Post by doubledog on Jul 3, 2024 15:09:38 GMT -6
since I see so many mentions of 'bought this on eBay..." or similar, I just wanted to share why I'll never ever use eBay again. Sorry it's long..
I had used eBay for a long time. At least 15 years and there's always been little hiccups (someone packed something crappy, or tried to say scam on something I sold...) it had almost always been fairly easily resolved. And I'm pretty careful. Last year (end of '23) I pulled the trigger on a used mic. Looking back, it was kind of dumb (and I blame it on early morning before I had coffee). The seller had 0 feedback and somehow I missed that. Well, the money was sent (I used PayPal credit) and the mic never came. The "seller" changed the tracking number the day before that same new USPS tracking number showed "delivered". Checked the mailbox (locked parcel boxes in a mailbox cluster) and nothing. Eventually went to the post office and talked to a guy who informed me that the tracking number I had did not deliver to my address (and the weight and dimensions did not match). I asked for more info and he said he could not tell me due to privacy (essentially the scammer seller had a way to find tracking numbers that were going to my same city/zip code, and this tracking # had nothing to do with me).
Now eBay and their AI robots don't give a rats ass about an actual delivery - they only need to see that the tracking number shows delivered. Even if that tracking number is changed from the original tracking number to something totally different on the day of delivery. And good luck trying to get ahold of anyone at eBay but this link may work (https://www.ebay.com/help/contact_us?id=4002&st=10 if not, look for "request a call back"). Even then you only get the first level customer service -- but I insisted on having it escalated a couple times. But back to the story, eBay has a 100% money back guarantee. Except that they don't. Once that number shows delivered (even though you can prove it was not) they only give you the finger.
I went around and around with them. I even found that the pictures the scammer used were stolen from an old Reverb posting. eBay did not care. I even spoke to a live person several times. They would send my case to another group of robots who immediately denied it. this happened several times, and each time I gathered more proof, showing them that the 2 different tracking numbers originated from 2 different cities. I finally even got a nice postal worker to give me a little more info (and a screengrab showing hard proof where it was sent from and going to). The one that showed delivered actually traced back to a pharmacy - which was many many miles from where the scammer was supposedly located. I even sent that to eBay - then spoke with a live person who told me too bad, so sad, this is over 30 days old now and you lose.
I filed several cases with PayPal and each time eBay said " it was delivered" so PayPal would not do a chargeback. I filed a case with PayPal credit and got the same. Finally I must have said some magic words to PP credit (I said "fraud" several times) and they sent me to a different phone queue. They canceled/changed my PP Credit account and I sent them all of the info and finally it was done. They zeroed the fraudulent charge.
Lessons learned...
1. eBay has no guarantee. they only serve to protect themselves. I will never use them again for anything (even though sometimes it would be easier to source something I need).
2. USPS tracking numbers are being stolen by scammers because USPS does not reveal the full address to anyone except the sender and receiver -- this means eBay can't see it either and therefore they cannot actually verify a delivery other than saying a package was confirmed delivered in your city (I don't know about you but I'm guessing that is true x1000 or more per day in my city)
3. eBay does not require signature for something under $750 (which is really bad) and the scammers know this - so the items they are scamming on are listed below this price and they only ship with stolen (fraudulent) USPS tracking numbers.
4. avoid 0 feedback sellers - yeah I already knew that too. Some of the scammers will go so far as to buy a couple cheap items so they get a couple feedback before trying to sell something.
5. I was pretty disappointed with PayPal too. Luckily the credit side came through for me eventually. I'm glad I did not have to stop using PP altogether (since I kind of rely on it). Now I pretty much only use PayPal (or less frequently, PP credit) to purchase from known retailers or someone I know or have already done business with before (I do receive $ through it from clients)
Be very careful out there. scammers suck and so does eBay.
I had used eBay for a long time. At least 15 years and there's always been little hiccups (someone packed something crappy, or tried to say scam on something I sold...) it had almost always been fairly easily resolved. And I'm pretty careful. Last year (end of '23) I pulled the trigger on a used mic. Looking back, it was kind of dumb (and I blame it on early morning before I had coffee). The seller had 0 feedback and somehow I missed that. Well, the money was sent (I used PayPal credit) and the mic never came. The "seller" changed the tracking number the day before that same new USPS tracking number showed "delivered". Checked the mailbox (locked parcel boxes in a mailbox cluster) and nothing. Eventually went to the post office and talked to a guy who informed me that the tracking number I had did not deliver to my address (and the weight and dimensions did not match). I asked for more info and he said he could not tell me due to privacy (essentially the scammer seller had a way to find tracking numbers that were going to my same city/zip code, and this tracking # had nothing to do with me).
Now eBay and their AI robots don't give a rats ass about an actual delivery - they only need to see that the tracking number shows delivered. Even if that tracking number is changed from the original tracking number to something totally different on the day of delivery. And good luck trying to get ahold of anyone at eBay but this link may work (https://www.ebay.com/help/contact_us?id=4002&st=10 if not, look for "request a call back"). Even then you only get the first level customer service -- but I insisted on having it escalated a couple times. But back to the story, eBay has a 100% money back guarantee. Except that they don't. Once that number shows delivered (even though you can prove it was not) they only give you the finger.
I went around and around with them. I even found that the pictures the scammer used were stolen from an old Reverb posting. eBay did not care. I even spoke to a live person several times. They would send my case to another group of robots who immediately denied it. this happened several times, and each time I gathered more proof, showing them that the 2 different tracking numbers originated from 2 different cities. I finally even got a nice postal worker to give me a little more info (and a screengrab showing hard proof where it was sent from and going to). The one that showed delivered actually traced back to a pharmacy - which was many many miles from where the scammer was supposedly located. I even sent that to eBay - then spoke with a live person who told me too bad, so sad, this is over 30 days old now and you lose.
I filed several cases with PayPal and each time eBay said " it was delivered" so PayPal would not do a chargeback. I filed a case with PayPal credit and got the same. Finally I must have said some magic words to PP credit (I said "fraud" several times) and they sent me to a different phone queue. They canceled/changed my PP Credit account and I sent them all of the info and finally it was done. They zeroed the fraudulent charge.
Lessons learned...
1. eBay has no guarantee. they only serve to protect themselves. I will never use them again for anything (even though sometimes it would be easier to source something I need).
2. USPS tracking numbers are being stolen by scammers because USPS does not reveal the full address to anyone except the sender and receiver -- this means eBay can't see it either and therefore they cannot actually verify a delivery other than saying a package was confirmed delivered in your city (I don't know about you but I'm guessing that is true x1000 or more per day in my city)
3. eBay does not require signature for something under $750 (which is really bad) and the scammers know this - so the items they are scamming on are listed below this price and they only ship with stolen (fraudulent) USPS tracking numbers.
4. avoid 0 feedback sellers - yeah I already knew that too. Some of the scammers will go so far as to buy a couple cheap items so they get a couple feedback before trying to sell something.
5. I was pretty disappointed with PayPal too. Luckily the credit side came through for me eventually. I'm glad I did not have to stop using PP altogether (since I kind of rely on it). Now I pretty much only use PayPal (or less frequently, PP credit) to purchase from known retailers or someone I know or have already done business with before (I do receive $ through it from clients)
Be very careful out there. scammers suck and so does eBay.
