Let’s talk about what a freight forwarder is first – it’s when an international buyer buys an item from you in the US and you ship it to a warehouse located in the US. That freight forwarding service then sends the item overseas to the buyer. MOST freight forward transactions on eBay have no issues, but for electronics like PS5 systems, the scam rate is very high. So what happened? I sold a PS5 to this address:
8020 NW 66th Street (BP-047139)
MIAMI, FL 33166-3900
You can usually tell it’s a freight forwarder when it has a box number (BP-047139 in my example.) You can even Google the address and see it’s a warehouse and the third search result even said it’s a scam address. I’ve sold lots of freight forwarding items over the past year (not a PS5 though) and all of them have been fine, so I shipped it out instead of cancelling.
Sure enough a week later, the buyer said the PS5 was defective. I asked why it was defective. He never responded. This is another bad sign – if it’s a legitimate return, they’d tell you why and work it out. The scammer knows that it’s a waste of time to engage in the conversation and that Ebay will FORCE ME TO ACCEPT THE RETURN. One trick you can try is you can offer a partial refund; if the buyer doesn’t respond to that in a month, then the case is closed. Of course the scammer knows that and so he called eBay who then forced me to take the return.
Three days later, I get an email saying eBay had refunded the buyer since the item was delivered. I couldn’t even find the tracking number online. Pissed off, I called up eBay and explained the scam to the rep who gave me the USPS tracking number. Of course it shows a delivery to my zip code. However, the item was shipped from Bronx, NY instead of Miami, FL. That’s when the rep sided with me. After a bit, he emailed me an affidavit saying the buyer returned nothing. I had to sign it and upload it back to them. I asked the rep why the case is continuing since it was to a freight forwarder. He said well since the item shows returned, we can’t do anything about it now. He said I should have called as soon as the case was opened and explained the freight forwarder address and the case would have been closed then.
Lesson Learned – if you get a return from a freight forwarding address, as soon as you get the return request, you can call Ebay support and they’ll close it right away. The reason is that Ebay technically doesn’t allow freight forwarders, but yet they sort of turn a blind eye until an issue like this arises.
Do I plan on shipping out orders to freight forwarders? YES but with a caveat. Like I said earlier, all of my small item freight forwarding transactions have been fine, so I’ll continue to ship out small inexpensive items. For big ticket electronics, I’ll cancel the order or if I’m desperate, ship it out and call Ebay as soon as the return is initiated to shut it down.
This showed up on my feed and when I read I thought I was reading my experience! Even the buyer’s address is exactly the same. Mine was a Samsung phone. Ebay did the same thing (refunded the buyer without me getting a return back) and now I’m appealing their decision. I recommend you file a report with IC3, local and Miami Police, and the US Postal Inspector. You can see my complete journey here: https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Can-things-get-any-worse-from-this-point-on/td-p/33811724
Just read your story; sorry to hear you were hit with the same scan. Send me an email and I’ll give you the number that I called Ebay with; I got a US based phone rep in minutes and he understood the issue. After I told him the FROM was Bronx, NY when it should have been Miami, FL, he put me on hold and emailed me the affidavit. A few hours after I sent it back, someone else from Ebay replied saying I’d get paid out on the item. So I suggest calling Ebay. Also, I’m pretty sure they used their own tracking number and not an Ebay label (cuz if they did, I think Ebay’s automated system would have told you it was delivered, etc.)
Thanks for the offer. I just got the word from ebay that they accepted my appeal and will reverse the money taken out. FYI, they did use the return label provided by ebay but most likely altered it, which is very easy to do. Also, it may not be in your best interest to give a partial refund if you know it’s a scam since once that happens, you may recoop some but not 100% and you won’t be able to appeal (scammers most like won’t because they know they will get 100% refund). In any case, thanks for making this scam aware for others!
No, I offered the guy $1. If they accept the offer, they can’t file another return request. I had another guy who was in the US trying to scam me and I offered him a partial refund. He didn’t respond to it and after 30 days, the return was closed and that was that.
Glad to hear it worked out for you.
Hi,
Would you share the number you called for eBay with me? I am currently experiencing the same scam. Thanks God I decided to do some digging when the buyer didn’t respond to my message about what was “wrong” with my perfectly good phone. Smh.
Send me an email; I don’t want to publish it.
I’m having same issue with an iPhone I sent. out 536.00 plus fees and shipping. never got a tracking or phone back. currently appealing but can’t find a number to talk to anyone. how do I find your email to get that number?
This is simply not true. If you ship an item to a freight forwarder, they can say their dog crewed it up and admit they used a freight forwarder, eBay will not close the case.
You need to wait 3 business days until it is time to ask eBay to step in and help, then call then, then if you get someone who speaks enough English to understand what you are talking about they will close the case. If the buyer asks eBay to step in and help first, the case will be closed in buyers favor and you will get a “didn’t respond to eBay case” defect. If you call eBay and explain they will say you should have called earlier. If you give the same representative a different case, they will say you have to wait 3 days.
I deal with this about once a week. The best thing to do is accept the return and then if they don’t send it back you win the case. They won’t send it back “blah blah blah my country blah blah blah”
Well it sounds like calling in before the buyer is the way to go then. Accepting the return doesn’t help cuz they’ll just do the same thing and use a random USPS tracking number that goes to your zip code. Scammers aren’t going to send you a real item back.