eBay

nhat_anh_181 · ‎02-07-2022

I sold a tennis racket last week via bidding option. Seller made payment quickly and i shipped out the package next day. Today, i check on the tracking and the status say Intercepted at buyer's local PO. Ebay page said : "The item will be returned to you." Is this the buyer's remorse tactic or some sort of scam that i need to watch out for.

Thanks in advance.

slippinjimmy · ‎02-07-2022

Doesn't matter at this point, wait until it comes back or at last until the tracking shows it's on the way.

Does the USPS tracking page have the exact same wording? The eBay pages are known to be slow to update.

In theory intercepted packages are returned to the original sender so it's not clear to me how a scam would work. More likely a pre-emptive Return To Sender situation.

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep

a_c_green · ‎02-07-2022

@nhat_anh_181 wrote:
I sold a tennis racket last week via bidding option. Seller made payment quickly and i shipped out the package next day. Today, i check on the tracking and the status say Intercepted at buyer's local PO. Ebay page said : "The item will be returned to you." Is this the buyer's remorse tactic or some sort of scam that i need to watch out for.

Package Intercept is an extra-charge service of the USPS that has to be arranged in advance, so I'm thinking it's more likely that someone in the PO had their scanner on the wrong setting. Check the tracking again tomorrow (on USPS.com, not on eBay) and see if there's anything new. It may simply be Out for Delivery by then. If it's actually being returned to you as Refused (similar to Intercepted; same result), you should see some further movement in your direction by then.

Let us know what you see in the tracking tomorrow.

babclassics · ‎02-07-2022

Just an FYI. In the case of package intercept (and also search for lost package request), the eBay tracking actually shows more entries than the public USPS tracking! Have had a couple of those lately and the eBay tracking lets the preliminary intercept and search be seen right away. USPS only shows those after the case is closed. So check both places to get the most information.

For intercept there is a $16 charge for that to whomever opened it. You have to have a USPS account and a credit card on file to initiate an intercept. And you have to know full details of sender and receiver for security to stop some other troublemaker trying to intercept as a scam.

I know this does not answer your original question but gives a way to check and follow the status while trying to figure it out.

nhat_anh_181 · ‎02-08-2022

Thanks for the advises, guys. As of now the status is still:

"This item has been intercepted on February 7, 2022 at 7:49 am in BAY CITY, MI 48708 and redirected as requested by the sender."

Upon further searching around the forum, this thread has the same characteristics:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-Bidding-Buying/Package-Intercept-Fruad-amp-Unauthorized-Bidder...

Would the buyer (or whoever supposedly hacked buyer's account) gotta keep the item and get refund? From what i search around the forum, it seems Ebay and Paypal are siding with buyer more and Post Master is just a guy caught in between and can't do anything.

I sent buyer a message yesterday but still hasn't gotten any respond... this is getting weird..

a_c_green · ‎02-08-2022

@nhat_anh_181 wrote:
I sent buyer a message yesterday but still hasn't gotten any respond... this is getting weird..

I would not contact the buyer any further. Either he's got the package by now and there's no problem, or he has managed some kind of redirection and isn't going to admit to anything anyway. Thus I would not contact him again unless he contacts you first.

You might try contacting the Bay City PO directly and see what they can tell you. If that's not successful (POs are rather notorious for not picking up the phone), start by visiting your own PO in person with your tracking number, and ask them to see what they can find out via their in-house intranet system, which has a lot more detail than what you can see in their public-facing site.

gurlcat · ‎02-08-2022

@a_c_green wrote:
@nhat_anh_181 wrote:
I sent buyer a message yesterday but still hasn't gotten any respond... this is getting weird..
I would not contact the buyer any further. Either he's got the package by now and there's no problem, or he has managed some kind of redirection and isn't going to admit to anything anyway. Thus I would not contact him again unless he contacts you first.

I could see why there might not be any USE in trying to contact the buyer again, but you seem to be cautioning specifically against it, like it could cause additional trouble. I think if anything, multiple attempts to reach the buyer (with no response) could actually work in the seller's favor, as it would be documented evidence of non-cooperation on the buyer's part, which would be a litigating factor against them if they try to pull a scam. Like gee, his computer/phone sure seems to work when it comes to filing for a refund, so why couldn't he answer his messages?

gurlcat · ‎02-08-2022

@nhat_anh_181 wrote:
Thanks for the advises, guys. As of now the status is still:
"This item has been intercepted on February 7, 2022 at 7:49 am in BAY CITY, MI 48708 and redirected as requested by the sender."

"....as requested by the sender" ??? Wouldn't that be YOU? Obviously if you didn't request any such thing, something is indeed very screwy here, but it's just too soon to tell if it's a carrier oopsie or something nefarious that the buyer did. I disagree about not contacting the buyer again; I think you should, and actually say "This is my second message to you, trying to figure out........" to show them you are keeping track of the fact that they didn't reply to your first message. It's what bill collectors do, because it works.

a_c_green · ‎02-08-2022

@gurlcat wrote:
@a_c_green wrote:
@nhat_anh_181 wrote:
I sent buyer a message yesterday but still hasn't gotten any respond... this is getting weird..
I would not contact the buyer any further. Either he's got the package by now and there's no problem, or he has managed some kind of redirection and isn't going to admit to anything anyway. Thus I would not contact him again unless he contacts you first.
I could see why there might not be any USE in trying to contact the buyer again, but you seem to be cautioning specifically against it, like it could cause additional trouble.

That's it exactly. If the buyer hasn't received it, he will definitely let you know, and at this point the tracking status is not going to work in the seller's favor. Continuing attempts to contact the buyer will simply reinforce the notion that the seller doesn't know where it is. Conversely, if the PO simply made a scanning error (which happens more often than one would like), the package should eventually be delivered as usual, and the buyer will have no reason to continue looking at the tracking after that.

@gurlcat wrote:
I think if anything, multiple attempts to reach the buyer (with no response) could actually work in the seller's favor, as it would be documented evidence of non-cooperation on the buyer's part, which would be a litigating factor against them if they try to pull a scam. Like gee, his computer/phone sure seems to work when it comes to filing for a refund, so why couldn't he answer his messages?

No, there's no deep analysis of messaging in an Item Not Received dispute; it's simply resolved by bots if the buyer files a case. The seller needs to be able to respond with a Delivered status (or some other status indicating a buyer refusal, such as a Return to Sender), or else eBay will simply enforce a full refund if the seller doesn't do it voluntarily.

The best strategy at this point is Wait and See. There may be further tracking activity, or it will end with that Redirect status, perhaps applied in error when the buyer took delivery.

gurlcat · ‎02-08-2022

What would be wrong with the seller not knowing where it is? Then it's obviously not their FAULT .
And when you say "the seller needs to respond with a delivered status" --LOL, so how does a seller force that to happen? If it's lost, it's LOST and there's no way a seller can respond that will change it to 'delivered.'
"Wait and see" is maybe the right thing to do for the next day or two, but after that the seller must be proactive. --I'm speaking from the point of view of never having to issue one penny of refund for non-delivery. Reaching out to my buyers is exactly how this has happened, even during the whole fall/winter 2020 crisis, when tons of (even experienced) sellers were having to issue refunds even though packages were just stuck, not lost forever. Some were even putting their vacations on hold until mid-January.

a_c_green · ‎02-08-2022

@gurlcat wrote:
What would be wrong with the seller not knowing where it is? Then it's obviously not their FAULT.

It's not a question of assigning fault; it's just that if a buyer decides to file an Item Not Received dispute in the meantime, the dispute can time out and force a full refund from the seller if the package does not resurface soon enough. By not contacting the buyer just because there's some weirdness in the tracking (hopefully temporary), you can minimize the chances of getting the buyer all concerned for no good reason.

@gurlcat wrote:
And when you say "the seller needs to respond with a delivered status" --LOL, so how does a seller force that to happen? If it's lost, it's LOST and there's no way a seller can respond that will change it to 'delivered.'

Right. That's why you don't want to draw a buyer's attention to the fact that the package may have gone astray (at least for a while). Under those circumstances, you could end up losing an INR (because you can't show a Delivered status) and refunding when you could have instead let the package eventually turn up in time.

gurlcat · ‎02-09-2022

I think you underestimate how many buyers watch tracking and get concerned whether the seller reaches out to them or not, and reaching out is a GOOD thing because nobody likes feeling forgotten especially when the apparent forgetter has their money and they have nothing. As I said, having that attitude is what stopped me from having to pay a single penny in INR's (or even have one filed against me) EVER, not even when the whole country's postal situation was at its' worst. I'm trying to be respectful here but I think it's naive to assume that buyers aren't aware of problems unless sellers "draw their attention" to them. That may be the case with SOME of them, namely ones who do so much online shopping they almost forget what all things they're waiting for, or if they ordered something they're not really excited about or in dire need of, but many others watch tracking and count days. Heck I am in another thread with someone who thinks it's outrageous that his package stayed in a distribution center for 3 days, as if that's freakish or even unusual.
And if the OP's buyer IS a scammer, then there's all the more reason to contact them and show them "I'm watching every step of what is going on here, in real time."

jtv612! · ‎06-15-2023

This happened to me at the SAME post office, Bay City. I called and they said it was an issue with postage, that they will adjust it and deliver tomorrow.

kh-vince · ‎06-15-2023

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.