eBay Seller ezettwoch88 Appears to Have Falsified Death of GF as a Scam

[Brightglowpony]

Hi everyone,

Really would like advice on this situation.  If you like to solve murder mysteries, grab some popcorn and coke and pull up a chair 


First I will preface this and say this is non-pony related, but the seller has listed many vintage toys, so it is possible he will list ponies as well as non-pony toys that members of the pony community collect.

A friend of mine purchased 2 of my childhood dolls from this seller, and she had them sent to me as a surprise gift.  The dolls were MIB.  They were purchased on 8 Jan 2015.  The dolls were shipped 5 days later on 13 Jan 2015.  My friend paid the seller right away, and was charged $14.10 for parcel select shipping (slow rate in the US), and had no communication from the seller that he would take 5 days to ship them. 

When I received them on 17 Jan 2015, the dolls were put in a box that was too small for them with NO padding or anything else to support them, and their boxes were damaged.  Not horribly damaged, but definitely not fixable.

Not only that, but per the USPS online shipping calculator, if he had sent them PRIORITY mail, it only would have cost him $7.36.  So not only did he make a profit on shipping and did not communicate that he would not ship right away, but now the items are damaged. 

My friend politely messaged the seller on 17 Jan 2015 with her concerns, and asked if she could be refunded for the amount of shipping she was overcharged, as well as a partial refund for the poor packaging and damage.  There was no response, so on 22 Jan 2015, she sent another message to please respond to the previous message. 

The seller responded on 23 Jan 2015 with this exact message:
I apologize for everything. My gf had emergency surgery while we were on vacation and didn't make it through, keeping me away from town for much longer than originally planned. I had my nephew do his best to package up and ship the items for me that had sold. It was my only option. I can refund you $5 if that helps. Once again. I apologize.

Unfortunately with how the world is today, it is often difficult to determine the difference between a real life tragedy and a scam.  So per his story, the alleged death was likely between the time of purchase on 8 Jan 2015, and the ship date of 13 Jan 2015. 

Within 5 minutes of briefly investigating on a popular social media site, I discovered that on the day the dolls sold on 8 Jan 2015, the seller’s gf publicly posted that they were out of town at the beach.  On 15 Jan 2015, the allegedly dead gf was still posting pictures.

So sounds to me that this seller never removed his listings prior to leaving for vacation, and falsified the death as an excuse for the delayed shipping and poor packaging. 

I also feel it is unfair that he is only offering a $5 refund.  My friend and I were thinking it may be best to keep the situation strictly business related, and respond back re-iterating she is requesting a higher refund due to the overcharge and poor packaging, and not even mention the “death.” 

What do you think of the situation?  What is the best way to handle it?  Not sure if eBay should be notified? 

I’d be happy to PM mods his eBay name. 

Edit to add eBay name

[rybett]

WOW!!!  Just wow...

[ponylady]

Yikes, I am sorry about your dollies.  Unfortunately people will lie their way out of just about anything this day and age. I think what your friend is going to have to do is open a case. The problem with that is though most likely you will have to send the dolls back if you want a full refund. The overcharging on shipping...well there is not much you can do about that. eBay will not consider that an excessive overage. They also will most likely not get involved for them saying that someone passed away.  They can call eBay about the passing away part but I honestly don't know how far they will look into it, unless there are a bunch of other complaints regarding it.

If you want to go ahead and post their eBay ID to the title of this thread in may help. Just in case there is someone else who has dealt with them here.

[Dewprincess]

WOW...if I was that guy's girlfriend, and I found out about that, I'd be like, "So, my life is only worth about $5 to you?"  That's ridiculous!

[apanda0622]

Wow that is CRAZY!  People lie so easily nowadays.  I would have your friend open a case with ebay since the items boxes were damaged and shipping was calculated wrong.  She is owed a partial refund of more than $5.

[bluerose9978]

EBay won't do anything about the shipping overcharge. I know that from experience. I have a seller charge me $25 for a small lot but they stated that that shipping was that amount in the auction. But they also stated they would ship it priority. They ended up shipping it first class, and it cost a little over $5 to ship. I asked them about it when I received the lot and they told me that they would refund me and they never did. I asked them again about it and they then told me the overcharge was to buy their kids a swing set.

That person was a shill bidder, a scammer, and they then signed up my husband for numerous magazines, having them bill him. Also, she signed onto the MLPTP and started threatening the mods. So, be very careful. You could end up with a psychopath like the one I dealt with.

[Brightglowpony]

First of all, thank you everyone for the replies. Ponylady, I will update the topic with his eBay ID. 

It stinks that eBay may not consider the overcharge, especially because the seller put no care into shipping it and it arrived damaged.  And my fear too is eBay would not be able to comment about the supposed death.  Even if I notified eBay, I don't think I could say "Well I saw on facebook..." because eBay is not affiliated with facebook.  And normally I would never even look someone up, but it just seemed too suspicious to me.  Though maybe it would be worth it to let them know how the seller replied, in case eBay gets similar calls.

It is one thing to be careless, but I am not happy with the fact that he has no problem apparently lying about something as serious as a death. Dewprincess- yeah those are my thoughts exactly. 


I agree with you guys that opening a case may be best at this point.  That way eBay is involved, even if indirectly.  I really would still like to keep the dolls if possible, and I would be happy if they give my friend a partial refund, but definitely more than $5.   

Bluerose- that is horrible.  Very sorry you had to deal with that person too

[banditpony]

You've gotten good advice already.

It could be maybe the surgery/death excuse was for the delay in responding. Your friend messaged this guy on the 17th and 22nd, he replied the 23rd. Who knows. :/ I hope it's a lie though. eta: In the end it was his responsibility to get the package to you safely. He didn't do so.

How much was the overcharge? You only mentioned what priority could of been....

[Brightglowpony]

You've gotten good advice already.

It could be maybe the surgery/death excuse was for the delay in responding. Your friend messaged this guy on the 17th and 22nd, he replied the 23rd. Who knows. :/ I hope it's a lie though. eta: In the end it was his responsibility to get the package to you safely. He didn't do so.

How much was the overcharge? You only mentioned what priority could of been....

yeah I agree- it appears to be a horrible excuse  

Check 2 paragraphs above the paragraph explaining the priority quote- I mentioned that my friend was charged $14.10 for parcel select   So she was charged almost double.

[banditpony]

Whoops, meant to ask actual cost

I hope your friend gets her partial refund.

[Brightglowpony]

Whoops, meant to ask actual cost

I hope your friend gets her partial refund.

oh sorry about that!  The actual cost he paid is not disclosed on the shipping label unfortunately. 

[Ringlets]

  lemme re-read this

[dollhands]

Hey everyone! I'm the friend who needed help. I just want to give you an update on the situation and express my thanks and appreciation for all the advice

I ended up sending him a very direct and straight to the point message about what I'm unhappy with and the partial refund I would like to receive. I ignored his "GF is dead" excuse, did not mention it at all. Btw she is definitely NOT deceased because I checked her FB profile the other day and she has posted a new profile picture and is replying to comments on how beautiful she looks, so most definitely a LIE. Anyway I think he got the message that I didn't buy his excuse and he offered to pay what I requested if I put through a paypal claim, so I did that.

I'm not too sure on one thing though; should I leave him a negative or a neutral? I kind of want to mention his lie but feel like it might not be appropriate. Not sure though :/ feel like he deserves negs after how he treated me.

Thanks again

[Ringlets]

Leave your honest feedback with comments on what happened - the damage etc - but don't mention the lies he told you. I know it would be good to warn others but he could get ebay to take your feedback off if you call him a liar. Be careful how you word this but you can still be honest. He doesn't deserve a positive that's for sure, but since he is refunding maybe a neutral? its up to you if you want to give him a neg after all the issues of course
I'm glad that you are finally getting the refund you requested through the claim though