Ebay sellers - A cautionary tale

[Rickfactor2]

Just had this happen for the first time, myself. Shipped an LED XL Freak back on the 20th, to their international center. Just got a message this morning saying it could not be delivered, and that the customer has been refunded. No suggestion that they took or will take funds from me, though they could easily just tack that on to the next payout.

And no indication I'll get the part back- I suspect it's a case of eBay cutting their losses, and just tossing it rather than paying to have it shipped home.

Doc.

I have been advised that the distribution center will send it off to a liquidation warehouse of some sort. It will probably be included in a big pallet of other items still in the original packaging. This means that the wholesale buyer will likely see both the original seller and buyer address which feels kinda wrong.

You will never see the item again unless they somehow try to reach out to you but at least the original sale still resulted in all proceeds going to you just like it was delivered successfully.

I would keep an eye on your ebay feedback as I had a negative review from the buyer who was not aware of what was going down. This has since been corrected.

[Rickfactor2]

An update......

Just spotted some of my items that never made it to my US and UK buyers due to "import restrictions" of the ebay international shipping program.

It appears that my items were sent to a liquidator .... WHO IS NOW SELLING THEM ON EBAY. What a joke.


https://ebay.us/m/VKhlbD

and

https://ebay.us/m/5Ki1Jx

[PBGunny]

Thievery abounds these days.
It even tries to justify itself.
Good luck with your fight.

[Spaghetti Overdrive]

wait, what stops the buyer and seller from colluding on this over and over again, then picking up the parts off ebay's liquidation service for pennies on the dollar, and then doing it over and over again?

Seems like a great way to suck ebay's infinite money machine for your own gain tbh.

can even send fake items so you don't actually risk losing anything of importance.

How does one register as an ebay liquidation warehouse? this feels very amazon returnsy to me and those people make bank

[Rickfactor2]

wait, what stops the buyer and seller from colluding on this over and over again, then picking up the parts off ebay's liquidation service for pennies on the dollar, and then doing it over and over again?

Seems like a great way to suck ebay's infinite money machine for your own gain tbh.

can even send fake items so you don't actually risk losing anything of importance.

How does one register as an ebay liquidation warehouse? this feels very amazon returnsy to me and those people make bank

The liquidation company is selling the items on ebay for more than I was. They are business who bought pallets of crap and are not selling for cents on the dollar. Although Ebay is eating the cost and allowing me to keep the proceeds of the initial sale, they are also keeping their fee.....which they charge again to the liquidation seller to likely make most, if not all, of their loss back.

[Spaghetti Overdrive]

ok that is extra ridiculous

[DocsMachine]

Addendum: I just tried to send two of my stubby Freak tips to the UK, and the PO's computer rejected/disallowed anything with the word "paintball" in it. I have no idea why, I wasn't given to understand that paintball was in any way particularly controlled or restricted in the UK, apart from what, a maximum allowed velocity?

The PO is pretty anal about generic descriptions ("threaded part", "sporting accessory", etc.) but I may have to go that route- 'threaded tube fitting' or something like that.

This may explain the eBay thing- if the description at any point suggests "paintball", "marker" or "gun", or the metadata shows it came from eBay's "paintball" section, it may get rejected at that country's customs.

That's like 89% guess, but at least seems to make sense. Any other info?

Doc.