Forum

Freaking out. Buyer scam on Amazon
 

I just sold a computer on Amazon and the buyer signed for the insured package and is claiming that just a ream of paper was inside. I've sold 9 high ticket items on Amazon and this is the first time this has happened.

Can I get any advice on what I can do? This seems like ridiculous USPS fraud or buyer scam to me.

Thank you for the help. I wasn't sure where else to turn

Did you send thru UPS ? I guess you can have UPS to do an inspection on this case.

Ya, there are more and more emerging AMAZON scammers, they all know how to game the system. AMAZON makes it just too easy to make a fortune by playing AMAZON buyers in their unbalanced system .. You're not alone, AMAZON Seller Forum has lots of shocking complains about this, some buyer just got a free Laptop worth of $1100 by filing an AZ Claim ... :confused:

Thanks for the info. I mailed USPS with Sig Conf and insurance through upic. The power of google provided me some info about the buyer. I'd like to assume the best but it seems pretty rotten to me...

Oh .. USPS .. but you put insurance on it though .. Hope it work out for you ..

ohhh man USPS :welcome; out of 300 orders I get one where the package was empty. Those are not high priced items, they are just cool and no reason for buyers to scam. I came to believe that not all of those claims are AZ buyers trying to scam you. A lot of those claims are true and the USPS employes to blame!

Noo. That is terrible news! I've shipped probably close to a hundred high priced items over the years through USPS and this is a first for me. Usually, I'd get some other excuse, but not a straight-up swap of an item..

yeah it sucks but it happens. If you want to test my theory I dare you to ship something in a big box to any big city and not include a tracking number, those are targeted the most

Won't the tracking or invoice have a weight on it. Just show amazon this and it should prove that there was more than a piece of paper in there.

Yes weight should help - insurance papers help...keep trying. These professional buyers are disgusting...if true.

Their local police department is calling them. Hopefully it'll scare 'em a bit. I have insurance papers and weight but it was a medium flat rate box, double boxed so that might now help.

Thanks for the words of wisdom.

you guys NEVER seem to amazon me to NEVER use USPS on expensive items. with UPS by weight alone you can prove a lot about your case. I dont see insurance helping you on this as the item wasnt lost or anything like that..

Time to file a police report and let the buyer know this as well......

Police report filed. Affidavit form dor insurance sent to buyer. No word from Amazon or buyer yet. Police in town are extremely helpful though.

Feeling a lot better at the moment

Nice... nice that someone is being proactive!

I once had a smilair issue on a 200$ item. I didnt even contact the police, I simply used the police as a scare tatic and amazingly the item was found still un opened and shipped back to me. Buyer claimed her account was hacked and had things shipped to her house that she didnt order. Could be true. but you never know.

Yes, on AMAZON, there is no any seller protection whatsoever.
Buyer could purchase from you, all it take is just a simple message to seller saying the items are not working, please refund.
After that, buyer can just file an AZ-Claim to get free items, and knock down sellers' ODR rate.
Even if seller sends prepaid return shipping label to buyer asking return items, buyers do not need to respond, do not need to return items.
AMAZON will issue refund to buyers without enforcing the return of items thru the AZ Claim. Especially for any orders less than $100.
For orders more than $100, this still happens, some buyer just got free laptop ($1100) from AMAZON sellers using AZ-Claim, you can see that in AMAZON Sellers forum.
There are emerging numbers of this kind of scammers, maybe you would not call this "SCAM", however, there are more and more AMAZON buyers know how to game the unbalanced system.
I reccently just got hit by 2 cases like this, and sadly, I am expecting more.


On eBay, thing are different, as long as seller issue return shipping label, buyer need to return items for refund, Paypal is enforcing this, eBay is also strick on this.
There is still chances for buyers to cheat, buyers can just return partial items or damaged items to get refund.
But , this is way better than AMAZON already.

Police just updated me and said buyer did not save packaging and to follow through with Amazon/ insurance. They said it is a civil, contract matter now since there is no evident theft between the contracted parties. I'm still waiting to hear from the insurance folks. If insurance requests packaging and buyer doesn't provide it will all this help me if it comes to an AZ claim or am I SOL?

When it comes to AZ claim .. there is no hope for sellers.
.. I feel your pain, wish all turn out to be good for you ..

Do you have proof that you owned this laptop before selling it?
Like you might have documents that have information on the laptop.
You can then show amazon the corresponding weight from your laptops documents and the tracking information supplied by the post office.
You will of course need to to tell amazon that the slight weight difference is from the packaging used to send the parcel.

The more information you have the better.

I have the weight, serial number, etc. Thanks for the tips!

An AZ claim was just filed against me related to transaction. Still haven't heard from insurance. Police say buyer didn't save packaging or contents. Oy!

Or contents?

I'm guessing the paper the buyer said was inside instead of the computer.

I also found an email for the buyer's mother. Should I contact her? Or continue to assume innocent until proven guilty...

A carefully worded email to amazon may work.

Put off doing anything with amazon until you get a reply from the insurance folks.

Getting the local police involved was Smart, Now what I would do is to find out who is investigating the issue for the Postal service and tell them that you alerted the local Ploice and provided them with the contact information of the Policeman investigating, as well as providing Police investigator with the Postal investigators Contact informaton.

I would also CALL NOT EMAIL Amazons fraud Dept tell them EVERYTHING including that you have the Police involved and provide Amazon with the contact information of BOTH the Police and Postal Investigator, and Pass the Amazons Representatives Name and phone Number on to BOTH the Police and Postal investigator.

If this Item crossed Different State lines, you might be able to get the FEDS involved, call the Local Office of the FBI and ask, tell them that you are getting "Little" help from the local officials, If you can get the FBI to make a call or two to your local Police, that would be GREAT,,ALL Local Police HATE the FEDS,BUT, will Make 100% sure that they do their job Properly

Now get in touch with the Mother and tell her EVERYTHING, and do NOT leave out the fact that the Police are involved, you would be surprised how much a Mother will do in order to keep her child "Safe" in this case Out of Jail

What you want to accomplish is liting as many fires as you can, letting EVERYONE Know that you are serious, the more people involved the LESS likely that the issue gets "Swept under the rug" along with you in it, the more people involved, the more people are watching, the more likley that EVERYONE does their Job Properly, and also coordinate all those involved amongst themselves, to work work a little more efficently, by you doing a little of their work for them.

I can assure you that whoever will be on this at Amazon will not simply "Rubber Stamp" the AZ Claim they WILL look into it,,,and if the Thief gets a Vist or two, it would not hurt either


Good Luck,,,

Just an update all. Amazon denied the buyer's claim. Logged in to my account today and saw thi - "Buyer claim denied". I can't believe it.

Thank you for the tips and tricks. Paid off big time. I hope the buyer still gets what's coming to him.

How did you contact AZ and what info did you give them?

Contacted AZ mostly through their message system and then follow-up emails. Provided my side of the story included police report, tracking info and acceptance receipt. Insurance was denied because u-pic doesn't cover electronics. I called AZ yesterday asking for a status update and they didn't have one but the caller said things look good. I logged in today and saw the denied claim.

Well done.

You put a good effort into getting this resolved.

Well done.

yeah good luck u sort it man

Congrats, persistence paid off big time.

I wonder if amazon found evidence of this buyer trying to scam other sellers in the past. It is very likely they did, but they may not tell you even if so because I would assume that information would be private.