I want to bring light to an eBay item not as described return shipping case that was not properly handled by both eBay and the USPS. I have been a seller on eBay for 17 plus years, have a stellar record as a seller and I'm currently wearing the Top Seller badge, but not very proudly from what I just witnessed. The eBay Case The buyer who bought a brand-new unopened Google Pixel 9 phone I sold them claimed it was faulty 3 days after receiving it, so they opened a return. I enquired about the serial number of the item to verify that with my inventory manifest, but they refused to respond to any of my messages. I went ahead and accepted the return based off what eBay support suggested, though I contacted them about the scam that I saw happening in real time. The name on the account was that of a Russian socialite, but the address the item was delivered to was in Atlanta, Georgia. The specific delivery address was GA 30213-4733 United States. I shared all this information and asked eBay support to investigate the case, but nothing happened. They still insisted that I accept the return, or they would decide in the buyer's favor. So, I did. The buyer promptly shipped the item even though they never responded to any of my previous enquiries for 5 days straight about what was wrong with the item. Why would they; there was nothing wrong with the device to begin with. When they shipped the item, the tracking was showing it being shipped from LA instead of GA. When the item was marked as delivered to me via the tracking number associated with the return label, it was not in my mailbox. I called and ended up going to the post office to track the item, but was told it was delivered to the Costco warehouse close by using an old Costco return label and the tracking info. When the postmaster got a hold of the Costco receiving office supervisor, she said that the item she received bared the tracking info, but was addressed as a Costco return instead of an eBay return. When we asked that she open the package, she said it was an envelope filled with trash. The buyer had switched the middle 4 digits in the tracking number and superimposed the barcode on the label for it to make it appear as it the item was delivered to me when scanned. The geolocation attached to the delivery manifest from the post office showed that it was accurately delivered to the Costco warehouse where the manipulated tracking number led the package to, but the barcode when scanned showed that it was delivered to me. I contacted eBay support about this, and the case was closed in my favor, since I never received the item, as the buyer never wanted to return it to me to begin with. The phone was never faulty, and this was all a scam, but the case was reversed when the buyer called in and demanded it, saying tracking showed it had been delivered to me. It never was and there was no phone in the package. It was intentionally shipped to make the tracking of the item confusing to both the post office and the unintended recipient of that item. The seller never receives the item to obtain proof of the fraudulent return to show to eBay, the unsuspecting and unintended recipient receives an item in the form of junk mail that they end up trashing to no loss to them, and the buyers sails away into the sunset with the funds and items they claim they wanted to return.
In summary, the tracking number was altered, and the return label was too, to defraud me of my item and eBay support and the USPS stood by and let it happen even though at each turn I gave them credible info to help stop the fraudulent return scam. There are several reports of this scam all over the internet about this type of eBay returns and USPS not helping track these packages down to help expose these fraudsters. I have a video of the Shipping manifest and the contact info of the postmaster and the Costco supervisor below for verification. This type of return scam is becoming rampart and we sellers are not being protected by both eBay and the USPS. This buyer has since closed or deleted their eBay account and eBay is asking me to go after them myself and the USPS. When the buyer wanted to defraud me they came through eBay, but when I asked for seller protection I was left high and dry. I am so disappointed!
