An eBay seller posted a viral video warning about selling items due to a loophole she discovered about returns.
Hazel (@theehazeldomain) has reached over 8,000 likes on her viral video. She added a caption, telling viewers, “I don’t use the platform anymore and neither should you.”
To start, Hazel says that she will share something you “might wanna be aware of” if you buy or sell items on eBay. Hazel says she had recently sold a cellphone to a woman on eBay. She says that after selling the phone, she received a call from the buyer saying that she “needed a plan for the cellphone to make and receive calls.”
“She thought it would just do that,” Hazel explains.
She says the buyer told her she didn’t want to purchase a cellphone plan and wanted to return the phone. “She tried to return the phone to me,” Hazel says. “I don’t do returns. My stuff is as is, no returns, and it is priced accordingly.”
Should you stop selling on eBay because of this loophole?
Hazel says that when she told the buyer she does not accept returns, the buyer “opened a case with eBay and said that the item was not as described.”
In case you haven’t run into this problem yourself, Hazel says that eBay’s policy is that “if this buyer says that the item was not as described, eBay will immediately find the buyer’s case and send them a shipping label.”
eBay states, “Most sellers will quickly help you, but if you are not happy after a few days you can easily refer the case to eBay.”
“If you haven’t received your item, or the item is not as described, we’ll refund your purchase price plus original shipping on virtually all items,” it confirms.
Hazel adds that eBay charges the seller for the shipping label, and also gives the buyer a full refund. “The seller is out shipping two ways for this item,” she adds.
eBay states, “If the buyer is sending an item back because it doesn’t match the listing description or it arrived damaged or faulty,” the seller is “responsible for the cost of return shipping, even if you don’t offer returns.”
Hazel said she contacted eBay after the customer falsely claimed the item arrived damaged and asked how she could prevent customers from taking advantage of eBay’s return policy in the future. “I sold this item, I said ‘no returns,’ and they lied,” she says she told eBay. “I have communication between me and the buyer saying that they lied, and can you look into this?” she asks.
Hazel says eBay refused to look into the case and told her, “The buyer gets a refund, and there’s nothing you can do.” However, she says that after contacting eBay three separate times, she finally received the suggestion to “offer 30 days free returns” on all of her sold products.
She says eBay added that this is “a great way to increase sales and allows you to get to our top-rated status, which allows you the use of a partial refund tool and deduct up to 50 percent off a buyer’s refund.”
“This will compensate for some of the loss in value for the transaction,” eBay reportedly continued. “We also protect sellers that use this feature by automatically removing negative feedback for the transaction.”
“Let me translate,” Hazel says.
She says most online retailers nowadays do free returns, “no questions asked.”
“Amazon very rarely charges return shipping,” she adds. “All return-eligible items, weighing under 50 lbs and sold by Amazon, have at least one free return option,” Amazon states.
She says that if she posts an item labeled as “no returns,” this doesn’t help eBay compete with Amazon. However, “if I say that I accept free returns,” she continues, “I can then not do the free return.”
“I can lie and say I got the item back damaged, give a partial refund, and eBay will then have my back,” she adds.
Before ending her video, Hazel says she contacted eBay multiple times to clarify that “in order to not be scammed, you want me to set up a trap first so that I can scam instead.”
“Again, and again, and again, I was basically told yes,” she says. “When you see that a seller on eBay offers free returns, know that they only have to give you a 50 percent refund.”
@theehazeldomain I don’t use the platform any more and neither should you #scamstoavoid #ebayseller ♬ original sound – HazelDomain
“And this is why eBay’s prices are no longer competitive,” a top comment under Hazel’s video said.
The Daily Dot reached out to request a comment from Hazel via TikTok comment and direct message and to eBay via email.
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