Help!

[lone_star_readers]

I was recently defrauded by a seller on ebay on a purchase of a Fujifilm X-T4 camera through ebay seller. I made several mistakes buying from a seller with a newly established account, no reviews, and worse on the USPS website I enabled my electronic signature for delivery to be applied to my shipment  prior to actual delivery  when the tracking showed it was soon to be delivered. Suffice to say, I never received the item. Tracking indicated the item "Delivered, Front Desk/Reception/Mail Room". I live in a house not a building. I immediately went to the post office to inquire and they did an inquiry eventually emailing me the results showing a blank delivery location (email which I submitted to ebay). A postal worker called me to follow up stating that on their system, the package was delivered to a business and to a recipient name which wasn't mine. They could not give me the address or recipient name (unless I could tell them what the address/name were) which made no sense to me. I had multiple calls with ebay agents to let them know what had occurred. I also noticed soon after a new ebay listing for the exact same camera, same description pictures with the same scuffs on the camera, same price. This time the seller name was changed slightly. I informed ebay agents and asked them to check the listings which were nearly identical out of concern that someone else would be defrauded. Multiple ebay agents agreed that it was the same item. I reported both seller user names and did everything I could do to try to get this information to ebay fraud department. Today, I received an email saying they closed my case in favor of the seller because the seller provided to ebay signed provided proof of delivery to me. I immediately called ebay and spoke with yet another agent who again agreed with me that the listings both sold the same item. I expressed great frustration in that all my prior communication with the ebay agents had gone no where. Whoever reviewed my case just took the seller's reporting of my early electronic signature as proof of delivery. It appeared they had not even read or looked at anything I had submitted or any of the notes of correspondence with the multiple ebay agents I spoke with. I appealed the decision immediately, wrote a quick note on the appeal for the reviewer to please refer to all the notes written by the agents I spoke with and to look at the seller's account and reposted sale of the item I never received, and I called ebay again restating everything. I don't have much hope but wanted to warn others not to be duped as ebay doesn't seem very proactive in preventing members from fraud since they allowed the new listing to stay on long enough till someone bought it. In a few days, they will be contacting ebay for fraud unfortunately. I should have known better. I'm probably out a good sum of money, unless a conscientious ebay supervisor  takes the time to review my case carefully and helps me. It is very difficult to contact ebay and there is no way for me to speak with the fraud department - I asked the ebay agent on they phone and that is what I as told. Please be on the lookout of this fraudulent seller.

[12345jamesstamps]

This is a last resort...and it sounds like you did a lot of footwork.

You can do this one time in a monthly cycle with your banking debit or credit card online...file a dispute with purchase item. Simpler than by phone or walking into the bank. Hopefully, you don't have disputes with others like door dash, Uber or Amazon and such. It is a courtesy by the bank. And eBay does frown on this as well so it's a last resort. 

Phone calls to customer service are their only for advice.

[lone_star_readers]

thank you. I'll look into that. I am so frustrated and feel so foolish and maddenned by the whole system.

[lone_star_readers]

As a final update, looks like ebay doesn't do anything but look at tracking information. If they see eveidence of a signature by the buyer (in my case an electronic signature releasing delivery before the shipment was delivered), the buyer loses the appeal. The email states that their decision is based on tracking information. ebay never looked or took into consideration at any information I provided, in particular the evidence I provided that the seller resold the item in question to another unsuspecting buyer using  a different user name. I even gave ebay the reposted item number and they did nothing, eventually allowing the next unsuspecting buyer to purchase an item they're never going to receive. 

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[lone_star_readers]

‎mudshark61369 Superstar

08-09-2023 0531 AM

You have been the victim of a fake tracking scam, the seller's send something, an envelope or small box with tracking to a different address, and uses the Delivered scan to win an Item Not Received (INR) dispute. 

eBay's automated INR system is not allowed access to anything but the scan information, due to shipping company's privacy policies.  When you file a dispute and lose in the message there should  be an appeal button.  You have 30 days from losing the dispute to appeal, but in order to win you have to do some leg work. The info below is what you have do do when this happens with any shipping agency.

You will have to go to your P.O. or  a local UPS or FedEx store.  You need to bring a copy of your order details page which shows your address and the tracking number with you. If you bought using a phone or tablet, you can bring that to show the clerk the order details.

  You want to ask the clerk to check the label address against yours, and also to check the Package type/size weight info to see if was is appropriate for what you should have received.  If the info does not match up, you ask the clerk to write a note on Company stationary saying in general that the shipping label's address was not yours, and if applicable that the package type/size/weight was not right for what you should have received. Do not ask for specific address or package info, they cannot give it out.  Have the clerk sign and date the note.

Once you have the note, you can appeal the dispute ruling, or contact ebay through their Facebook or Twitter social media pages.  You can write out what happened and what you found out, and add a CLEAR photo or a scan of the note to an appeal or message.  If you go the social media route which is recommended, because the reps know about the fake tracking scams you will need to have the seller's username and the ebay item number. At the end of your message give them your real and ebay username. 

In the future I strongly suggest that you check the feedback profile pages of each seller you intend to buy from, before bidding on or buying their items.  On the profile page if the seller has received neutral or negative feedback, click on the numbers of them to read only those comments. Never go by a feedback percentage alone. Some people who have been scammed but did not file a dispute may have left feedback saying they never received their items.

[mudshark61369]

@lone_star_readers,

In your post you mentioned several times that you called ebay and spoke to reps.  If you got the number you used to reach them from an online search, you were Not speaking to anyone at ebay. The only way to reach ebay reps is by requesting call backs from them.  Even then the people you reach work for a call center, and the playbook they use to try and help people does not cover the fake tracking number scams.  They tend to also tell people who take up too much time on the phone, anything they think the caller wants to hear to get them off the phone.

I do not mind that you copied and pasted my answer to another post about the fake tracking number scams to your topic, however, if you are going to do that you should include the links to reach ebay through their social media sites. eBay has at least 2 on Facebook, but only one works in these situations.  If my post worked for you you could at least accept it as  a solution.

https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness

https://twitter.com/askebay