Seller Beware

wiggviv

Retro Guru
General Question and advise on an Ebay sale just asking the group for some input.
Sold my Marin collection on eBAY sold as 'seller refubished retro' some will know my bikes and condition I fettle too.
One is a nightmare transaction seller complains and asks for refund I send full refund and ask for return ..... a 300 mile collect/courier.
Bike is now stripped and he wants to keep agree a £100 discount leaving me with a loss on the bike and labour.
No sign of PayPal or bike - next step any suggestions? send round a local RetroBike member to collect a free Marin springs to mind.
 
Sounds like a con artist. Read about this sort of thing on STW quite a bit. Buyer purchases used item and then complains about condition to get money off. If buyer wasn't happy why strip the bike ?. Definitely a chancer, where is the bike currently. If it's near Surrey/Hampshire borders I can help you out.
 
Thanks gtturbo the bike is in Devon I will see what happens apparently he found play in bottom bracket and was a danger to ride all fully rebuilt Manitou Mangnums and a lot of work on this one .............. lets hope the new brake cables are faulty too.
Good news is my Prestige, Team Marin and and Eldridge sold to happy RB members
 
I'd open a claim, you've seemingly been more than fair and you now have nothing.

Personally I would not have refunded until it was back in my hands which is generally how ebay handle claims (I had to send a seat post back recently and thats how it went via their process).
 
Bit confused, did he open a claim with bay for item not as described? if not you should not have refunded him.

Like above, they are just trying to get some money knocked off.

Your choices are, either take the hit and arrange a courier to collect, not knowing if he sends a bust bb back with the bike, or come to some agreement over a realistic price to replace the bb, maybe buy one off bay or here and send it to him, probably cheapest option. Personally, though i would not be in this position, i would contact CS and explain it too them, they dont take too kindly to buyers trying to get money knocked off, though the end result will be you taking the bike back. Also depending on the times, i would cancel the refund straight away and tell him to go through ebay.
 
Should have given partial refund closed the case - thanks guys lesson is collection from now no postage.
 
Unless I'm misunderstanding is that £100 discount for play in the BB? Was it a titanium BB or is he saying that's the price parts with labour? (After hes taken the bike a part). He sounds like he is taking the piss!

People can be a nightmare on ebay, I stopped selling big/expensive things, after one particular customer nearly left me out of pocket by £500.
Despite me sending a frame recorded delivery, he lodged a claim against me saying he didn't get the item. It wasn't until I explained I was coming up in person to sort it out (in the most professional way possible), that it was resolved and I got all the money back. PayPal/Ebay seem to take the buyers side, even if they are taking the piss.

Having postage will get you more customers, but collection and payment in person will save some hassle.
 
Difficult to know exactly here, without details of whether/when an ebay case was opened and how the refund was paid - a full refund was given, but then a partial refund was agreed? I wonder if the buyer contacted you to ask for a refund but didn't actually open an ebay dispute case? In which case the error was to refund without an ebay case being open as mk one said.

Basically how it should work is the buyer opens a dispute, you either accept the return or agree a partial refund to close the case (if the buyer agrees), then ebay charges you for the return tracked postage, and only when it arrives does the buyer receive the refund. If you didn't go through that process for the refund ebay are unlikely to be able to help you. If all the payments were done through Paypal then they may be able to advise if you call (I've found Paypal quite good on the phone, but like ebay they'll only work to their procedures so they might tell you they can't do anything if you chose to refund the buyer without having received the returned item).

It is true that the buyer is always right on ebay. Basically in any ebay sale the buyer can say whatever they want - truthful, bizarre, subjective, whatever - about the condition of what they received and the system will 'decide' automatically in their favour. Some sellers get very frustrated by this and complain furiously that what they sold was correctly described, the buyer is lying/taking the proverbial, etc. But if you sell anything on ebay it's really best not to let that bother you since there's absolutely nothing you can do about it, it's just how ebay works: no-one in ebay HQ is making decisions on whether a buyer is trying their luck, trying to pull a fast one, etc, so there's no point protesting: for any 'item not as described' claim the seller must accept the return, pay for the return postage, as well as losing the original postage costs they paid. It's a very useful policy for buying but very risky for selling anything you can't afford to lose. As a seller you just have to put up with the possibility of coming up with the occasional fraudster or just do collection and cash only, which is what I tend to do nowadays for anything much over £100.
 
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