Seller says I am flagged for scam

[mofrie_0]

I purchased an item over a month ago and have reached out with no response until today, I said since it’s been a month with no update in shipping or responses I will be reaching out one last time before talking to eBay, finally the seller responded “ Sorry your order got flagged as a scam and incorrect address so they haven't been able to let me print and label and send it” is this a normal occurrence? I never got an update or notification from eBay saying I was flagged and I’m a little worried it’s a scam since this item is very expensive, when asked if there’s anything I can do to help fix this the seller said “ No you are okay I'm just waiting for them to clear it since it's very expensive they will need to look over it a little more and then someone will need to sign for the package when it arrives since it cost a lot and if not they will send it back” is this normal or should I be worried about my item, I’m new to using ebay regularly and have never had this happen before

[marnotom!]

No, this is not normal for a sale, @mofrie_0.  While sometimes sellers do get messages from eBay advising them not to ship to someone who's recently purchased an item from them, they don't "flag for scams" and eBay can't make a call on whether an address provided by a buyer is correct or not.

My sense--and it may not be correct--is that this seller has nothing to sell to or ship to you and they're trying to buy time before your time limit has run out for filing a claim for a not-received item.  You may already know that you only have thirty days from the last estimated delivery date to do that, so don't let that time lapse.

Is this seller based in Canada or some other country?  Have they been on eBay for very long?  What is their feedback record like?  Feel free to share the listing number if you're comfortable with us regular "boardies" doing a bit of snooping ourselves.

[femmefan1946]

Open an Item Not Received Claim with eBay.

Whether the seller is being honest with your or with themself, is not your problem.

Your problem is they have your money and your purchase.

You want one or the other and the seller seems reluctant to supply either.

Go to My eBay->Purchase History-> View Order Details

and click on the title of your order

You should be able to open a Claim for Item Not Received from there.

You have 30 days from the last estimated date for delivery to open an eBay Claim.

But you are also covered by Paypal if you used it, and by the credit card you actually paid with.

Some credit cards have up to 180 days from date of Payment for Claims.

[mofrie_0]

Thank you for sharing I will open a claim with eBay tonight since todays the estimated delivery time, they’re from America and says they joined August 2023 they have sold 10 items but only have 2 reviews one negative and one positive and the listing number is 394826576682

Should I let them know I know they’re a scam or should I just leave it to eBay? Thank you for your time 🙂

[flipistics]

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@mofrie_0 wrote:
Thank you for sharing I will open a claim with eBay tonight since todays the estimated delivery time, they’re from America and says they joined August 2023 they have sold 10 items but only have 2 reviews one negative and one positive and the listing number is 394826576682

Should I let them know I know they’re a scam or should I just leave it to eBay? Thank you for your time 🙂

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Don't engage with them further. File an item not received claim and get your money back. If you want to be nice, leave them a neutral instead of a negative that just says the item was never shipped.

[marnotom!]

Thanks for the additional information.  By the looks of things, @mofrie_0. the seller uses the eBay International Shipping (eIS) service to forward items from the US to Canada and 200 or so other countries.  Your seller would have been supplied an address of a shipping hub in Illinois to ship the item to and the item would have been forwarded to you from there.

Your seller may not have been aware that they've been automatically opted into the eIS program and read or received some inaccurate advice about forwarding services in general on the US eBay discussion boards, hence the paranoia about possible scams on your part.  I suspect they saw the Illinois shipping address, saw that your country of registration was Canada, and got confused or alarmed.

Another possibility--or perhaps something adding to the seller's confusion--is that your payment would very, very likely have been put on hold by eBay due to the seller's inexperience and the high dollar amount involved.  The seller may have come to an erroneous conclusion as to why eBay did not immediately transfer the payment to them.

Long short post, I think that based on what I can see in the listing and the seller's history, this seller is more likely inexperienced than malicious.  Unfortunately, there's little you can do at this point to persuade them to ship the item, so I'd say go ahead and file a case with eBay for a not-received item and get your money back to spend with a seller who knows what they're doing.  Let eBay deal with the seller as it sees fit.