Buying on eBay has become unbearable

[dolcetreasures]

As my post suggests, buying has become so fraught with problems that’s it no longer worth it. 

I purchased a set of hangers from a Chinese seller masquerading as a USA seller who is drop shipping items. The vendor used a common scam of supplying me with another persons tracking number going to the local post office.

I called eBay and told them what had happened, I have Informed Delivery so I can see every piece of mail coming to my address(so can the post office). 

I even uploaded all the proof including the post officials letter stating the tracking number was not to my address, was not to my name, and was an envelope(clearly impossible to contain 8 extra wide wood hangers). 

I opened INR case since there was no other option, the notes mentioned what was happening. On the morning the case was to close in my favor, the seller contacted eBay and they closed the case in the sellers favor citing the delivery from the fake tracking. 

I had to once again call eBay to get a resolution. Which they ended up refunding me, but under “stolen from porch”, which is completely incorrect.

Fast forward to one week later, I tried purchase hangers from another seller with nothing too much amiss in the feedback, well the seller sends me a status update yesterday with a tracking number which shows a delivery date 2 days prior to the seller sending the status update. In other words the item was delivered before it would have been sent. 

I call eBay and speak to a concierge and she clearly sees that there is something going on, opens a case for me for INR. Now I have to spend more time collecting evidence that nothing was delivered to me.

[chevymontecarlo88]

Although I rarely have an issue buying on the site, i have seen more posts complaining about similar issues. Price does seem to be a similar factor with these issues. My opinion is that these scammers are preying on those who are purchasing items that are priced at the bottom. (item)

I do use the Big A for other stuff and of course i can get anything locally if i want it bad enough. 

[eburtonlab]

If tracking shows delivery but nothing arrives:

If the buyer can obtain some hard copy documentation (email is not good enough) that says that the package was not delivered to the buyer's address or something that shows the weight or size of the package cannot possibly correspond to the ordered item, or the shipping date precedes the order, then the buyer may be able to contact eBay via social media direct message, provide that documentation to eBay and get help with "false tracking".

https://x.com/askebay

https://www.facebook.com/ebay

https://www.instagram.com/ebayforsellers/

With "false tracking" if you go through a standard automated "item not received" case, on the other hand, you will lose the case because the seller can provide tracking that appears to show delivery. If you then appeal, you may have some additional options at that point. It appears that eBay has added a new appeal option regarding "delivery to another address", but I do not know how effective that is compared to contacting eBay via social media with documentation and explicitly mentioning "false tracking", which seems to work provided you can obtain the necessary documentation.

If you are unable to get help through eBay, you may have recourse through your payment method, though you should probably exhaust all your eBay options first since once you go through your payment method, eBay will no longer help with that transaction.

In general, you can avoid a lot of headaches by choosing to purchase only from established sellers that have recent and past positive feedback as a seller for selling items in the same category that you intend to buy. If someone is selling a dozen apple watches, but has no feedback, or only has feedback as a buyer, or only has feedback for selling dress patterns or fishing lures (actual examples I have seen), perhaps wait until they have a track record of positive feedback for selling electronics before you buy from them.

[dolcetreasures]

I had purchased the same set of hangers previously from a similar seller and received them without problem, I tried to buy a larger set from a seller with a good amount of feedback(though there were 5 comments 4 positive 1 negative claiming non-delivery and misdelivery). 

I then tried to buy a similar set from a seller with hundreds of positive feedback, and nevertheless it happened again. 

I’ve been buying on eBay for many years, never saw anything like this on my end. But it seems the river is a better place to buy these type of items than eBay. And that’s quite unfortunate.

[eburtonlab · Accepted solution]

How many items has the seller actually sold? It should say on the seller's profile page.

Do not rely on just the feedback number; some sellers also buy, and can have lots of feedback for buying. Feedback for buying tells you nothing about how a seller operates.

Look instead at the feedback for selling, specifically. Does the seller have a lot of feedback for selling in the category you are interested in? For selling similar valued-items?

Has the seller changed categories recently?

A seller that has lots of feedback for selling keychains that suddenly starts selling very expensive crypto mining equipment would be suspicious. Selling many individual inexpensive items is one way for someone to build up a lot of feedback... possibly as a prelude to some sort of scam.

Scammers can hijack an existing account, and use the original account holder's feedback to seem legitimate. An account with feedback for selling handmade fishing lures in the past that suddenly starts selling many expensive designer handbags should be suspicious.

Some sellers list items that they intend to have delivered by a drop-shipper, so that the seller never even sees the items being sold. An inexperienced but otherwise well-intentioned seller can pick a shady drop-shipper to do business with, and the drop-shipper can turn out to be a scammer, delivering nothing but a false tracking number.

The more experience a seller has in selling in a particular category, and the longer the seller has been selling similar items and getting positive feedback, with no breaks in the seller's history or drastic changes in behavior or patterns of negative feedback, the less likely you are to suddenly run into a problem.

[chevymontecarlo88]

If I am looking for something similar to what you were purchasing, I do look for sellers that do not have hundreds of listings if possible. Of course, i will view their feedback and sales but i find those sellers (not all) tend to have issues with staying on top of their inventory more often than smaller sellers. IMHO Most of the time you can tell if the seller is a flake or not but unfortunately it is hard to know when a scammer is at times. 

[dolcetreasures]

You’re absolutely right, but the vetting takes some time and effort and adds a layer of complexity to something that should be simple. I could not have imagined I’d get “scammed” buying hangers?!? Lol

[reallynicestamps]

seller with a good amount of feedback(though there were 5 comments 4 positive 1 negative claiming non-delivery and misdelivery).

The one advantage of FB is that the buyer can see not so much that there is negative FB, but if there is a common complaint in that FB.

Because the complainer may be perpetually dissatisfied or  a competitor, or each FB may have a different problem (packaging, quality, slow delivery).

It's the repetition of a single problem that is the tell.

[kensgiftshop]

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@dolcetreasures wrote:

You’re absolutely right, but the vetting takes some time and effort and adds a layer of complexity to something that should be simple. I could not have imagined I’d get “scammed” buying hangers?!? Lol

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I think some of these scammers have found out it's easier to go for the lower priced items, then expensive ones.

Getting scammed on a $100 item will bring more attention then a $10 or $20 item.

[eburtonlab]

You’re absolutely right, but the vetting takes some time and effort and adds a layer of complexity to something that should be simple.

Most of the vetting can be boiled down into some relatively simple rules of thumb: given multiple sellers selling the same product, choose from among the most experienced sellers. Or at least avoid the least experienced sellers. Avoid sellers that appear to be drop-shipping: using stock photos and descriptions, that have a random assortment of new, multiple quantity listings that appear to have been plucked at random from a catalog; that are selling bulky items with free shipping that likely cannot be profitably sold while using retail shipping services; that are registered in one location but ship from another. Avoid sellers that have a pattern of negative feedback indicating serious problems, or that lack enough history or feedback in a category to be able to judge effectively.

It helps to know enough about a product and how much it costs to ship to be able to judge when a deal is "too good to be true".

I could not have imagined I’d get “scammed” buying hangers?!?

I have seen scam listings for gallons of epoxy resin, and also for bubble wrap.