Mike5215

So I had two perfect freshly refurbished S63 split 5 spoke wheels (One Front, One Rear) that I sold on EBay to this douche-bag. I say he's a douche-bag because he gave me a low offer, but it was an offer for both wheels, so I accepted it.

Then four days went by with no contact or payment. I finally got ahold of the guy and he claimed he didn't want the wheels because they were "fakes", because they didn't have the AMG logo (they did) and they didn't have an OEM maufacturer's stamp (they did).

He then claimed he would take the wheels but was travelling and would pay when he got back. I pointed out that he and I were messaging thru the Ebay app, so obviously he had internet access and could hit the "pay now" button. I told him I'd hit him with a non paying bidder violation x2 if he didn't pay.

He paid, got the wheels and immediately started a return claim for the items being defective. He stated his shop looked at them and wouldn't mount them because they had been refurbished unsafely. (I had the wheels on my car for two years. They went in for some minor curb rash. No issues.)

When I pressed him for why he thought they were defective he ultimately conceeded there was no evidence, but he didn't "feel safe" putting them on his car because on one of the wheels the shop used black primer on the exterior (tire side) of the barrel.

Ebay, in their infinite wisdom, ruled in his favor, requiring me to ship the wheels back to Florida at my expense ($150) and refund his money in 5 days or they would refund the money for me and let him keep the wheels.

I really don't want to pay another $150 to ship these back and then resell them. If anyone is able to get to Pacifica to pick them up before 5/17, $200 and they're yours for the pair. (I spent over $400 just having them refurbished.)

These are them BEFORE they were refurbished. They're perfect now.





Shoot me an email mikephone5215@gmail.com

DaveW68

Dayum! That's a steal!! If I lived in that area and had the same style of wheel as those, I'd pick them up in a heartbeat....even just to have as back-ups.

GPrime2

eBay is an absolute disaster right now for sellers. I do a LOT of business through them with used parts and they consistently wreck me with their policies. It's changed a lot over the last several years, at this point craigslist is a much better place to sell things than eBay. Paypal is actually very fair with their claims and disputes as long as the transaction didn't take place on eBay. eBay is tailoring their policies to large sellers, and have made it nearly impossible for regular people to sell things without being at risk of losing a bunch of money.

I've had people buy parts, say they're defective, eBay forces a return, they send their broken one back, I complain to eBay that they're literally scamming me and I can prove it, eBay says pound rocks. I wish I were kidding.

Mike5215

Yeah, an absurdly one sided process. Essentially the buyer says "a guy I know said they weren't safe". That's all EBay needs apparently. They want their buyers to "have confidence" in the marketplace is what they said.

I guess they're coming back here but if anybody wants them I'll take $250 shipped for the pair. Find another front and rear on EBay and you're all set. Great looking wheel on a 221. I'd also consider trading them plus cash for a set of OEM 19" W221 wheels, just wheels no tires. (They'll fit my C)

mercedesbenzs55

What were those wheels you had on your W221? Those are my next set of wheels.
Hit up Jobs2ceo, he night take them off your hands.

Mike5215

After about the 10th stupid patronizing message from Ebay about how they understand my frustration but strive to create a buyer friendly market-place, I sent this reply:


Thanks for your reply, and I have initiated a return process for the buyer and sent him shipping labels. My issue in this case was how quickly you resolved this in favor of the buyer, and how immune that decision was to reason. The buyer said the product was defective and you simply believed him. Based on nothing more than his statement, without requiring even the thinnest amount of proof, you were perfectly willing to disregard your seller's interests. Essentially, Ebay's position on buyer disputed transactions is that the seller is heavily presumed to be wrong. I understand that Ebay is trying to position itself as a consumer friendly online marketplace like Amazon, and Amazon has a very liberal return policy. But you're not Amazon. Amazon has its own warehouses and sells and ships its own products. Instead, your business is built on the backs of thousands of small mom and pop sellers who rely on you to keep the marketplace fair, and suffer actual losses when you fail to do so.

It's quite easy to offer a generous, no questions asked return policy when you're not the business taking the financial hit for your return decisions. Amongst car enthusiasts at least, EBay is rapidly becoming a venue they don't want to do business with as sellers. One shared his experiences with Ebay on a forum. He used to sell used car replacement parts on your platform. But thanks to your no questions asked return policy, unscrupulous buyers were claiming a defective product, putting their used, damaged part in the box and getting a refund. The seller lost the part, lost the proceeds of the sale, lost the cost of return shipping and invariably lost the decision by Ebay.

Your lack of diligence or interest frankly in even superficially evaluating the merits of a defective product claim has created an environment that is ripe for fraud and puts sellers at risk. You're never going to be Amazon. These "customers" are not your customers. They neither pay for or receive a service from you. They are the seller's customers.

Your customers are the thousands of small operators who pay you to operate a fair marketplace and you continue to fail miserably at doing so. It's not a sustainable business model.

DaveW68

My guess is that they receive several complaints like yours, but because eBay is a monster, they just fall on deaf ears. You'll likely get a lame canned response.

GPrime2

Unfortunately it is a sustainable business model, they've become such a behemoth that in a lot of industries they're simply a necessary evil. For someone selling a few items it's not worth it, but for me I average about 3% return rate on eBay and the scams become just a cost of doing business, sadly.

Mike5215

Yeah, just venting.

GPrime2

Totally understood, dealing with eBay is absolutely the 5 stages of grief. You're at going from anger to bargaining (with the email to them haha) I'm just sitting here at acceptance. You'll be here soon too lol.

KNBS550

Mike, I live in the SF Bay Area and can take possession of the wheels, but I won't buy them from you. I can hold them in storage for you until you find a buyer. If you find a buyer who is willing to to pick them up, you can send them my way. I live in the San Francisco/Peninsula area and I'll give the the wheels to whomever you sold it to. You handle the money transaction with the buyer. I'm just the distributor.

I don't need the wheels, I already love the 19's I have on my car and not looking to gain anything from this. I would want someone to help me out the same if I had a similar issue on the other side of the country. How does that sound?

Mike5215

Appreciate it. I ended up having to prove I'd provided a prepaid return shipping label before they just took the funds from my account and handed it to the guy anyway. The wheels are apparently enroute back. Thanks anyway though.

Wolfman

That is a killer deal! You can also just ask on the forum to pay for the additional $150 have have the wheels shipped to them instead to you.

This way this deal may work for a larger audience. Great price either way!

I once had a similar situation selling our 19" AMG wheels of our SL600.

That guy was even worse; complained to Ebay only 3 months later (past their resolution period) and when they declined to do anything he just filed a chargeback. That overrides any PayPal Seller Protection.

Even though I could prove with descriptions and images that the product was exactly as stated, the CC company maintained the chargeback.
I even offered a full refund and free return shipping (just to see my wheels again) but the company maintained the chargeback without having to return the wheels.
PayPal did nothing to assist other than saying "sorry".

Ebay & PayPal said that he didn't follow any rules and would report the buyer (which they didn't) and I was out the money and the wheels!
He never respond to voicemails or emails.

In the end, I hired a company to show up at the buyers place and "collect" the wheels and ship them back to me.
He was so startled that he gave them the wheels. Eventually sold locally for more money and zero issues.

KNBS550

Cool. Glad everything worked out for you.

Mike5215

Oh, I'm nowhere near done with this clown. I don't care about the money. Its the guy working the system that pisses me off. But I'm following him on EBay. The next thing he sells, I'll use my kid's account to win it. I haven't even identified, bought or received whatever the **** it is but I'm already sensing the damn thing is totally defective and dangerous. Petty and vindictive? Check.

GPrime2

Oh I love it. Make sure it's something heavy so it costs a lot to ship it back.