Try to scam me boyyyyyyyyy lol.

But as for computer parts i do the same thing tons of pics. serial number close ups then back out enough to see numbers stuff like that and see that it is the same board. I try to get screenshots if i can of the board in a machine running with the screen in the pic. Can't always do that but if i can I try. I've had easily over 20 or 30 people in my 70ish auctions try to scam me (mostly on the jeans, I guess some of them like true religion are hot items as far as fakes etc go) and I've won every single one with the quickness. They are not expecting all those extra pictures etc plus I do not give refunds on products unless it is not as described which it always is.

Love owning scammers

we reply to this post because we have experienced a same problem with a buyer called (NromulousZ) on ebay, we've sold a ps4 camera to this buyer, after he recieved it he claims that the product is not working, however he doesn't want the products send back , opened item not as described case, leave -ve feedback , and at last ebay request buyer to send back the item , we've just got the item back, inside the package it's contains 2 x iphone paper box, two Styrofoam covered and inside the box there's an used computer cable ~~ this guy is a total scam on ebay, and why people like that think commit online crime is something "safe"? we've all the information such as buyer's address, name, even ip address phone number etc

we urge any seller to block this guy, we also now seeking any seller do encounter the same experience please use the report function on the internet and share your experience! Hope some internet crime department can do something later ~~ thanks for reading

That's one of the reasons I no longer sell on ebay, I do a lot of business on amazon, the fees are higher but the platform is better.

It can easily happen within the US as well, sometimes ebay doesn't even require them to ship it back.

that's why you see people with a wall of text on their listing pages, to cover their butts because of scammers and idiots.