Fake return label? Such a weird thing! RIDICULOUS. Never happened before.
Summary: The discussion topic concerns an unusual experience with a suspicious return label, described as a strange event that had never happened before. superalberto introduces the topic, expressing surprise and disbelief. Several participants share their opinions or experiences, highlighting how rare the situation is and how important it is to resolve it.
Hello,
I bought an item from a seller. I should point out that he is a professional seller with 3,025 feedback, 99.9% positive!!! (thinking about what happened to me, it seems impossible). Vintage car parts.
But I also note that he clearly wrote in his rules that returns are always at the buyer's expense.
The replacement part arrives and it is not as described: it is not the brand in the listing (it was clearly specified as Magneti Marelli) and it is also damaged by age, while the listing showed in the photo and described a part in excellent condition and original of that brand. Sure, it was an equivalent part, but from another brand and also with unacceptable signs of wear. Since the item was not as described, I decided to return it and, since it was absolutely not compliant with the description, neither in photos nor in the description, that the return shipping costs should be at the seller's expense: I simply send him a message asking for the return at his expense. The seller has a certain amount of time to reply. We get to the last valid day for the seller to respond before I can ask eBay to step in, and the seller finally replies (he took his sweet time): okay, send it back and we'll refund you (without commenting on the fact that I had disputed the item as not as described, etc.)
I reply: you need to tell me how to do it because it has to be at your expense.
Within a very short time I receive the following messages from eBay: the seller says he sent you the return label. Ship it now and you will receive a refund. (I had not received any label)
Then shortly after: thank you for shipping and returning the item, the seller must reimburse you by the following date. If he does not, you can ask for intervention. 😮
I had not received any label. The seller had entered a tracking code in the eBay system and it turned out to be for another shipment, in a completely different part of Italy, already delivered.
Then I receive a message from the seller: I (me!) should correct a letter in the tracking code. Where there is a J I must put an I.
I reply: but WHERE am I supposed to correct it? Me? What?
Time passes without a reply from him.
After a few days the seller sends me, via message, a png file (jpg type, in short) with a label. It's an Italian Post label. Poste Crono, to be exact. It has my address and phone number and I assume his details as recipient. I ask: I guess I have to print it and take it to the post office? Or does the courier come? He doesn't answer me...
Since it has a QR code on it, I scan it and it connects to the Post Office app, giving the code I mentioned before and saying that the parcel was shipped on.... and already delivered on.... (ridiculous!!!). I check the code WRITTEN in uppercase letters under the barcode and it is different because of the famous I and J. If that code is entered with an I, the system says it is an invalid code. I start to suspect that the seller corrected the label with an image editing program...
So I resize the label (usually with PDFs it can be printed as is, but here it was a raster image!), put it on the parcel and go to the Post Office. I ask the clerk and she tells me that couriers usually come to pick up these parcels at home, but that they can also collect them there. Fine. I hand it over (I take a photo of the parcel in the hands of the post office clerk...) ...she does a thousand checks....and tells me that it is not a valid label!!! That she can't take it!!! In fact, she also sees that the code that comes up by scanning the barcode or the QR code is different from the one written in uppercase, because of the famous I instead of J. She sends me home with the parcel.
I write to the seller: he tells me I have to wait for the courier to come by my house to pick it up and I can't ship it from the post office. I tell him that the post office clerk told me otherwise but above all she told me that that label was not valid...ah...I forgot to say that the label, in the contact details written for me and the seller, had the phone numbers. Mine was correct: I tried calling his and it said the number didn't exist! I told him that too and he didn't answer me about it. Anyway he tells me to wait until the next day when the courier would come to pick it up. The next day a Post Office courier passes by (SDA? maybe?) anyway he was there to DELIVER something to me. He sees me with the parcel in my hand and says: yes, yes, we pick that up too, just give it to me. I tell the seller that I gave the parcel to the courier.
He replies: okay, as soon as we receive it, we will issue the refund.
And that's it: from that moment, absolute silence. Code with I instead of J never showed as trackable.
Meanwhile the seller opens a dispute against me. Honestly, I fear a well-orchestrated scam with a fake label altered on a computer from a real one.
Today the seller (with the dispute still open) writes to me: I haven't received anything and the tracking code with the I is not visible. You never shipped anything!
At that point I immediately call eBay (or rather, they call me), fearing for the first time in my life that I might lose my money (it wasn't exactly a small amount), I give them the case number and explain the situation well. They tell me that the tracking code provided by the seller does not match our two addresses. I say: but how can that be my fault? The seller gave it to you. I did everything that was asked of me and even more. You can also check our entire message list and there is the label he sent me.
They acknowledge that I am right and refund my money.
Now that he has lost the dispute, I have the seller sending me almost threatening messages, accusing me of never having shipped the parcel. Saying that the courier should have scanned the parcel when it was loaded onto the truck and therefore if it had been a corrupted code, he should not have accepted it, as happened when I went to the post office. But the courier simply took the parcel and left.
What should I do, in your opinion?
heavenwelkin
·1 year agoOptional: Have a shipping label sent to you so you can send the item back to them.
Keep in mind that as far as ebay is concerned, you’re in the clear, and you can also decide to ignore the seller’s requests, since they tried in every way to scam you.
This bad habit on the part of sellers is pretty widespread.
Sellers who don’t respond to open requests with buyers who let the deadlines expire
Sellers who respond by stalling with buyers who let the deadlines expire
Sellers who report sending fake labels or ones that have already been used with buyers who let the deadlines expire
Etc
If sellers get away with certain “luxuries,” it’s also thanks to buyers.
If you’re no longer used to taking actions that require using reasoning tied to carrying out sensible actions, that’s when they rip you off.
Kind regards
marioelegio
·1 year agoNothing, that's enough.
hi
mario
superalberto
OP1 year agoThanks Mario, but what about the feedback? The replacement part he sold me is still listed for sale with the same description and photos. I’d at least like to warn others. Besides, I wrote about my experience in a vintage car group and the users were pretty angry
heavenwelkin
·1 year agoAre you not satisfied with getting the refund + the item and making the seller understand that not everyone was born yesterday?
Would you also like to pile on through the feedback?
Since you opened a dispute, you almost certainly won’t be able to leave negative or neutral feedback, and if you do manage it, avoid personal judgments about the seller and stick to the facts.
The facts are that you received a full refund and also kept the item.
Best regards.
evillz_it
·1 year agoOnce you’ve gotten the full refund, as the buyer you’ve already won. Forget about everything else.
marioelegio
·1 year agoActually he wrote that he had returned the item:
Anyway, I also agree not to pile on; at most a red or gray one with a wording like "received non-conforming replacement part, refunded by ebay".
bye
mario
heavenwelkin
·1 year ago