That's why it is important to include stuff like insurance and signature confirmation on your orders, especially if it a more expensive item such as a laptop, camera or phone. In most cases, you can just factor it into the overall cost. It's not worth it to try and undercut others selling the same product at a lower price if you risk losing everything when someone tries to scam you. Plus, some of these delivery drivers are morons and don't follow proper procedures. I've had numerous occasions where the stupid delivery driver never even rings my bell, and leaves it outside where anyone could steal the package - especially if it says something like "Dell" on the box.
Youtube is full of videos of sellers with the same complaint. What sellers have been doing lately is making a hidden mark on the item and taking photos, then when a buyer returns a broken item, they can prove that it's not the same item because it doesn't have the identifying mark. It sucks that sellers have to go to such lengths to protect themselves from scam buyers, but eBay takes the buyer's side 90% of the time.
It's really interesting to read this thread. I have been buying on e-bay for more that 5 years now and have to say that I have never encountered a single problem. I don't know if I was just lucky or whether I trusted the reviews and ratings of each individual seller. I have bought books, movies, camera equipment, and other items from sellers in Australia, Europe, Canada and the USA. Every item, without exception, arrived on time and in exactly the condition it was advertised. Personally, I can only say good things about e-bay.
This is one thing that I REALLY hate about PayPal. I know they need to do a good job at protecting their buyers to make sure they don't get scammed, but they kind of neglect the sellers and don't seem to care much if the sellers get scammed. They really need to do something about it!
You're a BUYER. If you were a seller, you would have to deal with buyers who don't want to pay you, buyers who don't read the description and then lie and say you misrepresented the item, or scammers who file false Buyer Protection reports in order to get free items.
I just had this happen to me! Someone bought a gift card off of my page, and when he received it (it had a tracking number, and I checked both on the USPS site & eBay) he did a charge back! And not only did PayPal immediately refund him (out of my funds no less!!) without even checking if the claim was legit, they charged me an extra 40 bucks for "settlement fees"! Uuugh.
