Just wanted to put this out there to make people aware, even though this has been going on for years and still no real solution.
Sold an expensive iPhone and buyer asked to return it saying it wouldn’t switch on - very strange for a brand new sealed phone. I paid for an eBay returns label and the item was showing as delivered despite it not arriving at my address. There was no photo or GPS map on the tracking page. Royal Mail told me they couldn’t tell me the exact address where it was delivered due to GDPR but that it didn’t come to my house.
Called eBay and they said something didn’t look right and they were giving the buyer 3 days to prove they sent it correctly. Fast forward and eBay side with the buyer and state ‘We use tracking to confirm delivery and the item is showing as delivered at or very close to your address’.
I called Royal Mail back and a very helpful person gave me a street name and told me it was near a footpath - 1.6 miles from my house. I went down there to knock on doors and long story short found the parcel sitting by a doorstep at number 46 (same as my house number). It was an empty box of course with just my first name on it - They must do this to make it harder for someone in your area to track you down. The QR code was fake but the barcode took me to the original tracking number.
After a back and forth eBay have refunded me, but not before i provided a crime ref number. The reason they sided with the buyer initially was they said they GPS can’t be trusted e.g Postie could update it once back in his van. Ok but on the other hand they told me GPS was used to prove the parcel was delivered ‘at or very close to my address’. Disgraceful when they knew full well it was delivered 1.6 miles away. Although they deny they knew this Royal Mail confirmed they have access to this information, also explains how the first agent told me that something wasn’t right with the delivery.
As above I did end up with a refund but only by sheer luck that I was able to retrieve the parcel. They told me the scammer would not be persued for the money and that they couldn’t close the account as it may be someone else’s that had been hacked. Great.
This has been going on years and seems scammers are still having a field day. By the way this account had a feedback score of 100, i would not have sold to someone with 0 for such a high value item.
With hindsight I’m not even sure what I could have done to prevent this other than not selling in the first place, any suggestions welcome but please be careful as it seems eBay are doing nothing to stop this.
