Credit Card Abuse
By grammpaula
@grammpaula (121)
United States
February 10, 2009 6:25pm CST
My daughter sells Renaissance jewelry at her on-line store and on ebay. She ships her merchandise with a delivery confirmation. She does not require a signature on delivery. A couple months ago she sold over $500.00 to a lady. The lady wrote to tell my daughter that the jewelry never arrived. When my daughter checked the USPS confirmation website it said that the delivery was made to the lady's address. The buyer said that the jewelry never made it into her house and she was going to ask for a chargeback on her credit card.
My daughter told her that the confirmation site said the jewelry was delivered, but the buyer said that she should have asked for a signature confirmation. This all seems to me like the buyer wanted to get $500.00 jewelry for free. Most people do not use the words chargeback when they want their money back. If I had contacted her I would have said I wanted my card credited for the amount. Chargeback seems more like a word that someone in business would use.
My daughter didn't want to lose the jewelry and the money so she decided to call the post office where this buyer lives. She talked to the mail carrier and was told that the buyer is in a wheelchair and has a note on her door for them to leave any packages on the porch because it takes her too long to answer the door. She doesn't accept signature packages. If this is true why did she mention that my daughter should have sent it that way. The buyer gets a lot of packages according to the mail carrier. The mail carrier also said that the buyer has people in and out of her house all the time. Perhaps one of these people took the package in the house or perhaps they took it as their own.
My daughter contacted her credit card provider and was told that there really wasn't anything she could do if the buyer asked for a chargeback. They would send her a form and she could fill it out and send in copies of any proof she had that the jewelry was delivered. She has had other chargbacks and has never had any luck in fighting not having them take the money back.
The last my daughter heard from the buyer was that she was going to make out a police report. My daughter was thinking that this was so she could make an insurance claim. Who knows, maybe she did. Today my daughter recieved a chargeback notice in her mail. This is her slow time of year and she does not have the $500.00 in her account and will probably receive an NFS charge on her account. This will put her even futher in the hole.
I'm not sure what else can be done about this matter. Where can my daughter go for help in fighting this buyer? It's a shame that one person can cause so much trouble and the credit card companies don't help the merchants more.
Do you have a business that this has happened to? If so how did you handle it?
Have you ever done this to a seller before? If so how did you feel about it?
1 person likes this
5 responses
@jonesy123 (3948)
• United States
22 Apr 09
I'm sorry to hear this happened to your daughter. Unfortunately, there is no real solution to the problem. If this would have gone through ebay, she might have been able to take it up through their settlement option. As to mailing the items, even with signature confirmation there is no guarantee, because the carrier not always asks for the signature and anybody can sign. I have mailed things with signature confirmation requests and items were handed over without signature. She might have to mail her stuff through UPS or FEDEX or something and get insurance through them.
As to the chargeback. I used to do a lot of accounting, therefore the term is very familiar to me and I use it, when requesting my money back. There is nothing wrong with that per se. Although knowing the circumstances here, this is terrible and your daughter might want to file a police report herself. Could very well be that she is not the first one filing one against this woman.
@grammpaula (121)
• United States
19 Jun 09
To update this issue. The credit card company found in favor of the buyer so my daughter lost the case. She has since changed her credit card dealing on her site. the info now goes through the website and the buyer myst enter the cvv # on the back of their card. This should help with the fraud issue. My daughter also sends the packages with signature confirmation. Things have been going along well for her.
@ladym33 (10979)
• United States
8 Mar 09
Honestly it sounds like this woman she sold the jewelry too is a con artist. It sounds like she orders lots of stuff on line and probably pulls this stuff with most of them. I encourage your daughter to only use paypal for transactions in the future. She should also contact ebay and explain the circumstance to them. Since she is dealing in very large monetary transactions she should really use delivery confirmation with signature confirmations, and also require her buyers to purchase insurance. That will discourage dishonest people from purchasing from her, and if a package does actually get lost the post office will reimburse for the value of the item. She is selling items that are too much money for her not to protect herself. Sure the signature confirmation will cost her a couple dollars extra, but she can include that in her shipping price if need be, and if she had done that in this case it would have saved her $500.00. It would be nice if all people were trust worthy and honest, but unfortuantely not all people are.
@grammpaula (121)
• United States
9 Mar 09
My daughter talked to the post office about the signature confirmation. She was told that they would not refund the money since the package was delivered. They said if someone had signed for the package and the customer said it wasn't her then they would not cover the package either. This lady sounds like she would try to cheat the system anyway she could. The sad this is this is still not resolved so my daughter still has to keep the money in her account just in case the crdit card ends up going on the side of the customer.
Thank you for your comment.
@Polly1 (12645)
• United States
13 Feb 09
I sell on ebay too, sometimes you just get a difficult customer, it happens and thats a risk you take. The customer and sellers are strangers, they have never met. When you send something with that muc value thru the mail there should be insurance and signature confirmation. Also if you daughter was using paypal for payment, she could contact them. Paypal will protect the seller as well as the buyer. The doesn't seem to be a way to prove the lady got her package or didn't get her package. This is an expensive lesson to learn, I do feel sorry for your daughter, thats alot of money. But then what if the lady is telling the truth, that she never got the package. They both loose out. Good luck to your daughter that things work out for the best.
@grammpaula (121)
• United States
14 Feb 09
The post office said once the package is delivered and they have confirmation of that it is out of their hands, so insurance wouldn't cover the package. Also a signature could be give by anyone and the buyer still could fight it. Lucky for my daughter it doesn't take $500 to actually make the jewelry. She does make a profit on the jewelry. The money has been spent that was in her account of supplies and bills so the has to come up with money to cover the chargeback before it happens. This is a slow time of the year since there aren't faires that people are buying jewelry for.
Thank you for your response.
@bunnybon7 (50973)
• Holiday, Florida
13 Feb 09
that woman is just a con artist and an AH!!
she needs to have someone turn her into the news media people or something like that. to get the word out to the public that she is using her supposed disability to rip people off. we have a channel 3 "on your side" here for help with things like that. your daughter should maybe use paypal? or stop taking credit cards. 
im so sorry for her. its just wrong.
she needs to have someone turn her into the news media people or something like that. to get the word out to the public that she is using her supposed disability to rip people off. we have a channel 3 "on your side" here for help with things like that. your daughter should maybe use paypal? or stop taking credit cards. im so sorry for her. its just wrong.@grammpaula (121)
• United States
14 Feb 09
We also have the news help. I suggested she contact them if she doesn't get the result she wants from the credit card people.
She does use Paypal, but wants to offer the credit card too since some people don't like to use Paypal. I make children's Halloween costumes and sell them online and stopped take credit cards and do Paypal only. I got tired of the extra cost the credit card company charge for the processing.
Thank you for your response.
@frygirl (382)
• United States
11 Feb 09
it sounds to me like your daughter needs to change her business habits for this very reason and start implementing a signature for any amount over $50.00 thats what i would do if it ws me that way she is protected form this kind of thing happening to her in the future.
@grammpaula (121)
• United States
11 Feb 09
Thank you for your response. She has talked to the post office and they said that a signature confirmation wouldn't help if this lady really wanted to get the jewelry for free. She could clain she didn't sign someone did. Once it's delivered to her house and there is proof of this through the delivery confirmation then I believe it should be her responsibility.
I'm just not sure who to turn to for answers on this matter.
