Someone is trying to redirect shipment of my purchase?

[fezziwig7]

Item was purchased Nov.20/10 from Plano Texas tracked and is now  Nov. 29 in Erlanger Kentucky for customs labelling and shipping to Toronto Ontario.

Buyer was paid through Paypal and Pitney Bowes 

The item is expensive and highly sought after at the moment.

Today the seller sent me  the following message via eBay:

 " Hi, I accidentally forgot some important cables you need and was wondering if I could send them to your Newark address because it would cost me much more to send it to your current address. Please let me know, thanks and sorry for the inconvenience.

I responded:  "What cables? I have no Newark address - only the Toronto address which was provided. I can wait a reasonable amount of time (arrival by mid-December) for the cable shipment to arrive but please ship with insurance, signature required, and provide us with the tracking number.Keep in touch.Thank you." 

His answer:"The cable is so you can connect it to your computer. The address I mentioned was the message you sent me about changing the shipping address originally to your parent's house in Newark but I can ship to Toronto still. I will need you to provide me your Toronto address though because ebay considered your order international and had me ship it to a distribution center and they took care of the rest. Also please note that the main package did not have an option for a required signature but it should have full insurance. Once I receive your address the cables should arrive pretty quickly. Thanks"

How do I reply? How do I handle this? Worried. Many thanks.

[pjcdn2005 · Accepted solution]

It sounds as if someone wrote the seller pretending to be you (using a very similar ID) asking them to send the package to Newark instead of the address you gave at payment. But because the package is  in Erlanger, the seller must have refused to send the parcel to Newark as domestic packages do not go through the global shipping hub.   If the seller had sent the package to the  wrong address, they would have to refund you and they would be out that money.  

I wouldn't insist that the seller use signature confirmation for the cables as most  USPS international services do not have that option available. 

[fezziwig7 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your reply Yes, I too am concerned that it may be someone pretending to be me - especially as the item is a $1400+ Valve Index so I'm tad paranoid about being scammed.

[femmefan1946]

The address I mentioned was the message you sent me about changing the shipping address originally to your parent's house in Newark but I can ship to Toronto still. I will need you to provide me your Toronto address though because ebay considered your order international and had me ship it to a distribution center and they took care of the rest.

This sounds to me like your seller has shipped to the GSP plant in Erlanger and you should be receiving the original purchase in due time.

So that's not going to be a problem.

And your seller is smart enough to contact you before sending the cables off to a new address.

So that's not going to be a problem.

This might be useful -- it's the PB tracking link.

https://parceltracking.pb.com/app/#/dashboard/

[fezziwig7]

I appreciate the help given by this board. I have only recently returned to eBay and the seller is relatively new so it was a case of the blind leading the blind. I think all is good now This is the latest from the seller. "I just double checked and I was mistaken do to coincidental timing and/or it was a scam attempt too though based on what I am re-reading. The user has a different username than you but he sent me a message about it within an hour from when you originally purchased the Index. He was attempting to ask me if it was possible to ship it to his parents address even though the item had already been sold so I am not sure how he managed to do so. He said, "Hi, Regarding the purchase, I am trying to move to newark with my parents, they need my help.I want to ask you to ship item to my parents address,Hope you will understand))Their address is attached". I told him I could not do that and he replied, "Ok just send to original address. Thanka" which is why I didn't think it was an attempted scam at the time. His username is anfu_5595 and he has 0 feedback. On a positive note for you, you would have received a full refund from ebay's buyer protection. Lucky for me I answered no to his request and now I know to double check things like the username and feedback, etc. I am still unaware of how he messaged after it was sold and if this was a genuine scamming attempt or not but if you would like to report him I wouldn't be against it personally based on this evidence. Thanks and sorry for all this inconvenience I've been causing. Also important note on your cables, I checked PayPal and the address on the receipt on my end only says "Shipped to "My Name" Ref# OREUSA3334844478CA 1850 Airport Exchange Blvd #200 Erlanger, KY 41025 United States" which is a distribution center for international orders from what I understand so I have no other method of knowing where in Toronto to ship your cables."

[femmefan1946]

I hadn't ever thought of the GSP as any sort of Buyer Protection. I guess this is a first. You would have been refunded when the purchase didn't turn up, but your seller would have been out the item and the payment.

[esclyons]

ask them who sent the message to change the address, it should show , who it was sent from.

[tyler@ebay]

Hi @fezziwig7 - @esclyons gave you some great advice: messaging the seller to let them know that you didn't send that message is the best course of action. It could be that the seller mistook your purchase for another they had sold. Some clarification from them could definitely put your mind to rest. 🙂