Parcel Arrived But No Record In It, Is This A Scam

[Markhopes]

Opened the 45 and it looked well packed and without damage. To my surprise and disappointment,opened it and found 4 card stiffeners and no record. Seller eventually came back to me after I elevated a claim to eBay, claiming he packaged it and someone must have tampered with it whilst in the post? He said that he only used 2"inch Sellotape and asked me to look carefully at the box. To my surprise on the back and one side the package had a thin strip on Sellotape and this made me wonder whether the seller was right and someone had tampered with it? The record was from the US, the seller had good feedback. Anyone else experienced any thing like this. The 45 was clay brown, talkin on Flame, in good condition with a slight edge warp nap. Has anyone else been offered one of these within the last month. Feedback appreciated, many thanks Mark

[Peter99]

Not much help Mark, but, it's a lovely record. Did you have it insured?

 

Peter

[KevH]

Opened the 45 and it looked well packed and without damage. To my surprise and disappointment,opened it and found 4 card stiffeners and no record. Seller eventually came back to me after I elevated a claim to eBay, claiming he packaged it and someone must have tampered with it whilst in the post? He said that he only used 2"inch Sellotape and asked me to look carefully at the box. To my surprise on the back and one side the package had a thin strip on Sellotape and this made me wonder whether the seller was right and someone had tampered with it? The record was from the US, the seller had good feedback. Anyone else experienced any thing like this. The 45 was clay brown, talkin on Flame, in good condition with a slight edge warp nap. Has anyone else been offered one of these within the last month. Feedback appreciated, many thanks Mark

 

Hi Mark - hope you get sorted bud.

[Markhopes]

It's not so much the cash but I wanted the 45 , thanks Kev

[Markhopes]

Not much help Mark, but, it's a lovely record. Did you have it insured?

 

Peter

Hopefully covered by PayPal, sooner have the 45 though :-(

[Modernsoulsucks]

The seller got back to you as soon as you informed him ?

 

I send you a package with clear sellotape and no 45.

 

Where is the 45 you ask ?

 

My reply is it was in there. Has it been tampered with ?  I only use brown tape.

 

ROD

[Mach]

Sounds fishy....

[Markhopes]

Sounds fishy....

I agree Mach, in 20 years of buying from the US never had anything like this........

[Guest]

99% of the time a sellers feedback tells you all about him. If he had lots of good feedback and nothing to give you any doubts, he got back to you straight away then I would say he`s telling the truth. 

Just my opinion for what it`s work. Hope you get sorted though Mark!

[Soulhawk]

check the package weight on the postage label

[De-to]

check the package weight on the postage label

A great reply soulhawk...

[Guest steve00]

Who was the seller Mark ??

[Guest son of stan]

Don't you think telling you to look whether there were two types of tape and then...'lo and behold' is a bit sus?

[Still Diggin]

The very same thing happened to me about four years ago. Got the parcel when working at home, so I left it on the side ready to open after I had eaten my lunch. As I picked it up it did feel a bit light. Anyway it looked poorly packaged, and yes there was f*** all inside. This came off ebay and was one of the harder lamp 45's that was not likely to come round again in a hurry. So I notified the seller in a pleasant way, only to be told I was a thief! .however I kept my cool and asked the seller if he would accept a 50% refund as I did feel slightly sorry for him and he had exellent feedback.Anyway the abuse continued with him not prepared to accept any responsibility. So I opened a case with ebay which as many will know has to be clear and concise to realistically get anywhere, which included ebay making me file a case at my local police station before they would act. This was difficult because they would not accept the offence actually was commited on their patch, but they filed it in the end, and  I could not believe it when ebay found in my favor and I received a full refund. I will never know for sure, but I believe due to the poor packaging and minimal crap sellotape somebody along the way got it open and had it away. I kept the package to check the weight on the form, but you could not read it properly. But Soulhawk is correct, this just about as conclusive as you can be. Never did get the 45.

[Chris L]

Had something similar a few times, the records were there but all cracked. I went to seller waited from reply some were OK some were abusive. I got sorted by taking photos and lodging my claim, always got my money back. BTW one was a £420.00 record.

[Chalky]

Occasionally, feedback means bugger all.  Many scams are done by first of all gaining the confidence of customers.

Edited May 18, 2015 by chalky

[rodders]

Same thing happened to me a few years ago where my parcel was intercepted by someone in this country and my goods were swopped with items of no use,sender was 100% reliable of whom I knew personally,the items replaced in package were UK items.

On another note when buying records in the U.S. ,have you noticed sometimes the name of the record is on the package,surely this makes your items more at risk if the 'perp' knows his stuff.

[Raremusicdirect]

It thankfully seems a rare occurrence.  

 

I deliberately use commercial tape and multi-wind it around the parcel to make it near impossible to "unwind" and would have to be cut to get into parcel.............having the weight written on is great good practice too............

 

I think you got to judge based on all the factors, seller, feedback, replies etc etc

 

Also I feel signed for and tracked are less likely to be interfered with..........      how was this parcel sent ?

[Soulboyrecords]

A great reply soulhawk...

If seller uses PayPal postage they can easily falsify the weight of the package. It is manually entered

[Markhopes]

check the package weight on the postage label

Checked the weight with and without the record and the weight declared on the label corresponded to having a record inside? eBay have settled in favour of the seller saying that the parcel was delivered ?  - didn't take into consideration that there was no record in it! Seller has come back and said he had it insured and will reimburse me if he gets paid   - I hope so but I don't have much hope. Not impressed with eBay but will lodge an appeal but they don't make it easy. Must admit kills the excitement of buying off eBay. Thanks for all your advice.

[Still Diggin]

Checked the weight with and without the record and the weight declared on the label corresponded to having a record inside? eBay have settled in favour of the seller saying that the parcel was delivered ?  - didn't take into consideration that there was no record in it! Seller has come back and said he had it insured and will reimburse me if he gets paid   - I hope so but I don't have much hope. Not impressed with eBay but will lodge an appeal but they don't make it easy. Must admit kills the excitement of buying off eBay. Thanks for all your advice.

Keep at it Mark, it really is a terrible process. But like I explained, it did work for me. Really do hope you get some where with this. I do believe I was lucky though, because at the end of the day unless we are forced to open the parcel in front of the postman anyone could say there was nothing inside, when in fact there was, and we could also get our money back. So maybe ebay have stopped any claim like this that favors with the buyer, but they did with me.

Andy

Edited May 20, 2015 by still diggin

[NEV]

Out of curiosity ,did seller put details of contents on package ?

I've had a few with record artist and title on package ,which does disturb me ..worst being a Willie Wright - right on for the darkness ,which even had a four figure price on it ,that actually slipped thru customs undetected !

Now that was lucky