eBay issue, how to proceed?

I agree that this is clumsy and frustrating, but your path for complying with eBay's rules is clear: send back exactly what you received (the check), with eBay's tracking. When eBay confirms that the return shipment arrived, you get your money back via PayPal.

 

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Buy a $0.50 bubble mailer from Walmart, use the prepaid label, and mail the folded up empty mailer he sent you back to him with a note that you have sent back everything he sent to you. If he sent you a check, tell him that you will mail it back to him after eBay returns your fees if he pays for the postage or else you will email him a video of it going into your personal shredder.

 

If I read it correctly he asked if the account was good and was told it was. The account was good; the check was bad.

 

The lady on the phone today did confirm that I must send the check back. Ebay needs to see on their end that I returned "something" because he submitted tracking and it looks like he sent an item.

 

How would eBay know any differently? And to be clear, I am not suggesting that you do something unethical. I am suggesting that you hold the check until you have your money back and then mail the idiot back his check or destroy it.

The other alternative is to take the check to your bank and explain the situation to them. Ask them to call the bank that issued the check and attempt to authenticate it and to verify that the funds are there. If it checks out, deposit the check, wait a couple of weeks, and then retract your eBay claim.

 

And if the check is not legitimate, contact your local authorities and let them do your bidding for you. In that case, send eBay a copy of the police report and they should return your money/go away and cooperate with the authorities.

 

You can't have it both ways. If it was improper for the seller to send something other than the original coin, it's improper for you to return something other than what he sent. If it was improper for eBay to act as though he sent a coin when he didn't, then it would be improper for them to act as though you returned something when you didn't.

Furthermore, if the buyer held on to the check, what would prevent him from cashing it the moment eBay reports his refund? What reason would the seller have to think he's not the one about to get scammed?

If the buyer sent back an empty package, we might all think that eBay would obliviously record it as a return -- but we don't know the buyer's and seller's history with eBay returns, and so we don't know which side eBay would take.

I think the safest (and most ethical) path here is for the buyer to return what the seller sent, using eBay's tracking.

 

Definitely, Contact ebay about this immediately...It all sounds suspicious to me...since i had a similar experience and the seller refunded my total purchase through my pay-pal account.....not in the manner you describe.

 

I disagree 'jonny oneal'---I opened three cases in the last Four months and all were properly refunded to me via pay-pal, and one while it passed the 30 day buyers protection plan...Two were languishing for weeks at a USPS facility and presumably lost and the other a similar situation as 'Sam' experienced--but was refunded almost immediately through pay-pal.

 

Open a case with eBay. Take no chances. If he is good on his word then the case can be closed with no harm to anyone. But even to me this, as of right now, does not sound right. How many feedbacks does he have and what is his ratings from others, and when was the account open, this is all on his front page.

 

Would you be sure to tell us how this case was resolved. Thanks

 

The OP never agreed to accept a check nor is he legally required to accept it. He is also not ethically required to open himself up to additional risk that eBay will not make him whole and leave him with nothing. And the fact that a seller is acting sleazily or potentially sleazy does not mean that he should be defrauded - I agree. I suggested that the OP return the un-cashed check or destroy it. As long as the OP does not cash the check and take the eBay return funds, I don't see an ethical issue here. A check has no intrinsic value and is nothing more than a promise to pay, so there is no "theft" of a worthless sheet of paper. And even if you argued that there was some intrinsic value of a few cents printing cost, it would be offset by the cost of MY envelope to correct the problem. I don't see anything improper with retaining potential evidence in a potential criminal and/or civil legal matter.

And as for the seller, I could care less what he thought or believed. When someone acts suspiciously and in a manner that leads me to believe that they are carrying out a scam or potential scam, we play on my terms, not on his. If he is that concerned, he could always stop payment. And I also don't see the ethical issue with ignoring eBay's request to the check. I don't think eBay has that right absent a contractual provision requiring you to do so. As I said, the check is nothing more than a promise to pay and has no intrinsic value. To my knowledge, eBay requires you to return any merchandise (the "item" in eBay parlance) received in the event of a return. There is no merchandise to return because the seller never gave any! It really isn't that complicated.

 

OP, take the check to your bank and have them call the institution that the check is to draw from to verify its authenticity, confirm that the funds are there, and that the check will clear. If it doesn't call the authorities.

 

How do you prove to eBay that no merchandise was sent, when there was a check sent in a tracked package associated with the auction? eBay never has any idea what is actually mailed, so this looks like the merchandise was sent. The way to counter a fake package being sent is to return a fake package using eBay's return label, so that it is also tracked on the auction as a return.

 

I also suggested that above.

 

Sounds like a different take on the Nigerian scam...send you a check to cash with additional funds to sweeten the deal, then 2 weeks later check bounce notice...a variation of the Craiglist scam where they grab your goods and pay with a fake check...OP let us know how it works out.

 

I agree, and if this is the case, that "check" is evidence of a crime that should be preserved IMHO.

 

I am glad a lot of you are hunky-dorry with ebay and its sham "buyer guarantee," but I suspect you have never been made to pay for a coin that was put on your porch mailbox but taken before you got home. I might define a word differently, given my English degrees, but to me "delivered" means I actually received the package, not that it was thrown or placed in my mailbox. I occasionally use ebay now, but only when the buyer has supplied a tracking # so I know to be home when the coin is delivered. It is sad, kind of like watching the Tea Party hijack the GOP, to observe ebay buyers buying, so to speak, the worthless promises of a giant corp. that serves to protect only those who enrich it.

 

You can always ask for signature confirmation so you make sure it is "delivered" and open the package in front of the delivery service to ensure everything is ok. Not home? Have it delivered to a trusted neighbor or to your place of work using the above practice.

 

Or get a PO Box. I think I pay $32 a year. It is well worth every cent, plus I don't need to give my personal address out to strangers.