Here is my situation,
I purchased a computer on ebay from a seller who apperaed to have a good reputation, they marked it as shipped very quickly and provided a USPS tracking number, 2 days later the tracking shows the pakage as delivered, but it was not, no doorbell, no tag left on the door, nothing. I notice that the package was marked as delivered to the "Mail Room" and signed for by "V rizon" which was my first clue something was really wrong.
I then called my post office to see if there has been a mistake, but they say the package was delivered and signed for, I then ask them to confirm the address it was delivered to and they list off an address I have never heard before. I google the address while on the phone with the USPS and it turnes out it is a nearby verizon store (that explains who signed for the package).
Thinking the post office must have **bleep** up royally I call the verizon store to see if they have my package, an employee said "not that they knew of" but then said "I'll go check the box outside" after a few minutes they acknowledge having recieved a package but they said it was had a stamp on it from the post office that said "received without contents" and that it was in a bag (I don't exactly know what they meant by that). At this point I go on ebay to start the process of getting a refund and thing to myself, if this is a scam, it is a ridiculous attempt, because I know sellers are required to ship to buyer's verified addresses, so shipping an empty package to the wrong address soundes like a really terrible way to try to scam someone.
Two days later I recieve a notice from paypal that they have found in favor of the seller! Surprised by this I call paypal to ask what is going on and to explain that the seller didn't ship to my address, the rep tells me that they can only see the delivery zip code so I need to prove that they shipped to the wrong address, so now I have to wait till the post office is open the next day.
The next day a helpful post office employee gives me a printed copy of their internal tracking system verifying the delivery address to be the verizon store and gives me his phone number. At this point I also find out I can request the delivery confirmation from the tracking page on the USPS site, and sure enough, I get an image showing the verizon store's address hand written and a signature that is not mine. Armed with this evidence, I call paypal back and talk to a very helpful rep, she listens to what happened, looks at the evidence and says "well it is clear it was not delivered to you, so I am going to escalate this and work the case myself and see if I can get you a refund right now" she works for a few minutes, but no luck, strangely in the reslution center while she is doing this I see the dispute escalated but it appears it was escalated by the seller, but that dissappears after a few minutes and the page goes back to looking like it did before, but no funds are returned to my account. The rep then says she thinks it didn't work for some reason but says she will repopen it and let it go through the normal process, and that I should have a resolution within about a day, I say OK and thank her. The claim goes back to looking in paypal like it was escalated by the seller (which I still find weird).
The next day I get yet another email saying my claim has been denied! Now I am starting to get livid because I have already provided two pieces of physical exicence showing that the package was not shipped to me and had a paypal rep verbally say they would settle this in my favor. I call paypal yet again and this rep (who is also very courteous) tells me she has two options, I can do a chargeback to circumvent them and get the money back from my card (forefiting the portion of the sale that came from my paypal balance) or she could escalate it again to another department, I asked if I could still do the chargeback later (if they somehow still find in favor of the seller) because I certainly didn't want to forefit my paypal balance, she said yes, so I said to do the paypal escalation, which she said could take up to three days.
That brings me to today, I called back the verizon store hoping there was still a chance they had the empty package which I could use as further evidence (I am kicking myself for not driving over there the second I thought something fishy was going on) but they said it went out with the trash already. At this point I am preparing to have to do a chargeback but then what happens to my paypal balance?
I am also opening a case with the USPS customer relations office in Milwaukee so I can send paypal that reference number in the hope they will contact the USPS directly to confirm the address the package was shipped to before they finish this final piece of the claim escalation process, but I have basically no confidence in paypal at this point because they have already ignored the evidence I have provided and it seems like they have no interest in reaching out to the post office phone number I already provided.
Is there anything else I can do at this point? Get a police report? Small claims court against paypal? File a seperate dispute through eBay? Keep calling paypal? Go to social media? I feel like I am going crazy, I guess This is a bit premature because the claim is still open and paypal is still talking to me, but I am really nervous at this point, the paypal balance part of the transaction was not at all insignificant.
