Unregistered Seller

sheena4711

I recently bought a bag for my daughter from an ebay seller from the US. His feedback was fine and i paid him using paypal and my debit card. I decided to check him out a couple of days ago and i've found he's not registered with ebay anymore and he has feeback of one. My item hasn't arrived yet and i'm getting worried. I've emailed him and no reply, what should my next move be? Thanks in advance.

shellsuit

sheena4711 wrote:

I recently bought a bag for my daughter from an ebay seller from the US. His feedback was fine and i paid him using paypal and my debit card. I decided to check him out a couple of days ago and i've found he's not registered with ebay anymore and he has feeback of one. My item hasn't arrived yet and i'm getting worried. I've emailed him and no reply, what should my next move be? Thanks in advance.

I don't understand fully sorry.

His feedback was fine when you bought it, now they have feedback of 1?

Where they a new seller when you bought or have the got recent neg feedback?

soolin

I'd ask the same as ribboninthesky, how has the feedback plummeted so quickly.

Personally as the seller is now NARU I would slam in a paypal claim ASAP, you might be lucky and get some funds recovered and if the item does turn up you can always cancel the chargeback then.

Soo

phoebe03cat

I'm in the middle of a similar similar experience. Mine has a positive feedback of 40 but is an unregistered seller and won't respond. Have started e bay dispute procedure and will file a report with the police. If e bay find this to be fraudulent as expected can this then be taken to the small claims court? I paid by cheque and have bank details. Amount was around £50

soolin

Ebay won't 'find' it fraudulent or otherwise and you should not rely on them as they are not a civil service. All they will do is decide whether or not someone falls within their rather narrow criteria for ebay buyer protection.

You have the option of small claims but it is unlikely to be easy and you may want to do it more for personal satisfaction than for recompense. You have several problems, firstly showing enough 'proof' that any person you get to turn up is the same person who accepted payment, don't forget you can get your cheque back from the bank to see what info is encoded on it, you might have the sort code and account number of th eperson who paid in the cheque through their account. However you can get no more info than that as banks will not give you details of accounts.

You may also incur more expenses, the small claims registration fee, costs to travel to the court local to your seller etc.

Soo

phoebe03cat

Hi Soo-yes I do already have the bank,sort code and account information of the seller. Also the supposed name and address. Their e mail box is full and I get no response to ask seller a question through e bay. If it can be proven to have gone through their account surely you could claim travelling expenses, registration fee etc back from them through the small claims court? Surely also the police should be made to be interested as it looks like quite an organised scam. A lot of money was taken on similar items over a couple of week period.

soolin

Re bank wise all you can prove is that the cheque went through a bank account with xxx sort code and xxx account number, you need more to be able to link a seller with that account.

If you win at a small claims court then you should get your travelling expenses back, but the court will not insist the 'guilty' party pay up there and then so they will be sent off with a warning to pay later. If they don't bother then you have to reapply for an order to seize funds and chase them all the way.

As for the police, there are differing examples of how useful they have been in similar cases. If you band together with all the other buyers and make a joint complaint they might be more interested, if you turn up alone at a police station and report a theft of £50 I don't see you getting any assistance at all. Once it becomes a court matter, ie magistrates not small claims court, then a burden of proof is required and you have a harder case to prove.

Soo

phoebe03cat

I do also have the winning buyer e mail he sent me. It has his name, address, request for money as payment for named item, personal bank details, further details of the item I have won, e bay numer of item and postage request, final total and asking'please send me your postal address and payment. The money was paid into the bank account-sort code he requested. The cheque cleared through into THIS account.Can't see how much of a more direct link I can possibly get really......all very odd