Name: Yusaf Shabbir
Location: Hackney, London
Email: rsbackup@hotmail.co.uk
Ebay: yusaf1907
Yusaf Shabbir of Hackney in London messaged me to ask if I could sell him one of the 200GB Sandisk Ultra Micro SD cards that was listed for £29.99 (with free shipping) for £25. Given that such cards were selling like hot cakes at this price, I declined and pointed out that the listed price was already a good one. Yusaf replied:
I’ll go for it, you have excellent feedback so I don’t see why not 🙂
The card – along with all the others – was sent out in a padded Jiffy bag. As with anything over £20, in order to mitigate against dishonest buyer claims that items “weren’t received” I sent the cards with Signed For delivery.
Yusaf’s package was this one.
As shown by the photograph in the listing, the only thing included was the card itself which as anyone who is familiar with Micro SD cards knows, are very small and almost weightless.
A couple of days later I received a message from Yusaf stating that the postman had turned up at his house with the package and that because he was unable to feel anything significant within the packaging, had guessed it must be empty. He had advised Yusaf of this and Yusaf had, for reasons unknown, agreed with him despite knowing full well that the package was meant to contain a tiny and almost weightless Micro SD card, and had refused to sign for it. I couldn’t believe it.
Hi, the postman came to deliver the item and told me it feels empty. He felt it all the way through and then i did too and all i felt was the bubble wrapping inside.
He told me to refuse the item because I couldn’t open it without signing for it. If the SD card is inside then its impossible to feel, it actually feels empty. I thought there would be some sort of plastic casing or just something you wrapped the card in, which would indicate there’s something inside.
Sorry for any inconvenience caused, i do really want the sd card but i just didn’t wanna take a chance as everything was against the odds. Please let me know where we go from here 🙂
Kind regards
I’m not sure what Yusaf meant by “everything was against the odds” here because I think it’s pretty obvious that a Jiffy bag that contains nothing more than a Micro SD card is going to feel empty. And the listing was for just a Micro SD card. And the 100% positive feedback that Yusaf had already noted would have been unattainable if I was conning buyers with empty packages.
Stunned by Yusaf’s decision here, I immediately replied and informed him that he needed to retrieve the package because the Micro SD card was indeed inside. I also expressly highlighted all of the above points.
Yusaf replied:
I’ll call them and see if they will arrange a redelivery. It was just weird because i felt it on a flat surface to get some sort of feel because as soon as i opened the door he said it feels empty which ideally anybody would start thinking the worst so i started feeling it because he said i couldnt open it without signing for it. I wanted to feel it but i couldnt feel anything but the bubble wrap therefore i thought its best i just refuse it. I know what sd cards are and they’re really small hence why i checked thoroughly.
So, he confirmed here that he knew how small Micro SD cards are yet he still thought he would be able to feel one through two layers of bubble-wrap…
In the meantime, two other buyers who had bought the same type of card from me (and who had received them in the same type of Jiffy bag) left me positive feedback:
Super ebayer, recommended *****
Super fast delivery and item as described! A+++ Seller. Thanks.
Thankfully, these two had enough intelligence to actually open the package before deciding what it contained and their feedback confirmed – as though confirmation was required – that I wasn’t sending out empty packages.
Yusaf knew he’d messed up here though as he stated that he would call Royal Mail and request a redelivery. Unfortunately though, he didn’t get the response he was hoping for as Royal Mail effectively denied his request:
I’ve contacted them and they said once its been marked off then theres nothing they can do it will just be returned to the seller. I tried my best he said they can arrange for a redelivery but it would fail because the item is unavailable.
At this point I contacted Royal Mail myself to try and find out where the package was (since it had no return address on it) and how to get it into this idiot’s hands. I informed Yusaf of my attempts to which he replied:
Thank you so much mate I really appreciate it, its so frustrating because i wanted to use it in my Switch. Yeah he should of atleast said theres no return address so just take it but he obviously didn’t I dunno if his new or what
I dont disbelieve you but you know when someone puts something in your head, it gives you a second thought :/
It was clear from Yusaf’s attempts to retrieve the package and from our exchange that Yusaf was satisfied that the packaging contained the card so imagine my surprise when I then received notification from eBay stating that Yusaf had opened a dispute claiming I had sent him an empty Jiffy bag:
Reason
Doesn’t match description or photos
Comments
item arrive, postman and I check item but it is empty and there is no micro SD included
So what seemed to have happened here was that Yusaf had correctly arrived at the conclusion that his stupidity had lost him the card… but had then incorrectly concluded that I should be responsible for that.
That’s not how this works.
I called eBay and the representative and I walked through Yusaf’s messages and my responses together. eBay confirmed that there was no case to answer here. Not only did I had proof of postage which in itself absolves me of any responsibility regarding delivery problems, but if Yusaf wasn’t able to return the item to me (because he’d refused to sign for it) then how on earth did he expected to be refunded for it?
While on the phone I also took the opportunity to report Yusaf for attempting to misuse eBay’s buyer protection policy, which is a behaviour that eBay take a very dim view upon.
Unfortunately I still have to wait the arbitrary 10 days for the case to be closed but once the 10 days are over, I’m assured that the case will be closed in my favour and “appropriate action” will be taken against Yusaf.
Update: 10/12/18
Ten days after the case was opened and became eligible to be escalated for lack of progress between buyer and seller, Yusaf escalated it. In doing so, he attached the following note:
Seller shipped an empty envelope which i refused to accept and the postman told me to refuse to accept it aswell which i did. The “item” (empty envelope) has now been sent back to the seller. The tracking number clearly shows this (i have added a picture to prove this) when i contacted the seller to discuss and sort things out. He just got very aggressive (check the chat logs and messages he was sending me). I contacted eBay numerous times to tell them about his threats and breaching the privacy policy. I did not reply or say anything, i waited patiently and as the days went on, i was still receiving ignorant messages. I would like a full refund. Thank you.
Yusaf once again claimed that I’d shipped an empty envelope even though we both knew he had no idea what was inside as he never actually opened it. He also claimed that the item had been sent back to me, despite knowing that it hadn’t since it had no return address on it.
The “threats” that Yusaf mentioned was the message I sent him with a link to this article.
Thankfully, eBay had the sense to see through his nonsense and they closed the case in my favour. According to the eBay rep, Yusaf received no refund and will need to purchase another card from elsewhere if he still wants one. Hopefully he’ll actually accept the package next time.
Update: 5/3/19
An anonymous individual who claims familiarity with this case, who cares enough about it to get in touch and who, according to his IP address (51.7.198.91), is based in Hackney wrote to me to say that Yusaf had indeed received his money back.
I think it’s safe to say that the anonymous individual was Yusaf himself.
What made me laugh was that this was the only thing he wanted to correct: he seemed to have no problem with being exposed as an idiot and a liar, but wanted the world to know that he had indeed received a refund.
OK, Yusaf – the world now knows you received a refund after having behaved like an idiot and a liar. I hope that brings you the peace that you were looking for.