Strange message from a ebay member in Australia.

[inhawaii]

I received a message today from a ebay member in Australia about one of my items.

It says...

"Hello I received an email with a few hours count down .. it says seller has offered free shipping ive gone to purchase item and it says US$34.11 for postage ???"

I responded with...

"I'm sorry. I'm not sure what message you received but I don't offer free shipping, not even to the US let alone to Australia. Aloha, James"

Does anyone have any idea what the seller might be referring to?

[inhawaii]

Does anyone have any idea what the buyer might be referring to?

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

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@inhawaii wrote:

I received a message today from a ebay member in Australia about one of my items.

It says...

"Hello I received an email with a few hours count down .. it says seller has offered free shipping ive gone to purchase item and it says US$34.11 for postage ???"

I responded with...

"I'm sorry. I'm not sure what message you received but I don't offer free shipping, not even to the US let alone to Australia. Aloha, James"

Does anyone have any idea what the seller might be referring to?

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Scam/fraud email? I mean, strange to claim it says free shipping & then charged shipping ... that would sound like a poorly executed scam email ... but my first thought is a phishing email designed to get someone to pay for what they believe is an item from a legit listing?

[dbfolks166mt]

What's the item number?

[inhawaii]

It's a cap/hat.

225807045967

[ckimodog]

@inhawaii 

Just another scammer if you ask me.  There's always someone out there looking for something for nothing and if you don't give it to them, they'll try to take it anyway.  That's what I've encountered anyway.

Happy Selling!!

[ittybitnot]

@inhawaii 

A search by that item number produces no results?????

[1786davycrockett]

@inhawaii 

That sounds again like that notorious glitch that eBay has not yet solved, that seems to occur only when some buyers are doing their searching via cell phone:  The cell phones incorrectly show "free shipping," when the item description clearly indicates that the buyer will pay the shipping cost.

Unfortunately, it is left up to the seller to apologize for eBay's error, while the buyer blames the seller for the misrepresentation, and eBay just seems to shrug it off as "no big deal."

C'mon, eBay -- fix this mess, once and for all!

[lakefor94]

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@inhawaii wrote:

It's a cap/hat.

225807045967

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On a side note, that is a nice hat. I am digging the hats I bought. Been careful with them so far. None of them stink from head sweat at this time;)

(Not an advertisement, though I did get some Stihl hats from James because all of my hats were stinking from this past Texas summer.)

[marnotom!]

Something to keep in mind is that the item is being handled by eBay International Shipping to Australia, and it's unlikely that eIS would give away its share of the shipping (roughly US$16.00), although I suppose weirder things have happened on eBay.

I suspect that if that email to the buyer were the real deal, it would likely be only the seller's charge to the eIS hub that would qualify for the "free shipping," given how eBay works (or doesn't).

[broto_64]

I would probably ask the buyer to send a screenshot.
Then take it to Facebook team.

[albertabrightalberta]

To give the (wannabe) buyer the benefit of the doubt, I wonder if the buyer had been searching "Stihl caps" and then got an email (one he initially saw in his email but also would be in his ebay messages) offering various caps from various sellers, some of which offered free shipping. 

And maybe he didn't realize that they don't all have free shipping.

[lacemaker3]

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@ittybitnot wrote:

@inhawaii 

A search by that item number produces no results?????

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@ittybitnot 

Searching by item numbers has been very unreliable for years now. Why are you trying to search that way?

Just type "ebay.com/itm/" in the URL address box, then paste the item number in, check there are no spaces, and press enter.

[dbfolks166mt]

     Odd one. When I look at the item it actually shows $22.06 for shipping to Australia going through EIS. My guess is the individual got two similar listings mixed up. 

[ittybitnot]

Just type "ebay.com/itm/" in the URL address box

@lacemaker3 

Thanks for the heads up!   I didn't know that portion of "advanced search/by item number" was broken, too.  I suppose I should have known better!!!!  LOL.