Your situation is this: you have bought an expensive item that has not been
delivered despite the seller providing an Australia Post tracking number that
shows delivery in your suburb.
Since this is sufficient proof of delivery (under eBay's money back guarantee rules) what do you do ?
Firstly, perhaps the fraud could have been prevented had you been careful about determining
whether it was at all likely the seller actually had the item (which is hard to get elsewhere). Is their
answer believable ? A question to the seller before purchase may have saved a world of pain eg
"How can you have these laptops when the Australian distributor has no stock ?"
Unfortunately knowing what should have been done is no help now.
At this point, don't do any of these
1 Complain to anyone likely to listen or may have an interest in the matter
2 Imagine that the item has been mislaid or has been "left in a safe place"
3 Open an eBay case for item not received since the seller has proved that the
item has been delivered (and if the tracking number is for an Express Post envelope,
delivery to a letter box is "proof of signature") and you will lose it. Don't consider an appeal either.
What you should do is this (eBay will eventually tell you, but it will take
time for them to do so and they will probably say it in such a way that you won't want
to do it). Go immediately to an Australia Post mailing centre (not a Post Office) and
say what's happened and ask about the tracking number.
Australia Post will tell informally you whether the delivery was a Parcel or an Envelope &
also whether it was delivered to your address. At this point, it should be clear if the
delivery was nothing to do with you (ie you have been scammed by the seller) or if there's been
a genuine mishap. Since Australia Post have GPS evidence of high value deliveries, there's
little doubt about what they say.
Next, if the delivery was not for your item, open a case with Australia Post (via
a MyPost account - whose delivery history would already have shown that the tracking number
from the seller had nothing to do with you) stating clearly
1 What you bought in enough detail to be clear about the item's size and weight.
2 That the sellet said the item was sent with this tracking number
3 Would they please confirm what was delivered (Envelope or Parcel) and that it was delivered
"as addressed and not to your address" ?
You can then send their email response to eBay to disprove the sellers claim that the
item you paid for was received. Eventually you will get a refund.
