paid by cheque... what now?

rainbow_carnage

i bought an item almost 2 months ago and have yet to receive it. i paid by cheque. i don't normally bid on non-paypal auctions for this very reason, but the guy had a positive feedback score of 300, with maybe one neg, so i took a chance. plus, i had been planning to pick up the item in person anyway, but that didn't work out. the item location was listed as london, and i was quite happy to go and get it, but then his address turned out to be in essex. what is it with people in essex claiming that they live in london? if you don't have a london post code, then you don't live here. get used to it.

anyway... the item came to £18, plus £6 postage. not a huge amount of money, but i'm just annoyed that the guy has been such a !!!!! about it. i've filed an ebay dispute, but after the first e-mail, he stopped responding. so what are my options now? i don't really care about the money, but i'd like to punish the seller. will an ebay claim cost him anything? what about small claims court? i don't want to spend any more on this, though.

any advice?

thanks.
r.c.

appleblossom

not sure about small claims court as never been there, but I had a NPS once when I paid by cheque and it was basically tough on my behalf, there is the option though that as you have his address you could pop down and say "i've just come to collect my whatever", what was his initial response before he stopped replying? is he still active? if he is (and morally this is totally wrong of course), I would have a seperate ebay account and just make sure I was higher bidder on all his items, won't get your money back, but it will p him off having to relist, get fees back etc and might pay him a lesson.

syanide

small claims will cost you 35 quid so its not worth it. Has he cashed the cheque?? if not goto the bank and cancel it.. if you have his address use something like 192.com and find his phone number and phone him up

lil_me

You can usually pull the contact details on Ebay, saves trying to find contact telephone numbers.

code^express

report to the police, make sure you still have all the corresponding emails,etc between you & the seller. I happened to me long time ago when I started buying from ebay, I reported to the police as theft, seller cashed my cheque & was not willing to send the item. I than email the seller again saying that I have reported him to the police & low & behold the item suddenly appeared!!

Also try to get the correct seller address by going thru' his feedback current list & email 1 or 2 of his buyers to confirm where he is now. Don't bother contacting him via telephone number as it might be a false number like mine for the reason being that I don't like every tom,!!!!!! or harry to call me!!