Buyers receiving empty boxes? New Scam?

[whychangeit]

So these are all simple delivery parcels however I have had 3 people saying that the parcel is empty. 

Because it's simple delivery it is dealt with by eBay but is this a new scam exploiting simple delivery?

And at what point will this possibly impact my selling account?

[podlingsmum2007]

Have they opened a case and supplied photos of the empty packaging? Have you had an assurance from eBay that they will deal with it? If these were expensive items have the buyers contacted the police?

[whychangeit]

 they have sent pictures and eBay is dealing with it.

[papso22]

Three empty box claims may look suspicious to ebay. 

[suelel1968]

"And at what point will this possibly impact my selling account?"

Hi, @whychangeit. Did you sell these on another account? Were they all books? No one is going to get rich nicking books. Someone who is going to do this would surely order expensive stuff, or "sell" expensive stuff. The other link of course is the delivery company. Were they all delivered by the same company and dropped off in the same place?

Personally, i would be very worried about getting a very black mark from ebay. 

[podlingsmum2007]

I cannot imagine a buyer would scam over a book. Not the most likely item to get stolen either.

[tea_and_tortoises]

Did you sell them on a different account?

[department28]

'I cannot imagine a buyer would scam over a book. Not the most likely item to get stolen either.'

But someone must have taken it. Unless it fell out of a sealed cardboard package.

[whychangeit]

They are reasonably expensive items 30 to 50 pounds, yes they are via Evri that i have used for last 2 years.  Well over 300 items.

Only started happening on simple delivery items. 

Yes I sell under another account. 

[kidmore_kats]

Also I can't see why eBay would accept a photo of an empty box as proof of non-delivery.

If it's a scam, the buyer is hardly going to provide a photo with the book still in the box.

[whychangeit]

I think your missing the point, they can't say the item wasn't delivered because tracking is automatic, but they can say it was an empty box. As I said it's not costing me a penny because eBay is dealing with it automatically. However, the concern is getting black marked on my account as this has happened three times now but only with simple delivery items. 

What I'm thinking is people have figured out that it won't cost me anything in refund. eBay probably have an automated system to do the refunding from them so buyer gets whatever was in the box for free I won't report them and I don't lose out any money. Thus, the only one who loses is eBay. 

However, if it happens too many times, does my account get blacklisted?

[kidmore_kats]

Apologies, I should have said "not as described" rather than non-delivery.

I don't know what action eBay could take against an individual seller.

As they are now taking responsibility for dealing with this kind of situation I can only think that it's going to end up costing them a whole lot of grief and money.

It's a badly thought through idea and badly implemented.

[971397id]

well, 3 times is sus

is the packaging adequate ?

[suelel1968]

My guess would be the most likely culprit is in the drop off center/driver, but it would be hard to prove. They are the ones who don't know what's in the parcel. You as a seller know you might only get away with it a few times, so you would do it with an Iphone or similar. The buyer would order an Iphone or similar to do it. 

An employee of the delivery company might do it if they knew it would not be investigated. That said the box does not look like it had loads of tape on it. Perhaps you are making it to easy for them.

[flumpdragon]

When you drop off the parcel, do you get a receipt with the weight on it?     That would confirm that the item was in there when sent.