seller lying about having posted item

[pr_moi]

I recently bought a couple of e-book readers.  One on a Monday and the other the following day.  Different devices, different sellers.

Both local (one in Sydney, one in Brisbane.).

After 10 days of zero contact from the Brisbane seller, I contacted her thropugh eBay and demanded a refund.  The following day, I received an email saying the item had been posted and was due the previous day.  And later the same day I received a PayPal email saying the seller had made a full refund.  Now, anopther week later, the item has never arrived.  That's item 1.

Item 2, bought on Tuesday 13th, seller sent an email 2 days later saying the item had been posted.  3 days after the due postage date, I email'd him (via Ebay) saying the delay was unreasonable and asking for some proof the item had been posted.  Two days later, I received another PayPal refund.  And, needless to say, the item has never arrived.

So both sellers have managed to send falso mailing notifications.  And both sellers actually did not, quite obviously to me, never even popsted the item.

And neither of these cretins ever made any contact with me, before or after refunding the price.

Can eBay control this sort of behaviour?

[padi*0409]

When you got in touch with the sellers did you use the option 

"I have a question about using my item or I want to send the seller a message"

Or,

"I didn’t receive my item"   From the screenshot below.

If you used the "didn't receive item" the seller has no choice but to refund you because you've effectivly opend a dispute through eBay against them.

                           

[chameleon54]

Is there a problem with your address in your ebay details ?  It happens more often than you think. I had one today where the buyer named his street, but forgot to say if it was a street or road or court. I had to google and check there was only one " road " with that name. Many sellers just print off the address label without checking the details.

Is your mail secure ?  Could the items be stolen from your mail box ?

Or maybe you have just been unlucky and struck two dodgy sellers in a row.......

[springyzone]

I'd say you're right & obviously the items were never posted. You've been unlucky.

At the moment, I don't think ebay properly can control some of the false information. For instance, a seller can probably mark an item in the my ebay section as posted when  it really hasn't been.

Not all sellers print off ebay mailing labels either, as far as I know.

And even when they do, it doesn't mean the item has actually been lodged at a post office yet.

It is not sounding to me as if either of your sellers intended to have tracking because even though they marked the things as posted they never supplied you with any tracking numbers.

I can allow anyone a mistake but in both cases here, I think you've struck sellers with very poor standards.

It's a theory of mine that the most competent sellers WILL mark something as posted in the 'my ebay' section. To me, it's an easy way to communicate with a buyer so if they don't bother to use this, they're already down one star for communication in my book because they... haven't communicated.

Seller number 1 was a  real bumbler, not only didn't mark it as sent but then answered a query before even double checking. The fact they made a refund a few hours later proves to me they had no tracking number, nothing. They probably found the item in a corner. They could have at least sent a message to tell you they were refunding or apologising for making a mistake or even to say they posted without tracking but would refund as it was obviously lost in the post.

Seller 2. Again obviously had no tracking info they could look at to tell you where the item was. On small items that could be common but I would have thought an ebook reader would be worth tracking.

Ebay can't control sellers from marking something as posted when maybe it hasn't been but at least they can get you a refund and you can also leave factual feedback. And the star ratings for communication for those sellers should be way down.

[collect247]

Maybe 2 dodgy sellers that are in China and China not Sydney or Brisbane?

[padi*0409]

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@springyzonewrote:

I'd say you're right & obviously the items were never posted. You've been unlucky.

It is not sounding to me as if either of your sellers intended to have tracking because even though they marked the things as posted they never supplied you with any tracking numbers.

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I'm not sure how you can be so certain the items were not posted springy, we haven't been given item numbers by the OP so we have no idea about the sellers or the items in question.

I suspect that an ebook reader is under 20mm so could have been sent as a large letter, so no tracking which would have been why the sellers were forced to refund if the OP went down the track of "I didn't recieve my item".

It would appear that the items were bought on the 12th and13th of this month, so only just 2 weeks since purchase. We all know that it can take that amount of time for AP to deliver even in the same state - and that is not taking into consideration the sellers handling times.

[papermoon.lady]

Padi is right. "Regular" letters really take a long time to arrive. I had to contact sellers a few times and after they asked me to please wait a few more days and i did the items arrived. Additionally some sellers mark an item as posted when they have not posted it yet, probably to get 5 stars for postage. Once when an item was late (marked as posted on Friday) and I contacted the seller the seller betrayed himself by saying the item was posted on Tuesday...

[phorum_junkie*]

You can have no idea if the sellers were lying when they said they were posted if they were sent as large letters and as Padi said depending on how you contacted the seller they may have had no option but to refund if they had no tracking.

You have lost nothing, in both cases you got a full refund and it is not absolutely certain that one or both of them may turn up at some time in the future.

I hope that if that happens you will repay the seller(s) the money they refunded you.

I also think that using an outdated, derogatory term for someone with a mental handicap is counter productive and says a lot more about you than either of your sellers.

[enigmabear]

You have been refunded

What behaviour exactly?  a buyer who stamps their feet and says they know for a fact two things off two different sellers were not sent  and the sellers are both liars, full stop

and you know this because they did not reach you by the estimated delivery dates which is a fantasy inserted by ebay?

You know for a fact the neither seller could possibly be suddenly ill or otherwise and could'nt respond to messages?

As the buyer, you have all the power, not sure what more control you would like

[springyzone]

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@padi*0409wrote:

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@springyzone

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I'm not sure how you can be so certain the items were not posted springy, we haven't been given item numbers by the OP so we have no idea about the sellers or the items in question.

I suspect that an ebook reader is under 20mm so could have been sent as a large letter, so no tracking which would have been why the sellers were forced to refund if the OP went down the track of "I didn't recieve my item".

It would appear that the items were bought on the 12th and13th of this month, so only just 2 weeks since purchase. We all know that it can take that amount of time for AP to deliver even in the same state - and that is not taking into consideration the sellers handling times.

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I can't be certain of course. But I strongly, strongly suspect it. I didn't look up items of sale dates etc but it has been my experience that with letters, things may be delayed but I have actually never missed out completely on receiving one.

And the only parcels I have ever failed to receive were supposedly posted years ago by, surprise, surprise, ebay sellers. Back in the day when there was no paypal.

So I'm a doubting Thomas about all the parcels that go 'missing' on ebay. I just don't believe it 99% of the time. It's either lying buyers or (less likely these days) sellers who have made a mistake.

However, whether or not Aust Post is to blame about a parcel going missing is a different thing to whether or not a seller marked a thing as posted & the sort of follow up they did.

Note that in this case, seller 1 never marked anything as sent, then later said it had been posted, then refunded but at no stage sent a follow up explanation about why they were refunding.

Seller 2 marked it as sent (and he/she is the only one of the two sellers I might give much benefit of the doubt to, because it was marked a couple of days later) but even then I find the behaviour suspicious. If as a seller you waited a couple of days after you were notified, surely the normal thing to do would be to message the buyer & ask them if it had turned up yet as if it hadn't you would refund them.

I don't think the communication from either seller was top notch.