Scammer?

[bswlv20]

Need some help with this one please! I am a new seller on eBay but I got some insights from someone that I buy a lot of parts from he has been walking me through the process of being a good seller on eBay. I always triple check my items before listing them and I do my best to point out every single defect. Anyways here is my situation, I sold a front rim to a customer from a very well maintained motorcycle, the motorcycle was not involved in any collisions. When I took the rim off I put it on a gravity balancer to confirm it was straight and I also inspected it multiple times before listing taking pictures of any and all defects. When I shipped it I triple wrapped it in bubble wrap and finished it off with foam wrap and taped it like I had an unlimited amount of tape. Buyer messaged me today and said the rim arrived bent but his story does not add up at all. He claims he has bought 3 rims back to back one of them being from very reputable seller on eBay and that all the rims arrived bent. I asked him to send me pictures, the rim was bent inward very slightly like someone hit it with a hammer, I noticed a couple of scuff marks there as well that were not there before. I also had him send me pictures of the packaging and it was not compromised for a scuff mark to occur on the rim during shipping. There were a couple of spots he sent were the rim was "bent" and he said "this rim is bent to H**8" which obviously I would have noticed before shipping. He also messaged me before buying the rim saying that he needed it for a project bike and asked me to promise that it was straight which it was. The suspicious part is that his bike is matte black/gold and the rear rim that he has on the bike that he sent me pictures of is gold. The rims that he has ordered have been all types of different colors. One was a bright white, one was a bright baby blue, and the rim I sent him was a gloss black. I also noticed in some of the pictures that he has tons of rims in the background. Another thing that I noticed is that he seems to buy rims that come with extra parts, one rim that he ordered came with rotors and the rim that I sent him came with a speed sensor and the axle shaft which is about an extra 60 dollars in parts by themselves. I really am not sure what to think he seems like a friendly scammer that just wants as much free as possible. Let me know your guy's thoughts on this, not sure if I should refund him or not. 

[slati_2013]

Do not refund him. Let him open a case to return the rim. When he does send him a shipping label. When you get it back, then refund him. That is pretty much the only option you have now. Buyer return for a refund. 

[bswlv20]

Can I make him pay for return shipping? I do have that in my listings that buy pays return shipping, not sure if that would count for this situation or not

[reallynicestamps]

I don't do enough refunds to be sure.

"I regret you are unhappy with your purchase. Please return it for refund."

But tell him to open the Claim.

"I regret you are unhappy with your purchase. Please open a Claim through eBay and return it for refund."

If you are told by eBay to send the return shipping, do it.

If not, not.

You are going to refund when it is returned anyway, but with any luck he will not return it (since it is just fine and he is looking to scam a freebie) and you will get the value of the label returned.

And Block him.

Also look into Cookie Jar Insurance among topics discussed here.

Some categories attract more scams than others.

[albertabrightalberta]

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@bswlv20 wrote:

Can I make him pay for return shipping? I do have that in my listings that buy pays return shipping, not sure if that would count for this situation or not

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If his return request is for NAD (not as described), you have to pay return shipping. If he chooses a remorse reason (size, doesn't like, changed mind), you can accept and he'll pay return shipping. 

If he chooses a remorse reason, the refund he'll get will be a full refund - you cannot deduct original shipping since you don't charge for it separately.

[broto_64]

Simply reply to any and all customer problems with:
Please return for refund.

[soh.maryl]

Next time you post here, can you please break it up into paragraphs? For some of us, it's difficult to read a wall of text like that. 

[bswlv20]

Yes sorry about that!

[bswlv20]

Thank you guys for all the responses. Is there anyway I can protect myself as a seller so this does not happen again? 

I literally just started selling and have had two scam attempts already in less than a month! This guy wanting free stuff and another guy that wanted to do a transaction off of eBay, why do they target me? 

[soh.maryl]

Why do you think they target you? It's because you're one of the new kids on the block, as is every other new seller on eBay.  

[reallynicestamps]

You do a good job of describing and the only note I would make is using paragraphs, even making every sentence a paragraph.

White space is your friend.

Part of your problem is your category.

Some categories have more problem customer than others.

You know how to spot a scam, so you're on the right track.