Am I being scammed? Seller sent cheap item and is now desperate for me to close my eBay case. | Buying

nimblepanda · 2025-10-17T02:16:59.038000Z

I'm hoping to get some community confirmation on what feels like a textbook scam. I basically bought two Hue light bulbs at a great, almost too good, price. The seller's profile had a red flag in that they signed up back in 2012, only had about 74 total feedback with just 14 as a seller, and had suddenly listed 70-80 high-value items this month like PS5s, hue products, automotive products, and tools - all priced similarly below market value. A few days after buying, the seller sent what appeared to be mass message about a "labelling mixup," saying if we got the wrong item, we should call their personal phone number and they'd fix it (we could even keep the wrong item). The package arrived, and it was obviously not bulky enough. I recorded the unboxing and, sure enough, it contained two cheap air fresheners. I later confirmed they used to sell these in a listing that had 10 available, but the listing appears to have been pulled after the first was sold. Given all these red flags, and because the seller hadn't received any feedback for their new high-value listings yet, I opened an eBay case ("wrong item delivered") as a precaution. I told the seller I'd close it once I actually got the right bulbs. They messaged back right away, promising to repack the bulbs and send tracking. Then, a couple of days later, they messaged again, claiming the replacement was "in transit" (no tracking number provided) and asked I close the open case immediately. I refused, saying I'd only close it when the item was in my hands. The next day, they sent me a new message stating they tried to process a refund, but they "could not do so because the dispute case was open," and asked me to close the case so the refund could go through. Thoughts? I'm thinking the seller never sent the bulbs, is likely pulling the same trick with other buyers, and is either delaying until the dispute times out and/or wants the dispute to be closed so withdrawal limits are removed.

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Am I being scammed? Seller sent cheap item and is now desperate for me to close my eBay case. | Buying | eBay Australia