Vendor has 500-1000 sales, 4.95 rating. The listing ordered was ~$900
I am 99.9% certain that the vendor is pulling a selective scam on me. The vendor makes no mention of FE on their listing, and after I placed an order they messaged me later that night saying they needed FE before they would ship. I didn't see the message for a few days, and when I next logged in I responded by saying I refuse to FE and asked them to cancel my order. They marked my order shipped and claimed they "already shipped it, and to FE right away when I receive it". I had in the past used this vendor extensively in the past before I found an alternative vendor for a few months time. Average arrival time was 3 days, no later then 5.
With no arrival on day 6, I send a polite message asking if the vendor can check on the status of my order. Vendor has always responded to my messages in under 24hrs. With no response from the vendor and no order, I opened a dispute on day 9, and within a matter of hours the vendor left a message for Agora's resolution service saying "They used undeliverable address". I left a response asking them what they meant by that, but they continued to ignore my messages.
I request the tracking number, and they provide it almost 2days later. This was their first actual response towards me during this whole order process. I checked the tracking and it showed "Undeliverable as addressed", and that it actual had been sitting at my local post office for 7days! The vendor then only provided tracking an hour after the USPS tracking updated that it left the local post office destined to be returned to sender.... The vendor had plenty of opportunities where he could have informed me of that so that I could retrieve it. I don't think they wanted me to be able to retrieve it so that I wouldn't know just yet that I was being scammed.
I wrote 3 very long messages directed at the vendor within the order message pointing out every aspect that was suspect with the situation. I mentioned how the vendor had failed to inform me that my order was at the local post office for a week and was even there during the first part of the dispute. The vendor knew it was "Undeliverable as addressed", so they obviously knew it was still sitting at the local post office....
The vendor kept claiming I gave him an incorrect address, and that he couldn't have possibly done anything wrong. I know his claim to be impossible because I always use the same text file with the address when encrypting messages...
It has been 24 days since I originally ordered, and in my last long message to the vendor I basically accused them of selectively scamming me and I pointed out the things that would lead me to believe that as opposed to it just being a mishap. Vendors complete lack of involvement supports my believe he is pulling a scam on me. Vendor has had very few sales the last few weeks, but they used to have regular buissness.
Vendor left short response saying "Its up to resolution to decide. I have provided tracking as proof." Am I totally at a loss here? I have been using DNMs for 3 years now, and this is the first time I have ever disputed an order. I always see here on reddit that as long as you don't FE, you won't have an issue, but I didn't FE and I think I clearly do have an issue in this situation. I assume the vendor wins in this case? I have around 50 or purchases on Agora, but I don't know if that is of any leverage to resolution support. How long does the resolution process take? Is there any steps I can take to better my chances of a refund? The vendor has been unwilling to consider making this right, so a refund is all I can hope for :\
Couldn't the vendor have sent and empty box to an address nearby OPs and then claim undeliverable and scam OP out of $900 when there was actually no product in the box?