Quick question regarding suspected fraudulent eBay seller

jase1 · 30 November 2017 at 11:43AM

I ordered an item from a Chinese seller at the start of October. Item hasn't arrived, and I note that, while the seller is still registered with eBay, they now have over 300 negatives in the last month (seller has made their feedback private but the counts are visible).

I have raised a request with eBay but the seller responded with a badly-worded, single-line response stating that the tracking number was attached to the purchase (it is, but it doesn't seem to be valid). I responded to the effect that I'd wait until December 7th as suggested by eBay, and they've replied with the same response as the first (letter for letter).

I just need to know if there is anything I need to do other than to leave this until the 7th and escalate? It's pretty clear at this point that the seller is most likely a scammer, but these normally get removed by eBay (I've had this a couple of times before).

Muggins here decided to buy a second item from this guy (he's cheap, but not significantly more so than the other China suppliers), so don't really want to be scammed twice (will be going through this again on December 12th by the look of things)...

I just don't want to deal with this incorrectly and fall foul to some eBay loophole!

ballisticbrian · 30 November 2017 at 12:09PM

The fact they are still responding to messages doesn't sound like a typical scammer. Raise the request like you've done and escalate on the 7th day. There's nothing else you can do. Possibly they've been scammed themselves by a "you sell - and we'll ship the items" type scam.

theonlywayisup · 30 November 2017 at 12:15PM

As above, but it is actually the 8th day, to the second, that you can escalate.

forgotmyname · 30 November 2017 at 9:01PM

Simply respond to the case that the tracking number is fake.

I have had items turn up after 90 days. 300 negatives but how many
positives?

How many have left a negative 2 or 3 days after buying?

Seen that plenty of times, 2 or 3 days later negative, not arrived yet. Seems some people do not realise that items bought from China or Maylasia or even the US wont arrive in 2 or 3 days.

jase1 · 4 December 2017 at 3:59PM

Thanks for the responses.

I am prepared to be patient. However eBay prevents me being too patient in this case.

The order has been in flight for 70 days already. It's 300 negs out of around 350, and the seller has made their feedback private.

Something has clearly gone very badly wrong with this seller. I am quite used to buying stuff from Far Eastern sellers.

I would agree with ballisticbrian that it's entirely possible the seller has been dropped in the crap by a drop-selling company. Ultimately that's not my problem, but I would be perfectly prepared to work with them if they were open and honest.

I will wait until Thursday and escalate. Thanks again.

Quick question regarding suspected fraudulent eBay seller

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