eBay problem - what can i do?

[kronen88]

Hey folks,

I have been mulling this situation over all night.
On the 21st I sold my Gigabyte z87 g1 sniper motherboard on eBay for £64.99.

Upon winning the item the buyer contacted me with the following message
"Thank you so much for accepting my offer, however after placing my offer I've found the board local to where I live brand new for £70. I will of course get warranty with a new one as I believe the bios chips are renowned for popping on this model. I'm so so sorry for messing your ounces that's not my intention. If you'd consider £55 inc postage I'd consider going second hand."

As I was busy working I didn't get the time to reply to this message right away.
Anyway, the next morning I woke up and noticed the buyer had paid for the item so I packaged the motherboard in an anti-static bag, in its original box with manual/io shield and disc and bubble wrapped the whole thing and got it posted.
Today I received a message from the buyer stating that he works in a computer store and that he and 2 other engineers have been attempting to get the board to work with no success. That it is displaying error code 15 (from researching it is the error code for Pre-memory North-Bridge initialization is started).

Now a week ago I was still using this board with no faults what so ever. Is it even possible for him to unwrap a working product, plug it in and it be faulty all of a sudden?

I'm really not sure what to do with this one?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[rgd1101]

DId you take record the serial# on the board? sound like the those 2 might be trying to cheat you.

 

[kronen88]

DId you take record the serial# on the board? sound like the those 2 might be trying to cheat you.

Unfortunately I did not.
Didn't expect the unexpected.

I can try and dig out close up pictures of the motherboard and hope I have something there.

 

[ssddx]

yes, you will want the serial number of the board in a photo that was on the ad. or have the serial number listed in your ad as text. in this way if they try to send back a broken model you can prove they are scammers.

right after they complained about price and wanted a lower price they paid for the item? flag #1
brand new for 70 yet paid 65? flag #2
two engineers in a computer store? that is highly unlikely. engineers generally are above low level stuff like that - too fishy. flag #3

while not impossible, its not likely that the board suddenly stopped working. either its another hardware issue on their side, they messed up and broke the board and are blaming it on you to avoid the cost, they are trying to scam you and get a board for free or some sort of random freak accident.

given how they spoke and their actions i'm thinking you found yourself a scammer. we sell on ebay and i've certainly had one or two of them. the first time we got shafted but the second time they ate crow given we had things documented in the ad with photos.

 

[kronen88]

After searching around I've found that I don't have the serial numbers documented anywhere or in a photo.

They have however messaged me again...
"It was something as simple as moving one of the bios switches. It's only accepting one stick of ram though, but one problem at a time. It's only in f1 bios too."

Now I'm thinking, if they do figure now that it still won't work, they have tampered with it. Would that not void their right to a refund?

 

[ssddx]

well, if it does not come back in the same condition as when it was sent out then yes. proving that is the kicker.

if you have solid proof, the buyer has no leg to stand on. we have had many such resolutions in our favor when a customer tries to pull any funny business. in the case where you have no proof generally the buyer has the advantage and gets preferential treatment so you may get the shaft.

 

[BadAsAl]

It won't matter. I sold a very expensive MacBook Pro logic board, I documented the heck out of it and even signed my initials with permanent marker on the board in several places. Buyer waited 28 days and then opened a case against me and sent a different motherboard back. I sent all my pics to eBay and they sided with the buyer. eBay doesn't care about sellers, and I couldn't even leave feedback to the buyer to warn others, negative feedback is not allowed anymore. This was the straw that broke the camel's back and I haven't sold anything on eBay since. Local sales only now!!


Just hope they don't know what they are doing and it is still functional when it gets back.