How to Report Ebay Fraud

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CleanMe
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How to Report Ebay Fraud

Post by CleanMe »

Seller SMARTRESALE has (11) listings for a Roomba 980. Each listing has a different title, but the exact same picture and the exact same description. Each of the Roomba's reportedly has the exact same trim piece missing - the USB cover. The odds that one person would have that many Roomba's of the same model and missing identical trim pieces must be exceedingly low. The seller has similar multiple listings for a Roomba 805 and cell phones. There may be others.

When I try to report multiple listings to Ebay, their clever smart form asks for but will not accept the item #s for the multiple items. I searched much longer than I should have for an alternate way to report the listing but found none. Every smart form simply leads to canned information on a webpage. Why in the world does Ebay make reporting fraud on their site so difficult?

I'd hate for someone to get scammed by this guy. Any suggestions?
leonicholson
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Re: How to Report Ebay Fraud

Post by leonicholson »

It does look strange, especially when one vendor has so many Roombas listed.

He does have (1612 * ) 99.9% Positive feedback.

Only times I've had Ebay problems was when I was in a hurry and didn't check the ratings, and then was issued a refund when the thing didn't show up.
glnc222
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Re: How to Report Ebay Fraud

Post by glnc222 »

Having had a few fraud cases on ebay, my experience is their policy is to settle them with refunds of the purchase, first trying to get vendors to pay, but paying themselves if needed. Sometimes vendors will vanish after complaints on a transaction, whether by ebay or otherwise.

Perhaps calling them about a listing might bring it to some official's attention.

I have found vendors in certain regions and countries more likely to be engaged in fraud -- think about the rule of law situation in places where offerings are made, and why the items might be supplied from there. Plus irregularities such as mentioned in this thread. It's a bazaar.
CleanMe
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Re: How to Report Ebay Fraud

Post by CleanMe »

From my own experience I'm sure you're right. Fraud recognition and prevention is probably much more expensive than just making things right on the small % of listings involved with fraud or deception. I understand that approach from the business perspective, but of course am not happy about it from the customer perspective.

If Ebay had viable and effective competition, they would likely change their approach to handling fraud cases in order to keep the honest customers happy - even if that cost them more than damage control on the back end. Unfortunately Ebay has no real competition so they don't need to worry so much about the customer experience.
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mfortuna
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Re: How to Report Ebay Fraud

Post by mfortuna »

I didn't look at the auction but a few years ago vic7767 ordered from a similar listing and got a USB drive instead of a roomba. If I remember correctly Ebay's policy was you had to send the wrong item back at your own expense to get a refund or exchange. Shipping to China was big $$$.
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vic7767
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Re: How to Report Ebay Fraud

Post by vic7767 »

You're right Mike. That policy of returning the unwanted product that was not what was ordered resulted in my decision to log out of ebay and not visit them again using my vic7767 login. My original purchase price was never returned.
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Re: How to Report Ebay Fraud

Post by glnc222 »

I would not buy anything expensive and with high shipping costs from Asia from an ebay dealer, unless they had their own website and a large volume of business, in the kind of item sold. Some of the problems are not fraud per se, just sloppy operations, but obviously shipping costs are an issue. Lots of small electronics, parts and components, are good bargains from Hong Kong etc., from obviously large dealers with perfect records on ebay. The stuff is made there. They have taken to selling on Amazon as well, where there is a bit higher quality business standards.

I once tried to buy a Samsung Powerbot direct from a Korean dealer, but they mistakenly listed the price too low with the confusing plethora of models and releases, and never shipped it. They refunded it only when required in ebay's procedures, because theoretically they would be bound to the contract by the rules, but weren't going to take a large hit. Too small a dealer there, and it would have been the wrong model anyway, with Korean language. Got the right one from a Best Buy-like store in Australia, thanks to a member there -- a year before available in the U.S. Definitely not for ordinary interests and buyers -- the store did no exporting themselves (Samsung actually does not permit it, and the unit cannot be serviced in the U.S., known up front -- never needs any and all the parts are sold here separately).
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Re: How to Report Ebay Fraud

Post by glnc222 »

AliExpress -- part of Alibaba bigger than Amazon -- has had a noted dealer quality issue in the press, but maybe in the industrial supply sector. Good alternative to ebay for parts in some cases.
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Brett
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Re: How to Report Ebay Fraud

Post by Brett »

I've had mostly good experiences. In fact twice I've thought I was going to have a problem and worked out in my favour - eg: recently I bought a part for the car. It was marked as shipped a day or so later - all good. After some time when it didn't arrive I noticed that the "arrival window" for shipping was very 'wide' extending well past the 45(?) days that eBay allows for a case to be opened. As it was getting near that deadline I was further spooked by them not replying to a query, nor did they have any current items for sale - so I opened a case, 'just in case'. A few days later I was refunded in full by eBay.
EDIT: >>> Missed this crucial bit of the story: A week later the item pitched up! <<<
I tried to find the seller, again, I was happy to pay for the item, but they had vanished.

Alibaba and AliExpress is okay, but can be tedious to deal with - I use these for bigger volume items - 100 Roomba side brushes etc...
Last edited by Brett on February 8th, 2018, 1:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How to Report Ebay Fraud

Post by robotreviews »

I have looked at the auction and the seller, and while the seller appears legitimate, I can definitely see why it looks suspicious.

The auctions appear to be worded in a way that implies it is one specific Roomba, but they are definitely selling large lots of Roombas. From what I can tell, this is a liquidator who has most likely bought a large number of Roombas that were returned for various reasons. Missing the filter and the USB cover would be typical for Roombas that were cleaned and tested by a third party liquidator.

The fact that the seller has 99.9% positive feedback, is based in the US and has been selling steadily on ebay for over a year is a very strong indicator that the seller is legitimate and is selling exactly what is listed in the auctions.

In the old days, fraud on ebay was rampant. But nowadays ebay itself guarantees your money back on all orders that you pay with paypal, so there is almost no chance of being defrauded as a buyer on ebay these days - as long as you pay with paypal.

So, while I personally can't vouch for this seller, generally speaking if you buy something on ebay with paypal and the seller has a large number of feedback then you have very little risk, even if you order from overseas. As Brett mentioned, the only real risk is if you miss the window to open a complaint. Short of that, the worst that happens is you get a refund.

Hope that helps!
Craig
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