"I never received my item..."

[TexasHusker]

I think I have spotted a phenomenon going on on ebay called "I never received my item." I had 5 things around the house that I decided to get rid of and posted all of them on ebay. One was a car rim, two cameras, and two fly fishing rods. All 5 of them sold.

Oddly, about 3 weeks later, on three of the five items, the buyers - via ebay - notified me that they never received their item and were asking for a refund. In fact, ebay's policy stated that if I couldn't provide proof of delivery, I would need to issue a refund.

Well, I had the tracking numbers.

First guy said "Oh yeah, sorry about that...it was in our parts department."

Second guy said "oh sorry, my neighbor got it and he forgot to tell me."

Third guy I haven't heard from.

But I think the game is this for some buyers: Email every seller that you didn't receive their item. Chances are, after this many weeks, a few have since disposed of the tracking number and you then get a refund.

Is this plausible?

[bennkar]

EBay cares about buyers. Sellers not so much. Even so I think you hit a run of bad luck. That is way more than normal. However if you printed your postage through eBay they should have the tracking number and will take your side. Usually.

[TexasHusker]

EBay cares about buyers. Sellers not so much. Even so I think you hit a run of bad luck. That is way more than normal. However if you printed your postage through eBay they should have the tracking number and will take your side. Usually.

I wasn't able to print through ebay as all of these were odd sized/packed things.

[~bs]

are you uploading the tracking numbers to the items? if not, they could be "fishing". its normally good to go through their system, but the post office is good too.

For items you're worried they might scam you, if you bring it to the post office, they'll weigh it, which shows on the receipt. So if the buyer claims empty box, you can prove otherwise.

Also as an infrequent seller, buyers will screw with you more often. Ive sold thousands of items on ebay, and probably only ran into issues like that a handfull or less times.

[TexasHusker]

are you uploading the tracking numbers to the items? if not, they could be "fishing". its normally good to go through their system, but the post office is good too.

For items you're worried they might scam you, if you bring it to the post office, they'll weigh it, which shows on the receipt. So if the buyer claims empty box, you can prove otherwise.

Also as an infrequent seller, buyers will screw with you more often. Ive sold thousands of items on ebay, and probably only ran into issues like that a handfull or less times.

I am in infrequent seller myself, and didn't realize until later that I could actually upload the tracking numbers. I do think there is "fishing" going on - just to make certain I am on my toes. I learned my lesson though: one of those shipments was a $500 rim and I actually DID lose the darn tracking number. Luckily my local fed ex office guy went above and beyond to find it. Otherwise I could have been issuing a refund for that.

I think I'll stick with buying and leave the selling to someone else.

[~bs]

For a $500 item, you're also required to use signature confirmation. You auto lose a case without that.

But yeah, it's super unusual to get that many cases out of so few items sold, just dishonest buyers looking for a easy refund given the opportunity. Easy as picking money off the ground if you didnt still have the tracking to provide proof.

[creditcardfree]

Do you have a low number of feedback comments? I wonder if that would be a reason for people to think you don't know what you are doing so they try to claim they didn't receive item. I've sold hundreds of things. I've only made one mistake and luckily that work out okay. Early on I had one person claim they didn't 'like the item', but at that time policies were different and would have refunded if the time was not as described. Tracking numbers are very important for buyers. That puts the claim with the delivery company.

[TexasHusker]

Do you have a low number of feedback comments? I wonder if that would be a reason for people to think you don't know what you are doing so they try to claim they didn't receive item. I've sold hundreds of things. I've only made one mistake and luckily that work out okay. Early on I had one person claim they didn't 'like the item', but at that time policies were different and would have refunded if the time was not as described. Tracking numbers are very important for buyers. That puts the claim with the delivery company.

I have a feedback of around 350 but most of that is as a buyer. Perhaps the buyers of my goods figured out I was a newbie. I just thought it was coincidental that three of five shipments they email stating that they never received the package. The two that did not were fly fishermen. Maybe you can trust fly fishermen more than the average jerk?

[scfr]

Yes, this scam is "a thing" unfortunately.
I made the mistake of shipping an inexpensive item without tracking several years ago, and the buyer claimed she never received it. I read her feedback and there were multiple posts from sellers who had the same experience. I Googled the woman and she also had a business that was under investigation. The most interesting piece of information I found was that her father-in-law is a judge.

I reported her to eBay.

[rob62521]

I think you are right. There are always those few who want to take advantage of someone to get something free.

[myrdale]

I am currently experiencing the opposite side of this problem with a vendor on Amazon. About 3 years ago I purchased a window decal. Two weeks later I hadn't received it. I emailed and they insisted they were mailing me another one. I never received it and honestly forgot about it. Last month I ordered another decal from Amazon. Two weeks later still hadn't received it. I've followed up with the vendor and again they say they are mailing another too me. I am not going to let it slide this time. I am going t have to dig way back to find the order from two years ago, but I am curious if it is the same people or not.

[Captain Save]

It's such a hard thing to prove and the cost of having to prove this outweighs the cost of replacing it in most cases. Amazon mitigates this by monitoring people who do this too often.. they are a large company they can afford to do it like this. Ebay Seller not so much.

I work at wholesaler with contractors .. they would lose things on the job site all the time and return it months later for a refund .. only to find out that it's the item that we arleady refunded as a "billed not shipped" ... thank you very much. I'll take that and put it in our inventory.