New Ebay Scammers

[just bob]

I'll pass this along FWIW. I bought a car part on eBay from a seller in China. However, when I received it, the label showed it was shipped from the Amazon Center in Hebron, KY. That's really not unusual. The part was to be NIB, but it was not. It had been opened and came with a set of instructions printed in Chinese. I had no use for it and opened a return case with eBay. The seller authorized a return and provided me with a return UPS shipping label that was to go back to China. No worries for me I'll just ship it and get my return when it is delivered. I took it to the local UPS store; they scanned the label, and it went into the system. I tried to track it but kept getting a warning that said it may take 3-5 days for the item to show up in the system. After 10 days the tracking numbers still showed as not being in the system. I went back to the UPS store yesterday evening and explained to them what was going on. I had printed a copy of the return label and also my receipt from the UPS store. He said wait a minute and went into the main office. He and a woman came back to the counter and told me what was going on. Apparently the nefarious amongst us have figured out a way to make phony shipping labels. They said they were using PhotoShop, but it really could be anyone of a number of software programs. They took actual tracking numbers from multiple labels and a bar code from another and created a Frankenstein label that was good enough to fool the UPS scanner and be accepted into the system originally. I asked them where the package was now, and they said as far as they could tell it was on its way to Chili. Wow, what should I do? Nothing they said but contact eBay and alert them. They had not seen this scam before, and doubted eBay had either. They were going to open their own investigation. I came back home and spoke with an eBay rep over the phone. They entered the tracking numbers into their global tracking system and got the same results as UPS did. They told me I had did nothing wrong and used the return label provided to me by the seller. He would have to speak with the dept. head but assumed the return case would be closed and I would be given a full refund within 24 hours and just that did happen. I'm happy I got a full return, but if the same situation happened again today, I would follow the same exact steps as I had before. Something tells me that shipping services will soon be updating their scanning equipment and educating their employees on spotting bogus labels. Let the buyer beware.

I have taken my name /address from the original label and am posting it. Looks good - doesn't it?

[Ridgegrass]

Hang 'em high! Low lifes! O'.

[INlesK]

Thanks for the warning.

[herbva]

Yikes, there's nothing you can trust anymore!

[1967redrider]

Glad it was resolved favorably for you, lesson learned.

[rea1eye]

Thanks for the post. I previously had a Kodak Printer that in the last few years
the only eBay sellers that had original Kodak ink were from China. Never
ordered any because I always had some fears.

Bob

[Madmarco]

Thanks for the head's-up, Bob, I'm glad it worked out for you.

[jw517]

I always use PayPal too.if there is a problem they will freeze their account. They went to bat for me a few times.