Should I be worried?

pinkgem

I purchased and paid for an item (£30) only 2 days ago, but I have noticed some strange behaviour from the seller who only had 4 feedback all from sellers, she now has 7 feedback (6 from sellers and 1 from a buyer who collected a £2 pair of jeans from her workplace in bristol) I don't often buy from people with low feedback scores but she was selling random things like perfume, shoes, bags and for relatively low amounts (£5-£30 per item) so I thought it would be ok.

She had attempted to sell the item I purchased twice previously but had no bids on a starting price of £30, i missed one of the auctions and so emailed asking if she was willing to do a buy it now of £30 or to end the auction early. She was and we emailed each other a few times whilst the transaction went through. After I paid I asked her to confirm that she had received payment ok as the payment went to someone elses name and email - she didn't reply. Yesterday morning I emailed her again to ask if she got the payment ok and if she could let me know when she was sending it so I knew when to expect it since it was being sent by Recorded Delivery I wanted to arrange to be home to sign for it but still no reply.

She had been online and using ebay as she had listed a further 2 items on that evening and she also purchased a few items yesterday but did not reply to any of my messages.

I was interested in another of her items that had no picture so i sent her a message asking if she had a picture - she replied saying she had a picture, I replied asking if she could email it to me and mentioned that I was the person who bought the £30 item. she did not respond after that, did not send me a picture, but she did reply to someone else who asked the same question as she posted her response on the listing.

I have since noticed she has sold a few other items which ended between 2nd january and 9th january. I emailed the people who won items on 2nd january and none of them have received their items yet.

When I looked a bit closer at what she had purchased I noticed she was now selling the items on, and had listed some of them the same day she purchased them. an example being yesterday afternoon she purchased an item for £15 plus £7 postage, she has already listed it for sale using the sellers picture and description with a start price of £15, buy it now £20 and postage £5 so it is not as if she is buying and selling for profit. The other items she has bought and sold have also been for around the same price, sometimes less than she has paid.

Almost all the pictures and descriptions she has used to sell items are taken from sellers auctions of things she has bought. Apart from my item, although it is a picture from a website not a picture she has taken and I can find no trace of her having purchased it on ebay like I can for most of the other items she has sold.

Now it gets even stranger, she replied to emails as Amy Harding her email address is amy##@hotmail.com, but her ebay account which was registered just 2 weeks ago is registered to a Maggie Loosemore, and when I paid by Paypal I paid a Stephen Harris.

I have got her contact information showing registered name Maggie Loosemore, address Bristol and a phone number. I want to phone her and ask if she has been getting my emails ok, but I don't know wether to ask for Maggie or Amy.

You may think it is a bit too early to start getting worried about the transaction but the fact that people have not received their items from 2nd January is worrying and also the strange behaviour, the fact that she replied to emails very quickly up until when I paid and then nothing - apart from when she though I was someone else asking about another of her items.

The person who collected the £2 pair of jeans from her at her workplace in Bristol emailed me to tell me this, I have asked if she could let me know her workplace or if she had her home address and if she knows if she is called Amy or Maggie. When I received the winning buyer invoice from her the address was not on file and she accepted Paypal payments only.

I searched through all the M Loosemore, A Harding and S Harris in Bristol on 192.com including electoral roll current and past to try and find an address or match the phone number I have and also through all the Loosemores, Hardings and Harris' on BT.com but could not find anything matching the phone number ebay provided me with. Is there anywhere else I can look? I would like to find her address as I live in Newport South Wales and my parents live in Oxford so I pass Bristol every now and again.

What else can I do? Am I being paranoid? Am I correct in thinking a Paypal claimback can't be started until 7 days after purchase/payment? Am I likely to get anything back in the event that I don't receive the item? Thanks in advance for any help.

frivolous_fay

Whoever she is, she sounds like a total nightmare.

I would open a paypal dispute as soon as you are able. Perhaps that will get her attention!

Personally after all that weirdness I'd certainly not be considering a second purchase.

pinkgem

I was considering the second purchase before she went all weird on me, then I thought I would just ask about it anyway to see if i got a response.

I can confirm that I have the correct phone number for her as another buyer who purchased something on 2nd Jan has just phoned it and spoke to her mum who said her daughter was selling things on ebay and she will get her to phone back after 4pm. I am also trying to find out from the other buyer if the sellers name is Amy or Maggie. If it is Amy as per her emails then she has registered a false name on ebay.

Anyone know of a way I can find her address from her name and knowing her phone number?

samspam

It could be that the ebay account is in her mums name of Maggie and that the daughters name is Amy.

If she is new to Ebay then it could be that she is just really flaky at posting things out which is why she is avoiding answering you.

You can open a paypal dispute and escalate it to a claim if you don't receive the item but I think it has to be over a certain amount?

Have you checked your Spam email for her replies? I recently hadn't received an item or replies to my emails and when I checked my spam box there they were. He was using a hotmail address also.

I personally would never buy an item that had a photo lifted from someone else/website. Only buy if they have taken a photo of the actual item as how do you know they even have it in the first place? (Which could have happened here, she could be selling something she doesn't even have!)

Good luck.

pennylane99

When I looked a bit closer at what she had purchased I noticed she was now selling the items on, and had listed some of them the same day she purchased them. an example being yesterday afternoon she purchased an item for £15 plus £7 postage, she has already listed it for sale using the sellers picture and description with a start price of £15, buy it now £20 and postage £5 so it is not as if she is buying and selling for profit. The other items she has bought and sold have also been for around the same price, sometimes less than she has paid.

if she is buying items and reselling them straight away, she could be using another account for shill bidding....

pinkgem

samspam wrote:

It could be that the ebay account is in her mums name of Maggie and that the daughters name is Amy.

If she is new to Ebay then it could be that she is just really flaky at posting things out which is why she is avoiding answering you.

You can open a paypal dispute and escalate it to a claim if you don't receive the item but I think it has to be over a certain amount?

Have you checked your Spam email for her replies? I recently hadn't received an item or replies to my emails and when I checked my spam box there they were. He was using a hotmail address also.

I personally would never buy an item that had a photo lifted from someone else/website. Only buy if they have taken a photo of the actual item as how do you know they even have it in the first place? (Which could have happened here, she could be selling something she doesn't even have!)

Good luck.

Yes her mums name could be Maggie Loosemore, thats a possibility.

I also thought maybe she is just slow at sending things, will have to wait and see.

I think a Paypal dispute can be started for any amount, just wasn't sure if I had to wait 7 days first.

There is nothing from her in my spam emails.

No she may not even have the item, if that is the case I WANT MY MONEY BACK!

I am not sure if I should phone her after just 2 days or if I should wait 7 days before doing anything like that.

pinkgem

pennylane99 wrote:

if she is buying items and reselling them straight away, she could be using another account for shill bidding....

Good point, i will have a look into that a bit more when I get the chance.

pinkgem

I have only ever had to do 1 paypal claim for item not received before and I did not start that until approx 10-14 days as at first I just thought she was slow at sending things and she had been replying to most emails up until then. After looking into her completed and other sold items I realised what she was up to and alerted a few other buyers, she soon got suspended but not before ripping off loads of other people! She was selling things, receiving payment, not sending the item and then selling the same thing again, receiving payment, not sending the item... you get the picture. She sold some things 4 or 5 times over.

I ended up only getting about half my money back, luckily the total was only about £15. I got other buyers to do Paypal claims and I think I shot myself in the foot as some managed to get more money back than me

When I was 100% sure she was ripping people off I set up another ebay account and bid high amounts on her remaining items to stop others getting ripped off. I would have just emailed the high bidders but ebay limit you to a certain number of messages per day and I kept reaching my limit throughout the ordeal whilst in contact with her other buyers.

I also noticed she was spending everyones money buying things for herself on ebay which is where her feedback was coming from - positive from sellers only, she got a few negatives from buyers including me just before her account got suspended.

pinkgem

I've just had positive feedback for paying from the seller, but the only other buyer to have positive feedback for paying is the person who collected the £2 jeans from her workplace.

alykatz

if, your really worried you can start a paypal chargeback at any time through your paypal account. you only have to wait 7 days if you do it through ebay.

pinkgem

alykatz wrote:

if, your really worried you can start a paypal chargeback at any time through your paypal account. you only have to wait 7 days if you do it through ebay.

thats good to know, i think i will email her and say something like "thanks for the positive feedback, can't wait to receive bag - please could you let me know when to expect it" if i don't get a reply then i may consider starting a paypal dispute shortly