How to survive cheating at ebay --------------------------------The Story ---------hi guys , Want to share my online shopping eperience with you

guys. I'm no saint but I don 't remember cheating anyone. That's bad. I used to work for a BPO. And that has made me familiar with a large number of issues. Customer centric. I used to get good C-SATS ( customer surveys ) , so guess I was good in resolving. Atleast add ressing issues.

Recently I purchased a blackberry 8110 from ebay. advertised as brand new. The s eller took his sweet time to ship to me, something that was supposed to reach me in 2/3 days. When it reached me, I was not expecting shock waves. The handset w as an OLD one. They had just changed the body cover and made it a new one. I was still okay. Blackberry 8110 with 2 meg pix camera with flash. was okay for 5.2 k. but the andset was not working also. The minute you start something it hangs. I finally I decided to call the seller. informed him that this was not right. I called ebay saying that the guy was supposed to sell it as OLd and not NEW. I as ked them to refund my money as I don't negotiate with cheaters. they still wante d me to negotiate. So the claim handling team called him with on line. He didn't pick uT. A guy with 92 stars on his page. That's a mistake. Because as per ebay . They will take his page down and all related pages. but 2 weeks had passed sin ce the cheating incident and I saw him still making sales. and he is going to cr eate a new page and cheat people again. For a newbie on e-shopping I didn't know how e-bay deals. most of the people don 't. When you buy stuff from e-bay they money is taken only when you receive the stuff. I thought this mechanism was there so that cutomer can be sure that he wi ll be receiving the stuff from third party. But it's mainly because e-bay is the one who is taking the money from you. Not the seller. And they can't take it fr om you just because someone has decided to sell it to you. Buisness has to be co nfirmed. One of the reason that made me not click on accept button for a week was that I was thinking If I click on 'accept item'was that I thought the money would go to the seller directly. eventualy they took it as ' item received ' as there was n o response from my side. Hello , what about the e-claim I registered with e-bay. is there no way to stop the payment if there is no acccept and claim raised ? But more was to follow. I was asked for proof that item is an old one. I send th em the pictures. and also send them the link from my anti-ebay video, link of co mplaints posted. the claim personnel who asked me to return the handset in 5 day s failed to explain how they are going to get the money back. I was still thinki ng it's from the seller who took the money. If e-bay was the recepient of the mo ney. Why didn't they say so? The emails I receive from ebay do not mention anyth ing about my purchase refund but only about the shipping refund. The personal nu mber of the claims person also seemed to be disconnected next day. I called them back and said I will put this on newspaper. But I was told that my claim was cl osed. Closed.. what the hell you mean by closed. I reported the incident next day. The customer service person there was on more person on claims who took it over fro

m the first claim person. An he send me a link saying ship us the item or forget about it. I replied to him saying how are you going to refud it. Please explain and there is no reply. I called ebay again and checked. The customer person said the claim's person had closed the case as there was no response. I said what the hell are you talking about. I am still waiting for a reply. And I did reply to that email. Customer s upport person was a cvery smart lady and she said ' sir you haven't mentioned an ything about sending the handset back so we are closing the case'. Ok. I was shocked. that's it. Just like that . With no reply. What about a court esy call for confirmation from the claims person . which they have to give. noth ing? I said ok. What about the offer made by the first claims person who said I could ship it back it in 5 days. Does that not count. It still the third day of that offer. Now the cutomer person wants to check some details. ( What the hell was s he doing then before saying such bold statements ? ).' Sir yes, in that case ple ase send the handset back to us today or last tomorrow after which we will close the claim. I said ok. What about the money . Is is going to be handset + shiping + eturn Shipping char ges from my pocket? She said ' sir , it will al be refunded '.Just cal lus after sending the item as we will be able to make a refund faster. I said ok.I courie red everything that same day to them . took snaps of the couriered package and s end it to them. Send it to them via email from handset. and called them to infor m about it. The next person in ebay started saying the same thing. ' sir your case is closed as there was no response'. I said buddy read the notes. this is a call made to inform you that handset has been refunded as per instructions from ebay. Gave hi m the tracking number. I called after 3 days to know what's happening. Next person who took the phone said ' sir the claim person has closed your claim as there was no response'. I said how come. I send it to you guys as you said. Gave an acknowledgement call also. What about it. Isn't it in the notes? She sai d ' sir Isee the case has been closed . what I will do is schedule a call back f rom the claim personnel for you'. I said ' ok, but why he did that ?. she said " I don't know '. Got a call from ebay today morning from the same claim person who had closed the call. He said ' Sir we are refunding the amount for you. I said " ok , thank yo u. I was basically not aware how things work and nobody cleared also for me init ially. So there was slight mis-understanding that caused a temp standoff. But I am happy that my claim is approved'. Coversation was short and sweet and I got a confirmation email saying that money will be refunded. But this was am ordinary person calling who doesn't know how call centre works. He would been taken for a ride. I mentioning the points which are important when you make a purchase from ebay and how to block and attack these people when the y take you for a ride. E-bay is basically designed for people to make and buy on line. The website was designed for optimum support but people who makes it can t urn it into hell. Some points Do's ----> emails :: When you purchase something you get a confirmation email. when you s end email to ebay also you get a confirmation receipt. These are very important emails. These are the only things that can help you when you has an issue tomorr

ow. > Customer care - Since I have worked in BPO , I know mostly how the environment works like. Its a highly charged environment where people are very focussed on their personnal targets. That include AHT ( Average handling time ), Surveys, Su pervisor targets. People will say anything to acheive anything. There are monito ring faclities to keep this in check and they mostly work. But some do slip by. What one needs to do is when you are getting a negative reply is call again late r. There are good people also who takes responsibilty of what's happening. Put r ight people incharge of your issue. > Make them sense its importantance. They were treating me like an ordinary refu nd claim. I told them I been cheated and I'm also planning to put this in newspa pers and youtube. I actually did make a link in youtube that says " cheating in ebay '. also posted the issue in a customer complaint forum. This only has to be done if they are not ready to refund. > Make sure you get it out from their mouth to send the handset back or item so that they can give refund. Never send anything back unless you have confirmation from ebay. If there is no other way then it has to be but it's a high risk issu e. > Make sure you report the issue as soon as you can. If possible when you receiv e the item check and see if it's genuine. > Report the item by clicking the ' report item ' on the seller page. > mark negative reviews on his page. If it's a popular seller this is going to a ffect his image in a big way. > Also make sure the ebay people take his page down for cheating. Damaged while transportation is different. But cheating is unacceptable. > Know the facts . I was told number of times that my claim was closed. I know t hat in a call centre ( genuine ones ) notes are very important and selling and buying call centres ha s to maintain notes for reference. If this is so and if someone has promised you something then you call always trace it back. no matter what they say. > the claim person called me back only when there were too many call back schedu led against his name from me. This cannot go unnoticed people. Keep maximum peo ple in loop . There is a good chance some one not so close to him might see and alert authorities above. > when you send the items back via courier. Count the items and list them. take photos or photocopy of the list with their seal so that you can send it to ebay. I photographed items list, item ready for shipment, and the courier acknowledge ment receipt to be emailed to e-bay once it was dispatched. This is done so that they don't complain that something is missing tomorrow.

Dont's -----> Do not abuse people at BPO's . You are already in a fight with seller or ebay when you call. Trust me people are paid to help you in a call centre. Don't make it personnel with them. > Don't delay in getting back to the seller or ebay. They can block the money on ly as long as it's with them. Once the seller gets the money. It's difficult for

everyone. > Do not delete any of their their email till you get your money back. > Don't take things for granted. Most of the calls are recorded so confirm and c larify parts that required special mention. > Do not buy from sellers that have less than 95% rating. Mine was 92% but that turned out to like this. > Don't ignore their names when you speak to someone on phone. If you don't unde rstand. ask again. It brings a sense of seriousness in their tones.