[sonnyu2]

Little story about how incompetent eBay and its reps are. Be aware that eBay will not stand by what an eBay rep tells you to do as a seller when dealing with any return case or other issue.

We sold an unopened 1995 Bowman Baseball box on eBay for $250 and the buyer received it - opened over half of the packs inside - then opened a return case for it because they thought it was "searched".

This was 100% a fraudulent return as the box was not tampered with in anyway (I don't even know how anyone could search 1995 Bowman as the packs are tightly sealed foil or cello depending on the type of pack), so we contacted eBay right away and the agent agreed that the case was fraudulent and that the return would not be allowed. The agent told us to let the case expire without taking action and the return would be denied.

Well of course the opposite occurs, and once the case expired, the buyer was able to get a prepaid label and allowed to return the opened box.

So, we contacted eBay again and explained the situation. This agent read the case files and said we were given misinformation by the first agent and that we should have responded to the return case. But, since we were given misinformation, that the case would be closed in our favor. She closed the case, and it was resolved in our favor...or at least we thought.

The buyer was able to appeal the case and since the return showed as being delivered back to us, eBay reversed the decision and refunded the buyer out of our account. We didn't even get the eBay fees back.

So, we contacted eBay yet again, and were told to appeal the case and we should be given our money back. So, we filed the appeal and provided great detail on what the previous eBay agents had instructed us to do and what was supposed to happen with the case.

The appeal was of course denied. Even with whoever reviewed the case agreeing that we were given misinformation by eBay and that we only followed exactly what eBay told us to do.

They said they cannot overturn the decision due to the buyer sending the item back to us. Even when the first agent said that the buyer would not be able to return it. We didn't send the return label to them - eBay did.

So, we contact eBay yet again and are told that we are basically out of luck. We were literally told that we should not have listened to the other eBay reps.

The last rep said "well, we sent you an automated email about the case and you should have responded to the initial return case". I said, the first agent said to take no action - literally said "do not respond to the return case - let it expire". The rep said well they were wrong. Basically, saying we messed up by listening to an eBay rep.

We have been on eBay since 1998, have a perfect feedback rating of over 18,000, are a "Top Rated Seller", and average around $150k per year in sales on eBay. The last rep couldn't care less that we paid over $5k in eBay fees in the last 30 days. They could not care less that we did exactly as we were told by eBay.

I asked how a seller is protected from a scam buyer if this is how eBay handles the situation, and the agent said to offer "Free Returns" and you can deduct a fee from the refund. That is their solution. What???

I said, so you're saying I can buy any factory sealed trading card box on eBay - open it and take out the cards I want - then return it without issue. She said, yes, you can do that. But, if the seller reports you for a fraudulent return, you "might" lose your money back guarantee.

Lesson Learned - There is ZERO protection for eBay sellers - no matter how established you are on there.