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 Replies: 21 / Views: 3,778 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6130 Posts |
I knew it would happen sooner or later.
A few sales ago, I listed a whole bunch of Roman coins, and one in particular went for a shocking ~4x what I figured it would. I log in to paypal today and I see that the seller opened a dispute claiming it is a counterfeit, demanding that I reimburse the cost of the coin ($100), the shipping, and a $25 customs fee, while letting him keep the coin.
There is nothing wrong with the coin, which was sourced from a major auction house, but a negative feedback screaming about a fake would do more than $150 in damages to my future sales.
Any who have been in this boat before, how would you handle it? Just suck it up and reimburse them? Reimburse them on the condition that they ship it back? Try to fight it?
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Valued Member
United States
441 Posts |
I expect the buyer is now responsible for proving his case. If you are very confident that someone who knows diddly-squat would back you up on the coin's authenticity, I would stand my ground if I were you. Once you win he will likely leave negative feedback, but ebay does remove such feedback. I think you have to contact ebay to do so. I have given a refund on two occasions when I didn't have to, simply because I could not disprove the buyers' claims nor could I believe they were being dishonest. This seems like a different situation, though. I think it might be worth defending your product and service, especially if you take great care to be an honest dealer. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
3733 Posts |
was the case opened in paypal or ebay..i would recommend calling paypal or ebay, and explain your side of the story, before you do anything else. Explain the coin is not fake, and see if they will accept any proof from you/and or the auction house that the coin is good. It could be a remorse sale, and the buyer is saying fake to open a case. Worst case , you will have to accept a return, and cover shipping. best case they will decide with your evidence and close the case, in your favor.. Then if bad feedback is left, you can have it removed.. Best of luck, I personally I have had all good experiences talking with paypal reps. But stay calm and factual. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5825 Posts |
The easiest way is to go with the "return for refund" policy.
Hit the buyer with that and the ball is in his court.
Many scamming buyers never follow up.
If this one does then you'll have your coin back BEFORE you refund.
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
I agree that it sounds like they're probably trying to get a free return out of it or a free coin period. It's an uphill battle for sure but if you have the auction house listing and photos ect you can use those to help your case. The best bet is to call eBay/PayPal immediately and try and get out front of the issue explaining what's happened and providing any proof you have ect. Sometimes they will refund the buyer on their own and let you keep the money, but the key is to be proactive with the case and not just sit back and always react to their claims.
You could offer to pay for the return shipping to try and minimize the financial damage if they would agree to that, but I would talk to eBay/PayPal first and see what your chances of winning are before making any decisions
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7641 Posts |
"Return the coin for a refund" is the best option in my opinion.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4212 Posts |
I agree w/western. Sometimes, that's the best we can do.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1202 Posts |
Did he by and chance mention leaving you bad feedbackif you don't comply? If so, you can 100% win the case due to "feedback extortion." Even if he didn't, I would ask why he thinks the coin is fake. See if you can catch him saying anything shady and then talk with ebay. |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1949 Posts |
This is a fairly common scam. I would highly suggest fighting this to the full extent of your ability. Here's why. I had a buyer in Spain pull the exact same move you are talking about. Coin was ex-Baldwins of London, coin was exactly as described. Claimed counterfeit, ect. ect. I have a fairly extensive database of 'bad buyers' going back several years, and it allows me to go back and identify many of these repeat offenders, who frequently simply create new accounts. Sometimes they make it easy and leave the same name, but oftentimes, will have a different shipping name but same address. Sure enough, this buyer had ripped me off previously, filing a claim under another ebay account claiming that the package was empty when it arrived. As the tracking showed delivery, ebay sided with me on that case, but did give the buyer a 'courtesy refund' on their end. In this particular case, armed with that information, I proactively contacted ebay and explained the situation. The first rep could not have been more unhelpful, but sometimes that's the case. Called back and spoke with a rep who understood the situation. Knowing that my side was already documented with ebay, I was able to explain to the buyer that I have a no questions asked refund policy, but return shipping was their responsibility and all customs fees are the responsibility of the buyer. The buyer eventually sent the piece back, but when they tried to claim return postage costs and customs fees, they were unable to do so. The most frustrating example of this I have ever dealt with was with a customer in Canada. He made a significant purchase, nearly 200 coins. However, he did not want to pay his customs charges, and instead of retrieving his package, opened up nearly 200 SNAD 'Does not match photo'. A month and half later, when I received the un-retrieved parcel back, I was finally able to get each of those cases removed. I ended up being on the phone with customer service for several hours that day, trying to figure out how to resolve such an extreme case of abuse of the system. Sorry for the diatribe, but my main point is that when sellers allow these crooks to abuse the system, it enable them to perpetrate the same scheme over and over again. Out of principal, when this happens, I try to make sure I do everything in my power to keep it from happening to another seller. |
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Valued Member
United States
441 Posts |
Thank you for taking the time to write that, jdmern. I am glad to know about such buyers before running into them.
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Valued Member
Australia
145 Posts |
Refunds accepted-Buyer pays return postage..Yeah that's good for the seller. Not good for the buyer if they are not happy with the item especially if the item is expensive and needs registered,tracking + sign on delivery with insurance..When seller says seller pays for return postage that tells me there's a 99.99 chance the item is the YOU BEAUT BONZA...  |
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Valued Member
United States
441 Posts |
Quote:When seller says seller pays for return postage that tells me there's a 99.99 chance the item is the YOU BEAUT BONZA...  No doubt! My logic exactly! Scammers never bother to take it that far (I feel fairly experienced with those guys  ) |
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Quote:
Refunds accepted-Buyer pays return postage..Yeah that's good for the seller. Not good for the buyer if they are not happy with the item especially if the item is expensive and needs registered,tracking + sign on delivery with insurance.. This type of entitled attitude is exactly why so many sellers are turning away from ebay unless they are a managed account where they can do whatever they want. If a buyer buys something and isn't happy they SHOULD pay for return shipping, scams are different but this idea that sellers should be shipping things all over and a buyer should get to return whatever for free is just absurd. |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
6130 Posts |
Update: my hand unfortunately was forced in the matter. The buyer told Paypal the item was counterfeit, so they are automatically right and I am wrong. I did get the coin back at least, so I'm not completely in the hole. I'll see if the second highest bidder will accept a second chance offer, which will help me at least break even on all this nonsense. To make things better... I had ANOTHER return: I listed my old collection backlog (consisting of the best few coins from all of my lots that didn't fit a set I was working on) and was thrilled when it sold for a whopping $600. Buyer opened a "not as described" return because they "couldn't make enough profit on the resale". That category forces me to pay for return shipping, or else refund them and let them keep it all.  Not my best week. |
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Valued Member
United States
441 Posts |
Quote:
The buyer told Paypal the item was counterfeit, so they are automatically right and I am wrong. What? That's it?! Is there a case open? They would let someone simply get away with that? Quote:
To make things better... I had ANOTHER return:....
....Buyer opened a "not as described" return because they "couldn't make enough profit on the resale". How could that qualify as "not as described?" How? That burns me up. I'm sorry to hear about all this. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
8715 Posts |
Unfortunately, 99.9% of the time, ebay takes the side of the buyer. They automatically assume the seller is wrong in most cases except with a non-paying buyer. |
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Replies: 21 / Views: 3,778 |
Posted 08/20/2018 3:11 pm
