Sold i-phone on ebay .....well I thought I did

[northwest monkey]

oldcynic said:

DocJock said:

oldcynic said:

Withdraw any cleared funds from Paypal, cancel their payment mechanism, close Ebay account and block any payments from your bank/card to PayPal or Ebay.

Poor advice.

They will refund the buyer and chase you for the money. You agreed to their terms and conditions.

And what if they don't comply with their own terms & conditions? On what basis would they chase you, and how far?

Have you ever actually done what you are suggesting?

What do you actually mean by them not complying with their own T's and C's?

The OP has sold a phone, the buyer is claiming something (probably bks and it's probably a scam) but it's not up to Paypal to decide whether the OP or the buyer is in the wrong. If the buyer is pulling a scam and returns the wrong phone then if the OP can prove it (IMEI or whatever) then he can pursue the buyer through legal means.

If you are that confident in your advice, why not offer the OP to guarantee that Paypal wont sell the debt & if he does, you'll pay the bill and any associated costs?

Paypal are well known for chasing debts.

OP - get the IMEI number somehow for the original phone. Without it I think you're on a hiding to nothing. My guess is you'll receive a broken phone back in the post.

[Hugo a Gogo]

I sold a watch recently, buyer said battery was dead and wanted 6 euro back (on a 10 euro watch)

I said, send it back and I'll refund

she said no, raised ebay case saying 'goods not as described' ebay refunded her, but didn't charge it back to me

so she got a free watch

[gpo746]

OP
Its worth contacting e bay as the buyers comments about feedback suggest he is a scammer and that he may have done it before.
Also the comment implied feedback manipulation

Look at the end of this page:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/feedback-manip...

But unfortunately I think you have lost your phone and will get bad feedback anyway

[oldcynic]

northwest monkey said:

Have you ever actually done what you are suggesting?
.
.
.
Paypal are well known for chasing debts.

Different circumstances, but PayPal highlighted to my wife that a fraudulent transaction had occured on her account. Unfortunately her payment details had expired, so they were very keen for her to update her payment details in order that they may pay the debt on her account and then discuss a way forward. For some reason we didn't see this as a constructive solution, so took the dual approach of instructing the bank never to pay anything to PayPal ever ever ever, and attempting to communicate with PayPal to resolve the situation.

We have also had the joyous challenge of fighting off ebay's debt collectors who were chasing my wife because a lady sentient being down our street happened to have the same name and either registered her account as being at our address or ebay incorrectly matched the name and address. She had been selling expensive concert tickets but not actually providing any goods.

On both occasions we found keeping the money in our own bank account to be a distinct advantage, whilst maintaining contact right down the line (although PayPal are incredibly difficult to communicate with if you don't have current payment details, and ebay couldn't give a flying fk that someone's a criminal and getting away with it - they'll instruct their debt collectors regardless of any evidence, contracts, terms, conditions etc).

[rfisher]

Best chance of getting this issue resolved in your favour is to use livechat on Ebay.

If the buyer has done this before the bod at Ebay livechat will be able to see on their system.

Got me out of a few tricky scam buyer situations.

Make sure you set aside a good 30 mins and type fast.

I usually prepare a text file with my opening complaint and just copy that.

If you take too long to get your text sent they tend to assume that you have dropped the connection and end the session.

[DaveJns]

Your only chance here as far as I am aware is to try and find something with the IMEI of the phone on. The contract from when you first bought the phone yourself should have this on. I suspect he'll be returning a different phone as others have said so you need to put yourself in a position where you can call his scam.

There is a way you can stop them taking your money as someone who 'sold' (but failed to actually deliver) me an xbox one managed it. He issued/authorised the refund, and then closed his paypal, forcing it to bounce, but to ebay it looked like I'd been refunded. It took me several days and more than an hour on online chat before ebay finally paid me out their own pocket, admitting they couldn't get the money off the seller.

I believe the way to do it is to link your paypal account to an empty prepaid mastercard which cannot be overdrawn.

I would imagine this kind of thing could adversely affect your credit rating though, and there's a point where it no longer becomes worth it, sickening though it is.

[anonymous-user]

If you dont have the SN or IMEI, what are the chances that you can get access to a similar handset through your or your daughters circle of friends? Pretty good I'd imagine.

If the handset comes back and its clearly different, take a few snaps of the friends handset, edit the metadata of the photos and supply to eBay as evidence that the returned phone is not the same as "the one you sent". If he wants to fk you, fk him straight back.

Just a thought.... No doubt an eBay regular will be along soon to tell me why this is a dreadful idea

[alex020869]

Not sure if this will help as i know this works with a Mac and not sure which computer you have....

The computer that you have had the iphone plugged into to do a back-up on with iTunes will have a list of the imei numbers. it does so on iTunes on a Mac anyway.

Open iTunes, Preferences, then select Devices and hover the cursor over the name of the phone. imei will be displayed.

As i said, not sure if this will help or even work on a Windows computer but there may be a way of finding it.

Alex

[wildoliver]

Doesn't sound like a scammy buyer just a mong, maybe just explain that seeing as both phone shops gave totally different answers taking it in to an apple store is the only safe option, explain it genuinely was your daughters phone your not a shop pretending, also explain that sending it back for a refund is welcome but you do have the imei and the phone is data marked.

Ultimately if he wants to send it back he can, ebay will side with him.

BUT if he does send you a brick/other phone/bits missing they will protect you, I got scammed on there over a pair of MX5 window winders (ironically by someone I know is on PH albeit rarely) who tried to make out they weren't MX5 items even though I removed them myself from an MX5, he then sent them back after making a total pain in the arse of himself all weekend and ruining a weekend with constant phone calls, texts and emails and decided to steal the cables from them. I don't know what happened in the end but short term I got to keep my money (and the butchered winders) he got refused a refund and reported to the Police (who won't do much unless he ever tries it again then they may) he then tried a credit card charge back which was also refused. I presume he's still out the money which was only about £50 anyway, I don't see why people lie and steal for such small amounts.

It was a lot of hoops to jump through though, I had to fax paperwork in including an affidavit, but was worth it in the long run as I resold the winders and got another £50 for them! In some ways a clear obvious scam does work in the sellers favour.

[morrisk1]

Lots of advice already given here. I too loathe eBay and PayPal.

If I'm selling a phone now I always take it to my local CEX store, not had any issues (so far at least).

[Andyjc86]

Ebay will refund, and you will get either a broken phone back, or something in a box that weighs the same.

It happened to us years ago, now all old phones go to mazuma.

[Number 5]

I've got absolutely nothing constructive to add but this topic reminds me of how much I hate eBay, it's a horrible place.

[Hoofy]

Number 5 said:

I've got absolutely nothing constructive to add but this topic reminds me of how much I hate eBay, it's a horrible place.

I only buy cheap stuff from dealers on ebay. In the last 10 years with an ebay account, I've spend about £5.

[Nardies]

Have you still got the box for it? Pretty sure it has the IMEI on it.

[Rooty]

Warnie said:

I sold my daughters I-phone 4 on ebay for her a week ago. It sold for a decent amount but she has looked after it hardly a scratch, and it is unlocked as she has been using it this way for a while now after getting it done.

Buyer has just sent me an email saying he has taken it to 2 apple shops. The 1st one has told him it's not unlocked, so he then takes it the other one who tells him it is unlocked but only temporarily because it was reported as a stolen phone!

Now he wants his money back and for me to pay postage, yet obviously I know it's not stolen and I also know it's unlocked as she has been using it that way for over a year now. I don't sell much on ebay, and I know why now, but can anyone give me any advice on this? My daughter has already spent the money and I don't want any negative feed back, but surely this guy is trying it on? I think he either has changed his mind or realized he's paid over the odds for it (£117)

See here, may be a useful link for getting the IMEI. I know it works with Mac but not sure what your daughter has been backing up to if at all.

[Matttracker]

I had the same thing on eBay a months back with my wife's iphone4
They didn't say it was stolen but it broke straight away.
Initially I was rightly fked off with him.
eBay policy states you can refund someone once the item is returned to you. You may have to pay postage but not until it arrives back.

Anyway I politely messages him as innocently as possible!
Sorry to hear you were having problems, please return the phone and I'll refund you as soon as I get it and check it. I live 5 mins from the apple store so can get it fixed my self.

Last I ever heard about it.

Well done for getting £117 I think I got 100 6 months ago.

[sneijder]

marshalla said:

"I'll refund as soon as you've returned it and I've confirmed that it's the handset I sent to you by checking the secret marks that I put on it as well as confirming the IMEI and serial number."

Bluff called.

Short version is this : Ebay have refunded the buyer before you can finish typing the above.

[g3org3y]

Hoofy said:

Number 5 said:

I've got absolutely nothing constructive to add but this topic reminds me of how much I hate eBay, it's a horrible place.

Agree and disagree.

As a buyer, it's very decent. I've purchased most of my model cars from there, the vast majority with no problems at all. I've also got various car parts cheaper than even ECP (e.g. bulbs and wipers)

As a seller, it's terrible. Bad enough you get stung with fees++ but there's no protection as all (as evidenced above) from obvious scammer buyers. Certain electrical items attract these rather unsavoury characters - I'd never sell a iPhone on eBay. It's just not worth the hassle.

eBay unfortunately don't care. It has changed from a place where private sellers traded with private buyers. Now it's a cheap version of Amazon and I don't doubt that the majority of eBay's cash is from trade sources.

[Dave^]

OP, don't forget to report "your" phone as stolen if you don't get it back...

[andy-xr]

It's actually quite hard to get a refund through eBay. Just getting the case together is the hardest bit, but if you've got the patience to wait on the phone for them, when you do get through they check the auction t's and c's and whether it's eligible for buyer protection. THat's mainly what they're looking for, and whether returns are accepted

If it's not, they'll apologise and send you on your way, but as said, they do tend to side with the buyer.

Isnt the IMEI part of the original receipt? Any chance you've got that still, maybe it was emailed? Maybe the old contract or PAYG account has it tied to it?

I think from what it sounds like, you're likely to receive a bricked phone back, whether it's the original one you sold having been unlocked badly, or another similar one that's knackered, so anything you can do to find out the details of the original phone serials would be a good shout