Ebay Seller Rating Supports Stealth Refunding

Several of our elders who buy and sell on ebay have instructed us on the practice of stealth refunding.  The ebay seller rating supports the practice of stealth refunding.  The seniors explain how a single seller leverages technology to operate multiple unauthorized ebay accounts. 

The seller rating only produces valid data when an individual ebay user operates a single account.  The practice of stealth refunding begins with an individual  opening multiple (unauthorized ) ebay accounts.  These fake accounts cannot be detected across the expansive ebay market place. 

Using a fake account the stealth refunder simply buys product from a reputable ebay seller.  The refunder pays with paypal.  The reputable seller ships the purchased ebay item to the buyers address.  Approximately 7 to 10 days post sale the stealth refunder transmits a message through ebay email asking when the seller plans to ship the paid for product.  Soon the stealth refunder denies receiving the shipped ebay product and demands a refund. 

Paypal issues a refund to the stealth refunder immediately.  The defined ebay analytics identifies this transaction as defective.  The long time ebay seller who is playing by the original market place rules is categorized as contributing to lower ebay sales amounts or the loss of an ebay buyer. The stealth refunder closes out the fake account, and opens 3 more conducting daily browsing. 

A stealth refunder operating multiple fake ebay accounts can methodically push an ebay seller off the site.  These legitimate sellers represent the bulk of the ebay buying population.  The ebay seller rating results in constrained listing amounts and suspensions.  This is the extreme, typically the stealth refunder just wants the product you are selling for free.

The seniors explain the difficulty is the ebay system administrators seem to have their head in the sand when it comes to the accuracy of their published seller ratings.  Unwary consumers buy and sell from these fake accounts with undesired results on a daily basis.  This is a huge gap with the functionality of the ebay system.  These seniors certainly informed us of a lot of  previously unknown information today.