Sold an iPhone 4s, buyer cannot find it - How do I respond to this?

kateincali

O.G.
Sep 27, 2008
20,372
810
I'm panicking a bit over here, so I'm hoping someone has more experience with this than I.

I sold my iPhone 4s through eBay and shipped it on 11/30. It was fully insured with delivery confirmation and signature confirmation and shows as delivered on 12/2. The buyer left positive feedback on 12/1, before it was delivered.

Today, 12/8, the buyer messages me that he sees the tracking shows it was delivered on 12/2 but that he hasn't seen it. He asks for the MEID number, which I do have, but is there any downside to giving that to him? I don't see how there would be, but I also don't know how that helps him out any. I assume it can track the phone? I guess I'm mostly concerned that it could be some sort of scam I'm clueless about. Dozens of the buyers purchases are for iPhones and by his username I'm assuming he resells, which is something that initially comforted me since he seemed to know the product.

The cherry on top of my impending heart attack is the delivery confirmation from USPS I requested that I just received. The signature clearly is not the buyers name and the address I'll say is "19 Smith Rd." instead of the "17 Smith Rd. Ste 1" it was shipped to. I had looked up the address before I shipped and it's listed as a business, although now that I go through more Google pages, it seems to have a few names ranging from a lawyers office to a contractors. When I enter both addresses into a map, they show up as within 0 minutes of each other basically on the side of the road in front of a fenced in area with barbed wire, poles and a green box...I guess it's one of those electrical places? I don't know what they're called. There aren't any offices nearby, just an Exxon across the street with a few little stores and there's a completely different street number for the building.

Sorry if that was all too much information. I don't mind sending the actual address to someone via PM if only to confirm I'm 1. paranoid or 2. don't know how to read a map.

So I'm hoping someone could give me an idea how to proceed. Do I just send him the MEID number and see what happens? I'm reluctant to tell him right off about the different address for fear he can do a charge-back or something. Since it was delivered, some time had passed, and he had left feedback, that money's all sorts of long gone.

Thanks in advance for any help!
 
Are you saying USPS delivered it to a place other than the address on the package? Assuming the address was Paypal confirmed, it would seem you did everything right. If the post office delivered to someone else in error, that's on the post office, not you. But I'll let the experts chime in.
 
Are you saying USPS delivered it to a place other than the address on the package? Assuming the address was Paypal confirmed, it would seem you did everything right. If the post office delivered to someone else in error, that's on the post office, not you. But I'll let the experts chime in.
It's possible. I suppose the seemingly invisible building could have two addresses.

The paypal address was confirmed, the sender is verified, and the address also matched what they have on file with ebay.
 
We have seen a few times that usps is delivering items before the tracking updates, is it possible that the buyer recieved it only the 1st and left positive feedback right away then noticed the difference online and is trying some sort of scam?
you may want to call the post office and see what they can tell you about the delivery
 
It's possible. I suppose the seemingly invisible building could have two addresses.

The paypal address was confirmed, the sender is verified, and the address also matched what they have on file with ebay.

i've sent things to construction sites too before you may have sent it to something in progress hence why it's not showing up. the post office may be able to confirm this for you
 
i've sent things to construction sites too before you may have sent it to something in progress hence why it's not showing up. the post office may be able to confirm this for you

I would like to think that, but it's a very small, fenced, electrical area between two roads and that seems unlikely.

I was assuming they couldn't tell me anything more than what I could see online, but maybe that was wrong to assume. I can call a little later.
 
so its delivered and signed for? but he lost it? who does he say signed for it? what is a meid number? I dont thinkyou have anything to worry about. You sent it and it was signed for. If someone at his business signed and stole it thats not on you. If you tell us what this meid number is that would be great. Is that so he can track the phone?
 
I would like to think that, but it's a very small, fenced, electrical area between two roads and that seems unlikely.

I was assuming they couldn't tell me anything more than what I could see online, but maybe that was wrong to assume. I can call a little later.

It's worth a shot. The mail carrier might be able to shed some light as to why he delivered to xyz, rather than abc, as the box said.
 
it really cant hurt to make the call they maybe able to connect you with the postal worker directly that delivered it.

I would like to think that, but it's a very small, fenced, electrical area between two roads and that seems unlikely.

I was assuming they couldn't tell me anything more than what I could see online, but maybe that was wrong to assume. I can call a little later.
 
so its delivered and signed for? but he lost it? who does he say signed for it? what is a meid number? I dont thinkyou have anything to worry about. You sent it and it was signed for. If someone at his business signed and stole it thats not on you. If you tell us what this meid number is that would be great. Is that so he can track the phone?


the meid is the serial number on the phone, you need it to put the phone online with a carrier, maybe he's trying to call in and see if someone used that meid number to activate a phone recently.

I'm curious OP what did his positive feedback say?
 
I called USPS and they had no other details. They couldn't tell me if the building shares an address, if the building actually exists, or anything more about the delivery other than what I see on the PDF file. They were going to open a case but I asked them to hold off until I contact ebay.