Hi All,
Hopefully this will help others. I bought a solar panel a few weeks ago. The price was incredible - Not so low as to look like a scam, but lower than everyone else and with enoug detail to make it look plausible.
So I check the tracking through 17track.net and it shows as delivered.
Now I know sometimes things show as delivered when they actually aren't delivered until the next day, so I wait two days, then ask the seller for more information. Seller doesn't respond.
So I guess Australia post is the end-mile delivery service and contact them. They confirm that the item was delivered. So I raise a dispute with them and it comes back as confirmed delivered... What the? Next day the postie shows up on my door. Great guy the local postie. Has known us by name for many years. He apologises and explains he thought he scanned it in and isn't sure why it went missing. Now this guy rides a bike and the item is the size of a 50" TV set... No way he brought this item to me on a bicycle, so we discuss and find that I've received everything he delivered, so he says it was probably a courier truck. A truck was in the area at the time, but not near my house. What gives?
Contact Australia post, they now provide enough information so I know the delivery time within 60 seconds. I check a GPS locked surveillance system that covers all approaches to my house for some distance. No postie, no truck. Check for an hour in either direction. One possible misdelivered item by truck, but 30 minutes out is impossible. These deliveries are time-stamped automatically and are accurate to within 60 seconds.
So I know the postie isn't at fault, and they confirm it was the same postie, and I start to get suspicious... Fortunately I get a smart lady on the phone who notices something isn't right. Then they mention it was a small parcel and that doesn't match my description- am I sure of the item? Yes, I'm sure... It's all logged on Ebay... But the item I ordered weighs quite a few kilograms and is as big as a big screen TV. Well, you all know how big solar panels are right? LARGE house-sized ones.They way more than 13 grams that the parcel was measured as weighing.
So we do some digging and work out that Australia Post can't verify what address was written on the parcel. At this point, we realize that the surveillance video confirms that the postie was elsewhere when this item was delivered... and it weighed as much as an empty envelope - just big enough to carry a tracking number and maybe some small note or junk.
This means the address on the item has been time-confirmed to have been delivered elsewhere. Remember this postie knows me personally and has never made a mistake, which means someone else's name and address were probably randomly assigned to this parcel so it would show as being delivered at a time, to a location in my suburb. The time-locked surveillance video was the final piece of evidence I needed to confirm this happened.
So I call ebay and talk to them. They investigate and immediately find anomolies in the sellers account that match my evidence collected and shut him down the same day and fast-track my dispute.
Scam confirmed, Ebay buyer protection seems to be working. Scammer caught !
This is a particularly clever scam. Someone can play the numbers to only send some of what they claim, and fake some delivered notices for others. There's no immediate indication of problems in the feedback, and the buyers get burned commonly as they have no idea what happened.
THIS IS NOT A COMPLAINT AGAINST EBAY. JUST TO BE CLEAR, EBAY WERE 100% HELPFUL IN HELPING ME SOLVE THIS ISSUE. THANK YOU EBAY, Australia Post and my local postie, who has never let me down in more than 2 decades.
So what to do if you're scammed?
Well, the scam works well enough to destroy the evidence in most cases. The letter or tracked "fake" item will just go missing, so that's no help.
But in these cases, Australia Post is usually the end delivery service. Contact them with the tracking number, get the weight. They weigh everything. If the weight is ridiculously low, then you have enough evidence and they will send you the evidence you require in an email and Ebay will assist. If the weight is too low when Australia Post measure it, then you know that the item wasn't included.
If the scammer sends rocks or some junk that's heavy, then you'll need a time-locked surveillance video or something similar like I had to demonstrate that the item wasn't delivered.
If you do find someone doing this, please notify ebay as soon as possible, so they can stop them from getting other victims.
+++ for Ebay, Australia Post and everyone involved for helping me figure this out in a single day ! I know they get a lot of flack for not supporting the buyer in most of these cases, but I have to say everyone was super-helpful in helping me collect enough information to solve this and request a refund.
Hope this helps other people, Here's the information that Australia Post can often provide to help you prove you were a victim of this scam...
David.
