OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum Off Topics Scam - Courier Companies

I think I have worked out what is going on with a courier company in Melbourne, I won't name them for obvious legal reasons. This is what I believe they do, I have had them do it to me twice in the last couple of years. They pick up an item from the Ebay seller, it is taken to their warehouse where if it looks like an easily sold on item (this time it was a 3 wheel brushcutter, obviously with this on the outside of the box) In the warehouse these items "disappear". The company sends you a delivered email, when you contact the company saying you were home all day and the item was not delivered they then say it was a mistake and that they will re-schedule it for another delivery time. Of course the goods never arrive and the buyer then contacts Ebay/Paypal to receive a refund. Ebay contact the seller for a response and set a time to wait before they will refund your money or a replacement item supplied. This is all well and good for the buyer, but this leaves the seller having to deal with the courier company, and guess what all they do is claim they can't locate the item but they will keep looking and this leaves the seller with no Ebay protection. Guess what after a month or so of the seller wasting time chasing the courier company with just being lied to they eventually give up. What a great way to pick up items to flog at a Sunday market when the seller just willingly hands them to you.

Police should be contacted if you see a pattern of this possible criminal activity. This is nothing short of stealing and maybe even a P.I should be considered if suspicion is high, to gather evidence. If they have done it twice with you, they are doing it n an ongoing fashion which makes this a racket. Perhaps you should discuss it with a few police officers. Many do care more than you think. You just have to find the right one.

The police have a lot of cybercrime experience....... it's just another corner nowdays.
speedy

You should see the reviews on their web page. They know that the value of the items they "loose" are not worth the cost of somebody to investigate and it is only the sellers doing their dough so nobody really cares

I am at times not surprised with some commercial vendors here of how poorly they even package things. At times all I get is an empty box because things fell out during shipping. Amazon shipping can be very lousy at times.

Now we did have rash of thief this Christmas, anything from porch pirates to vendors shipping phoney packages. Some were intercepted during shipment, contents removed, a dumby item of equal weight placed in package, then package got put back into the system for delivery. People were getting package sand and cat litter at times instead of the expensive item they were expecting. It ruin Christmas for a lot of buyers.

I do however when I ship out insure my packages so I am not on the hook if the something goes wrong. I know it is an added cost but better safe than be out a few hundred dollars. I always add the shipping cost into insurance so I can recover it too.

Speedy the only one who would instigate a police investigation would have to be the seller and I bet these crooks only "loose" a parcel from a particular vendor occasionally so there is no pattern happening, and then as it is only one item the seller gives up after being spun around and fed constant lies. Obviously this company survives because it is cheap and has a never ending supply of customers wanting cheap couriers

G'day everyone,

I am right now experiencing what I think will be a "lost" parcel from a courier company with an item I have purchased on ebay over a week ago now.

I have been watching their "tracking" page which hasn't changed in over 4 days now, my parcel seems to be sitting somewhere in a Melbourne "sorting" warehouse. I have tried to contact them with their own help email and i've had no response in over 2 days. I also tried to ring their help line and I waited for about 30 minutes with on hold music, no one will answer the phone at all.

I have opened an "item not received" case with the seller, and I asked them to try and chase up with the courier company which they used on the wherabouts of my item as the company won't respond to anything from me. The seller tells me to wait a few more days. This was 3 days ago now. Still nothing has arrived and the tracking page hasn't changed. I think this will end up with me eventually getting a refund but after a long wait as ebay and all these things they make you wait a certain amount of time until anything can be done about it.

Yes there is dodgy courier companies out there, I won't name them either but years ago I was working for a company that dealt with various courier companies every day. There was one certain company for some reason "boxes" used to always go "missing". We used to send about 50 boxes with them every day. I mean how can you keep losing big boxes all the time? Of course they are getting pinched by dodgy operators in the company, no doubt about it.

All of the missing boxes were costing the company alot of money, and also the customers that were expecting those items weren't happy and the company was at risk of losing the buyers of it's products.

Anyway the company then changed courier companies, and guess what? No more missing boxes again! Amazing isn't it? lol

I now check with the seller as to what couriers they use and if they use that courier company with all those bad reviews I just reply that I won't be buying the item from them

Good tip there NormK, I will also be doing this now for any future sales on ebay.

Well they still haven't responded to another email I sent them. I tried ringing their help team again today, and I thought I have a speaker phone so I'm just going to put the handset down and stay on hold for hours until someone answers the phone.

Well after 33 minutes on hold someone finally picks up the phone. I told them the issue and they just checked the same tracking page that I was checking. Oh it seems your parcel hasn't been delivered it should have been delivered to you by Tuesday 5th February 2019. Yep ok let me get your details and we will look into this further we need to investigate what has happened to your item.

After about 10 minutes of explaining to him what my item was he took down my phone number and my email address. He said we will get back to you as soon as possible about this issue.

Well this was around 12pm today and I never heard back from them. I suppose it may take over a week for them to find out what has happened to the item.

Oh well I have to wait until the 12th of February before ebay will step in and assist with this issue. I reckon it's a "lost" item and I will be getting a refund.

Converse, ring Ebay talk to them direct, only way I seem to get their attention properly. Same with Paypal their resolution center just spins you around in circles. I along with hundreds of others got stung over a TV antena scam and I still get notifications of people still getting stung by this scam that has been going on for nearly 2 years. As soon as I get a notification I advise them that the only way to get their money back is they must ring paypal and everybody that goes through this procedure has gotten their money back. The big beef is why doesn't Paypal stop this company from using their payment platform
BTW I think you should ad "another trash picked Victa, hip hip Hooray!"

Hi NormK,

Yes if I don't receive the item or hear back from the courier company by next Tuesday, i'll be getting onto ebay and paypal online and ring on the phone if I have to.

Yes you mentioned the reviews of this courier company, gees I don't think they have one positive review at all on google reviews...LOL

Haha yes my signature I might have to update it now cheers NormK

I got the idea from the old Victa tv ads that are on youtube from the 70's and early 80's. They used this theme of "Zip a dee doo dah, zip a dee ay" as their advertising jingle for a few of their tv ads back then. Then I just thought for a laugh now these days we all get those old mowers from trash picking etc..lol

Cheers!

Just an update on this dodgy courier business, I rang them on Friday and they were meant get their "investigators" onto this issue ASAP.

Well today is Wednesday and I haven't heard anything. But now lovely good old ebay wants me to provide them with a "document" to prove that this item has been lost in transit so I can get a refund. I wonder what they get the seller to provide when this happens? Just some proof that they sent the item? Why can't ebay make the seller chase up the dodgy courier company which they have an account with and use daily? I guess the seller gives ebay more money than I do so they'd better look after their bottom line first.

So after I get this email from ebay I am a bit angry, so I thought ok i'm now going to ring this courier company again but it won't be mr nice guy this time on the phone that's for sure.

After I got through being on hold again for about 30 minutes (this is standard waiting time I think), they find my old record of this report from Friday and I start to get the usual same old lines "oh we will look into this blah blah blah". NO I said this is rubbish, I raised my voice at them and I said I want to speak to the manager there. After 5 minutes they get back to me, "oh we can't find any managers or supervisors here". Argh!

They didn't know what to do I was quite angry and i'm telling them what ebay has told me and they can't understand what the problem is.

Eventually the "call centre" had enough of me and passed me onto their "investigation" section. When I get transferred to that section which I think is now local somewhere here in Melbourne (by the way I found out that their call centre is based overseas!) they still didn't have anyone "available" to be able to locate my item at the warehouse? I mean what the hell is going on with this courier company? I said don't you have people working at your company? They didn't know what to say.

Anyway after being transferred from the overseas "call centre" to a local "investigation section", I eventually got someone from the Melbourne investigation office to try and locate my item by 5pm tomorrow. Then they will "supposedly" email me with something to say they have "lost" the item so that "eprey" can give me a refund.

All I can say folks is NormK is right, this does happen and it's just happened to me. When it happens to you being the buyer, ebay makes you chase up all these companies to provide documents and evidence so you can get a refund.

I have been buying stuff on ebay for nearly 20 years now. This would have to be the worst experience I have had with them, oh and yes Ebay knows about it also.

I'm hearing you Converse, and I feel your pain, they have to be the worst courier company in Aus without any doubt. From what I can work out it is the Melbourne end that is the problem but who knows, but I will try as hard as I can to avoid getting tangled up with them again. Only way is to ask the sellers what courier company they are using

I goofed up again, forgot to check what courier company was shipping my stuff and as soon as I got notice that that Fastway, pack of mongrels were delivering the goods I immediately contacted the seller warning that I expected trouble. Sure enough I get an ebay notice saying the goods have been delivered. Now I have to go through the fight again with the seller and ebay because I will not bother ringing that courier company (can't say their name because they just make me sick thinking about them) because all they will ever do is fob you off with lies, never come across a company this bad in my life. Always check with the seller before ordering and if they use this mob avoid at all costs

JFYI guys,

Australia Post use "Fastway" as a subcontractor so you generally don't have any choice of who you are getting.

BTW many Courier Companies are no better when it comes to personal contact during or after the process.

Cheers,
BB.

Hi BB,
any time you want some light hearted reading just look up the Fastway reviews, if it wasn't so sad it would be comical 97% bad and I mean really bad

So 3% are the proprietor plus friends and relations?

Hi Norm & MF,

To be brutally honest I don't think any courier company gets a good wrap. I've always used Couriers Please and never had an issue until I marked a parcel to be signature on delivery and the client wasn't home, wow that's when the fun started. Try and speak to a person ?? not much luck there that's for sure.

Cheers,
BB.

Could be right MF, I just checked again 2% excellent, 1% poor,1% average and zero % great, go figure they can't even add up.

Norm, I completely agree.
I'm 110 per cent with you.

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Jack