Who’s right with this eBay Return Request

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Apologies if this makes anyone angry
1. You should have never purchased a saw to just flip it without going through the saw first giving it a good cleaning and proper inspection. I mean look at the saw it is nasty and someone like me would have never given that saw a second look because the red flag is flying high how can someone say "the saw was in good shape overall"
2. You cannot prove if the buyer or anyone else on the buyer's side tried the jb weld fix, because you did not inspect it and again to inspect it properly it had to be cleaned.
3. Take the saw back, even if you listed in your add you do not accept returns, unless you listed the case as cracked or there is a problem with the saw thus it is a parts saw, you did not sell a useable saw.
Thank you for taking the effort into such a well thought out post and playing devils advocate. I've discussed it with the buyer and he's supposed to send it back, but with eBay's crappy return policy, I'm guessing he'll use it for the next 14 days and ship it on the last day. I'll address your points with my counterpoints.

To preface everything, obviously if I knew of any damage, I would've included it in the description.

1. I didn't purchase the saw as a flip, it was purchased to help raise money for an acquaintance of mine who unfortunately got dealt a bad hand in life, I had no ultimate use for it, so that's the reason for the sale. Saying the saw is nasty is a bit of an exaggeration, if 90% of the saws I've worked on looked like that without being touched I would save a ton of money on rags and fast orange. The determination on "good shape overall" was based on my personal definition of good shape, and to each their own, it's subjective. My personal definition is from Kelley Blue Book which is some repairable cosmetic defects and free of any major mechanical defect. Which the saw does have some flaws, but it runs and operates with no problem, so in my opinion there is no major mechanical defect, the saw operates fine, and the bar bolt is secure, it's not like its wobbling around. Without everyone physically inspecting the crack, its subjective as to what extent the damage is around the bar bolt, his shop says it needs a new case, did he actually take it to a shop, or self determine that or did a guy down the road come to that conclusion? We don't know for sure, my point with this is, the case potentially could need replaced, the metal plate might just need replaced, or heck you could probably use some loctite and be fine.
2. I agree, I cannot prove that the buyer caused the damage, which is ultimately why I didn't fight him on it. I'm confident that he did do the damage, but with no proof its a mute point as many of the other members have commented, eBay will always side with the buyer. Similar to what I stated above, there's so much unknown that there's no reason to fight. After talking to some people in private messages. they all assured me that even if I knew 100% for a fact that he was the one that damaged it, unless I had a picture of it eBay would side against me, and even if I had a picture they'd still probably side against me, that's just their prerogative.
3. I am taking the saw back, but to say the saw is unusable is axiomatically incorrect. To be usable, it has to do what it's supposed to do, which it does. The saw starts, runs, and cuts wood, it does everything a saw is supposed to do. The former owner used it everyday until he had to quit working due to his diagnosis, they cut wood with it at the sale, and I even started it and cut a couple cookies with it.

So in summation, I will agree that I was negligent by not taking the time to clean the saw and fully inspect it, but my description of the saw was accurate, (the only debate here is what defines "good condition" it will vary from person to person). After further talking to the buyer since the initial post, his story is starting to have some inconsistencies, so at this point, I'm just hoping the saw gets returned in working order so the matter can be put to rest.

I hope nothing I said came off as condescending or angry, I appreciate your input Stihl99, we'll just have to agree to disagree on this.

Once again, thank you to everybody who replied and messaged me, I appreciate all your input and feedback, and sympathize with those of you who have had similar problems.
 
FE
I meant no disrespect to you, that is 1/5 of the post I had typed but I condensed it just to simplify it and my intent was not to anger anyone nor to make you look like a bad person.
But in reality you screwed yourself and cost yourself money "shipping fees" listing that saw without cleaning and inspecting it. Everyone hopes the buyer would not have damaged your saw and then sent you damaged photos blaming you for selling a damaged saw and not listing the damages, but society this day and time has 1/100 of the morals it had when I grew up.
 
FE
I meant no disrespect to you, that is 1/5 of the post I had typed but I condensed it just to simplify it and my intent was not to anger anyone nor to make you look like a bad person.
But in reality you screwed yourself and cost yourself money "shipping fees" listing that saw without cleaning and inspecting it. Everyone hopes the buyer would not have damaged your saw and then sent you damaged photos blaming you for selling a damaged saw and not listing the damages, but society this day and time has 1/100 of the morals it had when I grew up.
Agreed Stihl99, the ultimate blame does fall back to me. It is unfortunate that we can't trust our fellow man anymore, but we have to adapt to thrive and live with the reality we face in today's society.

Thanks for all you input, fresh and different perspectives are nice to have. At the end of the day, I have to take a kick to the stones on this one and come back tomorrow as a smarter and better man.
 
Thank you for taking the effort into such a well thought out post and playing devils advocate. I've discussed it with the buyer and he's supposed to send it back, but with eBay's crappy return policy, I'm guessing he'll use it for the next 14 days and ship it on the last day. I'll address your points with my counterpoints.

To preface everything, obviously if I knew of any damage, I would've included it in the description.

1. I didn't purchase the saw as a flip, it was purchased to help raise money for an acquaintance of mine who unfortunately got dealt a bad hand in life, I had no ultimate use for it, so that's the reason for the sale. Saying the saw is nasty is a bit of an exaggeration, if 90% of the saws I've worked on looked like that without being touched I would save a ton of money on rags and fast orange. The determination on "good shape overall" was based on my personal definition of good shape, and to each their own, it's subjective. My personal definition is from Kelley Blue Book which is some repairable cosmetic defects and free of any major mechanical defect. Which the saw does have some flaws, but it runs and operates with no problem, so in my opinion there is no major mechanical defect, the saw operates fine, and the bar bolt is secure, it's not like its wobbling around. Without everyone physically inspecting the crack, its subjective as to what extent the damage is around the bar bolt, his shop says it needs a new case, did he actually take it to a shop, or self determine that or did a guy down the road come to that conclusion? We don't know for sure, my point with this is, the case potentially could need replaced, the metal plate might just need replaced, or heck you could probably use some loctite and be fine.
2. I agree, I cannot prove that the buyer caused the damage, which is ultimately why I didn't fight him on it. I'm confident that he did do the damage, but with no proof its a mute point as many of the other members have commented, eBay will always side with the buyer. Similar to what I stated above, there's so much unknown that there's no reason to fight. After talking to some people in private messages. they all assured me that even if I knew 100% for a fact that he was the one that damaged it, unless I had a picture of it eBay would side against me, and even if I had a picture they'd still probably side against me, that's just their prerogative.
3. I am taking the saw back, but to say the saw is unusable is axiomatically incorrect. To be usable, it has to do what it's supposed to do, which it does. The saw starts, runs, and cuts wood, it does everything a saw is supposed to do. The former owner used it everyday until he had to quit working due to his diagnosis, they cut wood with it at the sale, and I even started it and cut a couple cookies with it.

So in summation, I will agree that I was negligent by not taking the time to clean the saw and fully inspect it, but my description of the saw was accurate, (the only debate here is what defines "good condition" it will vary from person to person). After further talking to the buyer since the initial post, his story is starting to have some inconsistencies, so at this point, I'm just hoping the saw gets returned in working order so the matter can be put to rest.

I hope nothing I said came off as condescending or angry, I appreciate your input Stihl99, we'll just have to agree to disagree on this.

Once again, thank you to everybody who replied and messaged me, I appreciate all your input and feedback, and sympathize with those of you who have had similar problems.
My two cents, (early?) 661's as I recall are notorious for busted bar stud holes if they are used with long bars (36 inches or greater) and yes, to fix the crack the case half would either need to be welded/machined or replaced. Is the crack a problem? Yes, with sustained use eventually the crack would spread and the bar stud would be loose or tear out of the case. Is this your fault? No, I've never checked to see if a stud mount was cracked prior to a sale. The jb weld repair sounds like the buyer did it, no respectable shop would try to jb weld a structural crack. If the customer tried it, how did he find out about the crack initially is my question. Did the shop discover it and the buyer took it back and tried the jb weld fix, is the shop crappy and they attempted a jb weld repair, or did the buyer discover the crack and try fixing it prior to having a shop look at it? All this is based off of your supplied details, of course.
 
Heres my thoughts where do you draw the line.I have bought many used saws I always ask the seller whats wrong with it if he says nothing is wrong its a good running saw.I always look the saw over check for compression with the rope but I do not think I have ever took the clutch cover off and checked the bolts for torque.If I buy the saw and find out a couple weeks later the bolts are loose so what by that time I have probably found five other things that need replacing its just a tool that wears out the guy selling it proabaly thought it was in great shape.If a guy was selling me a bright shiny saw for big bucks and told me it was in great shape and I looked it over and took it home and later found some thing wrong that he probably knew about I would contact him and point it out but its still buyer beware.
<<<<<<there were a ton of crooked people years ago.I personally have been screwed as a buyer on ebay three times bought three motors never got them .I bou8ght a 1926 Evinrude outboard supposed to be running I paid him an extra 40.00 dollars to pay to pack it well it came in a card doard box with the carb snapped off and there were no gears in the lower unit and no coils in the mag plate.Sent the next guy a money order in Canadian funds Canadian dollar was worth seven cents more than USA he emails says his bank will charge him thirty dollars to cash it and at par I send thirty more he goes off ebay.I never got any help on any of these from ebay never got threw to anybody tried to find a phone number looked for a address so I could send ebay a registered letter but gave up .What I dont get is if every body is getting there bank accounts hacked on the inter net and the pipe lines and presidential elections are being hacked by over seas countries then quit doing business with the inter net .The world ran a lot better when it was on paper.
Kash
 
Just wanted to give everyone an update, I picked up the saw today from the post office and let’s just saw I wasn’t surprised with what I found. Below is my message I sent to the buyer this morning.

“Picked up the saw from the post office this morning. Got a couple things I want to let you know about. The box was different than originally shipped in, and the box was damaged a bit, with the back of the handle of the saw being visible cause the box had ripped. The saw wasn’t packaged well and bar oil/gas mix leaked all over the box. The bar bolt was missing. The guide bar was used either quite extensively or ran way too hot as there is paint missing from it and some bluing. The chain you sent back wasn’t the original chain, you shipped a Stihl chain, the original was a Carrollton. The saw case also had a black grease like substance all over it. And lastly the saw was modified with WCS bark box and felling dogs. With all those things being considered, I think a partial refund would be fair as the saw was not returned in the original condition. I wanted to reach out to you before opening a cause because you’ve been very reasonable throughout this process and I believe we can come to a suitable agreement.”

The reason I’m willing to do a partial refund is because he’s in violation of eBay’s return policy. He didn’t return the exact same item in the same condition. Obviously I’d love to not have to refund at all, but all things considered I’ll settle for just partial if we can keep it from escalating to eBay since they are notorious for screwing sellers.
 
I'm sitting on the fence "as not in condition as listed". Cracked case makes "usable" a bit questionable. As to no returns, I just completed returning 2 different micro sd cards sold as new and no returns. Both tested bad, both returned at sellers expense complete refunds to me. Ebay doesn't honor "no returns" where possible fraud, or "unknown" damage not reported by the seller. If it's questionable they pretty much go with the buyer. There is a fair amount of fraud on ebay which can make it difficult for the honest seller. Garage sale junk purchased for ebay resale as being "used but in good usable condition" and actually being pure scrap is fairly popular.

what to do? I'd offer a partial refund or return. Expect to eat the freight if you want to protect your feedback rating. Through the years I have over 1000 transactions as a buyer on ebay. I'd guess about 95-98% were with honorable sellers. Some went well above what was expected. Lately it seems the Chinese junk and fraudulent peddlers have set in on ebay. A lot of small ticket items that most buyers wouldn't bother returning.
 
Just wanted to give everyone an update, I picked up the saw today from the post office and let’s just saw I wasn’t surprised with what I found. Below is my message I sent to the buyer this morning.

“Picked up the saw from the post office this morning. Got a couple things I want to let you know about. The box was different than originally shipped in, and the box was damaged a bit, with the back of the handle of the saw being visible cause the box had ripped. The saw wasn’t packaged well and bar oil/gas mix leaked all over the box. The bar bolt was missing. The guide bar was used either quite extensively or ran way too hot as there is paint missing from it and some bluing. The chain you sent back wasn’t the original chain, you shipped a Stihl chain, the original was a Carrollton. The saw case also had a black grease like substance all over it. And lastly the saw was modified with WCS bark box and felling dogs. With all those things being considered, I think a partial refund would be fair as the saw was not returned in the original condition. I wanted to reach out to you before opening a cause because you’ve been very reasonable throughout this process and I believe we can come to a suitable agreement.”

The reason I’m willing to do a partial refund is because he’s in violation of eBay’s return policy. He didn’t return the exact same item in the same condition. Obviously I’d love to not have to refund at all, but all things considered I’ll settle for just partial if we can keep it from escalating to eBay since they are notorious for screwing sellers.
You got him, he is a fake and a liar.
Make him take it back and do not refund one red cent
 
You got him, he is a fake and a liar.
Make him take it back and do not refund one red cent
He messaged me back and said “send me pictures of the box”
Of all the things I mentioned, why would he want to see the box? Try to scam USPS and say they damaged it or something?
I’ll keep everyone posted as it goes along.
 
Newest response from the seller.


I am in udder shock...there is a shortage of the new ms-661 and ms-88 chainsaws.i can't get it from any new from the dealer, I purchased your chainsaw based off your discription thinking it was a good sound saw that was used well ,You sold a defective chainsaw with incorrect information ,this should of been a parts chainsaw , I had to service the, spark plug, new intake filter, gas filter, the original dogs where missing bolts unusable when felling, the muffler cover was dented and replaced with a nice muffler cover hence your "modified" parts, I left you with the original parts in the box or better I'm sorry I lost the bar bolt but it fell out on its own due to it being defective .the discription you stated was incorrect you definitely never ran the saw, cause it leaked oil and and the bar bolt case was split in there places ,so the bar did not oil it self 80% I assumed the Carlton chain was the issue but it wasn't. It was the sawn being defective it has a serious problem with it​

Now we’ve got him just talking out his butt making wild accusations so, looks like this will be moving on to the hands of eBay, may they treat me fairer than they have some of you in the past.
 
He messaged me back and said “send me pictures of the box”
Of all the things I mentioned, why would he want to see the box? Try to scam USPS and say they damaged it or something?
I’ll keep everyone posted as it goes along.
Sounds like he wants to blame USPS with the box, but he cannot blame USPS with the rest of what you found on the saw.
One question and you did not mention in your post, do the serial numbers match?
FE I hope you took photos before you opened the returned box, documenting everything as you found it with photos.
I would open a case with ebay explaining all these differences in appearance, damage, modifications, and different equipment on the returned saw with photos. Do the first five photos and then post again adding more photos of everything with the saw that is different before you shipped it.
 
The best thing to do with a running chainsaw sale on eBay is to list it as 'For Parts or Not Working' and only claim that is was running before being listed. Then provide good pictures of all sides of the saw, a picture of the piston through the exhaust port, and a picture of a compression test. Don't say things like 'excellent running' or 'very good condition' as they are subjective and can come back to bite you - let the pictures speak for themselves. Then list any defects that are known but not shown well in the pictures (funky recoils, quirky chain brakes, etc).

There is no such thing as 'No Returns' in eBay so stating that in a listing really means nothing. There is an eBay return policy for each listing and one of the options you can select is 'No Returns' but the buyer will simply find something that was not shown or mentioned (even if they have to create the problem) and get eBay to issue a return anyway.

It should be said though, that for every low-life buyer, there is a low-life seller. This OP sounds like he is upstanding and strives to work with the buyer but many are not and deserve to have things returned to them.

Just my 2 cents
 
Keep up the dialog with him, he will keep saying things that would hurt his case.
{I am not trying to take any side, just giving advice to the guy asking}.
The problem with trying to plead your case with anyone at e-bay, is that there usually is a language barrier hurdle as well.
 
Ebay will almost always side with the buyer and you will lose the cost of shipping.
And if they pay with PayPal then they can open a case with them and you will most likely lose.
 
Getting money back from pay pal isn't that easy, and the customer will have the burden of proof that he was screwed over. I also think if it's connected to an ebay case they typically rule the same as ebay.
 
Welp, I see Ebay is still on track.
Due diligence is really part of the buyers half in my opinion, when a deal looks too good to be true it usually is. I walk away from lots of internet and personal sales that don't have some kind of inspection, famous lines would include but not limited to, "barn find, estate sale, family heirloom" , or the " got it in trade deal and don't know anything about it ". Burns highly likely.
Frankly I would never sell anything without a quick once over though. Your just asking for trouble and if your time is too precious for that the internet is not for you.

I’ll take it a step farther... as one who buys and sells cast iron cookware (I restore)... if I sell something on eBay (or any other online marketplace)- I ALWAYS look very carefully at every square inch and take photos of anything and everything. Even though my general policy is no returns (some platforms I use don’t allow such policies). But I want evidence that what I sold is what I shipped. If something goes wrong, I have proof of what I shipped.

Something as expensive and subject to abuse as a big saw... I would have known about that crack before I ever listed for sale.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 
Now you know why I do not sell anything on eBay anymore and have not for the last 5 years
I was about to say the same thing...been a long time since I sold a saw on ebay and probably will be a longer time before I try to sell another one. There are probably still some good people on ebay but they are slowly allowing the scammers to take over...
 
Back
Top