I used to make a nice living on eBay until they changed their policies
and fees a few years back. Once they rid the marketplace of sellers
being able to leave negatives on buyer I left as every transaction
would go unpaid and as a seller I had no recourse.
Fast forward to a month ago, in this tough economic times my
buddy wanted to liquidate some of the gold coins his family had
been keeping for a while. I started selling gold coins on his behalf
without trouble for about 25 transactions, until I had a horrific
experience with [the buyer from hell] on ebay. Side note: until this
point my friend had been receiving the money directly to his paypal
and he was shipping the items. He went out of town and left me
with three coins to ship while he was gone. [BFH] pays for the item
and I ship his coin. I place it in a white regular envelope, seal it and
then place the sealed envelope inside the UPS cardboard envelope
(the document sized ones) and ship it with signature delivery, and
insurance for the full value. If anything should happen, I should be
covered.
Man was I wrong, a few days go by and I receive an email from
[BFH] saying "The Envelope was empty" and immediately starts
harassing me from there, using profanity and becomes increasingly
threatening. He even looked up the address of the business I
shipped the coin from, (my family business) then took it upon
himself to go plaster our Facebook fan page cursing and
threatening.
As I try and talk to him all he says is "go fuck yourself" etc. I tried
explaining to him that I did indeed ship the coin and if there was a
mistake then everything is insured and all will be right, but no the
tirades continue. Without being able to resolve anything, he
disputes the coin though eBay. Without speaking to anyone, eBay
grants him his full refund.
The tirades continue, time and time again I explained to him he now
has a full refund, he has not been screwed out of any money and
someone obviously stole, or misplaced the coin during shipping. I
would like to claim insurance on the package, so I am not out $450
as well.
Up until this point, it is just a typical eBay transaction gone wrong,
but now is where I become upset with the process of UPS and
eBay.
After numerous pleading emails to the buyer, he now understands
that I need him to cooperate in order to receive my insurance claim
from UPS. Under their terms, they must inspect the envelope
before they grant an insurance claim. The buyer now tries extorting
me for money in order for him to cooperate with UPS. He wants
$100 delivered into his bank account or else he says he will never
pick up the phone.
After countless calls to UPS & eBay they will not help. I've
submitted documents to UPS and eBay explaining how he in writing
has said he will not help without being paid. UPS continues to say
that without inspecting the package or at least talking to the buyer,
they will not grant insurance. I understand this is a common sense
policy, but there MUST be special circumstances! I have in writing a
customer that is basically telling me to go fuck myself because he
has his money.
Moral of this story is, if you want anything for free on eBay just
purchase an item, say you have received the item and the package
was empty, never help the buyer. They will grant you a full refund,
and the seller will be out money.
Unbelievable.
It is hard to put into words the frustration I have had with eBay and
UPS and this story doesn't even do it justice. I am being scammed
by a user and then extorted to cooperate and UPS and eBay just sit
back and do nothing!!!
I am out a gold coin, $450 plus $20 shipping UPS and I receive a big
Negative from the buyer in my perfectly clean 1440 feedback!
