Ten months after resolution of a dispute

[jeffrolando]

Ten months after having refunded the buyer as a resolution of a dispute (UPS damage related)  the seller contacts the buyer asking him to return the item. He does not offer a prepaid label. The seller claimed to have opened an insurance claim with UPS, but UPS claims that he never did that. The seller states in an Ebay message that “Ebay reached out and asked if I wanted to continue the investigation and I said yes.” The buyer suspects the seller of attempting some sort of fraud. Would Ebay ‘reach out’ to the seller of an item damaged in shipping ten months after having closed the case and refunded the buyer?

[mtgraves7984]

You must be the buyer, because eBay didn't reach out to you, correct? To answer your question... No, I don't think eBay would reach out to a seller this long after a refund has been issued.

Sit tight for other posters who might have understood your query differently than I did. Good luck.

[house*of*paws]

Hi @jeffrolando 

The buyer … who I’m assuming is you … would have been told that they could do whatever they want with the item at the time they received the refund.

Nothing could have happened in the ensuing months to change that understanding. I strongly doubt that eBay contacted the seller about the transaction after 10 months.

[If the item was expensive … I probably would have returned it if provided with payment for postage … but there is no obligation to do so.  Without being provided up front with the return postage … I would just ignore the seller.]

[kathiec]

@jeffrolando 

There's nothing eBay or the seller can do after a refund is issued, whether it's one day after or 10 months. Refunds can't be reversed. So there would be no reason for eBay to have contacted the seller. If you still have the item you have the option of telling the seller you're happy to return it if they provide a prepaid return label. Otherwise you can simply ignore the message.

[jeffrolando]

Thanks for the reply.

The buyer will ignore it, and your advice confirms his suspicion. Nothing “could have happened in the ensuing months to change” anything. The buyer also “strongly doubts that eBay contacted the seller about the transaction after 10 months.” The seller previously lied to the buyer that he had opened an insurance claim with UPS. UPS told the buyer that no such a claim had been made. This was just another lie. Phishing perhaps. The seller tried the same phishing scam a week or so after the dispute was resolved. He sent no postage label then either. Postage would have been $100-$150. That’s how much UPS charged to break it and ship it. Who knows how much it may have cost to ship it without breaking it further. The seller probably didn’t want to pay another $150 to have a broken item returned. The repair estimate was $300-500. He failed to insist on his insurance claim against UPS. That was the seller’s decision.

[jeffrolando]

The seller already tried to trick the buyer into paying his own money to have it returned a week after the decision. This was probably a second attempt at phishing. Thanks for the reply. The buyer will ignore this disreputable seller.

[jeffrolando]

Well, Ebay suggested no personal info here. The seller claimed that Ebay had reached out to him. The buyer doubted that, and three out of three people have confirmed this as doubtful. The seller had lied before, both to the buyer and to Ebay during the dispute resolution. Just another phishing attempt. Thanks.

[mudshark61369]

@jeffrolando,

Your ebay username is not personal information, (real name, address etc,)  it is posted on your topic. We knew you were the buyer from the start.  What you can't do is give out a seller's username. 

This was not a Phishing attempt, the seller already has your real name, address and possibly your email address, information. They do not have your financial info.  While the seller is lying about ebay reaching out to them.

 There is no way UPS is going to give you information about a damage claim filed by a seller. A) They do not keep information that long in their system. B) You are not entitled to it, only the sender is.

  If UPS wanted the item and/or its packaging for them to make a decision about a claim, the seller would have notified you of that and told you to arrange pickup from UPS or to drop the item off at one of their stores with the claim number.

[soh.maryl]

My only question is why you don't identify yourself as the buyer from the beginning here?

[jeffrolando]

The main thing is that you agree with three previous comments. Ebay probably didn’t contact the seller, and he was almost certainly lying.

Rather than arguing about what you think UPS is going to do, I’ll tell what their employees said. Within a week of the shipment (not ten months later) three or four CS reps said that there was no evidence on their end of any claim. (I think they are allowed to say that.) When pressed, they said that a claim would have to be made by the sender at the UPS store of origin. When asked for that phone number, they said they weren’t allowed to give it out, but one of them said “I think I’m allowed to tell you the city and state.” Armed with that, the recipient called the UPS store of origin, and the manager said that he had personally spoken with the sender, who asked about filing a claim, but never did so. The fact that he lied to the buyer and to Ebay may have been one reason why they decided against him. His main error was in not filing a claim. His loss.

Lastly, I guess I didn’t mean technically ‘phishing.’ I meant trying to trick someone into doing something foolish with their money. (I thought that was ‘phishing.’ I stand corrected.)

[jeffrolando]

A general answer was deemed sufficient. The buyer was at least slightly concerned that perhaps the seller was not lying. He probably was, right?