Hello,
I sold an old phone on saturday afternoon. Received the funds Sunday night and immediately booked courier for collection the next day.
After I'd booked the courier, the buyer reached out to mention they wanted the item sooner. I add, I put in the listing that it was going to be 2-3 2-3 days packlink.
Informed the buyer about this, and told them the courier would come the following day.
The courier came Monday before 12. Everything went well, they took the packages. Phone was gone.
30mins later, I received a message from the buyer: 'Is it gone yet?'
I sent a message back, saying: Just picked up. Hopefully it will reach you soon.
But the buyer kept sending messages - Is it gone? I need it by the end of the week.
I kept replying back, explaining that the phone had definitely been picked up. The tracking was there, and that they could check on Hermes's website etc. I kept polite the whole time - years of retail and being a teacher had helped with this ha.
But they kept sending me more messages like 'Are you going to reply, i've txt you 4 or 5 times and still waiting game for answers. < these are just some examples of the stuff I was getting.
I was very polite back to them still explaining that the item was gone.
Then on Thursday, I got a new message 'If this isnt in transit by tomorrow, I will have to cancel it saturday first thing ...'
I also add, I have a no returns policy.But I did mention that if in this case, they weren't happy, i'd refund them if they sent the phone back. This was mostly because by now I was getting a little fed up of them messaging me everyday.
And by this point, the item was already on its way.
They also messaged to complain that I'd sent it through packlink/hermes which was also stated on the listing. I work as an english teacher in china but since im stuck in the UK, I've had to teach my students online at an appropriate time in china aka 5am -4pm UK time (12-11pm China). They then accused me of drop-shipping from china which I denied, explaining that due to covid, my local post office shut early so the courier was the only option for the speed/price they paid for.
I messaged the buyer back explaining that I understood their impatience with the whole situation. I explained Covid-19 could be a delay for packages, and asked them to wait a little longer. They accused me of calling them impatient. I also received a lovely rant about their 15years of selling on ebay and how they expect their parcels delivered.
In short, I was receiving a great deal of messages that were aggressive, demanding and quite over the top. These were coming through everyday - I must have gotten about 20 of them on Saturday alone.
Despite this, I was being open and honest. I genuinely had no idea what had happened with the package. I'd emailed Hermes customer service, packlink's customer service and even called Hermes.
It turned out the item had been at the buyer's local depot since Tuesday. I shared this with the buyer, asking them to find out the nearest depot to them so I could try to call them. No answer on this.
Instead, the buyer opened a request on Sunday stating no item received. Again I understood their frustration, and in the request, I'd shared the contact numbers/tracking number that I'd already shared with them in private messages just in hopes that Ebay could see the effort I'd gone through.
Since then, the buyer refuses to communicate in the case. Instead, they've been sending me private messages to which I reply in the case so it's all documented.But it's always the same accusatory tone about where the phone is and demands for cancelling.
Obviously, my concern is where the phone is. I've had the funds frozen in my Paypal.
I've since gotten Hermes and Packlink to enquire about the phone - some good news I hope for both the buyer and I.
But today, I received a message from them asking 'where is the phone and y is it got investigation on it?'
AIBU for thinking this might also be a scam? I'm just concerned obviously about the sheer amount of messages I've received in such a short period. But also, am I the unreasonable one here?