Help, I think I've been ripped off....(on ebay)

[Veldmaat]

June 25th I pre-ordered a Master Replicas Mark IX Tricorder and paid for it.

Today I wanted to check the status of the order and ebay says the seller is "no longer a registered user".

Today being a national holiday, I don't expect to hear from them.
What should I do if the seller does not respond to my messages??

 

[keelhauler]

If you paid with Paypal then you can open a dispute and if the seller doesn't respond, they'll refund you money.

 

[Yorpheus]

As has already been mentioned, open a dispute with PayPal. It's kind of a long, drawn out process but it worked for me. I had a string of bad luck on eBay. In the last few months I've been ripped off five times from various sellers on eBay and Amazon Marketplace. I think the slump in the economy has more thieves coming out of their caves to use the internet to steal from people.

 

[Djinn]

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...sspagename=VIP:feedback:2:us&iid=160241695902
Paypal dosen't always pay you back. I filed a dispute with this guy over a month ago and all they told me was "Yes they have decided in my favor." I will not recieve a refund of any kind, nor will that guy's other items will be taken off ebay. But it was decided in my favor case is now closed.

This is word for word EXACTLY what happened to me last January as well. Never saw that money again either.

 

[GATORBAIT9696]

since he is no longer a user you should get a refund pretty quick.

 

[KnightAsylum]

If you have his e-mail 9and you should have it from the auction end/payment, I would try to contact him before going for a refund. Not that he didn't take the money and run, but I have seen people late on their eBay fee payment get kicked off, then when they pay it they get back on. It just could be some problem on his end and have nothing to do with your product. Happen to me once, I got really worried but I got my item anyway - the seller was just having an issue with his Ebay account.

 

[Roger Ramjet]

Those "pre-orders" always worry me so I never use ebay for that purpose.

Good luck in recovering your monies.

 

[Veldmaat]

Thanks for the help, I emailed him directly and I'm waiting for a reply.

If he doesn't reply withind a day or two I will start a dispute through paypal.

 

[Veldmaat]

Thanks for the help, I emailed him directly and I'm waiting for a reply.

I'm hoping the seller just has a problem with his account, his feedbackscore being 11154 and 97.2% positive.

If he doesn't reply withind a day or two I will start a dispute through paypal.

 

[Zombie_61]

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...sspagename=VIP:feedback:2:us&iid=160241695902
Paypal dosen't always pay you back. I filed a dispute with this guy over a month ago and all they told me was "Yes they have decided in my favor." I will not recieve a refund of any kind, nor will that guy's other items will be taken off ebay. But it was decided in my favor case is now closed.

This is word for word EXACTLY what happened to me last January as well. Never saw that money again either.

Same thing happened to me recently. The response I received was "We have decided in your favor, however, we were unable to recover any funds from the seller's account. As stated in the PayPal User Agreement, recovery
of funds associated with a Buyer Complaint cannot be guaranteed. Please know that we will make our best effort to recover the funds in question if they become available in the seller's account in the future and will take appropriate action against the seller." Meanwhile, I'm out $65 and eBay still allows this loser to have items listed with a feedback rating of -3. :confused

I've had very good luck with eBay, but over the last few years it has become a risky way to do business for both buyers and sellers.

 

[SSRN Seaview]

Ebay should be able to provide a phone number for the seller. Call him or her rather than emailing. You'd be surprised how people respond to direct contact as opposed to a "you got mail".

 

[Djinn]

Typically ebay would ban this member or at least suspend him and stop all current auctions. But for some reason after being reported by that many people nothing happens. And like I said before this is not the first time this year this has happened to me. I am going to have to give ebay up for good, or at least until they start taking care of the thieves and conartists that overrun the place.

 

[Apollo]

I would file with Pay-pal IMMEDIATLY.

I hope every thing works out.

 

[Veldmaat]

I would file with Pay-pal IMMEDIATLY.

I hope every thing works out.

Actually, I did that earlier today, still waiting for a response (8hr time difference).

And tomorrow I will file with eBay as well (10 day waiting period before you can file a complaint).

 

[Veldmaat]

So now I had it escalated to a Claim, the Dutch PayPal said I had buyer protection up to €200.00 ($313) then I got an email from PayPal in English saying I get up to $200 (€127).
What's that all about?????



_

 

[Veldmaat]

Ok, did a little research on that last bit.


Because Isigned up with PayPal in the Netherlands, I have a buyer protection of €200.

 

[Veldmaat]

Ok, so I finally received a message from the seller.
This is what the seller wrote:

"eBay made the error and suspended our account because of some other user in our city was suspended half year ago. They now are working to resolve this issue. You will get your item in any case. Please cancel your paypal complaint."

I replied by saying that I would cancel the complaint after I got a confirmation from Ebay, and that I hoped the seller would understand why I filed a complaint.

 

[TKMANDO]

I've had one bad experience with Ebay, which I don't use too often. I got a similar email after i filed my complaint after waiting 3-4 weeks. I won a second auction and told him I'd pay for it when I got the first item won. I quickly got my money back and an email from Ebay saying I should try and work it out with the seller, even though it was clearly a scam and they closed all his auctions down.

 

[Capt TJ]

"eBay made the error and suspended our account because of some other user in our city was suspended half year ago. They now are working to resolve this issue. You will get your item in any case. Please cancel your paypal complaint."

Just so you know, when you close out your dispute, you cannot open it up again.
Maybe play it safe and keep it open, or ask for a refund. Let them know you'll puchase again if/when eBay has everything taken care of.
Good luck!

 

[Veldmaat]

Just so you know, when you close out your dispute, you cannot open it up again.
Maybe play it safe and keep it open, or ask for a refund. Let them know you'll puchase again if/when eBay has everything taken care of.
Good luck!

I know that's why I'm waiting for ebay to reply, if that doesn't help I will ask for a refund.