Getting Scammed Like Crazy Lately

[huskyvacs]

Not sure what's happened this month but all my eBay purchases have gone wrong.

I bought a bottle of limited edition mountain dew that they only sell at speedway gas stations that I am unable to get to. The seller never shipped it.

Then I bought a Kirby Sentria, and the seller initially declined my best offer price (automatic decline because never responded), and now after winning it, the seller never shipped it.

Then at the same time I bought a Kirby Heritage complete set with the vacuum, every bit of paperwork, and all tools and stuff. Seller never shipped it.

I then bought a Dirt Devil Swivelglide, and the seller did ship it, but I just got notification today that it was delivered....and it is not here and never showed up. It got delivered to the wrong address it seems, and have to wait on the seller to investigate that.

I just can't win can I?

 

[dysonman1]

I sure am sorry that happened to you. I would be beside myself with anger.

 

[huskyvacs]

Thanks Tom, yeah it is pretty aggravating. Especially when it's something you've been looking for, and a good deal on it (or cheap shipping rather). I'm not sure about the UPS mis-delivery yet, but for the Kirbys I can at least get a refund (slowly) once eBay's "estimated delivery date" range passes.

Since I bought them several other people that won items from the same sellers also left bad feedback saying they never received their items either (which was not there at the time I placed my bids).

 

[huskyvacs]

Well some good news happened, the Dirt Devil came today. My neighbor found it on her porch, where they hid it between two flower pots and half behind a bush, so no wonder I could not see anything from my house. She came over and dropped it off for me (literally 7 feet away lol) I haven't opened it yet but I think it will be OK. Looks like the sellers broke it down into a lot of pieces as the box is so small. It feels lighter than I expected.

 

[madman]

I've had ebay sellers give me tracking numbers that are actually someone else's. So for a few days while the item is 'being shipped,' you'll actually believe that it's been shipped, until you see it's going to a different city.

A couple months ago, I ordered some cheap Chinese item from a listing that said it ships from California. Well, the tracking number said it was being shipped from China. The seller said yes, I ordered it from China. After badgering the seller repeatedly I finally pried an answer out of them. Because of covid, ebay allows them to ship from a different location, or so they say. Sadly, ebay didn't do anything about it. I should've known they wouldn't when the automatic response email from ebay support was literally entirely written in Chinese.

 

[huskyvacs]

Oh I've seen that trick before. Chinese sellers will sell their items and say it comes from USA to get more visibility and get people to buy it. Has nothing to do with the virus, it's just them trying to increase business. I've also had sellers that drop-ship items from AliExpress (at a markup) so you order it from "California" and it's actually coming from Hong Kong or Shenzhen.

 

[kirbyklekter]

@ huskyvacs

Any luck with these sellers? Is this a case of the sellers intend to fill your order but just can't find the time to ship because well... or they never intended to deliver the goods,which when reported they will be banned right? I hope you get some resolve on all of these.

Billy

 

[huskyvacs]

The two Kirby sellers never shipped and never contacted and its been 3 weeks now. Opened eBay case with one, and then Thursday will open the case for the other one. You have to wait for the "Estimated delivery date" to pass even though it's obvious they were never shipped.

Now to top it off, I ordered another old Electrolux from another seller, and it has been 5 days, and they have not shipped either. I sent an eMail today and have not gotten a response back so far yet.

Either eBay scammers have increased 500% in the past year or I am just having terrible odds.

 

[huskyvacs]

After so many reports of item not received in particular timeframe they will get banned, but it's a high number and it takes a lot of reports to reach that threshold. Otherwise you can just leave a negative feedback and eventually get money refunded and life goes on.

It looks like they were active up until 3 or 4 months ago but then stopped.

Sometimes there are hackers that will snatch long abandoned eBay accounts from the early millennium and re-boot them with scam items and stock photos, but these items all had photos taken by the sellers.

 

[huskyvacs]

Welp the seller of the Electrolux cancelled the order so I guess I lost that too.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Vi...o0x0GgdtQg%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc

 

[dysonman1]

That Electrolux had a high bid of $.99 and a shipping cost of $25. If they found a box for it, packed it, and took it the shipper, it would cost Way More than $25 to ship. What the seller didn't do was put the right information into the eBay shipping calculator when he listed it. He should have weighted the vacuum, and found a box First, before he listed it, so the correct shipping price could be quoted.

 

[human]

Yes, sometimes sellers will set the shipping charge artificially low in hopes of generating higher bids. Unfortunately, that strategy can backfire and some sellers will then cancel the sale instead of sucking it up and taking the loss. That's why I try to calculate shipping costs as accurately as possible when I list things on eBay, but that's not to say I haven't occasionally missed the mark. When that happens, I just send it anyway and try to learn from the mistake. I figure I have a moral/ethical obligation to fulfill my end of the bargain, just like the buyer does, even if it means I'm making little or nothing for my troubles after shipping overages and eBay and PayPal fees. But I've managed to maintain a 100 percent feedback rating for almost 17 years, so I guess that's something to be proud of.

 

[huskyvacs]

The Electrolux seller owns an entire store, so they have the money to cover it. Not all sellers are concerned with getting money out of shipping.

They just sold a huge 11 ton crane hook for $200 and put the shipping as free.

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

huskyvacs

I wish you luck on getting things straightened out with the two Kirbys you tried to get!

~Ben

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

huskyvacs

https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2020/ebay-expands-ups-integration/

You might be delighted to know that eBay will soon offer more UPS-related shipping options, in light of the USPS's financial difficulties which are affecting its own deliveries.

~Ben

 

[huskyvacs]

Just updating everyone I got all my money back on the 3 refunds and the cancelled Electrolux. Just shows that good feedback doesn't matter anymore. Once my bank account re-balanced itself, maybe next month, I might try to hunt again, but for now I won't. I need to focus on selling some stuff and not buying anything anyway (not vacuum related, just random stuff I don't need anymore). I know people said before to try OfferUp, and I did, but nobody wants to ship them even though they have shipping selected, and they decline the offers. I never got a single deal made on OfferUp in the 15 times I tried.