Receiving returns that aren’t mine!

[hedgehog5656]

Hi,

I don’t seem to be able to find a way of contacting ebay directly about this so trying here.

I moved into a house earlier in the year and every couple of weeks i receive an item being returned to an ebay seller, maybe a previous occupant of the property.

I have been returning them to sender but it keeps happening, about 10 times now.

I opened the last one and found the seller via the item number on the paperwork. I’ve messaged them twice but no response!

Is there any way I can report this to ebay?

Many thanks🙂

[hedgehog5656]

Yes, they all have had the ebay return ID number on the address label.

[hedgehog5656]

Previous occupants at this address I can trace back about 12 years and this person isn’t one of them.

[penguins_dont_fly]

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@*madison wrote:

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@hedgehog5656 wrote:

It’s a pandora bracelet, but i have no idea if it’s genuine. 
The seller is listed as a UK seller, and has an eastern european name, so I don’t think it’s anything to do with China.

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I'm glad you've posted about this.

I'm in the UK, and I've been getting Pandora charms returned to my address, and it's nothing to do with a previous occupant, because I've lived at my address for 30 years.

I've opened a couple of packages and there isn't any names on the paper work, I can't find out who is sending them, or who is supposed to receive them. All the packages have the ebay logo.. I've asked my neighbours, but the packages have nothing to do with them. The name on the front of the packages are different, but they are all Eastern European names.

When I get one delivered I'm just handing it back to Royal Mail.

It started a few months ago..Weird, I don't know what's going on.

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@hedgehog5656 @*madison 

I was thinking on this a bit last night ...

Some sellers seem to believe that, if a return is not delivered back to them, they don't have to refund.

I would suggest that (if you have the seller's info) you start reporting the seller(s) for having invalid information.  This is the .co.uk help page for reporting a seller:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/buying/resolving-issues-sellers/report-issue-seller?id=4022

You should only report a seller if you think they're violating our policies, for example:

• They offer to sell you a listed item outside of eBay
• They don't intend to complete the sale
• They sent threatening messages or used abusive or vulgar language
• They published another member's contact information
• The seller has provided you with false contact information
• You suspect the seller is under the age of 18

This isn't an exhaustive list – you'll find all of our policies here.

Report a seller

Since this is a strange scam, It might be easier to explain what the problem is to the UK based reps on facebook. eBay UK on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/eBay.co.uk/

In madison's case, when there is no seller or buyer info on or in the packages, They might be able to track the seller down by the information on the label.

What worries me is ... how did they get actual eBay user's addresses to use?

And, you can always report it to Royal Mail:

https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/303/~/how-to-report-scam-mail

[luckythewinner]

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@jen_768395 wrote:

You do realize that's a federal crime, right?

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If your intent was simply to locate the correct recipient, and you actually attempted but failed, then IMHO no federal prosecutor or judge would view that as a crime. 

Despite the occasional sensational news story of outrageous court cases, our legal system does have a fair amount of common sense and discretion built into it. 

[hedgehog5656]

Thanks for those links, i’ll check them out👍

I did finally get a response of sorts from the seller, saying that it was a system error (about 10 system errors then!) and that they had corrected it!

No correct address, no explanation!

A previous poster here said it sounded like a chinese seller using a fake return address and it does look like this is the case going by the time of last night’s message and the grammar! 
I assume they have my address details from a previous occupant who was a customer of theirs maybe?

I’ll certainly report this to ebay one way or another.

Thanks everyone for all your help👍🙂

[hedgehog5656]

Not this name on your packages by any chance??

 

[buyselljack2016]

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@tellmemama wrote:

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@buyselljack2016 wrote:

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@trehar_4 wrote:

Amazing you would pounce with this  comment when the poster is actually trying to be helpful and has been returning the packages to the post office.  I occasionally still get mail for someone who lived in my house 25 years ago.

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Sorry, but opening mail with someone else's name on it is....................  at best, sketchy.

You don't want to see the naked photos of my wife that got the incorrect address by mistake😎

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I get a half dozen or more packages delivered to me every day.  There has been the rare occasion where the carrier delivered the wrong package and I opened it before realizing it wasn't addressed to me.  I simply resealed it and walked it to the right address if it was a few houses down or handed it back to the carrier.   So should I be thrown in jail?

As far as your wife's naked photos go, if the package was delivered to the OP's house because it was addressed that way, s/he has every right to open them. 

And react to them accordingly.

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Did not say that you should go to jail😊 

Said it was sketchy to KNOWINGLY OPEN MAIL (or other items from whatever carrier) THAT IS NOT ADDRESSED TO THE RECIPIENT, which differs greatly from opening it by mistake, and NO s/he does not have "every right" to open the item.....................    if it has someone else's name on it.

[*madison]

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@hedgehog5656 wrote:

Not this name on your packages by any chance??

 

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No, but they are similar type of names, so far I've had 6 packages delivered in the last 8 months.

As I said earlier, they can't be for a previous occupant (s) either because I've lived in my home for 30 years. 

And the packing slips in the packages I opened only said "returned Pandora charm" and included ebays name and the date. There were no ebay ID's, or names and addresses.

I've been baffled..

[*madison]

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@hedgehog5656 wrote:

I will do so right away! And then go on the run....😄

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😂 😂 😂

[a_c_green]

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@buyselljack2016 wrote:
Said it was sketchy to KNOWINGLY OPEN MAIL (or other items from whatever carrier) THAT IS NOT ADDRESSED TO THE RECIPIENT, which differs greatly from opening it by mistake, and NO s/he does not have "every right" to open the item.....................    if it has someone else's name on it.

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If it's got my address on the package, I will open it if necessary regardless of what name is on the addressee line, assuming it's not a name I recognize such as a nearby neighbor, of course.

As was pointed out earlier, the post office doesn't care what the name is as addressee unless it's a Signature Confirmation Restricted Delivery mailpiece, in which case they'll be asking for ID. Aside from that, they're only concerned about getting the package to the right address.

[sonicadvantage]

you should be wearing that bracelet and keeping the rest of their stuff too, not complaining on here.  Dont send things to my house if they arent meant for ME!

[reallynicestamps]

UK seller, and has an eastern european name,

The Prime Minister of the UK is named Boris.

And my favourite British actor is Chiwitel Ejiofor.

[reallynicestamps]

but I’m in the uk and our regular postal service

It would have been useful to mention that in the first place.

And there is a UK site which can give you more useful information than the Americans.

Also-- they don't really have mailboxes there. Just mark it "Not At This Address" and chuck it into the nearest pillar box.

[moondogblues]

General reply...I got curious so googled 'returned pandora charms scam on ebay'.  No luck, lots of articles but none that explained what this could be about.    But I would think with the sheer number of these packages at least one 'buyer' would have put their info on the box or inside.  And wouldn't it be cheaper for the 'seller' to just refund and tell the buyer to keep the item?  What am I missing here?

[a_c_green]

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@moondogblues wrote:

And wouldn't it be cheaper for the 'seller' to just refund and tell the buyer to keep the item?  What am I missing here?

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Refunding without asking for it to be returned first would mean that every single request would have to be refunded. If they send a return label instead, then the buyer must get off his or her butt and ship the item back first, which will cut way down on the number of refunds they have to issue.

The cheapest way to send a label would be to generate one that's local to the buyer, country-wise, not an international shipment back to China or wherever, and it can be sent to any address in the same country, since Delivery Confirmation will trigger the refund when the package arrives, regardless of whether the recipient is really the seller, or someone who wasn't expecting it. (It's pretty trivial to come up with a full name and deliverable address for some random individual on the Internet.)

Thus the buyer who wants a refund and goes to the trouble of shipping it via the return label (or whatever label was generated for that buyer's country) will get their refund, and the seller gets to keep on selling. The actual item in question may not be of high value (or genuine), so the seller can live without getting it back. It's more important that they keep their eBay account in good standing for future sales.