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?

[kathiec]

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@asset_liquidators wrote:

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

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You might want to reread the posts.

[ms.rodriguez*]

My first thought was that the seller put the wrong item in the package.  My second thought was that he thought you were a foreign buyer and it was going to a freight forwarder and some sellers do not want to deal with freight forwarders.   Anyway, you have been refunded.   Find your item from someone else.

[jahood1984]

I actually didn't buy off a Facebook ad but a regular marketplace listing, if you search cat tree house you can find dozens of sellers running these scams from chewy and other sites.  It's apparent when you check the sellers feedback and see how many say tracking didn't work or got stuck and was issued a new tracking number.  They seem to be making great money though lol

[peva707]

Yep.  We can only speculate on what was driving the seller's behavior.  It's been suggested by myself and others here that they priced it too low and were going to lose money on the deal.  *IF* that was the case and they would have been honest and explained that to me, I'd have let them off the hook without dinging them in my feedback.

"Find your item from someone else." - I did that a week and a half ago when things started going sideways with no warning from seller and they also failed to respond to my first message to them wanting to know what was going on.

[gurlcat]

     1. Whether or not this seller was intentionally trying to scam, you had every right to be suspicious because it was a freaky scenario, and every right to be annoyed because there's no excuse for not answering buyer questions about a freaky scenario.  Matter of fact I wouldn't wait for you to write me; I would have written to you as soon as I realized there was a problem, explaining what happened (or assuring you I was trying to find out, if it was Fed Ex's doing; they are so awful I wouldn't put any screwup past them), and I would be apologizing profusely to you, ESPECIALLY if this was happening after I shipped late.  

     I have a spot of beef with this idea of being "made whole again" just by getting a refund at the end of a long period of waiting and wondering what the heck is going on.  If a stranger on the internet asked to borrow 90 bucks for over 2 weeks with no interest, and getting the money back would require repeated requests for help from a third party, would you do it?  Of course not.  But you did.  Without awareness of it or consent to it.  And not only did you not have possession of your money to spend on other needs (I'm guessing you don't have a vault of money like a bank does), but you also had to waste time seeking answers and enduring the emotional labor of worrying.  You're not "whole again"; your trust was diminished, you got upset enough to consider leaving Ebay.  I really hope they don't remove your feedback because this seller deserves it and potential future buyers deserve the heads up when considering buying from this person.  

     2. All that said, thank you for your business and please consider staying.  Speaking as someone who buys here more than anywhere else (in addition to being a seller), I can assure you that bad sellers are far rarer here than any other platform I'm aware of, and that is due in large part to how hard Ebay makes it for us to be bad.  It would be nice if they gave something like a $5 coupon as an apology to buyers after ordeals (the gesture alone might be enough to keep some who would leave otherwise), but at least they do make it almost impossible to get completely ripped off.  

[forder1969]

Currently 11-16-23 having same issue. New seller. I do believe it is a scam.

[zgnisaer]

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@forder1969 wrote:

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@peva707 wrote:

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. 

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Currently 11-16-23 having same issue. New seller. I do believe it is a scam. 

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Be aware @forder1969 that eBay considers that Delivered ... to you.

And you will lose if you start an item not received case (even though tracking was delivered back to the seller) and the case will close without a refund.

Start your own thread, instead of piggybacking onto this old thread, if you now need help.

[kh-ornesh]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.