I finally burned an LP scammer on Ebay

I got caught in the middle of the old empty box scam on Ebay. A buyer known for doing this unfortunately bought a $250 Metallica original "black" double album from me. Claimed it had a pressing flaw and sent it back out to me. I anticipated I would be getting a box with a worthless album in return. This is extremely hard to prove to Ebay. My original plan was to video myself opening the box live but the dope saved me the trouble. I shipped it to him priority so the automatic return label is priority also. He tried to save $5 by dropping the weight down to 9 ounces. Obviously it is impossible to ship even a single album in a box for under 14 ounces. Now the label is the proof and I don't even have to open it to prove it. Had to jump through hoops so far with Ebay but they are taking it seriously and removed a negative feedback the a-hole put up for me. I might be the first victim of the empty box scam to actually get my money back.

 

For those who dont know, like myself, how exactly does the scam work?
And what is the ebay handle of said scammer?

 

I burned an eBay scammer this Spring. Always a nice feeling. Glad you didn't get burned.

 

They buy an expensive album, claim there's something wrong with it, then ship back the box with just cardboard or a worthless LP. Ebay sees that they have done their end of the return and give them their money back and you are out the money and your LP. It's extremely hard to prove that they did this so Ebay always sides with the buyer.

 

For those who don't know

On eBay, the customer is ALWAYS right, it's stupid easy to buy something, say it's broken and get a full refund on cheap stuff. More valuable stuff needs proof, but eBay is still incredibly strong for the buyer, not the seller and if you bother to send the item back and they have a record of you doing it, that's enough for them to not cross reference what they actually sent.

Also, yeah - video is the easy way to get that person in trouble but this guy is really lazy.

 

Woah, wasn't aware of this type of scam.
Glad you got some evidence to protect yourself.

 

He messed with the wrong record hound! I had to go through 4 people at Ebay to get this taken seriously but I wasn't going to drop it until I burned this guy.

 

These type of people really are criminals, and it would be great if they were punished as such.

 

Thanks for pointing out this issue. I had not heard of this scam before.

Scott

 

This is why I stopped selling on eBay tears ago. Still buy all the time. eBay is great for buyers. Congrats OP on getting some rare eBay justice.

 

How did you know this buyer had a tendency to do this? Through previous sellers' feedback? If it is insured could you have him on mail fraud also?

 

Congrats for being smarter than the rat...

 

Good for you. That’s awesome! I can’t believe the crap people try to pull.

 

It's happened to me with guitars, mobile phones and cameras. I'm scared to sell on Ebay anymore because it's a scammer's paradise. All they have to do is say the goods are faulty or not as described, then so long as they send it registered they can return any old garbage and Ebay will refund them.

 

In his feedback from sellers he has 3 where sellers claim he pulled the same scam. The problem is you can't leave negative feedback to a buyer so you have to read the actual posts where sellers can write what went on.

 

Despicable. Glad you won!

 

jesus, he's done this 4 times and still allowed to buy?

 

This is also mail fraud so report him to the appropriate authorities, ie USPS (I would go straight to your post master) and his local police. At least in my county the post master is very good.

 

Well done!

 

Can you post his eBay name?

 

It hasn't been completely resolved yet but once it is I'll post it. And yes I may look into mail fraud.

 

Slightly OT, but would appreciate some input from members here.

I bought a collectible 45 ($20 - buy it now) recently. Seller charged $6 shipping (media mail). Purchased/Paid Aug 4. Mailed Aug 29. Received Sep 4 [domestic transaction - USA].

I typically only leave feedback as a buyer unless seller has already left positive feedback for me (as a seller, I always left immediate positive feedback after payment). Item was as described, and packaged adequately, but I can’t see leaving positive feedback here (there was no warning of delayed shipping). Would you leave positive/negative/neutral feedback in this situation?

Thanks in advance for any that choose to respond. I’d apologize to the OP for the diversion, but I hope that any threadbumps this gets will give his revenge story more publicity here, so hope he’ll forgive me.

 

Incredible. Is selling on Discogs equally risky?

 

These a-holes do this on eBay with sports cards too. And sometimes for big bucks. eBay really needs to get its act together and start treating the collectibles markets differently than clothing and housewares. It’s simple- If items are listed under collectibles categories, then the old feedback rules should apply.