ebay dilemma

[divin'dog]

Your call whether to keep it or not... But if you decide not to, hopefully you paid by Paypal or with a credit card, or both. You can obviously go through eBay/Paypal (really slow) or call your credit card company (if you wisely charged the purchase) and tell them that the merchandise expected was not received. All they need to know is that the regulator sent was not the regulator received. You should contact the seller and tell them that you want a full return on your payment and that you will send the item back at his expense once he's refunded your money plus payment for return shipping. Keep documents of all correspondence. If you paid by debit, you will have to go through eBay/Paypal... a long slow process.

I called my credit card company for an eBay fraud and they totally reversed the charges instantly and I was stuck with ø, zippo, nada, nothing, zero. I was caught in the middle of a fraudulent auction because the middle man was naive about scams and was the one actually being scammed. One call to my credit card company and the middle man was stuck with the loss (unfortunately) and had to file with eBay.

If you do any purchase through eBay, use Paypal with a CREDIT CARD! Credit card companies will back you if you run into a fraudulent situation. Do not use a debit card... once the money is debited, good luck trying to get it back.

You can decide to keep it, but that just fuels the fire to list bogus auctions. Sends the wrong message! Good luck.

 

[spoolin01]

Your call whether to keep it or not... But if you decide not to, hopefully you paid by Paypal or with a credit card, or both. You can obviously go through eBay/Paypal (really slow) or call your credit card company (if you wisely charged the purchase) and tell them that the merchandise expected was not received. All they need to know is that the regulator sent was not the regulator received. You should contact the seller and tell them that you want a full return on your payment and that you will send the item back at his expense once he's refunded your money plus payment for return shipping. Keep documents of all correspondence. If you paid by debit, you will have to go through eBay/Paypal... a long slow process.

I called my credit card company for an eBay fraud and they totally reversed the charges instantly and I was stuck with ø, zippo, nada, nothing, zero. I was caught in the middle of a fraudulent auction because the middle man was naive about scams and was the one actually being scammed. One call to my credit card company and the middle man was stuck with the loss (unfortunately) and had to file with eBay.

If you do any purchase through eBay, use Paypal with a CREDIT CARD! Credit card companies will back you if you run into a fraudulent situation. Do not use a debit card... once the money is debited, good luck trying to get it back.

You can decide to keep it, but that just fuels the fire to list bogus auctions. Sends the wrong message! Good luck.

I've always been curious about this - what happened to your PP/eBay status when you went straight to the card company for the chargeback?

I've disputed a dozen or so eBay transactions over the years and never had PP fail to back me. Though it can take several days to work it's way through the system - they rightly want you to try working it out first - you can accellerate directly to a claim at any time if I recall. It's not essentially different with the CC company, you have to file paperwork to support the benefit-of-the-doubt that they give you up front, and you could be reversed. If you notify your CC company that you expect the transaction eventually to be credited back to you, they won't hold you responsible for that balance while it's being worked out.

One detail in the dispute process - it's easy to ask for a full refund or to state an initial partial refund amount, as I recall, when you initiate the dispute. If the seller offers a given partial refund, and you want to counteroffer, don't do it through the dispute channel for communication - responding to the seller's partial offer is considered acceptance of it, I discovered. Maybe there's a way to haggle, and I just did it wrong - do check it out.

 

[spoolin01]

...I have found that Ebay has more than it's share of scams cooking. As the old saying goes, if it seems too good to be true, it usually is too good to be true. Good luck and safe diving.

I suspect the scam exposure is highly dependent on the sorts of items at issue, and definitely on who you buy from - sellers have very strong incentive to lick the buyers' feet - and you do have access to lots of other information that bears on the risk. I've made a few bad buys but only been outright cheated maybe 2 or 3 times - a vanishingly small percentage - and the odds are high you'll get your money back. And one of the many things I love about eBay is the frequent inaccuracy of that hoary old saying!

 

[divin'dog]

I've always been curious about this - what happened to your PP/eBay status when you went straight to the card company for the chargeback?

Absolutely nothing. Same status as before. Seller figured out she was being scammed (finally). I told her that I was going to reverse the charges. She didn't challenge it (probably one reason my status remained the same) and probably lost about $1000 because she wired money to someone she didn't know, getting this "job" on craigslist, another place to be wary of. She had to go to the Atty General but I'm guessing she never recovered any money.

 

[spoolin01]

That's interesting to know. I always take solace in the knowledge I could go to the CC company if PP denied me, but I always figured it would mean a suspension at least.

 

[Fishpie]

In this particular instance I would be very surprised if there was anything intentional going on.
The buyer was sent what was in the picture.....any mistake made was in the description.....he got sent everything pictured....the only discrepancy was the seller described a 2nd stage that differed from the one sent by a logo and some silver paint......an easy mistake to make since essentially both 2nd stages are so similar.

 

[wilson23]

thanks for your input everyone. I've decided to send it back for a full refund. This is the second item in ten years that ive had to open a case on. ebay has always backed me 100% as they have this time. Although it sounds like it is the same secondary stage, I'm the type of guy that will always wonder what could have been. The search continues...