Buyer opened a case 48 hours after I posted - Paypal

princesse_sarah_x

This is an issue I have had on depop, for those who haven't used it its an app quite similar to ebay. I advertised a jumper for sale, a buyer messaged me saying they wanted to pay via paypal goods & services for a discounted price, I have done this before several times with no issues.

They paid on Tuesday evening, I posted Wednesday afternoon first class post. I uploaded proof of postage on the app. Tonight they have opened a paypal case saying item not received requesting a refund :eek: it was a relatively low value item so I didn't send it tracked.

To me this just seems like a scammer, they didn't even contact me first to state they hadn't received it and are being very aggressive about having not received. What can I do with regards to the case as I didn't send it tracked? Any help would be greatly appreciated :mad:

starsign47

It does sound like a scam. Surely if you have proof of posting they or you can take up the issue with Royal Mail who ( I believe ) compensate up to £30.... myHermes compensate up to £50. Suggest you speak to whichever postal service you used. Good luck

princesse_sarah_x

Thank you! It was Royal Mail I used, but I've treid to claim for 2 lost parcels over the past year and they haven't issued compensation over either of them - the first they said the address wasn't registered with them, and the second they said the buyer is ignoring their correspondance and they closed the case! So I'm out of pocket there, and feel like I may be again :(

clumsy_cupcake

I've used depop in the past and have never had any problems but I also only accept payment by friends and family paypal or if it was good and services an extra £1 would be added to send the item tracked.

You have no way of proving the item was sent and they haven't recieved it so paypal will force a refund.

Do you have a printer? To send an item tracked with my hermes is £2.78 vs the £3.90 something Royal Mail costs for tracked services. This way you will be able to track the item and it won't cost you any more than if your were sending a small parcel untracked via Royal Mail which is £2.80.

My advice would be to only send all your items by a tracked method (myhermes being the cheapest), or sell your items on depop by friends and family paypal only.

This is the same reason why I send all my items tracked when I sell on ebay.

Also with myhermes you can drop your parcel off at a large number of newsagent shops or for 20p extra they will collect it from your home.

soolin

clumsy_cupcake wrote: »

I've used depop in the past and have never had any problems but I also only accept payment by friends and family paypal or if it was good and services an extra £1 would be added to send the item tracked.

You have no way of proving the item was sent and they haven't recieved it so paypal will force a refund.

Do you have a printer? To send an item tracked with my hermes is £2.78 vs the £3.90 something Royal Mail costs for tracked services. This way you will be able to track the item and it won't cost you any more than if your were sending a small parcel untracked via Royal Mail which is £2.80.

My advice would be to only send all your items by a tracked method (myhermes being the cheapest), or sell your items on depop by friends and family paypal only.

This is the same reason why I send all my items tracked when I sell on ebay.

Also with myhermes you can drop your parcel off at a large number of newsagent shops or for 20p extra they will collect it from your home.

Actually I disagree. Whilst it does sound like OP might have picked up a scammer here, not everyone on line is a scammer-OP has just been unfortunate.

I use MYhermes, but am careful with what I use it for, most of the items I sell are not covered and another thing to consider is that a lot of buyers don't like MyHermes. Tracked post with Royal Mail is not £3.90, that is signed for - so using RM for tracked post is far too costly.

That leaves me with self insuring which is far far cheaper, even if I am unfortunate enough to meet a scammer. 300 + parcels sent in the past month, 1 claim of INR which looks completely legit- 98% sent RM 2nd class . Sending that lot tracked would have cost me an arm and a leg, all to save against the possibility of a one in several thousand or so being a scammer.

princesse_sarah_x

Thank you both, myhermes does sound good, but online it seems you have to pay an extra £1 for signed delivery? Would the standard hermes price show delivery? To be honest I don't often sell many items over £20 in value and if I do I always send those ones recorded, I've only had about 5 parcels go 'missing' this year.
I also don't have a printer but I could print them in bulk at university, but using the post office is much easier for me as I live next door and the nearest hermes drop off is 2 miles away.

soolin

princesse_sarah_x wrote: »

Thank you both, myhermes does sound good, but online it seems you have to pay an extra £1 for signed delivery? Would the standard hermes price show delivery? To be honest I don't often sell many items over £20 in value and if I do I always send those ones recorded, I've only had about 5 parcels go 'missing' this year.
I also don't have a printer but I could print them in bulk at university, but using the post office is much easier for me as I live next door and the nearest hermes drop off is 2 miles away.

You do not need a signature until the value reaches something high like £750 (others will correct that figure if I am wrong). MyHermes is tracked, RM standard and signed for (which is the old recorded) is not.

Can I suggest you read the sticky postage thread to make sure you are up to speed in what protection you need - there is no point in using services if you don't appreciate what seller protection is and how to use it. The sticky thread will explain it all.

princesse_sarah_x

*update*

After this, the buyer blocked me on the app, my friend who uses the app said they checked her profile and she is now selling the jumper she claimed to have not received, and is now brazenly using my own photos and item description!
We messaged her and she blocked my friend too. I responded on the paypal case but she has just ignored it. Is there anything I can do at this stage? I was prepared to just let it go until I saw this, isn't this fraud/theft? Any help would be appreciated, thank you

ballisticbrian

The first thing to do if you want to take it further is capture some screen shots of her adverts and save them, to prevent her taking the ads down and denying everything. It will be a lot easier than trying to get this from the web site admins. You should really do that without contacting her first. Then, as the buyer is uncooperative, I would decide how far you want to take it. Would you be happy submitting this to the web site who may compensate you (eBay give you £25 for this) and promise to take action against the user (probably just suspend the account) or whether you want to involve police or "action fraud" because in a nut shell, this lady has committed a criminal offense.


I have developed a real knack of finding serial fraudsters of small items on eBay and what they don't often realise is a long series of low value items stolen is leaving a huge audit trail which will come down on them like a house of cards. I'm currently dealing with an economics student from Hull University whose shoes I would not want to be in right now.

princesse_sarah_x

ballisticbrian wrote: »

The first thing to do if you want to take it further is capture some screen shots of her adverts and save them, to prevent her taking the ads down and denying everything. It will be a lot easier than trying to get this from the web site admins. You should really do that without contacting her first. Then, as the buyer is uncooperative, I would decide how far you want to take it. Would you be happy submitting this to the web site who may compensate you (eBay give you £25 for this) and promise to take action against the user (probably just suspend the account) or whether you want to involve police or "action fraud" because in a nut shell, this lady has committed a criminal offense.


I have developed a real knack of finding serial fraudsters of small items on eBay and what they don't often realise is a long series of low value items stolen is leaving a huge audit trail which will come down on them like a house of cards. I'm currently dealing with an economics student from Hull University whose shoes I would not want to be in right now.

Thank you, yes luckily I got some screenshots, and after I messaged her she deleted it so I have evidence! Apparently she has scammed alot of people on the app and Depop now have blocked her account. I just want my money back, would the police do anything? I still have her address. She is 15 too, I can't believe this!
Ah good luck with that! What did you do? I was just wondering if Paypal will do anything, as the case she opened won't let me add photos to it.

ballisticbrian

At this point, I would call Paypal and explain the proof and photos you have. Nothing in their automated system will help with this issue, but they are quite good on the phone.