Saying “Really no one on eBay any more is subjected to fraud”, in a recent interview Devin Wenig, CEO of eBay identified two things eBay have done in the last 10 years that have taken fraud to “a meaningless number”.
Managing fraud itself on the market is key and the second, which has been in place about five years, is the eBay Guarantee which Devin described as “Basically anyone on eBay that doesn’t get what they want gets their money back”.
Devin goes on to say that the rate when anything goes wrong on eBay is at an historic low and that if people knew how infrequently anything goes wrong on eBay they might be shocked. He adds: “Fraud shouldn’t be an issue for anyone that buys or sells on eBay”.
You can watch the full interview, including what Devin’s most unusual eBay purchases are, on YouTube
44 Responses
Guess he is talking from a buyers point of view, as from a sellers point of view, FRAUD IS RIFE ON EBAY, with buyers making claims of;
Chargebacks,
Claims for INR if not tracked;
Claims of INAD / Items Missing
Fake returns of empty boxes, or the old item being returned,
etc, etc.
eBay will not do anything about it, other than refund the buyer.
Utter rubbish.
Sellers are subject to fraud on a daily basis.
This is the funniest thing I have heard for a while. Perhaps he would like to come and work in my returns or customer service department for a day.
Fraud takes place everyday on eBay when customers mark a return as not as described when there is nothing wrong with the item or the description, that’s just one small example!
Absolute B.S. – this man is clearly not quite in touch with reality!
I’ve been using eBay for 17 years, selling full time for the past 8 and if I actually counted how many thousands of dollars I’ve been scammed out of by dishonest buyers it would make me physically sick. This man has no clue what he’s talking about. The only thing eBay has going for it that keeps me coming back for more is the name. Everyone all over the world has heard of eBay and it’s the only way to sell your items if you’re a one man show. Etsy is picking up the pace but still runs a distant second to eBay. Everything this article states is complete b.s.
As a seller Not only is there the cost of fraud, there is the cost and effort of avoiding fraud
On ebay ,is this man sane?
He needs to smell the coffee and wake up out of his dream lol
Meanwhile back in the real world
https://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=dontikas75&ftab=FeedbackLeftForOthers&searchInterval=30
Reported numerous times still buying and not receiving how unlucky
So, the fact that eBay has created a system where sellers are punished for absolutely anything going wrong (real or scammer) means we have a system where scammers know that they can avoid the official channels because they will get their money back just by threatening to make the case official. I regularly get customers demanding money back for all sorts of reasons, using casual messages, but I stick by my requirement that they make it official and they must log a problem in the Resolution Centre, I even give them clear instructions on how to do this. But I see probably 5% of those demands translate into official cases, which says to me that the majority of the other 95% are attempted scams, and that the scammer does not want it making official. eBay have terrified the sellers into giving in to anything that the scammers want, eBay is stuffed with scammers but you still milk your final value fees.
Clearly part of the effort to change the image of ebay. They recently admitted that there was still an image problem in that buyers still perceive ebay as a place where there are scammers and crooks everywhere.
Ebay have done a lot to prevent this from being the case. They have done well at that and it does need to be communicatedso that they increase the amount of buyers on the channel but I think this could have been worded better. Sellers know that there is fraud on ebay. Selling anywhere online results in some fraud, though ebay is probably worse than others and I think this should be acknowledged by Devin.
What about all the Chinese sellers evading VAT to the tune of billions per year. Isn’t that fraud ?
I’m a power seller and people steal all the time.
proof if ever you needed it that the man is competely and utterly deluded.
like certifiable.
who put him in charge of a company?
Wenig is out of touch, but it does vary according to the sector you sell in.
We don’t get a great deal of “fraud”, but we did see a considerably higer rate of items “not received on Ebay” than on other sites.
About five times more claims, with nothing to explain it – the same items, same postal handling, but five times more losses (1.5% compared to 0.3%)
This rate held up across more than 400,000 sales over 13 years.
But there was a definite spike in claims after the guy with the punchable face appeared at the bottom of each page, telling buyers they could get their money back!
fraud on industrial scale occurs every day with fraudulent return reason postage avoidance
David Wenig, if ebay is so so great, that scamms dont happen anymore
1 why was i scammed on ebay, following ebay rules
2 why when scams reported to you are they left on for days at a
time.
3 WHEN you remove them there back in a couple of days and
reported again still taking days to remove
4 Ebay DONT TAKE / HOLD CASH from sales or refund cash
from sales ,
5 Thats Paypal and they DO NOT COVER motors deposits or
anything of any value.
6 The Buyer can smash / loose parts when returning items and the
seller has NO COMEBACK its the buyer that always right .
You have no idea whats going on in the company young man and its about time you did, you actively encourage scammers to use ebay and then say its not got anything to do with you and there is no comeback, learn what an auction is and how they work before you speak the rubbish you are . can back it if you want …ray
Would you all rather he said publicly: “Yeah, eBay is rife with fraud. Totally unsafe place to trade”.
Damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t.
What a load of tripe, this clown is as bad as the last ‘monkey’ they put in charge. Also looks as though he’s been made by Nick Park at Aardman animations.
Is he talking about the same company? Everything that exited his cake hole was complete nonsense. Even got called out in his ‘rusting’ Defender. Jesus there is no hope.
Anyone who’s seen Buster Jack’s Facebook page will know that there are still countless scam listings on eBay. Anyone who’s dealt with “Mr Fox” on their Live Chat system will know how difficult it can be to get past their scripts and get scams shut down.
I used to run a blog holding the scam item descriptions, copies of photos and names of hacked accounts to make it easier for Google to index the scams and harder for the scammers to perpetrate them (they were all reported as well) and I can tell you for a fact that without a direct line that bypasses their Live Chat or report button, it can be nigh-on impossible to get a scam shut down quickly. I was fortunate enough to eventually gain an email contact who could get the fraud team to act quickly on any evidence provided (in many cases the evidence included links back to my own blog so that the photos and other scam item numbers could be checked against).
I no longer have time to do so but Buster Jack still does. If eBay’s “practically non-existent” fraud claim were true he’d be out of a hobby, but he’s not.
All eBay have done is flipped the fraud, so that rather than coming from unscrupulous sellers (of course the odd few creep in), fraudulent buyers are more the norm. eBay’s system has made it incredibly easy for buyers to rip off sellers, even when the seller has jumped through all the necessary hoops.
He is right about that buyers get their money back because of the policy with paypal and eBay but fraud on eBay is rife fake goods and buyers abusing the system and sellers not sending off items after a period of time when they get good ratings
What rubbish. Yesterday had an email from a buyer, “wheres my item”. Looked at her feedback left for others and in the last month alone, on ethe first page of feedback she has left 12 negs all saying “did not receive my item”. Phoned Ebay they could not care less, didn’t even want to take a note of the buyers ID.
This man is scaming everyone by trying to convince the public ebay is safe when you can see 100’s of scams posted every single day and he does nothing about it. No safe guards are in place, PEOPLE DO NOT GET THEIR MONEY BACK, PayPal will not refund either and many people have lost £1,000’s upon £1,000’s nor will they co-operate with you or even help you get refunded by scamming posts!
I’m amazed he can say this with a straight face.
I stopped selling on ebay a week ago. I’m still getting scammed by my very last customers for receiving an empty box or item not as described when i know perfectly well they are gaming the system.
I’m glad to be out and looking forward to July 1st when my 30 day close account period expires and I can actually close my goddamn account and get away from these scammers and virtual shoplifters.
For him to say there’s no fraud is like a rapist being caught red handed in the act and saying “he slipped”.
This guy needs to go home and enjoy his healthy salary. What angers me is when he makes false claims about fraud on the site. For sellers, dealing with fraudulent buyers is just stupendously high.
Stop lying! (in order to get a salary increase)
Sad to find out that report buyer link is not working. Guess reporting them was a waste of time. If he is running Ebay then God help us.
Hi all, this is my latest experience of the eBay Returns Process.
A customer bought two items from us which they received with no issue. They left positive feedback – top notch A+++
They then raised a Returns Request for both items stating the following reason: Doesn’t match description or photos.
Additional Comments: Thank you for the rapid delivery of item. Ordered original Buff, received poor quality copy. Please arrange collection/refund. Thank you.
We are therefore liable for Return Postage.
I replied to the customer stating that we do not sell fake or copied products and we only sell genuine products from the UK Distributor.
The customer replied with – We buy many of these as freebies for customers, the return business far out ways the ‘Buff’ price tag. Your items are badly cut, printed incorrectly on a material that is the worst I’ve seen…Indonesian items at £1 each are better quality. You offered a better price than my current supplier & I gave you a go. Your feedback is commendable so I can only assume that you have a rogue supplier. I trust that you’ll take care of this matter. Please have these items collected & refund our payment.
Looking at the purchase history of this customer I can see they have bought the same products from us in the past and recently from other retailers.
I contacted eBay who stated that the buyer will be refunded if the return case is escalated.
This highlights that regardless of the fact that the customer leaves positive feedback and has bought the same product from us in the past with no issues the customer is protected.
Therefore if eBay are siding with the customer then why do they not penalise us for selling fake products if they are to believe what the customer says?
We have no way of proving otherwise.
The whole system is a farce.
So we have no choice but to accept the return back at our cost.
I am looking forward to seeing what is returned.
What are your experiences of the Returns Process?
Regards,
Stewart
Just take a look at this one, no fraud, reported to ebay, no action taken
https://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=ashleymcginley&ftab=FeedbackLeftForOthers&searchInterval=30
Thank GOD I no longer sell on ebay or Amazon…I want to knock that coffee mug right out of his hands…people like this do not deserve to be running large companies.
And of course eBay run one of the biggest scams themselves. Refunding buyers while Royal Mail’s delivery window is still open. Item turns up within the window, but after the target delivery date, and the buyer gets it for free,
No one suffers fraud on ebay. Only sellers, and they are no one. Just free inventory holders.