Is this a new seller scam? Recall shipment just before it goes "Out for Delivery"

[peva707]

Waiting for item shipped by seller by FedEx from CA to me in VA.  The day it reaches my local FedEx distribution center, just before it  goes "Out for Delivery", tracking shows it is "recalled by shipper" (meaning the ebay seller).  Seller has not responded to 2 messages from me since order was placed 2 weeks ago due to late shipping.  I sent an alert message to ebay. Their system acknowledged my message and said that they sent a message to the seller and to contact them if I haven't received the item by a certain date.  Then I get an email from ebay saying that the item is on the way to me, shows my address as the destination, due to arrive by Tuesday the 15th.  I check tracking - shows that it got delayed for about a day, then started moving again.

So I'm thinking "OK - someone (probably seller, maybe ebay) contacted FedEx and changed the destination back again to my address.  *BUT* as I watch the tracking over the next couple of days, it moved westward, first to NC, then to MS.  Today, it's all the way back in CA, not delivered yet.

I tried to send a followup to ebay yesterday to let them know that it is still going back to its origin - *BUT* the ebay system won't let me contact them again about this item until the date they told me to contact them if I had not received it by.

So here's what I'm predicting: It will reach the seller, and the seller will hope I'm lazy and stupid and they will try to keep my money.  But, when I can finally contact ebay again, they will realize what happened and refund my money.  The ridiculous thing is that I can see the train wreck happening over a period of days by the tracking, but ebay has locked me out of alerting them to the attempted rip-off until it has been completed.

So, as my subject line suggests, I'm thinking somebody has figured out a way to rip people off (by recalling the shipment just before delivery, and when it reaches the new destination - back to the seller, ebay's system shows it as having been delivered, and falsely concludes that the transaction is successfully complete - except that it was delivered back to the seller) with ebay's unknowing assistance by blocking the buyer from updating them of the continuation of the scam that they were alerted about and that they thought they headed off, but that continued to unfold over a period of days as clearly shown in the tracking.  Frustrating!

I knew this was this seller's first sale (figuring everybody has to start at 0, so might as well help them get started), but notice now that their account name was created 2 years ago.  Is that somehow part of the scam?

[peva707]

I appreciate the heads up.

It is what it is.  I just try to play by the rules and do what's right.  What others do is on them.  If this is just a one-off weirdness by this seller, so be it - I wish them well in straightening up and flying right.  But I'd like to think that if it is the start of a pattern, it will eventually catch up with them.

Peace!  👍

[lacemaker3]

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@peva707 wrote:

There certainly could have been a mistake of some sort (though not the one you suggest , since this is the *only* transaction they have done *ever* in their 2 years of existence, i.e. there's no other order to mix it up with), but I get your point that there could have been some sort of honest mistake, which is forgivable since everybody makes mistakes.

...

😁

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Actually, this is one of 3 transactions the seller has had. The seller had 5 items available in that listing, and sold them all in 3 transactions (of one item, one item, and 3 items). So it is possible that the seller made a mistake and shipped the wrong number of items to you.

You could check the tracking, and see what weight the package was that was being sent to you. That should show if it was the wrong number of items. Each item sold was supposed to be a two-pack, so they should weigh at least 2 pounds for a single item. It's also possible that the seller listed them wrong, and only had 5 packages total, rather than 5 two-packs.

Can't argue about the lack of communication. No real excuse for that. Obviously the seller has no idea how to be a retailer.

It's odd that the package would be in California, since the item location was Colorado.

[peva707]

Interesting information, lacemaker3.

You may have access to seller info. that I don't have - I don't see their number of transactions - only the feedback ratings.  Perhaps I just don't know where to look, not that I tried or need to.  Strange that they've had 3 transactions but (up until today) zero feedback ratings.  Perhaps no feedback was left previously, or the previous feedback was removed?

Re: Package weight - interesting.  The FedEx tracking shows the shipped weight as 5.2 lbs, which would mean about 3 lbs of packaging for 2 lbs of product.  The product is in round containers that are 3-1/2" diameter x 5-1/2" tall.  FedEx tracking shows the package size as 12 x 12 x 8.  Could it be that they shipped 4 containers (or two 2-paks)?  (And as you said, that still wouldn't explain zero communication.)

Re: Shipping from CA instead of seller's location of CO - the manufacturer of the product is HQ'd in Chula Vista, one of the cities in the San Diego metro area.  FedEx tracking shows package was originally picked up in San Diego, and today's return delivery was in Chula Vista, so the Occam's razor explanation is that the seller likely had it drop shipped from the manufacturer.

One more strange/funny thing: This afternoon, I got an "ORDER DELIVERED" notification email from ebay with my name and home address in the "Delivered To" box.  I realize that that's just a non-human automated system that doesn't understand what happened, getting triggered by the Fedex "Delivered" signal, and just parroting the original transaction "ship to" information.  🤪  At least it's not billing me based on that.

[jahood1984]

Actually there is a huge scam going around like this everywhere... Here's how it went for me...

 Bought cat tree house on Facebook

Get tracking.

Several days later I get a single dog treat from Chewy.com who I'm not registered with.  I provide them the tracking on the box and tell them I bought a cathouse on FB and it's likely somehow related.  Turns out the seller is using hacked or old accounts and  stolen credit cards, they order the $1 item and if it goes through they order a few other things they drop ship. I check tracking on the cat house and it's been recalled midway.... Chewy said this is an ongoing issue (duh the seller I bought from sold 300 cat houses of just the type I bought) and that it's occurring across multiple sites.  This seller also had new kitchenware and other items up.  In fact you can find these new products from countless sellers at amazing prices right now on many sites.

    I contact seller the seller and play dumb, they immediately request a day and will have another tracking number up for another hot item.  I said no thanks I'll take my money back and they refunded.  I left feedback which was immediately removed ...

  This is happening everywhere right now and expect to see more of it, this happened a month ago and the same person is STILL selling hundreds of items a day.  I told them what chewy told me and they pretended to not know but continue selling.  If you get an item reed during shipping or even an  item that was clearly dropshipped, might be worth calling the company that dropshipped it to see if it's hot...

[lacemaker3]

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@peva707 wrote:

Interesting information, lacemaker3.

You may have access to seller info. that I don't have - I don't see their number of transactions - only the feedback ratings.  Perhaps I just don't know where to look, not that I tried or need to.  Strange that they've had 3 transactions but (up until today) zero feedback ratings.  Perhaps no feedback was left previously, or the previous feedback was removed?

...

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It was a BIN listing, with 5 two-packs available, and the listing shows: 0 available / 5 sold.

Where it shows the number sold is a link, and if you click on that, it shows that there were 3 purchases made to buy the 5 items, all on July 28. The other buyers may not have realized there is a problem yet.

[peva707]

Thanks for the link (I still don't know if I can manually navigate to it, but your link opened when I clicked on it).  Yep - July 28 was my purchase date - there I am.  Strangely the listing was up a few days before that, but all 3 sales were on that same day.

I'll watch their feedback ratings to see if the other two pop up.  If they do, t'will be interesting to see what they have to say.  😁

BTW - that price of $90.87 with free shipping is a good $12 to $20 cheaper than current selling price on that item from all other sellers on ebay and "that other place".  That's one reason I was disappointed when the deal went south (actually it literally went *west* in this case 🤣 ).  Perhaps they suddenly realized that they were going to lose money and intentionally (but very clumsily) scuttled the deal.

[peva707]

Yes - my wife ordered 3 items on one of those FaceBook scam adds.  I was able to recover the money on all 3 thru Paypal's claim process.

I researched how they work.  In my wife's case, the adds took her to a page with an actual banner at the top prominently displaying Lowe's logo and marketing photo viewing a Lowe's store as viewed from the parking lot.  That misleads you into thinking the unbelievable prices are a legit clearance deal from a well-known, reputable company.  What you don't see thru the ordering process until the transaction shows on your PayPal account is that the seller is actually in China - the names of the sellers are actually in Chinese characters.  Two of the items my wife "purchased" were a Dyson vacuum cleaner and a Lowe's kit-type storage building - items normally priced at $200-$400 - but selling for $99 w/free shipping.  Yeah, like they're going to ship a storage building kit from China and sell it to you with free shipping for $99 - right!

Anyway, these facebook ads often *appear* to be sponsored by or affiliated with legitimate well-known companies (Lowe's, Walmart, Target, etc.) by displaying their logos on the ordering page.  Those bogus web pages are up for a week or less, just long enough to make some scam sales, and then they disappear as if it never happened.  And the buyers are stuck with dealing with a scam seller shipping by China Post.

Typically the item actually shipped is nothing at all like was ordered - just like you described - a token 10¢ item instead of a larger item that you paid tens of dollars for, or, alternately, from my research, whatever it is they ship gets shipped to some other address several states away from you - and they claim that they have "proof of delivery", making getting a refund more complicated.

I have no idea what if anything my wife would have received because I was able to kill all 3 deals before they made it out of China (China Post showed them as actually shipped).

[mikhirs]

I've seen those Facebook ads too, (about the storage bldgs).   

[peva707]

You wanna buy one?  (j/k)

[asset_liquidators]

Ebay would have no way of "preventing" it. If someone recalls a package there is nothing ebay can do to stop it.

Should seller have communicated better? ABSOLUTELY. 

But, I think what the seller has done is recalled the package to mitigate their financial damage. Knowing it was arriving late and you, as the buyer, were not happy about it, they didn't want to take the chance of an INR filed where they would lose both money and item (speaking of disrespect and aggravation). 

Yes the seller really screwed up and fumbled at the goal line on this one but once they get the item back I am willing to bet they just cancel the transaction and refund.  There is no scam to be had from this.

[kathiec]

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@asset_liquidators wrote:

Ebay would have no way of "preventing" it. If someone recalls a package there is nothing ebay can do to stop it.

Should seller have communicated better? ABSOLUTELY. 

But, I think what the seller has done is recalled the package to mitigate their financial damage. Knowing it was arriving late and you, as the buyer, were not happy about it, they didn't want to take the chance of an INR filed where they would lose both money and item (speaking of disrespect and aggravation). 

Yes the seller really screwed up and fumbled at the goal line on this one but once they get the item back I am willing to bet they just cancel the transaction and refund.  There is no scam to be had from this.

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EBay has already refunded the OP.

[peva707]

Thanks for your comments.  With your almost 6000 transactions, I'm sure you've been around the block a few times.

As kathiec said, ebay already issued a refund (mentioned in an earlier post, but this thread is a lot to read in one sitting).  👍

[asset_liquidators]

I don't see anywhere that they say ebay has refunded them.

[peva707]

When I open the transaction on "my ebay", a banner at the top of the "Order details" page says that I got a refund, gives the amount and date, and the dollar amount of the transaction summary shows as $0.00.

Kathiec is likely going strictly by my previous post in which I said they issued  refund - that's how she knows.  🤷‍

[peva707]

And the credit shows on my PayPal account.