Recently Sold On eBay...Got 1st Case/Dispute/Refund Request

[Daniel A]

I sold an iPad and an iTunes gift card on eBay recently. Everything to do with the iPad went great, but with the iTunes gift card I guess not.

I got the gift card as a gift (hehe) and didn't want it.

So I sold it. It sold for $20 and was worth $25.

I just got a message saying that the buyer wants a full refund and with it was an attached image of an error screen when he/she tried to use it.

I have 100% positive feedback (which I'd like to keep) on eBay and I can't really know for sure if he/she is lying or not since I didn't get the gift card myself.

Shouldn't I just refund the money and forget about if he or she is being honest?

 

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[Runum]

It depends on what that 100% rating is worth to you.

Really doesn't matter on EBAY if they are lying or not. On EBAY the customers have more control.

 

[Daniel A]

It depends on what that 100% rating is worth to you.

Really doesn't matter on EBAY if they are lying or not. On EBAY the customers have more control.

My 100% rating is something I really want to keep so I am just going to message him and refund the money.

I know eBay has great buyer protection, which can be a pro and a con I now see. I just hope he isn't using that to his advantage in a dishonest way :grumpy:

Thank you Runum!

 

[Vick]

just give him the money back.

 

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[DaRK9]

This is why I left eBay. I got targeted for scammers and it wasn't worth it to deal with them. Plus eBay will always take the buyers side. Always. On one case they froze my PayPal. I was selling hard drives. Nothing fishy or in grey areas. But because I refused to send the money back before they sent the hard drive back it was frozen.

I ended up selling my stock locally and made a lot more. eBay < Amazon imo.


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[Joe Cassandra]

This is why I left eBay. I got targeted for scammers and it wasn't worth it to deal with them. Plus eBay will always take the buyers side. Always. On one case they froze my PayPal. I was selling hard drives. Nothing fishy or in grey areas. But because I refused to send the money back before they sent the hard drive back it was frozen.

I ended up selling my stock locally and made a lot more. eBay < Amazon imo.


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I've sold stuff on ebay and always walked on egg shells because Ive heard horror stories of how to get scammed on ebay. What does Amazon do differently that you like it better?

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[Magik]

It depends on what that 100% rating is worth to you.

Really doesn't matter on EBAY if they are lying or not. On EBAY the customers have more control.

Which is why I may never sell another product on ebay again. Ebay could care less about their sellers. Customers do almost whatever they want, and buyers know this.

 

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[ProweJosh]

Normally on ebay if a buyer wants a refund I normally tell them to leave positive feedback first and most of the time they will do it as they can't be bothered to wait for like a week or two until a case is closed.

 

[DaRK9]

I've sold stuff on ebay and always walked on egg shells because Ive heard horror stories of how to get scammed on ebay. What does Amazon do differently that you like it better?

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Better users honestly. Everyone in eBay is looking for a deal. The only time I but from eBay is when I can't find it anywhere else. On amazon, people find what they are looking for, then buy it. I've had zero issues so far.


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[SGBoise]

Yep, this is will happen in any business although it's a lot easier for scammers to use ebay/paypal. I know from experience.

Ask them if you can call apple on their behalf and determine what the problem is. Or you can ask if they were able to use any of the balance? And ask if it will make them happy if you refund minus the amount they used.

I would say that most people just want to be treated fairly. Use this as an opportunity to fix someone's problem.

One last word of advice, don't treat your customers as scammers. Your customers know when you are genuine or not. You won't get far in any business.

 

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[Magik]

Better users honestly. Everyone in eBay is looking for a deal.

A polite way of saying "fewer dumb asses". I have noticed Ebay get much worse over the last 1-2 years. More returns, more people who win an auction and decide they don't want to pay. It's just not worth the time and effort anymore.

 

[DaRK9]

people who win an auction and decide they don't want to pay.

This. The most aggravating thing EVER. "Oh I bid on two of the same thing and the other one was a better price."

With the worst grammar and spelling I've ever seen. Most of them were like this.
"ey man. i bid on 2 of tha sam item. i not gona get this 1."

 

[RHL]

My wife and I sold a $350 pair of authentic true religion jeans we won at a charity auction, got around 200 bucks for them, profit for us, screaming deal for the buyer.

Anyway, buyer says they're not authentic and wants a refund. Tell buyer that's impossible because they came from an authorized distributor in Philadelphia, yadda yadda. Anyway, after a lot of histrionics, we decided to refund the money.

We get the pants back, and it's very obvious that they were worn with the tags tucked in. Somebody wanted to look good at the club and didn't want to pay the price.

Ebay is like YouTube. If their infrastructure and the number of coders/server space/marketing needed to challenge them wasn't so massive, their services are such absolute shit that taking them out would be a piece of cake.

 

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[D11FYY]

Did you mark down the code of the Gift Card before it was sent?
If possible ask the customer for their Apple id and contact Apple regarding the situation hopefully someone will be able to see that your actually being ripped off and show that this Gift Card was spent on such an id or apple account.
Or if it is a genuine error ask them to get apple to replace it.
Got a feeling they would have spent it and just taking the piss so try the first option first hopefully with you asking for details and tell them your in contact with apple regarding the matter (may make them go Oh Shit) and they may see it as not worth their while to pursue. $20 is only $20 but its better in your benefit!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Omg

My wife and I sold a $350 pair of authentic true religion jeans we won at a charity auction, got around 200 bucks for them, profit for us, screaming deal for the buyer.

Anyway, buyer says they're not authentic and wants a refund. Tell buyer that's impossible because they came from an authorized distributor in Philadelphia, yadda yadda. Anyway, after a lot of histrionics, we decided to refund the money.

We get the pants back, and it's very obvious that they were worn with the tags tucked in. Somebody wanted to look good at the club and didn't want to pay the price.

LOL, typical sidewalk mentality. One of the great disadvantages of being a Fastlaner is having to deal with tools like this.

 

[Mattie]

Gift cards expire after a certain amount of time. It's not a very good thing to sell on e-bay. If you get a gift card at the store they are empty. They swipe the card when you buy them and load them at the cash register. The only way you can check whether it was used is if you get the card back and go to the store and swipe it to see what's left on it. If you didn't do this to begin with before you sold it on e-bay you have no way to verify it was loaded with money, or a receipt to back that up. The expiration date is on the back of the card. Usually says so many months-to a year it is a good for.

 

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[Magik]

I sold a Windows phone on Ebay recently, "like new" condition. Windows phones are the easiest smart phones to use out of all the platforms. The user decided she wanted to return the phone, of course using broken English (no one knows how to F*cking spell anymore), because she didn't know how to use it. I said, "take it to a T-Mobile store and they will show you how to use it". She didn't like that shit at all, left a negative review. She ended up returning the phone and I ate the $6 in shipping, all because this moron was too lazy to perform a Google search, look on YouTube, go to a store, perform due diligence on what she was buying, etc. My guess is she didn't read the listing and thought she was buying an AT&T phone, but again, not my problem. I assure you I won't be selling another item on Ebay ever again.

 

[mememan]

Offer a partial refund on the gift card and see what happens. Otherwise, be prepared to do a full refund. In the future, just sell gift cards via Gift Card Granny or one of those gold buying shops.

eBay is a PITA. I have shit sitting around that I can't sell on Amazon that I haven't put on eBay since the whole damn process on these annoys me to no end.

Amazon is better in that you can list stuff in 5 seconds, but like eBay, if you get banned, you're screwed.

 

[Guest]

This is what eBay has come down too.

Depending on how you listed the gift card whether you made it clear that you checked and verified the amount, the bidder might as well be right.

If eBay allows buyers to play games you play back. That's why on my listings, I place in there somewhere in bold the following:

For hobby parts that may endure heavy use, abuse, wear and tear
DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS HOBBY, THERE IS NO REFUND

For electronics like cameras, phones, computer parts
ALL EQUIPMENT HAS BEEN CHECKED AND VERIFIED TO WORK, THERE IS NO REFUND (granted you did check)

For gift cards, vouchers, tickets, and coupons
THE __BLANK__ HAS BEEN CHECKED AND VERIFIED, THERE IS NO REFUND (granted you did check)

You get the drift, the only catch is you just need to have a certain amount of ratings for people to trust you. It'll be a good thing you have a few dozen ratings at 100% because you leave it up to the consumers if they want to take the risk or not. The scammers wouldn't want to waste their time and go scam somebody else, leaving you with a higher probability of legit buyers.

 

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[D11FYY]

I follow a guy on eBay under the name of : carswithnoreserve .... Yes there are some bargains but take a minute to look at his descriptions and his disclaimer. He covers all aspects to avoid eBay giving him a bad rating. Its something I would definitely include in any of my sales.

 

[CarrieW]

just throwing my 2c in here.

we live far away from our family so most of the time they send gift cards or preloaded credit cards for the kids gifts... we have been doing this for about 7 yrs. about 3 yrs ago my mom sent out Visa gift cards and one got lost in the mail. she bought it from her bank so they were able to cancel the card(after verifying balance) and put the money on a new one from their end...

last year My hubs mom sent Walmart gift cards, we had receipts and everything. one of the cards did not load properly. I had to mail the cards back to his mom and she had to go to the original store she purchased them at and fight with several people who told her there was nothing they could do. finally it got worked out but needless to say we don't use those anymore...(gift cards or prepaid cc's) now they send good old fashioned checks...

there is usually always a phone number or a website on the back of the card where you can go or call to check the balance. always save all receipts and check balances on everything. a lot now will charge monthly "service fees" and after so long they are worthless...

I would definitely investigate. verify what happened. call like others have said and check the transactions on the card. once you start looking into it you should be able to quickly determine what happened. even if it is only $20 I would still verify what happened before I gave it back...

 

[Mattie]

Working at a store in the past, why it's so hard to get money back without a receipt? The store gets like a million of them unloaded for different companies. Even after a certain point in time the blank ones get destroyed. It's easy for theft to have them loaded before you have them activated at the register. There have been employees that get them loaded and steal them at the register. So this is the problem. Without a receipt you are going to have a hard time. They don't know if you are a thief or not.

 

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[mememan]

Honestly, let it go. See if they will do a partial refund. Terms and all that in the listing mean jack. The buyer is 100% right all of the time. Assume they do not read (which is doubly true on Amazon) and work with that.

 

[eqttrdr]

exactly my feelings on amazon as well in addition to ebay

 

[CarrieW]

Working at a store in the past, why it's so hard to get money back without a receipt? The store gets like a million of them unloaded for different companies. Even after a certain point in time the blank ones get destroyed. It's easy for theft to have them loaded before you have them activated at the register. There have been employees that get them loaded and steal them at the register. So this is the problem. Without a receipt you are going to have a hard time. They don't know if you are a thief or not.

sometimes people are just assholes.. (I mean the people behind the counter not the customers) we had receipts.

I have worked at more retail places than I can recall here.

I know the store policies and what they can and cant do better then the people working there most of the time.

there is no customer is always right policies in most places anymore.

I had the cards (2 of them) both load receipts and the main purchase receipt. (one was loaded and worked perfectly and the other was defective) the local Walmart to me were assholes. the 800 # people were assholes too. I am sure some people do try to rip the stores off but the stores are definitely making out in this situation or they wouldn't continue to offer the cards...

it wasn't until my mil took everything I had plus her bank statement proving the charges cleared along with all the receipts and several months of arguing before she got the $25 back...

my point in posting was only meant to demonstrate that the purchaser could be being truthful. I have had problems with them before and no one was being shady. shit happens... I just like to give people the benefit of the doubt. they could totally be scamming there could totally be a glitch with the card tho too...

 

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[RHL]

LOL, typical sidewalk mentality. One of the great disadvantages of being a Fastlaner is having to deal with tools like this.

@MJ DeMarco I saw your "you might be a sidewalker" YT video about three months after this happened, and had to show my wife-"It looks like he sold clothing to the same person we did."

It is just horrible, and the seller has so, so, so much more to lose than the buyer. It's always the same story with sidewalkers almost any time they enter into a financial altercation with someone else; a woman without insurance hit us in a car we were test driving (with her old beat-to-shit early 00's Escalade with giant rims, no less), 100% her fault. Fortunately a sales rep from the dealership was in the car and confirmed that it was her fault, but the woman jumped out of her car with her iPhone, coach sunglasses, Prada bag, full mani-pedi, etc. and screamed at us about how she "don't got no insurance" and "I can't catch a f---n break" and then fled the scene when we told her we were calling the police.

Dealership said they were just going to call the insurance company and not pursue her legally. Sucks, but what are they going to do? She had absolutely nothing to lose. What were they going to do? Repo her acrylic nails and curbed 25" wheels?

I'll never forget that woman. That woman wasn't just on the sidewalk; she was the weeds growing out of the cracks in it.

 

[Mattie]

I understand. I wasn't aiming my comment at you. I was just sharing what I knew.

 

[DaRK9]

@MJ DeMarco I saw your "you might be a sidewalker" YT video about three months after this happened, and had to show my wife-"It looks like he sold clothing to the same person we did."

It is just horrible, and the seller has so, so, so much more to lose than the buyer. It's always the same story with sidewalkers almost any time they enter into a financial altercation with someone else; a woman without insurance hit us in a car we were test driving (with her old beat-to-shit early 00's Escalade with giant rims, no less), 100% her fault. Fortunately a sales rep from the dealership was in the car and confirmed that it was her fault, but the woman jumped out of her car with her iPhone, coach sunglasses, Prada bag, full mani-pedi, etc. and screamed at us about how she "don't got no insurance" and "I can't catch a f---n break" and then fled the scene when we told her we were calling the police.

Dealership said they were just going to call the insurance company and not pursue her legally. Sucks, but what are they going to do? She had absolutely nothing to lose.

I'll never forget that woman. That woman wasn't just on the sidewalk; she was the weeds growing out of the cracks in it.

I know people like that. They actually purposely brake extra hard when someone is tailgating them in hopes of getting their car fixed. Same person finds "hair" in every entree at restaurants as well.

I've since cut them out from being a friend. I cannot handle that shit. So much time and energy actively looking to "get over on someone".

 

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[CarrieW]

Lol not naming names here but I know people who break check people and it has nothing to do with hoping for their car to be fixed or an insurance settlement.


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[DaRK9]

Lol not naming names here but I know people who break check people and it has nothing to do with hoping for their car to be fixed or an insurance settlement.


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Ha, I do that sometimes. I mean like full on stops in traffic. STUPID.