@hhjsfbay,
"Ask seller for image of package prior to shipping. Seller responsiveness can be a clue for trouble ahead. You have to act as soon as you have the tracking number, call the shipping service and ask for details regarding the shipment, ie, the cost, weight and dimensions".
There are a few things wrong with your supposed solution.
A) Sellers are not required to respond to messages.
B) Calling a shipping service and asking for package info, may not work due to their privacy policies.
You need to provide proof that you should be the addressee, and of who you are. You can get
That info by going to your P.O. or a shipper's store with your purchase details page if you use a
phone or tablet to buy, bring that to show a clerk. They can tell you in general if the addresses
match, and if the package type/size/weight is appropriate for what you purchased.
"Keep in mind ebay does nothing until delivery day has arrived and then gives seller more time to respond".
eBay has had that policy since before you joined. You cannot file any kind of dispute until tracking has a delivered scan, or the last estimated delivery time has passed. How do they know if the info you send them before receiving an item is correct or not? You would not know if it is as described, or where you got the package info.
"If I had known this prior to the delivery date I could have frozen my card".
If you do that, it would cost you your ebay protections for the transaction. It might even get your ability to use the Money Back Guarantee limited. Besides before your card provider would do a charge back, they would need proof of fraudulent activity.
"Once the tracking number reaches your address, ebay sides with the seller... The seller then produced a fake usps proof of receipt".
That happens because ebay's automated Item Not Received system can only look at the tracking informat
ion for a delivery scan. They cannot access the label or package information, because they are neither the sender or recipient, and therefore not entitled to the info.
When you lose a dispute, you can appeal it within 30 days, but first you need to do some leg work. You can speed up the process, by contacting them through their Faceook or Twitter social media pages. The reps who respond on those boards are actual ebay employees, and have experience with the fake tracking number scams, and can take action, unlike the phone/chat personal who work for 3rd party call/chat centers.
Below is a link to a previous topic about fake tracking numbers. Read my first reply in it for the steps you can take to get a refund.
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Buying/Item-Not-Received-Tracking-Says-Delivered-FedEX-Buyer-What-Now/...
You may have avoided this and the previous issues you've had by checking your seller's feedback profile pages, before buying from them. Your seller had (0) feedback before your purchase, because they had neither bought or sold anything in over a year. That can be an indication of a hijacked account.
You may not know it but new and returning after over a year of not selling, seller's have a 21 day hold placed on their first few payments by ebay, and many new/returning sellers do not know about the hold or what to do to get the funds released, so they run into problems with their sales.
"I emailed the CEO, support is helpless to help and limited in their knowledge base. The sooner you know details about the shipping the sooner you can take action. You have to take action outside of ebay’s platform before a delivery date.
Ebay's CEO will never see that email. Their upper management has remained unresponsive to members both buyer's and seller's plights since 2008.
"Thanks for listening, hope this helps some of you. Desperate times call for a little more diligence on our part".
Checking seller's feedback profiles is part of your due dilligence. When you see in a listing that a seller claims to have sold an item previously, but it was returned, you should do an Advanced search, by seller, of their sold listings, to see if there was a reason why. Especially, if they are a new or returning seller. I suggest doing that now, In this case I would bet, they managed to successfully scam some other buyers.
It’s my hope ebay will take these simple measures off the users hands and demonstrate that they care about their buyers".
"THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS FOOLPROOF, BECAUSE FOOLS ARE SO DARNED INGENIOUS!" (unknown)
