Help - Buyer says they received a empty box in leu of a $400 item

[cdyl_us_sdbectc8r]

The buyer with 0 feedback claims to have received an empty box. I know, I should have cancelled the order when I saw they had no feedback. I just didn't check at all, I thought eBay had buyer protection. I don't sell things as a business or to make money. I sell things to just get by right now.

I shipped it with UPS Ground and I have the Proof of Delivery with the weight listed.

I hope some more experienced sellers can offer some advice and experience on how to proceed. This is probably the last higher value item I will ever sell on eBay. If this buyer manages to scam me out of $400, I will not have a fun time in the coming weeks. This is basically my last $400

I contacted eBay as soon as this happened. They said they will back me up and they believe me and to wait until the 16th when I can ask eBay to step in.

Thank you in advance.

[cdyl_us_sdbectc8r]

I do some drop shipping on those items. Some goofy phone cases. The electronics like my headphones I sold ship from the US

[cdyl_us_sdbectc8r]

I suppose I'll keep that in mind. It makes sense to me that if you choose to refund them then there's no going back on that.

[vintagecraze50]

If buyer claims the empty box scenerio you could try the last resort by messaging the buyer and telling them you have proof of the package weight and tracking showing delivered. You can also tell them you are starting a claim with the USPS to investigate the possibility of a tampered with item. Tell them the USPS postal inspector will require them to show evidence of tampering. In an instance with an inexperienced scammer on here they might back off . 

[vintagecraze50]

Send ebay any evidence you have regarding tracking showing delivered weight of box etc.

[vintagecraze50]

In the future if you cannot afford to loose the given amount your items are priced at do not sell them online. Large scale sellers deal with this all the time on here and they cover their losses with the higher volume of sales. Also folks with just a few items and new to the platform get more attention from these scammers anywhere online.

[cdyl_us_sdbectc8r]

Yeah.. I have the UPS Proof of Delivery, and now so does the 'buyer' and eBay. The PoD shows the package weight. Hopefully it helps.

This situation will definitely not repeat itself for me, regardless of outcome...

[ebooksdiva]

What type of case did the buyer open? Was it an Item Not Received? If the buyer did you should upload tracking # into the case to Prove delivery You should be fine. 

DO NOT have eBay step in as it will back fire on you giving the buyer a refund.

[cdyl_us_sdbectc8r]

He opened a return with the reason of "missing parts or pieces" and the message was "empty box"

Also a new development...I'm still tracking the headphones on the Find My maps and they're at his house right now.

Plenty of screenshots have been saved

[jahood1984]

Approve the return, send shipping label through eBay and make the buyer send back an empty box.  File a police report, a mail fraud case and preferably a police report in the buyers area.  When you appeal the refund provide all that information including the tracking of the pods, eBay might courtesy refund you or "possibly" refund you and not the buyer but you need the legal paperwork 

  Id also let the buyer know your planning to file all these cases and provide the tracking of the pods, that might just "find" the contents. 

[stephenmorgan]

So your Find My app has located the Headphones at their house.  Wow, that is incredible.

I would not refund them anything and would be making a Police Report, USPS Report and a report to eBay.

[albertabrightalberta · Accepted solution]

---

@cdyl_us_sdbectc8r wrote:

He opened a return with the reason of "missing parts or pieces" and the message was "empty box"

Also a new development...I'm still tracking the headphones on the Find My maps and they're at his house right now.

Plenty of screenshots have been saved

---

Send a private message to Ebay for business on facebook. Explain the situation and show the "find my" screenshots showing that he has the items. 

https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness

[vintagecraze50]

In these empty box scams this is good advice. You need to message the buyer and let them know you will not tolerate this and you will take action against them if they makes false claims. All these actions need to be documented and sent to ebay.

[cdyl_us_sdbectc8r]

Thank you for this information. I didn't really think about how a lot of businesses have a facebook page you can message but I'm doing this now and going to keep this in mind... I've been having a pretty "rough" to say the least, experience with live chat support.

I've talked to live chat support and they said to just wait until the grace period thing expires in a few days then get eBay involved but this is such a incredibly obvious case of fraud that I'm hoping they'll just throw this out the window, where it belongs. If I actually win this case I'll feel very lucky that a number of things lined up, but obviously, the biggest one being the Find My maps with the headphones at his house right now...

[cdyl_us_sdbectc8r]

(Probably) Final update. I contacted eBay via Facebook, (Thank you @albertabrightalberta !!!! ) and once they responded and got authentication for my eBay account, an hour of watching the three dots go up and down, eBay actually decided to release the payout to me AND refund the buyer. That was not exactly the outcome I was expecting. They also admitted they usually don't usually accept screenshots as evidence but they made an exception probably because of how obvious it was, and they had to go to multiple teams to get this approved. They've closed the return case as well

If all of eBay's customer support was like this, I would be a much, much happier seller.

[ms.rodriguez*]

That is good to hear. Make sure that you block that buyer.