So, What's Your eBay Scam Story

I know a lot of members have posted about their issues with eBay, but not all in one place. Today eBay sent me a $25.00 code to be used to purchase anything in honor of my 25 years as a member. It made me think of the one time, I know it's amazing, I got fu#ked.

This was all before Paypal which was founded in 1998. In the early days of eBay there were no Buy It Now, everything was an auction. I had bought a couple of nice watches on eBay and all were authenticated by experts after purchased and received. The auction was for a Franck Muller watch, they were hot in the mid 1990s. The seller was from North Carolina. I won the auction, the watch was listed as new, and my final bid was for less than half the value of the watch. I write my check, and mail to the address given. The check is cashed and a package is sent to me with tracking information. When the package arrives there is nothing inside but crumpled newspapers. I contact the local police in North Carolina and find out that they are aware that a scam is being run. Its been a long time and it hard to recall all the details, but the thieves used a fake address for about a week, then would moved to another location and start all over again. The bank had a video of a woman cashing my check, but she had used false ID. Apparently, they scammed quite a number of buyers on eBay selling watches they never owned.

After that incident, I never bought a watch from eBay again. I was naive as I recall, looking back, the seller had a low feedback number... that was a red flag, but I still had faith in my fellow man and all my past experiences were good at that time.

That's my story, what's yours?

I've got 2 1/2 stories. One isn't mine (hence the half).

- Bought a Breitling watch. Something didn't feel right, so I took it to a watchmaker who popped off the back, and we could easily see that it was a fake. I contacted the seller and they promised a full refund if I didn't leave negative feedback. They claimed not to know it was fake.
- Sold a couple of gold coins. The buyer held me up for payment (PayPal has (had) a program of not releasing funds until the buyer acknowledged receipt, or 60 days, for high dollar items) until I refunded part of his shipping costs.
- A friend bought parts for his Harley and received a box of rocks. He filed a complaint with PP, who sided with the seller since he had proof of receipt (of the box of rocks).

On the other hand, I've had a lot of good experiences on eBay, and as a seller, if the buyer was not happy for whatever reason, I have refunded the money.

Sold a cell phone that was of no use to me..... buyer reported it as broken (which it wasn't) and ebay/PayPal sided with buyer. I was forced to refund this person and he was forced to return the phone. I received a box with a VHS tape in it. (this was probably around 2008, long after vhs was gone too haha)

This is only one of probably six to ten scams I've had on ebay. The platform is ridiculous and shouldn't be used for selling unless you like to gamble.

Sold a gold ring

Buyer claimed it was fake.

I said send it back.

He said no its worthless, he'll just throw it away after I refund his money.

Sorry, doesn't work like that.

He opens a fraud case against me.

I contact eBay and they said he has to prove fraud to claim fraud. They told him to get a jeweler statement it was not real.

This was years ago and at that time if you claimed fraud and didnt prove it, you got dinged on your account.

He of course didn't prove it, ebay closed the case. He got dinged.

Note: Buyers don't get dinged for anything anymore. Seller beware.

Fortunately this is the only scam I can recall. Several dumb buyers not reading the listing, but only the one scam.

And by the way... I got the $25 deal too. Been on eBay since 1997. Nice perk.

Sorry to hear about your experience as a seller. I've never had a problem selling, and I have always felt that the buyer is at greater risk of being scammed. I guess, the only good thing was .... cell phone was of no use to you.

ebay will side with the buyer 100 percent of the time.

Not always, but their attitude changes from year to year.
I haven't been scammed, just the typical lies we can expect from a percentage of humanity.

I bought a knife some years ago, advertised as "unused, as new." When it arrived, it looked like it had been sharpened on a concrete step, & there was a hole in the sheath from careless blade insertion.
For $60, I decided to just leave honest feedback instead of giving the jerk a further chance to rip me off with a return. Well, ebay didn't like that. I received several messages from ebay asking me to not leave negative feedback. Of course, I was receiving abuse from the seller as well. I stuck to my guns, & eventually ebay changed the FB to neutral, but my description remained the same.