Ebay not helping after being scammed

kersey

Hi,

I was recently a victim of an eBay scam where i purchased a mobile phone through eBay and paid via bank transfer but did not receive the goods.

The sellers account was closed a few hours after the transaction which left me with no way to contact the seller through ebay.

I put a dispute in with eBay but they wouldn't help as i didn't pay via PayPal so the matter was closed.

To cut a long story short, i have the sellers mobile phone number, bank details and address.I have screen prints of the eBay listing and a log of SMS messages between myself and the seller before i bought the item

I had an online chat with a customer representative from eBay who advised me to contact their legal department in Luxembourg as i wanted to confirm that the sellers address was legitimate to pursue a small claims court action as the evidence i have makes a very strong case.

This incident happened in November 2012, I wrote a letter detailing what had happended, giving full details of the matter and requesting confirmation of the sellers address.

As of yet i have received no contact from ebay and have sent a further letter together with a copy of the original letter telling of my discust in the handeling of the matter.

It seems eBay are only concerned with taking your money and are unable or unwilling to help if you didn't use PayPal (which is an affiliate of theirs).

I know and admit i was foolish for paying by bank transfer but eBay didn't make things by closing the sellers account and washing their hands of the whole thing

chancesare_2

Use twitter to contact them. The likelihood is that the account was hacked, so a resolution won't be possible, but at least you will have tried.

Ebay make it very clear that they recommend Paypal, there are reasons why, you have found out the hard way what those reasons are.

marleyboy

You have all the evidence to pursuit the claim through a court privately. Be that you did not pay via paypal renders ebay immune from chasing it up for you. This is one of the reasons ebay strongly advises people to use paypal for payment, where paypal can stop\refund you, without which your lumbered with pursuing the claim yourself.

UsernameAlreadyExists

So ebay will freely let scammers scam (so long as they get their listing fees), but accept no responsibility for anything unless you give them some commission on your payment? Great business model! Take, take, take.

starrybee

UsernameAlreadyExists wrote: »

So ebay will freely let scammers scam (so long as they get their listing fees), but accept no responsibility for anything unless you give them some commission on your payment? Great business model! Take, take, take.

The commission is only taken if you are a seller.

As a buyer the payment method is purely there for your own protection.

chancesare_2

UsernameAlreadyExists wrote: »

So ebay will freely let scammers scam (so long as they get their listing fees), but accept no responsibility for anything unless you give them some commission on your payment? Great business model! Take, take, take.

Ebay could police the site better yes, but as was shown last week when the mighty giant Tesco were hacked on there, it's not foolproof and buyers and sellers need to take some of the responsibility.

Paying by bank transfer is not safe as a buyer. Fools and their money.....

UsernameAlreadyExists

starrybee wrote: »

The commission is only taken if you are a seller.

Doesn't matter who pays it ... the commission goes to ebay. So unless they get some (from wherever) they don't care. Same situation.

lovinituk

UsernameAlreadyExists wrote: »

So ebay will freely let scammers scam (so long as they get their listing fees), but accept no responsibility for anything unless you give them some commission on your payment? Great business model! Take, take, take.

So what exactly do you expect them do, other than close the scammers account which they have done? Send some-one round the sellers place? Do the job of the police and courts? Get real!

If the buyer had used paypal as ebay recommend then ebay would have got the money back for the buyer as quick as a flash. Scammers only scam because individuals enable them to.

UsernameAlreadyExists

chancesare wrote: »

Paying by bank transfer is not safe as a buyer. Fools and their money.....

I've bought loads of things with bank transfers ... outside of ebay as well, of course. Hacked established accounts with good "ebay" stats could easily encourage people to "foolishly" spend their money. In that case ... ebay are actually endorsing the scam with their own rating mechanism ... but still wash their hands of it ... because no commission? no problem ...

I was scammed (but had paid via paypal) ... it took 3 weeks for me to get my money back. The hacked account was soon battered with negatives in a 2 week period following a perfectly normal run. Numerous messages all went completely ignored and the only reason I got refunded was because the seller didn't provide proof of postage. The fact that it transpired it was OBVIOUSLY hacked counts for nothing. it's all just process/procedure and may we well be manned by chimps. They simply don't care about anything other than raking in money.

UsernameAlreadyExists

lovinituk wrote: »

So what exactly do you expect them do, other than close the scammers account which they have done? Send some-one round the sellers place? Do the job of the police and courts? Get real!

kersey wrote:

As of yet i have received no contact from ebay and have sent a further letter together with a copy of the original letter telling of my discust in the handeling of the matter

They should respond.

kersey

I admit i am at fault for the way i paid but the point i am trying to make is that EBay are not helping me get the matter resolved by not validating that the postal address i have is legitimate.

Without the confirmation of address i am unable to pursue the matter in the small claims court. I believe i have a strong case and even if i don't get my money back i want to stop the person doing the same to someone else.

How to get eBay to reply to me, that is the problem :mad: