Sold a moderator on EBay

It was actually the first one that I sold on eBay. The customer "bought it now". I used his eBay address to ship it to him. He paid with PayPal.

About 10 days later the package came back (apparently unopened) no such number, no such address. So I looked it up. It was an empty lot down in Florida.

I sent a couple of emails by eBay to the customer. I sent one and after a few days, with no response, I sent another. After a few days, again no response, I refunded his money, all of it even the PayPal fees. Then I canceled the sale. It's been a week I still haven't heard from him.

You be the judge.

NOTE: Since I started this thread I have managed to find a page which actually had his phone number on it, I did not know that was even possible on Ebay. So I called him and talked with him. That conversation is partly recounted further down the thread.
 
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I have read that some people who want to order something of questionable legality will have it shipped to an alternate address under an alternate name using gift cards. From there they just watch the tracking information for delivery dates and times and go get it. Using an empty lot or abandoned house increases the likelihood that they won't be seen by anyone there when they go to get it. Chances are the guy missed the delivery and it got shipped back.
 
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It was actually the first one that I sold on eBay. The customer "bought it now". I used his eBay address to ship it to him. He paid with PayPal.

About 10 days later the package came back (apparently unopened) no such number, no such address. So I looked it up. It was an empty lot down in Florida.

I sent a couple of emails by eBay to the customer. I sent one and after a few days, with no response, I sent another. After a few days, again no response, I refunded his money, all of it even the PayPal fees. Then I cancel the sale. It's been a week I still haven't heard from him.

You be the judge.

What are we judging?

You have his Ebay ID, right? He has 4 prior feedbacks, right? Did you look at those items? What did that feedback say? Looks like he even bid on an item today.

You indicate he paid with Paypal, but you sent it to his Ebay address. Are you implying the 2 were different? If so then per Paypal it should have went to the address they have on file, not the Ebay address.
 
What are we judging?

You have his Ebay ID, right? He has 4 prior feedbacks, right? Did you look at those items? What did that feedback say? Looks like he even bid on an item today.

You indicate he paid with Paypal, but you sent it to his Ebay address. Are you implying the 2 were different? If so then per Paypal it should have went to the address they have on file, not the Ebay address.
Interesting? How do you know he had four prior feedbacks and how do you know that he bid on something today?
 
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Interesting? How do you know he had four prior feedbacks?

So you answer the question(s) with a question. Anyway I'll answer yours, which will answer half of mine. I actually glanced over the part about being the 1st one you sold, and would have wondered why you waited a month to bring this up, and picked the wrong sale. I figured when you mentioned the 10 days that would put the time of sale at the 10/23 item you sold, and that buyer is below.
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Which still leaves the question(s) about the Paypal vs Ebay address's
 
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So you answer the question(s) with a question. Anyway I'll answer yours, which will answer half of mine. I actually glanced over the part about being the 1st one you sold, and would have wondered why you waited a month to bring this up, and picked the wrong sale. I figured when you mentioned the 10 days that would put the time of sale at the 10/23 item you sold, and that buyer is below.
View attachment 305309


Which still leaves the question(s) about the Paypal vs Ebay address's
Well that is interesting, never seen that page of information before. I don't suppose you have a link to it? That is to say, I've never seen that page of information before on someone else's account.
 
So you answer the question(s) with a question. Anyway I'll answer yours, which will answer half of mine. I actually glanced over the part about being the 1st one you sold, and would have wondered why you waited a month to bring this up, and picked the wrong sale. I figured when you mentioned the 10 days that would put the time of sale at the 10/23 item you sold, and that buyer is below. View attachment 305309 Which still leaves the question(s) about the Paypal vs Ebay address's
Yeah. It's fairly easy to find some of this info by looking up prior sales information on an item. Much easier if you know the eBay name of the seller. You do not get to see the full (eBay) name of the buyer, but you see it with *** for a few of the characters. You then see the feedback stats in the parentheses after the name of the winning bidder.
 
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Well that is interesting, never seen that page of information before. I don't suppose you have a link to it? That is to say, I've never seen that page of information before on someone else's account.
I think its straightforward as I said to BigTinBoat above. In any event, kudos to you for the refund. Most people would have kept the money.
 
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So you answer the question(s) with a question. Anyway I'll answer yours, which will answer half of mine. I actually glanced over the part about being the 1st one you sold, and would have wondered why you waited a month to bring this up, and picked the wrong sale. I figured when you mentioned the 10 days that would put the time of sale at the 10/23 item you sold, and that buyer is below.
View attachment 305309


Which still leaves the question(s) about the Paypal vs Ebay address's
Yeah. It's fairly easy to find some of this info by looking up prior sales information on an item. Much easier if you know the eBay name of the seller. You do not get to see the full (eBay) name of the buyer, but you see it with *** for a few of the characters. You then see the feedback stats in the parentheses after the name of the winning bidder.
@ChRiSiS Thank you sir.

@BigTinBoat fair enough then. Your "due diligence" prompted me to go back and check what I had done. I actually managed to find the gentleman's telephone number. Called him and sure enough he is a living breathing human. Now look, as for your opinion of my opinion, we are going to have to differ over our willingness to simply "defer" to the good intentions of LEAs in general and in the Agency Which Must Not Be Named specifically. One thing I have observed first hand and repeatedly over the years (while I provided support to the LEAs) is this, LEOs never want to be required to prove their own good intentions but they always want you to be required to prove yours. You don't have to like that observation. You don't have to agree with it and you don't have to share it. Neither am I required to argue it with you. So if you are looking for a fight, go look somewhere else or I will block you.

For your own satisfaction. He paid with the one click EBay payment. He told me his address "had changed". There has been quite a bit of rough weather down there and he recently moved...FROM AN EMPTY FIELD IN FLORIDA to somewhere else... I guess he got tired of sleeping in the middle of a sandlot which was being used as a dirtrack... so yeah... I purchased the postage via the one click option through EBay... so if there are no other loose ends you feel you need wrapped up... I guess we are done here.
 
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So, did the guy want a moderator? Did he wonder what happened?
I wouldn't send a moderator to a man who was living in Florida on a sandlot during a Cat 4 hurricane on a bet, even if I was betting your money. ;) But yes he is still interested in a .22 moderator. He rustled some papers and remembered that he was "missing" the moderator. Then when I mentioned that I had refunded his money he "remembered" that it had showed up but he had not realized what it was for... Yeah, three EBay email messages and 3 weeks after the sale...
 
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LEOs never want to be required to prove their own good intentions but they always want you to be required to prove yours.
Before I retired I NEVER had any issues proving my intentions, which were always good. Maybe I was the exception rather then the rule, who knows?

Yeah. It's fairly easy to find some of this info by looking up prior sales information on an item. Much easier if you know the eBay name of the seller. You do not get to see the full (eBay) name of the buyer, but you see it with *** for a few of the characters. You then see the feedback stats in the parentheses after the name of the winning bidder.

That's exactly what I did, and showed with the attachment I posted
 
Before I retired I NEVER had any issues proving my intentions, which were always good. Maybe I was the exception rather then the rule, who knows?



That's exactly what I did, and showed with the attachment I posted
The world has changed quite a bit since you retired.

Your facility with the Ebay interface is impressive. Just one last question as I might find it useful myself in the future. I'm looking at his tab right now. I don't see anyway to get the information.

How did you know that he bid on some item today?