Delivery scam by Qycamera and Colis PrivÃ©

alex ph · Joined: 16 Mar 2013 Posts: 1674

I had a nasty experience with ebay seller Qycamera (Jie Wu) and with a delivery service Colis PrivÃ©. I spent much time and gained some knowledge that might be useful for you in similar situations. So I decided to share the story with essential details and to provide some conclusions in the end.

Purchase and waiting: the problem is not there

Prices for Lens Turbo II are now down to 130-150 dollars shipping included. Not peanuts but sensibly less than a couple of years before. The BIN offer by qycamera of 133 dollars seemed attractive, and a high seller rating promised a seamless experience. I bought the item paying with PayPal and set myself calmly waiting for the package to arrive.

The shipping was supplied with a tracking number, so I could check the status. After a couple of weeks the parcel was reported to arrive in France. It passed a moment in the customs and was given to a delivery service Colis PrivÃ©. Five days later I saw the status "delivered". To my surprise, I found no package. I waited a couple of days more, given that sometimes delivery companies, the Post included, anticipate the delivery status while you have the parcel only the next day. Nothing. And that was the moment where long five weeks started of frustrating communications and broken expectations.

Fruitless and illogical exchanges around the false delivery status with the seller Qycamera and with the delivery service Colis PrivÃ©

I contacted the seller Qycamera and informed him that I had not got the parcel, in spite of the delivery status. I asked him to contact the delivery service on his side and to ask for more information. The seller answered quickly and gave me instead the company name Colis PrivÃ© and their internal tracking number, inviting me to contact them personally. That was not really nice, as from my previous experience I knew that recipient's claims are not often taken into account by delivery services, as opposed to sender's ones. But I immediately wrote to Colis PrivÃ© asking them about the destiny of the parcel.

The delivery service firts adressed me to their local office which did not replied at all. Then I wrote them back and they replied to me quickly (quite reassuring, I thought), saying to have conducted an internal investigation. The result of the investigation showed that... the parcel was delivered to my mail box. That could not be true, as the slot in my mail box is a newspaper large, so insufficiently large for an adapter. I informed the delivery service about that adding that the delivery guy should have contacted me in person or the consierge in order to hand the parcel. I asked for more info about that and had a reply saying, oh yes, true, after an additional investigation we found out the parcel is lacking. In the same reply they promised me to contact the seller. So, it was official and I wrote back to Qycamera for further info, asking them if they were ready to refund me while making a request to their delivery agent.

The seller reply was far from cooperative, although polite. He refused to refund or even to investigate and insisted that I was to fix up the problem myself with the Colis PrivÃ©. I asked again to investigate from their side, explaining my previous experience. Nothing, they confirmed to be ready to pass to ebay case.

Meanwhile I was writing to Colis PrivÃ© asking them for two things: eventual new info about the parcel location, but forst and foremost changing the delivery status. They replied again within 24h, but added nothing new to the previous message, just mecaniclly repeated the earlier text. In all, I sent them six messages which they replied punctually, but four last messages were just a copy-paste of their previous answers: we made an investigation, the shipping is considered non-delivered, we informed the seller. That was really reeking and they never changed the delivery status, so the parcel always resulted as delivered. I think, that gave Qycamera a pretty calm mind each time I wrote to him and asking for an action.

Ebay case with a disappointing outcome

Having zero cooperative reation from Qycamera and no reasonable reply from Colis PrivÃ©, I opened an ebay case asking for full refund. I attached to the request all my exchanges with the seller and with the delivery service. In y request message I explained precisely what the problem was, and why the delivery status was an issue. I experienced some problems previously with several shipments over the years, and saw that ebay reactions were reasonable. So, I thought this time I'll get a quick and reasonable reply, given all the documentation I provided certifying the real problem and my honesty.

As ebay does not step in immediately, within the opened case exchange I tried to convince the seller to investigate with the delivery company and to request more relyable information about the lost package. I repeated that his claim must be considered while mine was simply and politely ignored. I translated the COlis PrivÃ©s messages and attached the originals. The seller's replies were not anything new. He just repeated that the claim was in my charge. I had to send seven messages, with no cooperative move from his part.

Once the seller said a thing that impressed me: "We meet the same problem before the receiver don't receive the item from Colis Prive". So he already had such an experience and knowing Colis PrivÃ© as problematic, he was just neglecting my polite demand to investigate. Great sense of service and openness!

Meanwhile I sent to Colis PrivÃ© another couple of messages asking to change the delivery status according to their acknowledgement of the lost parcel. No result.

After a week of such exhanges the seller claimed ebay to step in. Ebay reacted promptly and... closed the case in favour of the selelr. To tell the truth, I was pretty much shocked. I had an idea the person from ebay staff just hadn't read the documents I attached and the explanation I provided. So I asked ebay to revise the decision and resumed the reason pointing out the problem with the false delivery status. Another day passed and ebay definitely closed the case in favour of the the seller, referring back again to the status "delivered". Ouch!

You can imagine my frustration. I lost a still large amount of money, I spent a month for writing messages to several addresses with no reasonable result and just accumulating frustration. And I found myself heavily upset with inattention and incompetence I was charged with. I was hesitating to give up, as the frustration was high. But I had a feeling of injustice and also of the huge time lost. So I said to myself to try reaching some positive result.

Further move: a PayPal case

I had a choice to refer to 1) the Police to make a claim against Colis PrivÃ©, 2) a consumer association to press on Colis PrivÃ©, 3) my bank to oppose the payment given to Qycamera via PayPal, 4) PayPal for sueing Qycamera. In my state of frustration I was inclining myself to the first option. Although it was emotionally more satisfying, I understood it was to set myself on a long way and not at all guaranteed in terms of refund. While all the documents I prepared for the ebay claim I lost, was easier to transfer first to PayPal and to try having the refund. So I opened a PayPal case, once again thoroughly documenting the situation.

Paypal confirmed and reported having sent an immediate request for information to the seller. They marked the status of the case "Under Review" and I set myself waiting for the result. Ten days passed without any news, while the promised case reolution date was progressively shifting in the status. I wrote back to PayPal asking for an update. They replied asking for some more patience. A week later I saw the case was resolved. Came for details, I discovered it was decided... in favor if the seller, basing on the delivery infromation. That was a prett depressive hit. But I was firm to reach a result. I asked for the revision, explaining once more the issue and begging the arbitrage to give attention to the documents I attached, including the clear statement by Colis PrivÃ© they lost the shipment.

Two days later the result came. This time PayPal decided in my favor and forced the seller to refund me the price I paid for the adapter. I wrote a message to the PayPal person thanking him for being the first to attentively reading my message and the attached documents. I was finally satisfied with the result and also dead tired of all this fuss. The seller Qycamera was forced to refund but the delivery service Colis PrivÃ© remained in impunity and continue their irresponsible false deliveries.

To warn other buyers from such a situation, I wrote a feedback to Qycamera which ebay never published. Meanwhile it was not insulting, I shortly resumed the experience and outlined the non-cooperative conduct of the seller. As long as the lost case could be the origin of such a refusal, I contacted the customer service. The reply was amazing. The ebay person considering the queries took my request for a seller message. He expressed to me his full solidarity saying "it can be unpleasant to receive a feedback that does not reflect your actual performance as a seller" and adding "I have reviewed this feedback and confirm that it can be deleted." Another disappointment. That gave me another confirmation in fact that ebay staff just do not give attention to the content of the messages and do not really read them. I wrote back to the customer service, never having a reply. The feedback never appered in Qycamera ebay evaluations.

Conclusion of the story

Five weeks and several dozens of messages passed from my first contact with the seller to the PayPal final decision.

I experienced to:

1) Contact the seller and asked his friendly assistance in the investigation with the lost shipment - refused.

2) Contact the delivery service in order to investigate the parcel loss and to change the delivery status - refused.

3) Process the issue via ebay case to get a refund - refused.

4) Process the issue via Paypal case - satisfied in the final count.

The seller Qycamera refused to cooperate and to investigate the lost shipment. He could have been honestly convinced that I was lying about the no-delivery. But I provided my exchanges with the delivery service certifying the loss. And besides he acknowledged to have already experienced a similar issue with the same delivery service. He still refused a natural move to request on his side. Just a shame. I will naturally never buy from him and blacklisted him.

The delivery service Colis PrivÃ© conducted the whole case in a totally dishonest way. They lost the parcel and first falsified the investigation. Then they acknowledged the loss but never changed the delivery status and were just copy-pasting a dummy reply. This whole way of reacting is completely and overwhelmingly wrong. Next time I dare to order from China anything more expensive than 20 dollars, I would insist they never entrust delivery to the dishonest Colis PrivÃ©.

Ebay arbitration which works well in some cases was dumbly based on the delivery information. They ignored twice my explanation of the problem and the whole pack of documents I provided. They also refused the last consolation the buyer could have in such a situation: a public feedback resuming the whole experience and warning other buyers. Basing on several exchanges, I conclude that ebay staff does not enter in the core of the deal and make their decisions basing on formal parameters.

PayPal arbitration was first based on the same delivery information, but after I asked for a revision, the person took time to read the case and to consider its documentation seriously. I got the refund.

Colis PrivÃ© acts as a scammer avoiding any responsability and continue to operate deliveries in France. Is Qycamera also a scammer? He easily facilitates the scam, repeatedly refusing to investigate. Ebay and partly PayPal staff do not have time to read the messages and the attached documents, so they judge basing on the false information provided by the delivery service.

If I did not meet an attentive person in PayPal arbitration, my next steps could be: to contact my bank and to object the payment, make a complaint with police and to write to a consumer rights association. I presume that the last two steps being pretty time consuming are rarely present in such situations, so that customers (myself included) do not arrive to punish or to stop such scammers as Colis PrivÃ©.

CarbonR · Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2021 4:53 am Post subject:

Not surprising. Colis PrivÃ© (Private Parcel for english speaking people) is also known as "PrivÃ© de Colis" (Divested from parcel). I had some Amazon shipping done trough them, same painful story with the parcel being marked as delivered without anything in my mail box, and many time lost to find it delivered one week later to a market some kilometers away.

alex ph · Joined: 16 Mar 2013 Posts: 1674

Thank you, CarbonR, for adding your experience. After I had mine, I heard from friends and read some sad stories about Colis PrivÃ©. So yes, that is not much surprising after you are warned.

What surprises more is the fact Colis PrivÃ© never moved a finger to change the delivery information. French Post changed the shipment status in a similar situation, letting the interactions be more transparent. Meanwhile Colis PrivÃ© put me (consciously) in a highly vulnerable position in view of any claim for refund. And they just continue to operate in impunity. I rate this a real scam, intolerable for a delivery service, and I am going to contact police and/or a consumer association to discipline those guys, after I take back my breath.

What is equally surprising is the reaction by Qycamera. That would be a minimal gesture of politeness from the seller to send a request to his delivery service if the customer informs he has not received the parcel. All local private sellers did that when I had issues with their shipments, all international sellers did that too, except a stupid one who was quickly forced by ebay to refund. And a professional seller with a long list of sold items, such as Qycamera who has 6250+ evaluations, simply must know all the advantages the seller's claim has as compared to a client's one. Knowing that and having previously another client who faced an issue with Colis PrivÃ©, he bounced me to treat the delivery problem in private. That was a really unfriendly and fraudulent move. I am glad he was forced to refund. But getting a just result costed me too much time and effort.

Without repeating what I acknowledged about ebay "investigation" style, I should admit that all those iterations shocked me pretty much.

55 · Expire: 2022-06-15

What a frustrating experience, alex ph! It's discouraging to hear about such poor customer service. But it's commendable of you to share your story here.

Shoddy or fraudulent sellers and organizations should have their feet held to the fire. I hope you'll be successful in your efforts to hold Colis PrivÃ© accountable.

alex ph · Joined: 16 Mar 2013 Posts: 1674

Thank you, 55, for your solidarity. That makes indeed feel better having such a feedback.

I wonder if a police complaint could really work, making the delivery service act more responsable in such a situation.

visualopsins · Expire: 2025-04-11

Qycamera has already had experience with Colis PrivÃ©, perhaps filing previous claim(s) to no avail -- I would not hold a vendor responsible for what is obviously Colis PrivÃ© fault. If I were Qycamera, I would now, because of having to pay for what is obviously the fault of Colis PrivÃ©, remove France from list of countries I ship to. Your claim of a co-scam is unfounded and uncalled for imho.

alex ph · Joined: 16 Mar 2013 Posts: 1674

Don't you think that a professional seller who consistently refuses to make a request for the lost shipment dims the light and assists the scam, at the very least?