Irritated at the USPS

smitty_p

smitty_p

Ambassador of Gearology
Moderator
Country flag
So, I just bought a guitar off eBay.

But, USPS lost it! They marked it as delivered, but I never got it. I did confirm with USPS that they had the correct address.

(No, porch pirates aren't the issue.)

I've opened a case with USPS to try to locate it.

It was an American Deluxe HSS Stratocaster with S-1 switching and LSR roller nut in Inca Silver with a black pick guard and rosewood fretboard.

So, yeah...peeved is an understatement!



Here's a pic from the eBay listing:


1701276239312.png
 
Good luck. Hoping the postal people figure out what they did with it. Betting even though they had the correct address in tracking…. Driver delivered to wrong house. That’s happened to me at work many times. I get the neighboring business’s package and they get mine. Both addressed correctly.

Considering the amount of volume USPS/UPS/Fedex move. Add in Amazon. It’s amazing more stuff doesn’t get lost. Between home and work…. It’s been more an issue of arriving damaged for me.
 
iblive said:
Good luck. Hoping the postal people figure out what they did with it. Betting even though they had the correct address in tracking…. Driver delivered to wrong house. That’s happened to me at work many times. I get the neighboring business’s package and they get mine. Both addressed correctly.

Considering the amount of volume USPS/UPS/Fedex move. Add in Amazon. It’s amazing more stuff doesn’t get lost. Between home and work…. It’s been more an issue of arriving damaged for me.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I’m hoping it can be located. I may end up having to go up and down the street asking my neighbors if they received a package.

I wonder if I can bill the USPS for doing their job for them?
 
I relate totally ! Man this irritates me to no end ! To this day Fedex does not know where my Epi JJN Goldtop is !! Its in my house, ! It was Signed by another person & delievered at wrong adress. So 2 errors-- delivery & stealing !!. Went & found it & lets just say the people did the right thing,

The part that bothers me, if we dont do our job,,we do not get paid. yes its just freight but its paid for product that deserves to be hadled properly for agreed upon fee..no excuses-no error..its just simple work..
 
Well, gents, I got the very unfortunate and sad news from USPS that I've been the victim of a scam.

It seems the way it works is that the sender manipulates the prepaid eBay shipping label, and sends a fake package to a different address. Consequently, the tracking will show an item as delivered, even though the buyer does not receive it.

I'm pursuing a refund with eBay.
 
smitty_p said:
Well, gents, I got the very unfortunate and sad news from USPS that I've been the victim of a scam.

It seems the way it works is that the sender manipulates the prepaid eBay shipping label, and sends a fake package to a different address. Consequently, the tracking will show an item as delivered, even though the buyer does not receive it.

I'm pursuing a refund with eBay.
Click to expand...
Man that is sick... I'd be pissed as well...
 
smitty_p said:
Well, gents, I got the very unfortunate and sad news from USPS that I've been the victim of a scam.

It seems the way it works is that the sender manipulates the prepaid eBay shipping label, and sends a fake package to a different address. Consequently, the tracking will show an item as delivered, even though the buyer does not receive it.

I'm pursuing a refund with eBay.
Click to expand...
Don’t know how you paid. Credit card or PayPal…. But get them involved as well.
 
iblive said:
Don’t know how you paid. Credit card or PayPal…. But get them involved as well.
Click to expand...

I paid with Pay Pal and have already lodged a dispute. It's too late to straight-up cancel.

The representative at the local USPS office is going to write up a summary for me that I can use for further evidence with eBay. She's been very helpful.

I may even go to the police.

Needless to say, I will never use eBay for any high dollar purchase again. It's kind of a shame.

One fortunate thing is that the funds I used for this purchase are from an account that is completely separate from my general family banking. It's even in a separate bank! So, this doesn't affect my normal day-to-day money or banking.

But, it does represent nine gigs worth of money down the drain if eBay doesn't refund me.
 
smitty_p said:
I paid with Pay Pal and have already lodged a dispute. It's too late to straight-up cancel.

The representative at the local USPS office is going to write up a summary for me that I can use for further evidence with eBay. She's been very helpful.

I may even go to the police.

Needless to say, I will never use eBay for any high dollar purchase again. It's kind of a shame.

One fortunate thing is that the funds I used for this purchase are from an account that is completely separate from my general family banking. It's even in a separate bank! So, this doesn't affect my normal day-to-day money or banking.

But, it does represent nine gigs worth of money down the drain if eBay doesn't refund me.
Click to expand...
I have not had to deal with ppal. But from what I’ve read, they can be very helpful.
 
smitty_p said:
I paid with Pay Pal and have already lodged a dispute. It's too late to straight-up cancel.

The representative at the local USPS office is going to write up a summary for me that I can use for further evidence with eBay. She's been very helpful.

I may even go to the police.

Needless to say, I will never use eBay for any high dollar purchase again. It's kind of a shame.

One fortunate thing is that the funds I used for this purchase are from an account that is completely separate from my general family banking. It's even in a separate bank! So, this doesn't affect my normal day-to-day money or banking.

But, it does represent nine gigs worth of money down the drain if eBay doesn't refund me.
Click to expand...
I know Ebay owned Paypal at one point. I dont know if that is true anymore. My experience with refunds and ebay / paypal are positive. Ebay customer support is actually pretty good from what I remember. It shouldn't be too hard to prove you were scammed, especially with help from the post office.
I hope it works itself out quickly.
 
Well, I've gotten a little more detail on how this scam works.

A seller will post an item on eBay and the purchase will go through like normal. When an item is sold, the seller can get a pre-paid shipping label from eBay. So, at that point, the seller has a legitimate shipping label. But, via the wonders of image editing software, they will manipulate the address on the label to some address near the buyer, but not on the same street. They will also modify the tracking number digits, but not the bar code. They'll also change the name of the recipient. So, instead of my name, the name was changed to "Attn: Online Customer". Then they'll print that edited label and use it on the package. The package itself will also be fake. In my case, USPS told me the item weight was only 11 ounces - way less than a Fender Stratocaster in a case and packaging! They also picked an actual address on a street about half a mile away from me. But, that person did not get a guitar, they got this fake package. That person is probably scratching his head, too.

Well, since the item is on its way to your same city and zip code, all will look good while you're using the USPS tracking system. Also, since an actual package is going to an actual address, when the postal carrier scans the item as delivered, it is a legitimate scan. The scan will show it as YOUR address, because that is what is referenced in the bar code. Where things go awry is that the mail carrier will deliver packages based on the printed address. Now, the mail carrier could look at the address on the scan and see that it is different from the printed address on the label, but most mail carriers are too rushed for that. They just refer to the address on the label. And, even if the carrier did notice a discrepancy and did deliver it to the correct address, it doesn't matter because it isn't the correct item, anyway. Of course, we all know of cases where items are scanned as delivered, but don't show up for a few days, so the buyer will usually let a couple of days pass. Then, since the package did come to the correct city and zip code, the buyer will spend more time asking the neighbors if they got a package. So, this delays the claim process.

So, where it gets tricky is that eBay and/or PayPal will reach out to the seller. If the seller responds, the seller could demonstrate a correct, legitimate shipping label! Of course, it would be prior to being manipulated, but it would be correct, nonetheless. In my case, USPS did send me a copy of the actual shipping label used, so I can prove that the actual destination is different from my address.

In the end, although I entitled this thread as "Irritated at the USPS", in reality they aren't the problem, at all. They may actually be the one saving grace that helps me get my money back. So, my apologies to them.

Anyhoo...the next couple of weeks will be pretty interesting.
 
smitty_p said:
Well, I've gotten a little more detail on how this scam works.

A seller will post an item on eBay and the purchase will go through like normal. When an item is sold, the seller can get a pre-paid shipping label from eBay. So, at that point, the seller has a legitimate shipping label. But, via the wonders of image editing software, they will manipulate the address on the label to some address near the buyer, but not on the same street. They will also modify the tracking number digits, but not the bar code. They'll also change the name of the recipient. So, instead of my name, the name was changed to "Attn: Online Customer". Then they'll print that edited label and use it on the package. The package itself will also be fake. In my case, USPS told me the item weight was only 11 ounces - way less than a Fender Stratocaster in a case and packaging! They also picked an actual address on a street about half a mile away from me. But, that person did not get a guitar, they got this fake package. That person is probably scratching his head, too.

Well, since the item is on its way to your same city and zip code, all will look good while you're using the USPS tracking system. Also, since an actual package is going to an actual address, when the postal carrier scans the item as delivered, it is a legitimate scan. The scan will show it as YOUR address, because that is what is referenced in the bar code. Where things go awry is that the mail carrier will deliver packages based on the printed address. Now, the mail carrier could look at the address on the scan and see that it is different from the printed address on the label, but most mail carriers are too rushed for that. They just refer to the address on the label. And, even if the carrier did notice a discrepancy and did deliver it to the correct address, it doesn't matter because it isn't the correct item, anyway. Of course, we all know of cases where items are scanned as delivered, but don't show up for a few days, so the buyer will usually let a couple of days pass. Then, since the package did come to the correct city and zip code, the buyer will spend more time asking the neighbors if they got a package. So, this delays the claim process.

So, where it gets tricky is that eBay and/or PayPal will reach out to the seller. If the seller responds, the seller could demonstrate a correct, legitimate shipping label! Of course, it would be prior to being manipulated, but it would be correct, nonetheless. In my case, USPS did send me a copy of the actual shipping label used, so I can prove that the actual destination is different from my address.

In the end, although I entitled this thread as "Irritated at the USPS", in reality they aren't the problem, at all. They may actually be the one saving grace that helps me get my money back. So, my apologies to them.

Anyhoo...the next couple of weeks will be pretty interesting.
Click to expand...

As a bit of a follow-up, there are a few interesting reasons certain things are done.

First, it's pretty obvious why the scammer would change the delivery address. This keeps the package from going to the right place. If you received the wrong item, you would immediately protest. But, going to the wrong address introduces a delay. As I alluded in my previous post, you are more likely to wait and see what happens or waste more time checking with your neighbors.

Second, why change the recipient name? By changing the name to something non-descript, like "Online Customer" the actual recipient won't think something has been mis-delivered. He'll probably just think it is some sort of junk mail. Also, since a wrong address is chosen that is in the same area as the correct address, a non-descript recipient name won't make the mail carrier suspicious, just in case he knows the names of the people at the house.

Third, why manipulate the tracking number digits on the shipping label? This further delays and complicates the claims process. If you get the actual shipping label from USPS and show it to eBay or Pay Pal, for instance, they may deny the claim by insisting that the tracking number doesn't match the scanned, delivered-to tracking number. They may say that you're not even dealing with the same delivery. But, if you enter that tracking number into the USPS tracking system (which I have done!) it doesn't come back as matching anything. So, it's bogus. What matters is the bar code. I got a copy of the actual shipping label from USPS when I initiated my claim (though they redacted the house number of the actual recipient, they did let me see the street name).

As I work my way through this, the key is going to be what USPS tells me that I can use in my favor.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top