I think I was scammed, but I am not sure. Help!!

[ashleighhocking]

Hi all. I am currently in a situation and not sure how to proceed from here, I am not 100% sure it was or wasn't a scam from start to finish. I want to start off by stating I was able to get a courtesy refund. But I am wondering if there is anything else I can do incase the seller or courier are active scammers.

Seller Context
- On the 20th of Jan I purchased a book from a random seller on eBay I have not used previously. Price was good but not too good to be true. 
- Seller account was created mid 2024 & they have 1.2k items sold with 96% positive feedback/ 300 reviews in last 12 months
- Seller is located in the same country as me, Australia
- Lists 4,000+ books (red flag I didn't see prior to purchase)
- Assuming potential Amazon drop shipping?
- Has not been able to provide any evidence of the item exisiting/ being sent to courier.

Purchasing Process
- Jan 20th paid for item outright
- Jan 21st (next day) the seller messaged me in eBay app informing me that their last copy of the book was damaged so they asked me to request a refund in full. 2 hours later, I responded that I understood and would proceed with the refund.
- Jan 22nd seller messaged me with instructions on how to action the order cancellation. I did not get around to cancelling my order.
- Jan 23rd seller messaged again telling me they received more stock and would no longer need to cancel my order.
- Jan 24th I went to see if it was still possible to cancel my order as I no longer wanted to go ahead, but my order had already been updated to 'delivered'

Delivery
- My order was allegedly delivered Jan 23rd, and apparently begun transit on Jan 21st, the same time the seller was asking me to cancel. 
- I NEVER received my order, I have a secure parcel box at my house so it was unlikely to have been stolen.
- I have never heard of the courier company the seller used, and when I looked up reviews, it had several reports of being a scam (I didn't know they were 'using' a private courier).
- I emailed the courier company and they said my package was lost in transit and that I needed to take it up with the seller. They were unable to provide any proof they ever had a package for me. 
- Because package was marked as delivered, I couldn't report it as item not received in eBay.

I was very lucky to receive a courtesy refund from eBay, which I am thankful for. However, I feel uncomfortable with the situation still. Is there anyway to know if the seller & courier were both scamming together, or maybe just the courier? I am bummed if they scammed me. I just would feel bad for leaving a negative review if the seller was not responsible. I also don't want others to be scammed by this seller and/or courier? Is there realistically anything I can do?

[davewil1964 · Accepted solution]

Realistically - no.

You got your money back, so have no material loss and, therefore, have no legal recourse.

[ashleighhocking]

yeah fair enough tbh 

[springyzone]

It is great you got a courtesy refund.

That sounds as if it is out of ebay funds though, which is weird.

If you have a seller with that many regular listings and there is no tracking detail that actually shows the item as delivered, then I am surprised that ebay did not give the refund out of the seller's funds.

You say you have evidence from the courier where they say your item was lost in transit, so that is proof of non delivery.

Can you give feedback? If so, then I would be inclined to give a negative. Just state that the seller asked you to cancel your order then changed their mind a few days later and item was marked as delivered but the item never arrived. Do not mention the ebay refund at all or any dispute.

I would not say the seller is definitely a scammer, but the feedback is at 96%. Without seeing the item number of your order and being able to check out that seller's feedback, I don't know why it is that low, but I suspect it is for cancellation of orders, late deliveries and so on.

The seller will be drop shipping, I imagine. Probably not from Amazon as Amazon are not all that cheap.

But I know that some time ago I bought a book off an aussie seller where the book took a month to arrive. Obviously he had had it shipped to him from overseas before forwarding it on (mine came via Auspost). I knew from the estimated delivery times that that would probably be the case but he was the only seller with that particular book.

I believe your seller lied to you. I don't for a second believe he had your book and it was 'damaged'. How convenient. Nope, the company he deals with had informed him they didn't have any of those books left, hence his message to you to ask for a cancellation. How sneaky. If you ask, he can claim buyer request and he does not get a defect on his account. You as buyer cannot cancel an order, only he can and if he had no stock, he could have cancelled & refunded you on the spot.

You can't stop the guy from selling on ebay as drop shipping is not against their rules, but if you can give negative feedback, you will be able to bring his % down a bit more and maybe that may alert other buyers to a problem.