Charge backs

[2andrewd]

Sold a mid 2012 13" on eBay (yeah I know). The bottom cover was cosmetically pristine however it was not the original piece. The buyer ran the serial number on the cover which apparently returns as being 2011 and opened a return under "not as described" stating that it is not in fact a 2012. This buyer appears to some sort of technician possibly a business owner. Clearly this guy is acting dishonestly, but I explained how to check the date info in osx. The reason he gives to justify the return is not based in reality and I'm wondering

How do you approach these sort of unethical douche bags and resolve matters without bending over a barrel? Are ebay scum bags truly king regardless?

 

[SMMRepair]

You have no protection as a seller on eBay, period. They will try to make you think you do, but you don't. If the buyer wants to return an item and claims it isn't as described, that's your problem. If they decide to return to you a busted-up/dead 2011 13" unit now, that's your problem. If they decide to send you an empty box with tracking and insurance as "proof" they returned the item to you, that's good enough for eBay and they will get a full refund and a free 2012 unit (with 2011 bottom plate).

That's the risk you take dealing on eBay (and Amazon--there's no truly safe selling option for sellers online). If you can't afford to lose it, you should not list it for sale on eBay. Ebay is simply too easy for a scammer to survive on by lying, and eBay can't do anything about it. It's your word versus theirs; any "proof" you may have can be countered with possible scenarios where you are the dishonest one...it's just a huge mess to deal with. Luckily, it appears that scammers and dishonest buyers are outnumbered 10-to-1 by good, honest buyers, but every now and then you hit one of the liars who is just looking to make an easy few hundred bucks by stealing you or scamming you out of an item. It happens, and it sucks, but that's eBay. That's the risk you take selling there. You build that XX% loss into your business model/plan, and you waste as little time as possible on the situation and move on. Cut your losses and save your time; use it to fix more boards and get back ahead. You won't win this one, unless the sellers decides to be honest and return your original item to you (undamaged and un-tampered with).

Stick to local sales...much easier. Ebay is a buyers-market.

 

[larossmann]

eBay is for buying, not selling. Do not sell anything on eBay you can't afford to give away for free.

 

[2andrewd]

Thanks for the insight guys

 

[roy.ruan]

same story here, got scammed last month selling a 820-2915 board. that's almost 500
buyer received and claimed it's not in good condition( all crap) . the worst thing is that, he didn't open the case on ebay. he disputed charge back directly on his credit card, which means....fuck....

paypal would charge me 20 more for so called"trying to help seller to dispute with the buyer" in the end it's just another loss, then he can keep my board and I lost the shipping fees, ebay fees, paypal fees, dispute fees all those... it just happens once a while.

One thing i can think of when you sell mac related product, you can actually register the machine in icloud, if they do shit on you, try to log in Icloud and lock the machine.
( of course if he knows how to edit EFI and flash bios, or he rather pay 50 bucks to let someone unlock it, then it's fucked anyway)
but at least has something you can do about it when scammer come around (maybe they just don't know that much about the EFI thing) hey who knows...

 

[2andrewd]

That's interesting. At the very least anyone who engaged in that shit would have to put in some work to pwn a listing, if that's the intent.