So I had this guy contact me a few months back, asking about a product, wondering if it would be better than what he has. I'm always very honest, almost to a fault, when it comes to performance questions on products. I would rather people not buy something at all, than have to go through the hassle of a return. And I've gotten pretty good at sniffing out the people who probably WILL return, and I was getting that vibe off this guy.
We go back and forth for a few days. He's in Europe. He asks me how much shipping will be. When I tell him, he balks. Between that and me downplaying the product, he decides not to go for it.
Over the next couple weeks he asks me more questions. Finally, he decides to order it anyway. I once again warn him that it might not perform the way he's hoping. He still wants to do it. He also asks me if I can send it as a 'gift'. I politely tell him we can't do that, because then we wouldn't be able to make a claim if something went wrong.
So the next day I see his order. In the order notes, he once again asks to list it as 'gift'. This now starts getting me annoyed, because I know he saw my first response, and he is now just doing this, hoping that a different person will see the order, and just do it anyway.
So the order gets there. Three days after it gets there, he opens a dispute with PayPal. No email to me, no nothing. I send him an email asking why he's doing this. No response. This guy wrote in English to me, but chose to write his complaint on the dispute in his language. Probably hoping that I won't be able to read it. I translate it. He's telling them that I sent him an empty box, and that he had to pay 200 euro in tax to receive it. Compete BS. I knew there was no way the tax was that much. Three hours later... He has now gone back and changed the dispute to: "Not as described". This is how stupid this guy is... He's claiming 'not as described' on an item he claimed he never got.
A helpful person tells me which postal service would have delivered it. I go to their site and put in the USPS tracking #. Bingo. Not only does it show the tracking on their end... but it shows the weight before delivery, the customs fee paid, AND an actual copy of his signature. I actually did a fist pump when I saw this. Brilliant service. The weight showed the same as when it left, and the fee he paid was $49 euro. Not 200.
I make a screen grab of all this... attach that and a copy of the ship label, showing the numbers match. They award the dispute to me three days later. A few hours after PP sent the notification that they were giving us the money back, he emails me and says he was "on holiday", and that's why he didn't answer my email. Ha! No mention of the dispute he made, like it never happened... but proceeds to start asking me more questions about the product. I'm thinking... Dude, you must be high if you think I'm going to help you now.
So yeah... Not the brightest scammer I've ever come across.
