Possible scam

[lacha3561]

I recently purchased two Quorum EDT fragrances in mid July. The seller listed them as not being tracked, which seemed unusual for a domestic (Australian) purchase.

At the beginning of this month, I asked the seller for tracking details. They provided a number and a receipt showing “delivered,” but I never received the items. This strongly suggests fraudulent activity.

This has been my worst experience on eBay so far, and I am concerned other buyers may also be affected. Could you please advise if I am eligible for a refund, and can you investigate or suspend this seller to prevent further scams?

Thank you for and any help,
Lachlan

[*casey*]

There's something very odd / wrong here.

I read  an eBay  UK  announcement earler in the year and more recently an eBay US announcement

stating that for all transactions, this was going to take place  - it started yesterday in the US with some transactions backdated.

"eBay automated feedback is automatically added to the seller’s account when a transaction is successfully completed. This positive feedback gives other eBay users confidence in this seller and in our marketplace. We only do this if the following criteria are met:

• You didn't leave feedback within 7 days of delivery (as confirmed by tracking)
• We can’t see any indication of an issue with the transaction
• Tracking shows the item was delivered on time

For buyers  

You can still leave your own feedback within 60 days of delivery, in which case the automated feedback will be replaced with yours.

The OP's  AU seller is now showing  103  eBay  automated feedback

Order completed successfully – tracked and on time

The listings I looked at showed:

Free Australia Post Domestic Regular Letter Untracked

I have no idea what shows to a buyer  who wants to override eBay's automated feedback and leave their own so 

@lacha3561, I can see you've now  left negative feedback for the seller.

Was there any indication that you were overriding eBay's positive  automated feedback when you left your negative feedback ?

[twyngwyn]

and……this seller is away until 14th Sept….so, OP is unlikely to get a response 

[springyzone]

---

@*casey* wrote:

There's something very odd / wrong here.

I read  an eBay  UK  announcement earler in the year and more recently an eBay US announcement

stating that for all transactions, this was going to take place  - it started yesterday in the US with some transactions backdated.

"eBay automated feedback is automatically added to the seller’s account when a transaction is successfully completed. This positive feedback gives other eBay users confidence in this seller and in our marketplace. We only do this if the following criteria are met:

• You didn't leave feedback within 7 days of delivery (as confirmed by tracking)
• We can’t see any indication of an issue with the transaction
• Tracking shows the item was delivered on time

For buyers  

You can still leave your own feedback within 60 days of delivery, in which case the automated feedback will be replaced with yours.

The OP's  AU seller is now showing  103  eBay  automated 

 I've seen ebay's automated feedback mentioned before but in my opinion (which of course ebay would not care about), 7 days is way too early for them to intervene.

In fact, it is a colossal cheek.

If people have 2 months in which to leave feedback, ebay should not jump in at all till after that.

I know their claim is buyers can override it but I hope it is an easy process & I hope buyers are made aware they can do that.

In the past (fairly distant past) I have had a couple of experiences where I decided not to give feedback at all as I had small issues but decided to let it go. But if I noticed ebay had jumped in, I'd feel I had to intervene. But that's the issue-would all buyers necessarily know it had even happened, unless they looked?

[*casey*]

Automated feedback has been around for a long time  but only for sellers with a  feedback score of 10 or less.

Even then, I've seen it given to shonky dropshippers who are now NARU, an iPad scammer who sent used  iPads while advertising them as new, and more recently to  Chinese scammers who have hijacked low feedback Italian sellers' accounts

With the hijacked accounts, the items exist , sent from AliExpress and hit and miss whether the buyer receives anything, but hijacked by  Chinese scammers and not listed by the real  account holders.

Earler this year eBay UK  and more recently the US,  announced that automated feedback would be given to ALL sellers, not just those with under 10 feedback.

The AU seller who is the subject of this thread has now received  113 positive automated feedback which makes no sense at all.  Advertised with no tracking and  in AU.

Although our boards are quiet, the US forums are FULL of threads  from victims of  fake tracking scams.

Those scam  sellers will  initially receive automated  positive feedback .

I'd like to know what shows to a buyer when  eBay automated feedback has already been  given so that's why I asked the OP on the off chance it was relevant.

[*casey*]

EDIT "Those scam  sellers will  initially receive automated  positive feedback "

IMO, many  of those 'fake tracking scam'  sellers will initially  receive positive eBay automated feedback before buyers realise they've been scammed

[springyzone]

I'd like to know what shows to a buyer when  eBay automated feedback has already been  given so that's why I asked the OP on the off chance it was relevant.

IMO, many  of those 'fake tracking scam'  sellers will initially  receive positive eBay automated feedback before buyers realise they've been scammed

I'd like to know too, what shows to a buyer when feedback has already been left and how easy it is to override it. If in fact ebay even makes it clear that they can.

I agree with you that plenty of scam sellers are going to receive false positive feedback this way.

In my opinion, it is a big mistake for ebay to be jumping in a week after delivery of an item.

It barely gives the buyer enough time to open the package and properly try something out, use it a few times to make sure it really is as described and not faulty.

But most of all, feedback is meant to be a guide to other potential buyers. I suspect that some buyers get as far as looking at feedback breakdown but may not actually open the positives to read. I have to admit I am a bit like this, I click on the negatives & neutrals but not always the positives. So if I saw a seller with eg 10 positives this month & no negs anywhere, I'd probably be thinking they looked okay.

And there is the fact a lot of buyers are reasonable people, they will contact a seller if there is a problem, for example an item running late, and they will give a seller more time.

I know feedback is not the be all and end all, but it really would be better if ebay left it till the 2 month mark and only stepped in and gave an ebay positive then.

But I suspect this isn't about giving accurate info to buyers, it is about making sellers look as good as possible as soon as possible.

[davewil1964]

I'm certainly not getting automatic positives.

I am lucky to get feedback for 20% of sales.

[springyzone]

From what i understood, the auto positives applied only to sellers with under 10 feedback but in (was it USA & UK) ebay was rolling it out for all sellers? Or going to?

I don't think it applies in Australia yet because I recently left feedback for a seller after about 3 weeks to a month and I did not have to override anything. Ebay had not intervened.

I would have been annoyed if they had.