So I'm in the middle of an issue with an Ebay purchase. Now I knew it was most likely bogus but rolled the dice on the off chance it wasn't. I'll leave the link out for now.

My gripe is that he sent me a tracking number. It shows it was just "electronic information received" which means he did, in fact, print a label. However everyone knows that this is meaningless. Everyone but this person it seems.

So I've opened a dispute with Ebay and the guy just keeps replying he has proof he sent it. The proof? That he printed out the label of course!

The fact that I have to wait to escalate this to an actual case is frustrating.

Anyone deal with a scammer this dense?

John, how long has it said this? I have never dealt with a scammer like that but I did have an eBay order from California one time that said electronic information received for two or three days then one day I checked it and it had all of the tracking stuff up to the Dallas post office for sorting. Like it all updated at once for some reason.

It's been like that since August 3rd. Going from Florida to NY

DarthBerizing wrote:

It's been like that since August 3rd. Going from Florida to NY

That's quite a while, although you never know for sure with the USPS.

I think I've had a similar experience, where the guy gave me a tracking number that never did anything and claimed ignorance when I asked him about it. It was just some LEGO parts, but it was for a project that I was doing and I ended up having to wait several weeks before I got a refund. The annoying thing was that he made it sound like he was doing a me a favor, when I think he either forgot to send it or decided not to sell after the fact.

Not updating tracking is very common here, Sometimes stuff gets sent the wrong way and it eventually come back to the start again before being sent out.

I know I've been scammed several times though. When you request item to be sent with tracking and then the seller say its sent, ofcourse it's no tracking number and the item never arrives. Seller agree on a refund but not for the mail cost which is high. Easy 30usd+ there.

I once bought an item and it didn't show up, I was pissed off and blamed the seller for it. It was many many years back. He apologizes and said he didn't know what had happened but he had one more of the same item so he sent that. Which arrived 2 weeks later. 8 months later the first one arrived, the post stamp said 2 nov the year before. I looked up the seller and apologized offering to return it, but he said I could keep it. Sometimes it's the mail.

Sorry to hear about your trouble on eBay, it sucks when things like this happen because most ofthe time its a item you really want and the money isn't important.

At least if it doesn't turn up eBay should get you your cash back.

Ive had a similar experience, i bought a few things off a guy on ebay, two weeks later he sends me the tracking numbers, 4 weeks later no items, i contacted him with a nice letter, no response, sent him another two notes, once again no reply, so i mentioned to him the last thing i wanted to do was start a paypal dispute, but my 45 day limit was coming up.
He got back to me and said 'sorry i forgot to send the items' which lead me to think why did he send me a tracking number, it must have been a fake one or like John says here he just got a number and never sent the items.
He ended up giving me a full refund, so it turned out ok, i did not leave him any bad feedback, as i was just happy with my money back, and gave him the benefit of the doubt.
So it goes to show a tracking number means nothing unless you know your dealing with a honest guy.

John, sorry to hear about this mate, "electronic information received" should this update when the seller physically takes the package to the post office and gets the label scanned, it then being officially in the postal system so to speak ? Without verification the Post office have had the package, a label and tracking number would be usless.

Sorry to hear this John!

Not updating tracking info is fairly common here too. I hope you get your item soon  

If you paid with PayPal then you can file a claim with them. Even better if you used a CC through PayPal because you can deny payment on the card and PayPal will be forced to side with you NO MATTER....This is base on my personal selling experience when someone claimed the item was not as described. I sold a .45 scaled MR mini Light saber and they thought they were buying the full sized one. They ended up getting a refund and never sending me my item back....really sucked. I only pursued all avenues because I knew I was right and they were wrong and they still won. Lesson Learned.

Well , it's nice to be on the buying side of EBay. I escalated to a full claim and got an instant judgement in my favor since the tracking ID never showed it was even dropped off.

What I still don't get is the motive. 4yr Ebayer, still selling other stuff. Getting good feedback too. So why list a single bogus item? I'm wondering if people do it for a free short term loan? You get to borrow my money for 2 weeks for basically the cost of the Final Value Fee?

In case anyone was curious, here's the ad

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121152413402?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649


Now I bought this assuming something was up but still jumped on it just in case. As Paul pointed out the tab is intact in the front, not in the back. Seller said he used a stock photo and sent me a camera phone pic of the front. Seemed like an innocent mistake and pressed on.

So happy to have my money back but still want to understand the "why"

I don't get it either, but then again I also don't get why there are so many non-paying bidders out there (much more than would seem reasonable if it were just people getting cold feet on their purchases).

You seem to be thinking that he doesn't even have the item in the first place, but is it possible he found out he underpriced it and wanted a way out of the transaction?