Funds reclaimed - will I see my money or phone again?

fatboyonadiet

Sold a phone to a newbie on eBay last week, paid after a day and sent the item, now it looks like the funds have been reclaimed and the amount is under review in my account. What can I do? Can I recall the phone, was sent by special delivery? I forgot to note the IMEI but could I still block it? The address was uncofirmed and I've a feeling it was a scammer as the address was different on the PayPal email to what it was when the auction ended and the name on the e-mail address was totally different too.

Please help as I'm £300 out of pocket and on holiday, great holiday when I find this out this morning!

HELP!!!!!

LULUBELLE_2

The bad news is that you can't 'recall' the phone, no matter how you sent it - you can only claim from RM if the phone wasn't delivered; you can't block a phone without the IMEI number. As for:

The address was uncofirmed and I've a feeling it was a scammer as the address was different on the PayPal email to what it was when the auction ended and the name on the e-mail address was totally different too.

To be honest, I wouldn't have sent it under those conditions. It looks like you're stuffed - did the e-mail arrive just in your Inbox, or in My Ebay, My Messages, as well? Some scammers have been sending mails directly to the seller with info different to the Ebay and PayPal address.

Sorry! :eek:

ViJay_3

fatboyonadiet wrote:

Sold a phone to a newbie on eBay last week, paid after a day and sent the item, now it looks like the funds have been reclaimed and the amount is under review in my account. What can I do? Can I recall the phone, was sent by special delivery? I forgot to note the IMEI but could I still block it? The address was uncofirmed and I've a feeling it was a scammer as the address was different on the PayPal email to what it was when the auction ended and the name on the e-mail address was totally different too.

Please help as I'm £300 out of pocket and on holiday, great holiday when I find this out this morning!

HELP!!!!!

That sounds pretty daft tbh?! Looks like you've been taken! If the addresses were different and you had suspicions, why did you follow it through?!

anfieldred

the same thing happened to me, basically you are screwed. Paypal let me withdraw the money, then i got an email saying they held the funds so i was -197£ with paypal balance .

The phone was never delivered, i phoned the delivery office where it was held, told htem it what happened they wouldnt send it back, i siad if i went to them can i get it back tehy said no.

After 21 days they are meant to send it back, mine somehow "disappeared", seems someone at royalmail has taken it the theiving little !!!!s, as , they siad the parcel stays in the same place for 21 days yet when that time is up it goes.


Paypal took 34 days to get back to me even though they said they would sort it in 30, and i had to ring htem after 34 days to see what went on and tehy reversed the payment, leaving me out of pocket and the phone.

Only thing i cna do is claim back through special delivery

TRACK THE ITEM ONLINE AT WWW.ROYALMAIL.CO.UK sorry for caps, if it has not been delivered, there may be hope you can get it back, but dont hold your breathe, or dont waste your time ringing royalmail, it will get you nowhere, just run up your bill.

If you know the number of the phone, your service provider (02, orange, whoever) can cancel it, just get their number from their website and report it lost, they will block the phone in the UK, so it cant be used again. No phone traders can unblock phones, only unlock, so when its blocked only the service provider can unblock it at a cost of around £35 and you have to be the original owner.

scheming_gypsy

fatboyonadiet wrote:

I forgot to note the IMEI but could I still block it?

if it was on contract rather than PAYG then your network provider should have the IMEI number and be able to cancel it. I left a phone at a friends (but too far to travel and pick it up) so i phoned O2 to bar the sim. They also barred the IMEI as well without me telling them what it was.

carrie483

anfieldred wrote:

the same thing happened to me, basically you are screwed. Paypal let me withdraw the money, then i got an email saying they held the funds so i was -197£ with paypal balance .

The phone was never delivered, i phoned the delivery office where it was held, told htem it what happened they wouldnt send it back, i siad if i went to them can i get it back tehy said no.

After 21 days they are meant to send it back, mine somehow "disappeared", seems someone at royalmail has taken it the theiving little !!!!s, as , they siad the parcel stays in the same place for 21 days yet when that time is up it goes.

Actually, it is meant to go to Cardiff after 21 days where they open the package to see if there was a sender address inside (if there wasn't one outside.)

anfieldred

carrie483 wrote:

Actually, it is meant to go to Cardiff after 21 days where they open the package to see if there was a sender address inside (if there wasn't one outside.)

#


my address was stuck on the back with the original royal mail sticker. Apparently it was meant to be in a "secure locker" with other mail, but was lost.

cosmokramer2004

fatboyonadiet wrote:

Sold a phone to a newbie on eBay last week, paid after a day and sent the item, now it looks like the funds have been reclaimed and the amount is under review in my account. What can I do? Can I recall the phone, was sent by special delivery? I forgot to note the IMEI but could I still block it? The address was uncofirmed and I've a feeling it was a scammer as the address was different on the PayPal email to what it was when the auction ended and the name on the e-mail address was totally different too.

Please help as I'm £300 out of pocket and on holiday, great holiday when I find this out this morning!

HELP!!!!!

You can't "recall" the phone if it has been delivered. If it was undeliverable then it will be returned to you. If it has not been delivered or returned then you can claim compensation for non-delivery/loss from Royal Mail.

A lot depends on the reason behind the "review".. it could be that the buyer is claiming the item is "not as described" (good for you) or that it has not been delivered (also good for you as you can prove delivery/or otherwise claim back).

If the item has been delivered then you will need to wait for the outcome of the PayPal review. To speed this up, phone PayPal customer services and ask for the issue to be escalated as you feel it is unjustified.

Since you don't mention any answerable issues in the PayPal Resolution section then I assume the review is concerning the buyer paying using unauthorised funds.. in which case, again, wait until the PayPal review is complete and if they rule that the funds were unauthorised then you'll need to take matters into your own hands.

Contact the buyer firstly and explain the PayPal situation and calmly ask him to pay up using other means.. if he refuses/ignores this request then write him a letter explaining that you will be taking legal action if he doesn't pay up by x date. When you reach that date, send another letter explaining that you're taking him to the small claims court to reclaim the monies owed.. file a suit with the court (about £30 I think) for the fee owed and hope for the best.

As long as you have the ebay listing, the invoice, the PayPal payment/review procedure/and payment revocation and very very importantly the Special Delivery receipt and a copy of the recipients signature.. then you should fare well should it come to a court decision.

Never been in exactly the same situation, but from what I can think of the above is pretty much the way it should all pan out - obviously hoping for satisfactory resolution at a stage wayyy before the small claims court.

Make sure you get a hardcopy of ALL documents now thought just incase. There are plenty of people who I've seen on this forum who have taken these measures and it's pretty common these days, so don't be intimidated - it's your money afterall.

good luck.

cosmokramer2004

anfieldred wrote:

#


my address was stuck on the back with the original royal mail sticker. Apparently it was meant to be in a "secure locker" with other mail, but was lost.

if your mail was lost then fill in a compensation form which you can get from your local PO. So long as you can prove the value of the item and provide proof of postage then you will receive compensation (although I'm not sure about the timeframe involved with making a claim).

trencherpilot

Locking the IMEI number only stops the phone being used in the UK, it can still be used abroad, theres loads for sale on Ebay saying only for use abroad. Obviously stolen! Had an N70 nicked earlier in the year, so been monitoring them on Ebay to see how many with blocked IMEIs are for sale.

Theres LOADS!!

fatboyonadiet

Cheers all, much appreciated, I'll try to follow up on all this when I get back