Seller cancelled but claims item has shipped and I need to pay

[mmj638]

After purchase seller contacted me saying they had accidentally cancelled my order and wanted me to still pay because they had already shipped the item.

At first this seemed legit so I said sure why not, but let's wait until my money is back.

The only tracking number I have doesn't show anything has shipped and doesn't have any of my details in it. This isn't all that unusual when the seller is a drop shipper as it takes a while to get into auspost's system but nonetheless I have nothing that really indicates it's been shipped.

Anyway, I asked the seller if the item is still on its way and not delayed, and said if they want payment, they can relist the item to do it properly through eBay's system and since then haven't heard back over 3 days.

So, this silence is giving me major cold feet and feel as if either it was an attempted scam, or seller was legit but totally unreliable. As it stands I have all my money back, so I am not at this stage down anything.

Except, I still want the item, and if this one's not coming I want to buy it elsewhere.

What if the original item turns up eventually and original seller, who had cancelled the order, wants payment and/or the item back?

I can't see how to open a dispute with eBay because the item was refunded.

[padi*0409]

Two options here.

If the item is coming by AP and the seller has a MyPost account they can easily get it redirected back to them, or

You can wait until it arrives and have AP do a Return to Sender on the unopened parcel, or if you want to keep it ask the seller for their Paypal address and repay them that way.

Edit to add. Since it's a cancellation by the seller then there won't be any option for a dispute. What is the item number (RHS of the listing page).

[papermoon.lady]

No loss for you at this stage.

The only problem is that you cannot open a dispute, as already said, so either you ask AusPost to return it without opening the box OR, if you open the box and notice a problem, you will have to return it at your cost.

If you open the box and everything is fine, ask the seller how to pay. I have done this a few times when an item arrived late and I had received a refund, and the bots never even blocked eBay messages with email addresses for PayPal, as they might have picked some words that made them understand the situation.

[springyzone]

Why would you need to open a dispute? The only person at the moment who could possibly lose here is the seller.

The seller cancelled, then refunded you but says it was in error as the item had in fact been posted?

Well then, easy.

Have a look at the original ad & the estimated dates of arrival for that purchase. If you can't see that and the seller has similar items for sale, see how many days they allow for postage and that will give you a rough idea of when it should arrive, as you'll know what date you bought it.

If the item doesn't arrive by then, I'd be suspicious it was never posted at all and the seller is either very muddled and incompetent or dishonest.

If the item does arrive, then they were telling the truth & as you say you still want the item, you would need to contact the seller and arrange to pay. That's only fair.

As the seller has cancelled the order and refunded, the seller can't force payment and can't force you to post it back (in any case, they would be up for return postage for that). But if it arrives and you want it, pay for it.

If it doesn't arrive, you'll only have a few days to wait to find that out and you can buy the item elsewhere then.

[jellybirddesigns]

A bit of a weird situation, for sure.

Seller does sound like they're attempting to scam those who are gullible enough to believe that they "accidentally" refunded the transaction. What is their feedback like - do they have negatives from others warning of the same story? Are they a long term seller or was this a one-off item?

I don't think the item will ever turn up - I think the tracking number you were given was probably fake.

However, you have your money back and can still purchase elsewhere regardless.

Where is the seller REGISTERED - not where the item "location" is.

You can put that tracking number into sites such as "17track"or "Trackingmore", to see if you can glean any further information, especially if it originated overseas.

If you care to share the item number, we can look at the seller ourselves.

[mmj638]

It's a seller with a professional looking store and 100% feedback except they have only 3 feedbacks ever received ever as a seller, two of which were items unrelated to what's in their store, with a couple of dozen as a buyer.  So I took a punt on what seemed to be an inexperienced seller with a new store and figured if something went wrong ebay would still provide some cover.  Did not expect seller to pull this lol.

All the tracking services just show "shipping information received by australia post" or "Parcel data submitted to carrier".  The earlier of the expected delivery dates is tomorrow, but it's plausible that if it's legit it could turn up before the later date.  Auspost doesn't show sender or recipient info because the shipment doesn't match my stored details.

So many little red flags, no confidence, this is just a pain because if this seller isn't legitimate it means going with another seller and waiting all over again.  And if the item does turn up I have to deal with this deadbeat seller if there's any issues with it.

That's why if I do pay the seller I only want to do it through ebay and not directly via Paypal, I don't think that's an unreasonable request is it.

[papermoon.lady]

I am just wondering if the seller is trying to avoid Managed Payments? Maybe he wants his money immediately, so he cancelled the original transaction which might have kept his funds on hold (as he is not a major seller) and asked you to pay again directly. Maybe it was a trick to get his money without waiting? Was it an expensive item? 

[mmj638]

Seller's about page says location Australia, how do I find out where they're "registered"?  Fwiw their previous transactions do seem to indicate they're Australian.

Thanks for the suggestion of providing item number but I'm hesitant to do so while this is still in flux.

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@papermoon.lady wrote:

 Was it an expensive item? 

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The item was $150ish and just an electronics item.  It was a reasonable price, not suspiciously cheap.  Like it's more than you'd pay on aliexpress and I figured that getting something from a local seller even when it was clear it was dropshipped from china would be a little less risky

[padi*0409]

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@mmj638 wrote:

Seller's about page says location Australia, how do I find out where they're "registered"? 

Look at their feedback, that shows the country of registration.

Thanks for the suggestion of providing item number but I'm hesitant to do so while this is still in flux.

You will get far more meaningful answers here if you do provide the item number as members will probably see things that you wouldn't be aware of.

[mmj638]

Item 314252065831

But item isn't listed anymore so I'm not sure if you'd be able to see anything..