So I recently sold a Dreamcast with a few games controllers ect. on Ebay. The machine worked great without issue. One of the nicest Dreamcasts Ive seen in a while honestly. I 2 day delivered it and the buyer gave me good feedback and I thought it was the end of it. Now a week later he magically says the machine is unresponsive out of the box and demands I pay him 1/3 of the auction sale. I told him I would put in a claim with the post office and now of course he has none of the original packaging and seems irritated about the claim. So here is my question 1. Whats the chances of a Dreamcast well padded getting damaged in 2 days of the mail? Does this sound like I am about to be scammed? Most importantly, is there anything I can do or is Ebay going to side with the buyer even though he has 500 negative feedback and 500 neutral feedback for similar instances.
My experiences with eBay claims have always been positive, but occasionally it's taken a little effort to get the proper results.
One time I had a scammer ship an empty envelope to a nearby vacant house. Luckily, my town is small enough that my local postmaster noticed it. I filed a claim and eBay's automated system automatically ruled in favor of the seller because there was a tracking number uploaded. I called eBay and appealed immediately. They called my local post office and verified my story, and then I got the money back. There was a brief window where the seller could have taken the money out though, but it would have ultimately come out of eBay's pocket if so.
Your best bet to protect against something like this is keeping track of the serial numbers of your units. It can be a pain, but I've talked to people who sell Playstation 4s and open them up, writing down the serial numbers from the HD and anything else they can.
I get things in the mail sometimes and don't mess with them for a week or more, so I don't think that's too weird, but if he has that many negative feedback, there's a problem. Can he really have 500 negatives and still have an eBay account? Geez.
No guarantees, but I've always been honest and had good luck with their claims, as either a buyer or seller.
Yeah I brought this topic up to my local game store and he basically said the same thing. Make sure you write down the serial number. If it was a person with 100% feedback or close, I think I would of just given the guy his money back. Because there is seriously so many questionable transactions I cant help but feel its a scam to just swap out with one of his busted systems.
The scam seems to be that he's asking for 1/3 of the sale price (extremely odd).
It's best to just sell as-is in the future instead of fully functional, works great!
I've had only one scam as a buyer on my 60 or so transactions on ebay where I lost all the money. Whoever was selling like 110 EA sports SNES games for a fraction of a dollar each but a fair price for their shells. It turns out it was just a bunch of bricks that the Philadelphia post office refused to deliver any further.
Yeah agreed. Reeks of scam. I put in a claim with the post office. Lets see if the buyer sends me any more correspondence. From now on I will word my sales as no refunds exchanges returns. Ill also put in that buyer is responsible to test systems immediately and keep the shipping material until they are confident it is working (even though I test my systems for hours to ensure they run perfectly before selling).
Call ebay ASAP. Be proactive on the phone, talking to the representatives, make sure to be nice with them as they determine if you will lose money or not. Usually if you do that, put in a little time, work with them, it works in your favor. If not, terrible luck, but that's all I'd say to do. Get in contact with someone there, let them know what is happening, and be nice and you should be fine.
Thanks for the advice. Tomorrow I will call Ebay, explain the situation and see what they recommend as the next step. Definitely sounds like I should give them a heads up in case this guy starts in with a claim.
Well good news on this front. The buyer wanted $20 for damages, and USPS just approved my package for $32.97. I will refund his sale, but definitely reword my listings from now on.