PSA: Warning About How Dodgy Buyers scam sellers on eBay: Swap parts, swap items, return anything and keep your money!

So let me start by saying it's a fool me once fool me twice situation for me, but I didn't think things would progress to this level of ridiculousness

From the buyer perspective you just need to do this:
1) (If malicious) Exchange your defective item/parts with the ones you bought from an eBay seller
2) Take 2 photos of the item
3) Claim an expert tested the item and it's defective (Just the claim is enough, no proof necessary)
4) Wait 4 days and either get a prepaid label from seller, or get a full refund and keep the item!

From the seller perspective:
A) You accept the return and pay the seller for return shipping, as the claim is a defective item (no information provided what happens when you get something else back)
B) Refuse the return, lose the item, AND pay eBay the fees that they lost from this transaction
The bold part is the cherry on top 😀

I am choosing B, I got scammed twice consecutively anyway by different people using this method and my balance is just going to become negative. If you see sellers now indicating they don't send items to forwarding services it's because of this too. It's much easier and more anonymous if you apply this method using a forwarder and a made up name. Just get paid by the seller for a return and use that money to send something else back to the seller from the forwarder.

No way around it and foolproof way to scam/abuse sellers

moot with the above method, list something and I can demonstrate to you how no matter what you do I can scam you. I will take a singular part from your watch and return it back to you

I considered your precautions but it ultimately is a dark place as well, as an example 2-3 months ago a certain nationality guy from US won my auction and didn't pay and didn't communicate, just ghosted, then when I re-ran, another same nationality guy from US won my auction for a similar price. I was sure that I was being targeted by someone trolling me, but the second guy ended up being a genuine buyer. It was like a divine middle finger and then a divine pointless lesson 😀

I used to sell things I didn't want locally, but asked ridiculously low prices so they sold instantly and made the buyer happy with all its flaws, ultimately going to sell whatever I have left that way

On eBay I was doing $1 to whatever type of auctions and despite their 20%+ international fees I was happy with whatever I got, I did enjoy selling, but if I'm losing items and paying eBay for the privilege of getting scammed its too much 😁

Both were extremely patinated/damaged watches, rough movements photographed - they were serviced and restored though. I expected them to fetch $250-300 but they fetched $400+. I suspect this could be a targeting point, the buyer claimed the watch had water ingress when it clearly showed past water ingress in the listing as well.

As far as I talked to the eBay representative though, nothing matters. I asked her whether I can just buy any watch, claim it's not working and force a return - there wasn't anything to prevent it.

Another recent scenario from the buyers viewpoint, someone recently reached out to me before buying his first Omega. He went for a pristine and expensive one. When he received the watch he though the watch was running slow, in the end it turned out the watch was just running at -30/s - I learned that he forced the same situation on the seller and got a partial refund - but he indicated eBay told him he needed an expert opinion to start this process, in his case just a photo of a watchmaker shop was enough. In my case since the watch is cheap, I think it was easier.

So it didn't play out fully as I didn't choose the option A, but I think then it becomes a 'either provide a shipping solution for the "victim" buyer or s/he keeps the item' situation as well. It's unclear what happens when you don't receive the item back, they don't have an answer, eBay representative just said "You have only 2 days after receiving the item back to start a claim against the buyer"

I have a couple watches and some other items that I've listed here, on other forums, and other markets and would like to list elsewhere, eBay being one place. I just don't have the bandwidth to deal with eBay shenanigans. What I read here, other forums, articles, and my own experience makes me avoid that place more and more. Too bad.

I honestly don't understand 80% of what you guys wrote here. I will say though that eBay has consistently gone downhill with increased fees, more deadbeat buyers and dishonest participants. Recently I've had a few auctions complete and then the buyers - for whatever reason - decide not to go through with it. In each case, I relisted the items and ended up getting higher bids on the relist... but it's still a hassle and just delays everything.

I also have had buyers file complaints and whatnot for things like lost in transit (the items usually show up, eventually) and mostly because they simply don't read the item description thoroughly! I disclose everything, it's not my fault you are mentally deficient! 😉

I don't like Catawiki for different reasons but I'll say this about them, they are at least protecting both sides in situations like these, at least so far. 2 months of a regular postage delay and on eBay you'll 100% lose your funds, I did once due to Canada post not updating their tracking details. But on Catawiki I've had a similar thing happen where I was protected and a real person who can affect how things progress was on the other end of the customer service. So I'd suggest switching to Catawiki for cheaper watches, and sticking to listings for anything substantial.

On this eBay issue, it was pretty clear customer service had no power in anything, and unless I accept the return, the seller was going to get a full refund in 4 days - and the fees eBay lost were going to be deducted from my unpaid funds.

After this new loophole, I don't think it's wise to sell anything complex on eBay. Bracelets etc. maybe, but with watches it's easy to claim something is wrong and impossible to prove otherwise in an environment where a buyer don't have to provide any real proof.

It's such a headache talking to eBay customer service too, they are like, yes, yes, yes, it should be like that, but no, it's not like that and suck it