Bought an item that has been sent to wrong address...

ZombieTrev

Hi all. I recently bought a 64gb iphone 4s from ebay for £340.

The seller told me that he would post via FedEx and that it should get to me before Christmas as delivery takes 2-3 business days (bought on 21st dec).

A couple of days after Christmas, I hadn't received it so I googled the tracking number to find that the seller had used a delivery service I had never heard of instead of FedEx which he said he would use. The tracking site said that the phone was still in customs.

I messaged him at this point asking why he had sent it via a different delivery service to which he didn't reply. I sent a couple more messages over the next few days and finally got a reply (only after I had threatened with negative feedback of course). His reply was not very helpful though. He merely said that the delivery service is irrelevant, that he is not accountable for customs delays and that he was going on holiday the following day and so wouldn't be reachable.

About 4 days later, the package cleared customs and on the site it said 'delivery failed. Held at post office. Awaiting charges'.

Not having received a failed delivery slip, I rang the post office and gave the tracking number and was told that the address was for the same street as mine but the wrong house number. They said that because of the wrong address that they can not resend it to me and that I can only pick it up if I have proof of address with the address it was sent to.

That was 2 days ago but today, the seller has messaged me saying that somebody has picked up the package. I checked the tracking site and it does say package delivered. This has obviously worried me. If I couldn't pick it up, how could somebody else?

Is there any way of getting my money back? Or have I been scammed somehow? Luckily I paid through paypal but am not sure how it all works?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long winded explanation but wanted to include all of the facts.

Cheers. Trevor

gb12345

ZombieTrev wrote: »

That was 2 days ago but today, the seller has messaged me saying that somebody has picked up the package. I checked the tracking site and it does say package delivered. This has obviously worried me. If I couldn't pick it up, how could somebody else?

I would say that delivery was attempted to the wrong address, card was left and the person living at that address has gone to the post office and collected it (or requested re-delivery).

Do you know what address it was delivered to? Do you know the person at that address? Have you tried contacting them to see if they have the package?

It might be an honest mistake by them - they received a card saying package waiting for them and made arangements for it to be collected and they are now wondering what to do with the unordered phone that has been delivered to them.

spacey2012

Get your dispute in with paypal.
ASAP

robatwork

Dispute with Ebay. You should get your money back as the onus is on the seller to prove you received it.

And learn a lesson about expensive phone purchases from Ebay

durham_girl

Post this on the ebay board, they are very knowledgeable when it comes to ebay/paypal. I would suggest holding off on opening a dispute just yet as the seller will probably win as he has a tracking number that says it was delivered....

Trinitrotoluene

Double check that the information that went in with the sale for your address was correct.

Open a dispute straight away if you are able to - if the site that tracks the parcel includes the delivery address which is incorrect then this will go in your favour.

RosiPossum

What was the delivery service? It could be a scam in that they run their own website and tracking etc. If it was at the official post office, then that's all good. If it was at the company's own holding facility, however, it could have never actually have existed.

It isn't something I've heard of before, but the fact the address was slightly wrong and you had to have proof of address at the incorrect one rings alarm bells for me. Usually you have to have the recipient's ID, not proof of address.

Contact eBay and Paypal and find out if they've had any other complaints. Let us know the delivery company so people could help you look into it.

Hope it's an honest mistake!!

squeaky

Hi Trevor

I'll move this one across to the Ebay board for you where their experts will be able to help you.

Good luck

Forum_Team wrote:

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL='forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com']forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL]

melbell

robatwork wrote: »

Dispute with Ebay. You should get your money back as the onus is on the seller to prove you received it.

And learn a lesson about expensive phone purchases from Ebay

They can, once they supply the tracking number to paypal its been proven as received.

porkev

perhaps this is just me reading wrong, but did it say in the listing that the phone was coming from abroad, because believe me if it has been sent from china you can't get real Iphones from china,(though obviously they are made there);

as mentioned earlier I would be tempted to get in touch with the person who picked it up(if you know where they are of course)

gb12345

RosiPossum wrote: »

What was the delivery service? It could be a scam in that they run their own website and tracking etc. If it was at the official post office, then that's all good. If it was at the company's own holding facility, however, it could have never actually have existed.

Good point

@OP who were the delivery service, what is their website and when you say you rang the "Post Office", who exactly did you ring and where did you get their phone number from?