Advice on dealing with a crook on eBay

mazza245

I am a novice at eBay buying and stupidly bought a mobile phone without any advice. When it arrived, I was disappointed as it was an older version than my own and wouldn't work. I put it away to wait for my daughter to look at it, as I thought it was just me that couldn't make it work, she has tried three different SIM cards but told me it was useless. I emailed the sellers, they eventually told me to return it to them and they would 'inspect' it. Now, they are denying they have received it, so they have my money and the phone. I am furious but don't know what else to do. Is it possible to get any help with this sort of problem? I did send it back registered and it cost me a third of the postage they had charged me. I found all the negative and neutral comments on the seller and there are 15 on there, all sounding very similar to my tale so they are obviously rogues and vagabonds but just get away with it!

robnye

you say you sent it back registered, was that registered signed for post

if so, check with royal mail, if the item has been signed for their systems will show....... althought it wont show that the adressee was the signature used

if it hasnt been signed for, they can investigate and issue you with a refund/compensation

how did you pay......? if you paid via paypal, raise a dispute..... paypal will investigate and then refund (unless the seller has already removed his money)

raise a complaint with ebay.......


do not leave any feedback yet......

Hintza

Get those wheels in motion now do not wait. Don't let the trailgo cold.


Otherwise they might be gone.

I sold a brand new phone on EBay and it was a nightmare...luckily the shop exchanged and sent it back to the buyer again but to this day I am sure there was a scam.

soolin

Is this the same question you listed on another thread?

If so I thought in that case some time had elapsed and you had already left positive feedback?

Can you let us know how long ago you won the auction and how you paid, as this will have some bearing on your course of action. For instance, if you paid by paypal you only have 30 days in which to start a claim for item not as described, or whatever, and the fact that you have left positive feedback (If I remember correctly) means you would be unlikely to prove your case.

If you paid by any other means I can't see that you have any comeback at all except through the small claims court which is rarely worth bothering with.

Also, I realise that you probably don;t want to hear this, but when buying phones reading the feedback is very important. Any seller with either no experience of selling phones, or with poor feedback should be avoided. Feedback is there for a reason, ignore it at your peril.

Soo

mazza245

Thanks for your advice. I did get this phone some time ago, I did pay by cheque, I did leave positive feedback but I did put "Received quickly but not happy with condition". It was only when we had tried three SIM cards and nothing would work, that I realised it was utterly useless. My question is, how do I complain to eBay and demonstrate that these sellers have 15 negative or neutral complaints about very similar problems and get them blacklisted or at least get their wrists slapped? I know I can say goodbye to my money, I am only mad that I spent more money returning it to them because I actually thought I was dealing with genuine people who would refund my money! It annoys me to think they are laughing at me! From the tone of the feedback I now read, they are cheeky, just denying that people have emailed them, or paid them or returned items. Toolhaus.org is a really useful site and I only wish I had known about it before. I have learned a valuable lesson and won't use eBay again; buyer beware alright! Do eBay care? Please let me know how I email or write or phone eBay to complain.

soolin

I don't think there is anything more you can do, ebay won't be interested after a certain period of time has elapsed.

As you paid by cheque you don't have any protection or method of reclaiming money. The only satisfaction you could have got was by reporting the seller as a non performing seller, but it sounds like it is far too late to do that. Feedback would also have been a useful tool, but you only get the one chance. The fact that you left a negative comment in a positive feedback won't make any difference as no one will read it, all other buyers will see is a positive mark.

If the seller is picking up negatives they may well start losing business anyway. Most sensible buyers won't deal with sellers with poor feedback, especially when buying mobile phones. If the feedback rating gets bad enough he won't be able to trade on ebay anymore as he just won't be able to sell anything.

Soo

Sybarite

You could of course contact your bank and cancel your payment cheque. This can be done even after a significant period of time has elapsed since the cheque has been issued. Nasty surprise for the seller + sweetener for you that they will incur a bank charge.

There are a lot of dodgie-dealers on ebay and phones seem to attract them. Electronics in generally seem a bit of an iffy thing to buy, how do you know if they work, where they're from, are they 'graded' stock being passed off as new, etc

Just exercise caution in future - I suppose thinking of it as an expensive lesson is simply the best way of looking at it. And don't be too eager to leave feedback just because you are relieved that the thing actually turned up - have a cooling off period before you leave your judgement - otherwise you may end up misleading other potential buyers - after all, you don't want to help the rogues with their nefarious activities do you?

soolin

You cannot recall a cheque unless you can eithe prove fraud (and you would need to start a police or civil investigation to do this) or if you can prove a problem with the cheque. The problem with the cheque is the way a number of cheques do get pulled, a wrong date that has slipped through, or words and figures not matching. This is what happened to the one that I had recalled, the buyer had written words and figures wrong and this had gone un noticed for several weeks.

However, this will incur a charge to the issuer of the cheque unless he can prove the bank made an error. The receiver of the cheque will not suffer any charges at all as he can quite rightly say that as he neither he nor the bank noticed the error in the cheque it was an honest mistake.

Soo

Andyblizz

You can cancel a cheque at any time, as long as it has not been banked already.

Just say that you think it has been lost in the post. The bank will then cancel it. But they may charge you.

soolin

Andyblizz, yes I agree entirely but in this case the OP had his cheque paid in some time ago, hence his question.

Soo