Yesterday I ordered a Milwaukee circular saw on Ebay from a guy with a record of just three transactions, the item was 75% of the price of the same at screwfix so I thought why not.
Early today the saw arrived in new condition via parcel force. The weird thing was that the item was shipped direct from Screwfix to me. First up I thought I that I had had a senior moment because I had been looking at the item on the screwfix site and might have ordered from two vendors. I double checked my accounts and found it was good news I had definitely only ordered one saw.
What I found was that the Ebay supplier had arranged for the item to be sent to me direct from Screwfix it cost him (or possibly some one unknowningly via a hacked card?) 25% more than I paid.
Screw fix help desk advised me to contact the supplier direct to check what was doing on - but clearly something is wrong there and frankly I am reluctant to contact the seller. I am not the victim of fraud (as far as I know) but in this case but someone may well be - Is there a way I can inform Ebay of my concern or should I ignore it ?
Sounds like he’s realised cash from the purchase of an item by fraud.
Sort of money laundering.
Screwfix can tell you if the purchase was dodgy?
By sending it to you he hides where he is and hasn’t ever received the delivered goods.
Sounds quite clever. If he just bought it the trail would lead to the delivery address.
That’s my initial guess.
I phoned screwfix customer help desk, and probably did not speak to the right person, but I found the item had been paid by a mastercard and that they had a different email address than mine to send the invoice to - helpdesk were not concerned.
The only thing I can think that makes sense is that the supplier used a stolen or fraud card to buy my saw. He does though have a paypal account that I used to pay with. So it is trackable in some way.
I would keep quiet and say no more about it.
If it is investigated and fraud is proved you may find it is not your property as you have received stolen goods.
Cheers. Yep I was thinking that. As I only suspect a fraud was committed and have a delivery note from screwfix who had the info that it was not me who paid for the item . It may be that the MasterCard or paypal will cover the cost the the unfortunate person when this is all inevitably uncovered.
Even if it’s fraudulent, I don’t think it’s a matter of stolen goods, and I don’t see that Screwfix have a claim against you. They have a claim against the middleman and the card company, I reckon.
Don’t fancy your warranty being worth much though!
The warrenty should be OK because screw fix have me down as delivered to. plus l will register the tool with milwaukee as well. I spend a lot of cash on screw fix whose customer policy seems really good, all of my after sales issues with them have been very simple.