Story in short:

• No red alerts raised from the sale of my item. "Buyer" did a quick payment using buy it now. Confirmed ship address. No messages exchanged.
• Received an email stating unauthorized purchase of my $1000+ item by supposed "buyer." Ebay has removed listing which I dont think does much as Ive already shipped and lost the item. Supposedly someone used someone else's account to buy my item.
• I quickly checked the tracking, and it was redirected from the destination printed on my packaging slip to 2 states away! How does this even happen?
• I immediately called ebay to ask if they are taking my $. They said no. Fees were also refunded. I thought I was ok until....
• ....Paypal emails me that the "buyer" has opened a dispute with their financial institution of an unauthorized transaction. $1k+ withheld at paypal. Now pending investigation...

How in the world could a package with a destination printed get redirected to some other place 2 states away? Im just in utter disbelief right now in all of this. Not sure what to say or expect. Careful out there selling high value items. This is crazy

 

who did you ship with ? If USPS, contact your local postmaster.

 

usps. what can the postmaster do? item is already shipped and delivered. Forgot to mention that original shipment was sent a month ago with the original ebay dispute opened shortly after. Just now has the "buyer" opened the paypal dispute.

 

How did you ship it.

 

Usps priority, fully insured.

 

I would think the fact that the watch was redirected and the buyer's account had been hacked would afford you a good standing for fighting this. Although, this is Ebay and rational thought seems to get tossed out the window on a regular basis over there.

Sorry this is happening and I wish you the best of luck getting it sorted properly.

 

Which is exactly why I'm concerned. Thanks for the concern.

I wonder if I can file an insurance claim with usps for a redirected package to an unintended address. This package literally hit the destination city then boom off to the next city without a hitch. Crazy. How do you even do that??

 

could be that the PayPal dispute was started by the actual user whose account got hacked by the scammer. I had this happen to me as well (the fake buy, not the hacking) amd luckily eBay reacted before I shipped the item.


Because the scammer had actually paid me, the real user had to start a dispute to get their money back after they'd secured their PayPal account (this was a while after the fake buy). It was something eBay advised them to do I suppose, coupled with panic. The real user hadn't used their paypal in years. They contacted me though, to explain they were doing the dispute and chargeback. So I knew what was going on and just let it happen.

In your case, seeing as you already shipped the item, the problem is more complex. Perhaps you can somehow contact the user (if they're the real one) and explain what's going on? It's odd that it got redirected, was the address you sent to a domestic address? You shipped insured, perhaps you can open a claim with USPS: You sent to address A and they redirected it to address B which caused you to lose the item...

Many unscrupulous folks out there, unfortunately. best of luck and I hope everything gets sorted out!

 

My understanding is that if you conducted the auction according to eBay rules and shipped with tracking and insurance to the verified PayPal address (and can prove that), then you are supposed to have seller protection with eBay and PayPal.

If you are not protected this case, then eBay can go F themselves. They should close shop and shut down. I've spent more time protecting myself from the other scam where they file a claim "Item not as described" and then file a claim and ship the item back, but what you get back in the mail is a brick.

So I take photos or videos of the item and the packing process there at the shipping facility, and make sure there is a constant chain of custody that proves I didn't pull a switcheroo and left the same package with the shipping facility. Then when I receive a high dollar item or return, I have it delivered to my UPS store mailbox and open it with the store manager as a witness.

 

Might want to look into usps re routeing rules. You can’t just re route with no info.

 

I had one last week - buyer wants the watch for son and he works on an oil rig in the North Sea, so will be sent directly and allow me to send watch straight away. The message ended 'god bless. - obviously some nigerian looking for a free watch (along with a couple of other odd references)! He'd then claim it was not delivered and paypal would refund him. I deleted the convo and blocked him.
I get very nervous about selling through ebay and paypal and will only deal in bank payments / cash / face to face.

 

Things like this make me afraid to try to sell ANYTHING, much less a multi thousand dollar watch. I hope the OP is able to be made whole by EBay.

 

Spot on. It could be a legit complaint of someone using someone else's account. What gets me is that this person has never once contacted me.

Gotta protect yourself at all costs. I have proven I did everything right. But again like others have said, I'm at the mercy of paypal. I've lost 3 other lower value listings as a seller where they opened a case and said item not described when it was plainly stated in the description that it didn't include what they were looking for

 

I don't sell often on the net been a few years. I only did it on a few forums sells sections only took money orders or checks that had to clear from long time members I knew and western union money in hand from no one I knew and overseas. I never sell on the bay I do buy on the bay but less these days. I hope you get refunded for this. If you look at USPS tracking when you are receiving a package I notice there's a change your delivery instruction I guess you can change it on line maybe this is how the thief's did it ?

 

I think you’ll be ok. PayPal is conducting a preliminary investigation but you abided by their rules and you’ll be made whole. I’m curious though what PayPal would do if you transfer the money to a checking account before they can freeze it? Even with the Nigerian scams, what happens if they send 3k and I immediately transfer it to my checking account and spend it? Or what if I buy something else immediately with the money before they have a chance to challenge it? How does PayPal get blood from a stone?

 

This is infuriating. I hope you are able to recover, but what a big pain in the neck. There are so many scammers out there. I hope you keep us posted on the outcome.

 

Hoping so.

I did transfer the cash to my bank already but they will just take it from my bank if that ends up being the case.

Hoping for the best.

Last ditch effort I could probably try getting insurance money from usps and opening a case with them

 

Looks like the scammer put a forwarding order in at USPS so ALL mail directed to the hacked buyers account would be sent to the wrong address. What a mess and difficult to unwind. FWIW when I use Paypal I link to a sole purpose Credit Card for an additional layer of protection.

 

This sounds like mail fraud and you should get the USPS “Marshall’s” involved.

 

Scary ... Its either here or I send my watches to C&C or Hodinkee when I decide to sell. Don't want to deal with this crap.