EBay Advice - Buyer trying to rip me off

tbassett

tbassett

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Hi,

Looking for advice CAGers.  Sold a dell EGift card on EBay and sent the number/pin to the buyer through EBay messaging.  Well there was a case opened yesterday with the buyer saying he didn't receive the item.

I checked the balance and he/she used 96.xx of the card.  There is still 3.xx left on it.  Is there anything I can do?  I printed the card out and paid for a tracking number and am going to send it out tomorrow to buy me some time. 

Any advice would be great.  I'm thinking I'll be taking the hit on this one but it was a $100 dollar value and I'm a little bummed out.  Should have known better.

Thanks,

Tim

 
Is it possible to get a record of when the card was charged?, you have evidence of when the card was sent. Worth a shot. Dell could get involved and show an invoice of where the purchases from that gift card went
 
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I'd send the card right away. Because when you sell digital goods you are not protected by ebay or paypal. You have to have physically shipped something.

 
Yup, nothing you can do. Digital sales aren't covered by eBay, and the buyer pulled a simple bait and switch and knew he would win
 
Yeah I wouldn't have sent the code online. Even with proof he spent it you still violated eBay terms of service.
 
You're boned.  As stated by others, not sending the card through the mail and sending it through eBay messaging, you have no case.  Buyer will win their money back and you're out your card.

Only shot might be Paypal, though they're likely to be the same boat as eBay on this one.

 
Update: I physically sent the card and the buyer waited to receive it, then claimed it had zero balance on it.  I fought with eBay but they ruled in his favor.  I called eBay this morning and their representative suggested working with Dell and if the buyer did use it to pursue legal action. 

What a joke.  I asked him how anyone can safely sell a gift card on eBay and he basically told me it isn't safe.  I'm not sure what to think, I tried being professional with him but by the end of the call I wasn't doing a good job.  Really disappointed

 
RetroXcellence said:
Is it possible to get a record of when the card was charged?, you have evidence of when the card was sent. Worth a shot. Dell could get involved and show an invoice of where the purchases from that gift card went
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I've often thought about this as a precaution when selling anything digital.

I mean, Dell's CS is garbage so I doubt they'd help, but if it were a more reputable retailer like Amazon or something, couldn't you technically ask for a history/record of its use to see what your giftcard was used on? Or even claim it was stolen... in the sense that, someone used it even though its still yours?

 
I think the only good way to sell gift cards is to friends. I've never tried those places that buy gift cards. But there is too many scum bags on ebay that try to screw the other party. Anytime I sell something on there I have to take pictures of everything. Including the serial number. Since people will try to change your working item with something they broke. Then file an ebay complaint that its broken.

Sorry about getting burned bad. I got burned before but it was only for $30. Which still stucks.

And I would try Dell and pursue legal action. A lot of companies do not like gift card thefts. So they might pursue the legal action for you. Since it gives them a bad name and makes people think badly about them.

 
I almost got ripped off for a $150 Best Buy gift card one time. Guy ordered it, I shipped it and it got returned because the address was invalid. The guy apologized and asked if I could just email him the code. I obliged since he had like 2000 feedback and looked really active. Anyways, 2 months later, I got a chargeback on PayPal. I tried to fight it, but lost. I went to check the gift card and the dumbass had only used $3 of it haha.
 
Once I sold a PSN code to someone. They claimed it was invalid, I chatted with Playstation Support and asked when it was redeemed then I sent a screenshot of the chat to the buyer and he said something like "oh yeah, it started working. Nevermind."

 
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For future refernce OP, DO NOT SELL GCs on Ebay, not only do they rip you off with fees they will never have your back.

These guys still take a chunk out of you with fees but at least they have a proper resolution system when it comes to selling GCs

https://www.raise.com/buy-dell-gift-cards

My guess is the have some kind of system that allows them to check the balance for all the cards they are selling for so they can tell when the balance was used (if it was before or after someone purchases etc)

 
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