Doral Florida

[sant_1896]

Scam alert. 

Do Not send products to people living in Doral Florida.   
check the address before you ship. Hundreds of scammers on eBay are now using forwarding services   
eBay will not protect you or reimburse you. If a third-party agency signs for the item you sent   

After talking to the police in Doral Florida, they are so overwhelmed with complaints that they cannot act on them. they say that they receive complaints every single day.  

Sometimes the dress will read Miami, but you have to look closer. Type the address into Google and it will let you know whether or not it is it forwarding service

These guys are getting better and better at scamming.   

[dbfolks166mt]

     What do you mean the "police cannot act on them" that's their job. Contact the IG in Florida and raise the issue of inaction by the police. 

    EBay will actually protect the seller in the event that a FF is used but it is not a straight forward process since eBay does not recognize the address as being a FF. Once the item reaches the FF the buyer looses MBG coverage under eBay policy. That policy will not however protect the seller from a chargeback. 

[fashunu4eeuh]

What happened?

I ask because freight forwarding has long been a legit business, and one of the safer ways to get one’s goods to buyers outside the regions one chooses not to ship to. A forwarded item is not eligible for eBay’s Money Back Guarantee which is good for sellers.

[zamo-zuan]

While I do agree about the amount of scammers in Doral, all you have to do is notify eBay that they are using a freight forwarder and that violates MBG and you will be protected.

Unless something changed that I'm unaware of? 

[sant_1896]

All they have to do is claim the item was not what was described. Right? 
I think they have this down to a science.

The police say they’re getting too many reports. And the way it structured they would actually have to Have proof that the item was sent, accepted, and the money not paid. That takes time and investigative resources they just don’t have an a town like Doral.   

from eBay about protection: 

“Exclusions and special coverage when the buyer doesn't receive an item

Items collected by a third party on behalf of the buyer

Not covered”

why go through that? I think Darrell Florida should be excluded from everybody’s selling list

[sant_1896]

When the buyer gives you an address that is a freight forwarding service, that’s a red flag. Because of the seller protections excluding coverage when a third-party signs for the item, they can easily rip you off.  

[tobaccocardyahoo]

I have shipped hundreds of items to freight forwarders over the years, including those in Doral. Never had a problem.

As always, what you ship and who buys it are a more important factor in whether you are cheated than whether the have chosen a freight forwarder.

It hurts to be cheated, but you choose what you want to sell online, and need to budget an appropriate portion of your profits to covering the costs of fraud. If you do not sell enough or have too little margin you should not sell the items which are prone to fraud.

No one is going to make these sales risk free when the risks are obvious. Selling iphones, apple watches and digital camera equipment is high risk, no matter where the buyer is located.

[12345jamesstamps]

The problem that is currently being faced with "freight forward" are items going to the address in Florida and not being marked as "delivered" to that address. Therefore, a seller is not protected if it is not marked "delivered". There are honest buyers and some not honest buyers who will take advantage of the item not being marked "delivered" in Florida or even Delaware. 

I have been lucky with "freight forward" so far having items received to the buyers in other countries and items not getting marked as "delivered" in Florida or Delaware.

[12345jamesstamps]

And just to be clear...not everyone uses eBay shipping or has TRS which refunds the seller.

[itsjustasprain]

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@sant_1896 wrote:

When the buyer gives you an address that is a freight forwarding service, that’s a red flag. Because of the seller protections excluding coverage when a third-party signs for the item, they can easily rip you off.  

---

I think you may be misunderstanding what you read. It is the BUYER protections that exclude coverage when a third-party (such as a freight forwarder) signs for the item. In other words the seller keeps his protections but the buyer forfeits his. The seller may need to prove to eBay that the address to which he shipped was a forwarding address though.

Aside from that - if the buyer claims that the item was Not as Described then the seller is entitled to ask for it to be sent back before refunding. The return label that is generated will cover shipping from the freight forwarder address back to the seller address. It is up to the buyer to get his package returned to the forwarder at his expense. If he does not do so then the claim will be closed in favor of the seller.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Requiring a signature is a common solution used by sellers for no delivery scan. Even if the carrier does not get the signature, the package is usually scanned as delivered.

I would always require a signature for the products the OP sells. Not just to freight forwarders.

[brightlightbookseller]

Oh look, more fearmongering.

Plenty of sellers including us ship without issue to Doral, including the freight forwarders, all the time.  Don't paint all buyers using those services as bad customers.

[dbfolks166mt]

All they have to do is claim the item was not what was described. Right? 
I think they have this down to a science.

     They can make that claim but if it went through a FF once it arrives at the FF the buyer looses their MBG coverage with eBay. They may open a claim but responding with the information relating to the shipment through the FF and eBay should find in the sellers favor. Sometimes it takes contacting eBay through one of the social media sites to clarify this. 

     Now if they open a credit card chargeback all bets are off. In some situations eBay will cover the seller but in most they will not. If it's a NAD chargeback 99% of the time the seller is going to come out on the short end of the stick. 

The police say they’re getting too many reports. And the way it structured they would actually have to Have proof that the item was sent, accepted, and the money not paid. That takes time and investigative resources they just don’t have an a town like Doral.   

     Contact the FL. Attorney Generals office and the FBI cyber crimes division. If the Doral police department has all these reports they can turn them over to the AG and FBI. The FBI cyber crimes division can be reached at https://www.ic3.gov/ 

from eBay about protection: 

“Exclusions and special coverage when the buyer doesn't receive an item

Items collected by a third party on behalf of the buyer

Not covered”

why go through that? I think Darrell Florida should be excluded from everybody’s selling list

     That is never going to happen. You are talking about one particular business entity and one address. 

[dbfolks166mt]

I have shipped hundreds of items to freight forwarders over the years, including those in Doral. Never had a problem.

As always, what you ship and who buys it are a more important factor in whether you are cheated than whether the have chosen a freight forwarder.

It hurts to be cheated, but you choose what you want to sell online, and need to budget an appropriate portion of your profits to covering the costs of fraud. If you do not sell enough or have too little margin you should not sell the items which are prone to fraud.

No one is going to make these sales risk free when the risks are obvious. Selling iphones, apple watches and digital camera equipment is high risk, no matter where the buyer is located.

     Agree. I also have shipped a lot of items through FF's and never had any issues. There are a couple that I have canceled due to problem with the buyers address but those are for countries that I do not care to ship to for a number of reasons China being high on that list. 

[dbfolks166mt]

The problem that is currently being faced with "freight forward" are items going to the address in Florida and not being marked as "delivered" to that address. Therefore, a seller is not protected if it is not marked "delivered". There are honest buyers and some not honest buyers who will take advantage of the item not being marked "delivered" in Florida or even Delaware. 

     That is a USPS, UPS..... problem not eBay's or the FF's. 

I have been lucky with "freight forward" so far having items received to the buyers in other countries and items not getting marked as "delivered" in Florida or Delaware.