eBay seller possible insurance scam or fraud?
Summary: pbbmgb shares concerns about two separate issues with buying coffee on eBay. In the first issue, a seller issued a refund for a misdelivered package without any report from USPS or the buyer. The seller's reviews show this has happened multiple times, raising suspicions of possible insurance fraud. The second issue involves multiple sellers shipping coffee from Walmart at a lower price than Walmart offers, but with inefficient packaging. pbbmgb's spouse humorously suggests stopping eBay coffee purchases.
Issue #1
I recently purchased some coffee from a Seller with a good seller rating. The seller sent the package via USPS. I got a notice that it had arrived and before I could get to the mailbox I get a note saying it was misdelivered and a refund issued. I asked how did know how it was misdelivered if I didn’t report it misdelivered? His response was he monitors his transactions closely and he issued the refund and made the insurance claim so I didn’t have to wait. I pushed back and asked did USPS an admit to misdelivering? I got a terse response ……Refund issued! I noticed he is still selling the coffee. If you’re a seller wouldn’t you want to sell product? A note saying, I am sorry It was misdelivered I will file a claim and send your more coffee makes more sense. By the way, eBay is showing the product was delivered and refund issued.
I still don’t understand how he would know it was misdelivered if I didn’t report it or USPS reported it. I don’t see USPS saying “oh, we misdelivered it” right after they delivered iti! I haven’t sold anything on eBay in years. Does eBay offer shipping insurance or does USPS? Is it normal for the seller to make the insurance claim?
Reviewing the seller’s reviews, the same thing has happened multiple times.
Issue 2-
A couple of times, I have purchased coffee from buyers who sold the coffee in two or three bag quantities. When it arrives it comes from Walmart out of Waco Texas. Instead of one box arriving with 3 bags of coffee in it, it arrives in 3 separate boxes. As a Walmart + member, I can’t purchase the coffee at the same price. It is $4-$5 a bag more than the seller listing. Then it arrives with one box per bag. This has happened with Two separate sellers and both from Waco, TX.
My wife says I should stop buying Coffee on EBay. LOL
eburtonlab
·1 week ago@pbbmgb
You should probably stop buying coffee from dodgy retail drop-shippers.
It may not be possible to always identify in advance those sellers who drop-ship, but it is possible to identify some common characteristics of illicit retail drop-shippers or other under-performing sellers, and thus avoid the worst of them.
Often they can be spotted by a combination of low feedback number, free shipping of heavy items where it would not be profitable to use retail shipping, use of stock photos, high handling time (not necessarily if they are using Amazon or Walmart, though), poor feedback received with complaints of delays and wrong items or out of stock cancellations, very odd item selection and/or quantities like items were chosen at random from a catalog, canned item descriptions scraped from another site that exactly match many other similar listings, differences between registration location on the feedback page and item location (or vague item location -- like "US, United States"), or inability to answer even basic questions about the items being sold.
If someone is selling multiple quantities and undercutting Amazon or Walmart's price and then delivering the items via Amazon or Walmart, the seller is either losing money or else purchasing directly from the retailer in your name -- and likely using a stolen credit card, in what is known as a triangulation scam.
https://www.valueaddedresource.net/triangulation-fraud/