To think I’ve been scammed by a seller on ebay

[Tinyfrog200]

I ordered a phone for my Son from eBay (with buyer protection) I paid with PayPal. The seller chose ‘simple delivery’ 48 hour tracked service. On Thursday I received an email from Royal Mail to say the item had been delivered. I returned home, no red card, no sign of the parcel in the vicinity or with a neighbour. The photo proving ‘proof of delivery’ is really dodgy. Please see attached. EBay have closed my case, as the item has been delivered according to them!
The seller has been absolutely no help. I now need to wait 7 working days to raise a dispute with Royal Mail. I’m absolutely raging. I think I’ve been scammed.

As a seller I had a similar case recently. The parcel was delivered somewhere that definitely bore no resemblance to the buyers address & also looked dodgy with my package concealed under another. I raised a complaint with Royal mail who were supposed to let me know outcome within 10 days but didn't. The buyer was very nice & reasonable. We decided if it didn't turn up then for the buyer to open a case re item not arrived & they'd be refunded by eBay under buyer protection and I understand the seller is refunded too if the item is lost by Royal mail due to eBay Simple Delivery scheme. I was told eBay then claim off RM. Eventually an honest person brought the wrongly delivered parcel round to the buyer who was also honest & let me know when they could have kept quiet, got a refund and kept the expensive item. Can n you read the address on the label or maybe check at your local delivery office?

I had this the other day. They had left it somewhere "hidden". I immediately thought the delivery driver knicked it because thought it was weird he was holding it. But went out and looked around and was behind something. Think the delivery driver just didn't want to leave the item at My front door. My OH couldn't stop teasing me rest of evening for thinking it was stolen. 😅

If you go into the tracking details it should give you the gps coordinates of where the parcel was delivered. Will be lots of numbers then a dot and more numbers. Copy and paste that number into google maps and check where it is and if it matches your address

Ok appeal eBays decision. Sameish thing happened to me. Ebay item. Evri delivery. It was left, on the path outside my gate. By my bin. On bin day... well the obvious probably happened

I complained to evri first as I didnt feel it was the sellers fault. But they wouldnt help because their contract wasnt with me, but the seller. I filled in all the forms, complied all the evidence but the seller wouldn't engage so I reported to ebay and they found in the sellers favour because of proof of delivery. So I appealed and said. Im not saying its the sellers fault but I cant challenge evri only they can so they can claim from evri and keep my money and I have nothing. And they accepted the appeal

Doesn't matter

If she paid by PayPal, she's covered by PayPal

Did you share this on Facebook ? I did a reverse photo to check if the picture has been used before and came up on Facebook.

I had a similar problem with AliExpress and Yodel. I ended up escalating it with PayPal. You can use Whatthreewords to show what your door looks like and say it was never delivered to you. PayPal refunded it immediately in my case.

If you google it, It’s definitely a known scam 🫤
EBay will sort it but it may take time.

Not if the scammer has given a bogus address for the purposes of the scam so that there is proof of delivery good enough for eBay to ignore any claim. These things do happen.

Simple Delivery populates the address from the buyer's account, the seller doesn't input it

Nah, it's not. If you don't believe an expert criminal lawyer, try using it in court, see how you get on

Yes, this could be a known scam, look up dual label misdelivery postal fraud.

Something similar happened to me with some vitamins I bought from an online pharmacy, nothing to do with eBay.
the item showed as delivered On Royal Mail but the photo was absolute rubbish. Didn’t show the address or the package being left anywhere I could recognise. I paid £1.99 for the item so I didn’t bother to take it up further

You are much more likely to get satisfaction out of Royal Mail- I would also complain to PayPal saying it has not being delivered, that's usually more successful than complaining to Ebay-I have had very little joy with them when there is a problem, problems are rare but when they happen Ebay sides with sellers.

Why would you buy an expensive item from a seller with only one other transaction?

Seller isn't a frequent ebay user, so likely doesn't realise its their responsibility to chase this with RM.

Send ebay a pic of your front door and the tracking pic showing somewhere else, plus a copy of the email you sent to the seller asking them to chase RM.

If the seller ignores you, theres a fair chance Ebay will refund you, because the seller should respond and should deal with this.

It isn't a scam... its RM fucking up and a lazy seller who doesn't understand (or possibly hasn't had time to look at their ebay account, not everyone uses their normal email address for ebay!).

Please will people stop saying it is the seller’s responsibility to take this up with RM. If this is Simple Delivery the contract is between eBay and RM, the seller merely prints off the label provided or uses the QR code, which both have the buyer’s address populated. Once the parcel is scanned by the Post Office the seller has done their job and can forget the sale; eBay deals with any non-delivery problems.

The seller isn't doing anything for a scam here. They are entirely legally responsible for the item though still if it wasnt delivered properly, and the contract with rm is with them and they are required to sort this out.

The item belongs to the seller, and the cotract will be between the seller and ebay in that case for sending it, still not between the buyer and ebay.

It is still entirely the sellers problem, it is still the sellers item, the sale hasn't been completed, and the seller is responsible for chasing this up and sorting it whether that is directly with a courier or with ebay who will deal with the courier.

Screenshot from eBay’s website. Please note bullet point #2.

Don't they just, @Strawberryfruitcorner !
The context you have missed is the OP's statement that the proof of delivery must show the parcel actually being handed to someone, which is not correct and the poster you are criticising is countering that, quite rightly.

I sell a lot on Ebay, if you use simple delivery then Ebay are the ones who take care of any issues so I'm not sure what's going on here. I had a customer who said she didn't receive it, but as I'd sent it tracked and there was proof from Royal Mail, Ebay said I didn't need to do anything.
Have you spoken to Royal Mail, to find out the location they delivered to? This sounds more of an RM issue than the seller being the issue, as it went through RM. You should be able to see the tracking that would show when the seller posted it, at which point RM are the ones who need to find it. Ebay would be the ones who would refund you if RM have misdelivered, not the seller - the Buyer Protection Fee that you pay covers this sort of event.
First thing is to get as much info as you can with RM and then it's dealing with Ebay rather than the seller.

It used to be the seller's responsibility, but if it's done through Simple Delivery it is Ebay who deal with it now. If they've not opted for SD, it would still be the seller, but in this case it's via SD

Yes, I did thanks

It looks like it has been a scam after all. Thank you to everyone who left a helpful reply. Despite my case, and appeal being shut down twice by eBay - I spoke with their customer service department in Ireland. Investigation is ongoing. Unclear as yet whether the scam is with the seller, or RM. I will hopefully hear more tomorrow. The eBay seller no longer exists…

Turns out scams are becoming more sophisticated after all.