File a Dispute and Get a $500 Coupon?

I’d say about two weeks ago was when I heard about eBay giving coupons to buyers who had filed a dispute and ended up having a negative buying experience on eBay.  Of course I thought this can have a very negative impact for sellers and I’ll discuss why little later.  I guess I also just assumed that the coupons were probably $20 or maybe $50 at the most.  It turns out there is a buyer who received a $500 coupon for eBay almost immediately after filing a dispute.  The kicker here is that this buyer was able to resolve the issue amicably.  There is the thread on Seller Central discussing this.  Obviously there is an immediate skepticism on this because this is around April Fools day.  However there might be some truth in this $500 coupon claim because the guy even posted a screenshot of the alleged $500 coupon on that thread.  A reply on that thread was even talking about $750 coupon issued by eBay.

One can say that this is just eBay trying to keep their customers happy by issuing these coupons.  Of course that may be true if we’re living in an ideal world but that’s simply not the case.  There are indeed unscrupulous people out there that would see this as an opportunity to file a false dispute in hopes to maybe get a coupon.  If eBay doesn’t issue a coupon then they haven’t lost anything so there is no downside for a buying doing such a thing.  When the economy is in a state it’s in there are lot of people who may not normally do such a thing that may try this sort of thing to see if it works.  There are forums out there discussing bargains and deals and if a message gets out there that eBay is issuing $500 coupons for filing a dispute after a sale then you’re going to have people who will try just that.  Even if this $500 coupon is just an April Fools joke, eBay has indeed planted the seed about a week ago that made this sort of thing more believable.

Maybe I’m wearing my tinfoil hat bit tightly this morning but here is what I’m thinking.  Could this be a publicity stunt by eBay?  Could this be eBay’s deranged and twisted way of trying to attract new buyers to eBay?