I sold an item on ebay recently,  one of a fair number of things I've sold there.   It sells for the princely sum of five bucks.

The buyer pays as agreed, and I ship it out to him via Priority Mail as agreed,  and figure that's that.

Early this morning (Friday morning), I read an email from him saying he hasn't received it. (I know it's been a week and priority mail takes two or three days, typically.)

I pull the rabbit out of my hat.   I always (lately) get delivery confirmation.   I check the ticket on the USPS website, cut and paste the delivery report into my replying email,  and state that the post office says they delivered it.   I also looked up his mailing address via PayPal (he paid that way), pasted that, and asked him to verify that I got the right info and shipped it to the right address.  


He hasn't yet responded to my email, but I figured he would by now.   Most people follow up on their emails pretty quickly.  In the evening, at any rate.

If I had no record of this being delivered, it wouldn't be a big deal.  The item is inexpensive enough and I do have another one that I was going to auction off, so I could replace a lost one.  I wouldn't lose any money because I got the item for free anyway.

Does this sound to you like he was trying to scam me, or am I just being paranoid?

One way or the other,  in order to protect yourself when sending something to someone, spring the extra 40 cents and get delivery confirmation on it.  

I can't wait to see what happens next.  Will I
get more correspondence from this guy over the weekend, or has he slunk away?

CJ

I always ask if the buyer wants to pay for insurance.  If they decline, they take a chance at having their item damaged or not delivered.

Insurance is pretty cheap too.

HE probably tried to pull a fast one on you.

Check this superscam:

[url]http://cgi2.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=liquidationuniverse[/url]

He paid people off $75-100 to buy feedback.  These BS puter auctions were presale crap.

Stupid slow ass ePay took pretty long to shut down this aholes scam but I saw it coming months ago.  ePay doesn't give a shit about customers only their bottom line.  As long as the scammer paid commission wtf does ePay care?

Truly sad.

[url]http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/articles/0,15114,450899-1,00.html[/url]

I bought a magazine on eBay about a month ago for $6.00 (including postage -no insurance). It still has not arrived.  Seller says it could take a month (there are only 4 -5 states between us!).  Probably took a loss with this one.

Once bought a book from a seller in Germany.  He said it was sent back to him for reasons unknown and that he resent it.  Thought it was a loss.  A whole year later it shows up.  Go figure.  But after almost 70 eBay transactions the greater good outweighs the negative.

I do not buy off of ebay . I got burnt on a camera that was never sent to me. Ebay did not help . Never again.

That is why I only buy from people that have over 100 feedback with at least 99% positives.

And cmjohnson, I really doubt the guy was trying to scam you over $5. But it's good that you had all of the info to back up your case.

Made my first eBay purchase on or about Nov-15-00 and haven't been scammed yet; and only in one case did I not get the item I thought I would, but a very similar one ("old" version of a Nokia 3360, instead of the new one. Re-sold it locally without loss though.)

Things appear to be OK now.  The guy has contacted me and now he's going to take the info to the post office and see if they actually delivered it.

At worst, I'll send him another item of the same type and as I got it for free, I'll be out nothing but shipping.  

He thinks it might have been stolen from his mailbox.   It does happen.

CJ