eBay bot purchasing

ldferg

Have you ran into this before? I sold 5 various PSA cards to eBay user ERWolf_XXXX. This is a zero feedback buyer and each of the 5 purchases have a different number in lieu of XXXX (i.e. erwolf_9944, erwolf_89, erwolf_24, etc..). All items have been paid for and show the same address. I'm assuming I will receive a dispute with an "item not as described" request for refund.

82FootballWaxMemorys

I don't sell on eBay, do they permit blocking bids from those with Zero feedback?

It seems to me you will likley get burned and that eBay will side with this brand new scammer (buyer).

Jayman1982

@82FootballWaxMemorys said:
I don't sell on eBay, do they permit blocking bids from those with Zero feedback?

Unfortunately not, the best you can do is block someone with 2 or more unpaid item strikes on their account in the last 12 months. You can also block buyers that are winning or have one at least 1 or your items in the last 10 days.

CardGeek

I don't see what the problem is. You just don't like the usernames? Why are you assuming there's going to be a problem?

eBay used to have a rule, 1 account per household. Now, though, I have more than 1 account. eBay doesn't seem to care anymore. It may have been 10 years since they cared about this.

82FootballWaxMemorys

@CardGeek said:
I don't see what the problem is. You just don't like the usernames? Why are you assuming there's going to be a problem?

eBay used to have a rule, 1 account per household. Now, though, I have more than 1 account. eBay doesn't seem to care anymore. It may have been 10 years since they cared about this.

Seems to me ldferg is concerned that they are multiple brand new zero feedbacks accounts from the same address. Given eBay will back the buyer(s) to the hilt, a seller is this situation has every right to be concerned. While the transaction may go fine, I think highly plausible ldferg gets burned.

Glad I do not sell anything on eBay.

CardGeek

All they do is say that the seller has to accept returns. Which I really don't see a problem with.

If it's an international transaction, the seller may lose their item and their money. Because ebay isnt connected to shippers in every country.

The part I do have a problem with is this. If a seller does not accept returns. The buyer is in a position where they have to claim not as described to make a return. So really the seller has no option to not accept returns. You may as well just accept returns. But, eBay also makes the seller pay for return shipping. And, if the item I sold was as described, I shouldn't be paying return shipping. If I get tagged with not as described I call eBay and have humans decide if I should pay return shipping or not instead of just leaving it to the rules.

Even if they didn't allow multiple accounts, people would use their neighbors shipping address or their parents or a friend. It's probably better that they allow it. Because, now at least you have the guys name and address on all of the accounts.

CardGeek

I have 2 accounts because I was selling electronics on one and I didn't want to mix other stuff in the same store.

RufussCkingston

1.) Buyer paid, you ship... That's how eBay works unless they reach out via a message and ask for something like shipping to different address than in the order (but that isn't really a thing anymore since you can put any address you want at checkout).

2.) If you wish, reach out to eBay via chat (if it works) and just mention the order # and the user names. Tell them they all have the same address, So see what they say, at the very least the orders will get notated, or at least your account will have the chat record.

3.) Just cancel them all and then get like 5 negatives! That would be a riot

vols1

I would ship all individually. If they want combined shipping, then they will have to combine accounts.

grote15

That sure doesn't sound legit, especially with zero feedback bidders. I stopped selling on ebay in large part because of all the scamming and problematic buyers. Sure, most transactions are fine but all it takes are a couple of bad ones to change that perspective quickly.

ldferg

I'll be cancelling the orders. All 5 accounts were created 6/26/22...as of today, all 5 remain zero feedback. Definitely suspect. Low dollar items. I didn't realize they were different accounts until I tried to add the tracking number to the 2nd item and received the "tracking info tied to another order". Then I noticed 5 different accounts with the same name/address. Also, buyer has not responded to my inquiry of combined shipping.

RufussCkingston

@ldferg said:
Also, buyer has not responded to my inquiry of combined shipping.

Of course not, as you can't combine purchases made from different accounts. Could be a card buying boiler room. Each employee makes up a new eBay account with a common element to the name for "company" tracking purposes.. And of course all the employees have the same shipping address of the boiler room.

And if they are low dollar items, why do you care? The threat of negative feedback is more costly than low cost items, but to each their own.

ldferg

@RufussCkingston said:

@ldferg said:
Also, buyer has not responded to my inquiry of combined shipping.

Of course not, as you can't combine purchases made from different accounts. Could be a card buying boiler room. Each employee makes up a new eBay account with a common element to the name for "company" tracking purposes.. And of course all the employees have the same shipping address of the boiler room.

And if they are low dollar items, why do you care? The threat of negative feedback is more costly than low cost items, but to each their own.

I'm confident I can have any negative feedback removed from this account should any be left.

dontippet

@ldferg said:

@RufussCkingston said:

@ldferg said:
Also, buyer has not responded to my inquiry of combined shipping.

Of course not, as you can't combine purchases made from different accounts. Could be a card buying boiler room. Each employee makes up a new eBay account with a common element to the name for "company" tracking purposes.. And of course all the employees have the same shipping address of the boiler room.

And if they are low dollar items, why do you care? The threat of negative feedback is more costly than low cost items, but to each their own.

I'm confident I can have any negative feedback removed from this account should any be left.

Don't be so confident. It is extremely difficult getting feedback removed in the past couple years. I have been 0 for 3 since 2020. It's not as easy as it used to be.

miwlvrn

If you're going to cancel the orders, I'd suggest that before you do it, you open a chat w/ ebay help/support and get the discussion on record in your email files first, so you have that document to refer back to later when/if you have to put in a request to remove feedback.

Cakes

@miwlvrn said:
If you're going to cancel the orders, I'd suggest that before you do it, you open a chat w/ ebay help/support and get the discussion on record in your email files first, so you have that document to refer back to later when/if you have to put in a request to remove feedback.

Great advice! Make sure all of your bases are covered!

miwlvrn

@miwlvrn said:
If you're going to cancel the orders, I'd suggest that before you do it, you open a chat w/ ebay help/support and get the discussion on record in your email files first, so you have that document to refer back to later when/if you have to put in a request to remove feedback.

PS, always use the chat option, never call them. It is always a good idea to have a written transcript of these discussions. Heresay from recollection of a phone call with a random untraceable help person is basically worthless when/if you find yourself wanting to find supporting documentation. It will instead be easy to locate what you need within a paper trail you created for that very purpose.

dictoresno

If I recall, eBay allows people to check out as a guest and will assign temp usernames. I’ve sold so some over the years, mostly international.

Does the shipping address have a strange string of characters to either an Oregon or Delaware address?

And I definitely wouldn’t go canceling auctions without speaking to eBay first. They may be able to look up the usernames and determine if they are real accounts, fake or temp assigned ones.

ldferg

@dictoresno said:
If I recall, eBay allows people to check out as a guest and will assign temp usernames. I’ve sold so some over the years, mostly international.

Does the shipping address have a strange string of characters to either an Oregon or Delaware address?

And I definitely wouldn’t go canceling auctions without speaking to eBay first. They may be able to look up the usernames and determine if they are real accounts, fake or temp assigned ones.

The buyer and address are all the same location in Dallas TX. The only difference are the last digits of the username. All users created 6/26. All zero feedback. Auctions have been cancelled. If there is any retribution, I will revise this post.

I appreciate everyone’s feedback and input.

RufussCkingston

@ldferg said:

The buyer and address are all the same location in Dallas TX. The only difference are the last digits of the username. All users created 6/26. All zero feedback. Auctions have been cancelled. If there is any retribution, I will revise this post.

It's fairly obvious what happened. You got someone who was buying as a guest. The "guest" liked multiple items you were selling. Rather than add the items to the cart, he purchased them one by one, thus that is why the userID is different for each item. The user ID is most likely part of his email address, then a random number at the end (guest account format). Of course the memberID has ZERO feedback as it is a guest account for a 1 time purchase that doesn't exist except for the sole purpose of the one transaction with you. Also might be part of the problem for when you messaged the user, it might not be that simple for a "guest" account to respond or see it. Might have even gone to spam.

On the bright side, I don't think you can get bad feedback unless the guest buyer follows the links it received with the guest order to convert(signup) for a normal account.

But at the end of the day, you probably just nuked a bunch of safe and legitimate orders. If you had a high sales volume, you'd probably would not even had noticed. I never really look at user names or addresses or feedback unless they are not paid (auction format)

ldferg

RCK,
Good info. Thank you.