Been Ripped off by seller from the US – What’s the best course of Action?

V1NNY

Now I know for 100% the seller is lying to me & a package was never sent out to me. As yesterday late at night I emailed again asking for more info & the tracking number & they replied back saying that they went downtown to find out what had happened & someone had removed a few items & they are only insured for $100. They also said they would like to sell more items but don’t have any! Again they failed to provide me with the tracking number of this ‘elusive’ package!

In the first email (3 days ago) the seller said that the package was returned to them, now they are saying they had to go pick it up. Both times they mentioned a few items missing, so that would mean they still have some of the contents of the package. However they then say they have no more items available, yet on ebay they have just put up a new listing which shows they have 25 for sale. So all this leads me to believe they never had any intention of even sending me anything.

After their email last night, I sent one last email again asking for the tracking number (now been asked for in 5 consecutive emails without acknowledgement) as I intend to take this up the USPS. I know they wont reply back with the tracking number, as no package was ever sent to me, hence no tracking number.

They currently have over 20 auctions active on ebay, which vary in length from a day to over 27 days. I think they are under the impression that I will not to be able to do anything as I paid them directly via paypal & never did the transaction on ebay.

Very soon they will find out that’s not the case

V1NNY

As expected I’ve not had any response back from the seller. So I have just logged into paypal and opened a dispute for ‘Non-receipt’.

Do I now wait for the non-responsive seller to respond? or do I just escalate the dispute into to a claim with Paypal?

Cute_'n'_Quirky

The fraud issue rests with the Seller not the Buyer.

In the US the Seller signs the declaration to say that it is accurate - nothing to do with the Buyer.

You did the right thing in opening the dispute with paypal.

The Seller must prove that they have both receipts for postage AND for delivery of the item for the Seller to win the claim.
I have a dispute open for non-delivery from the US too.

If I were you I would wait to see if the Seller responds because if they don't the claim is automatically settled in your favour after 10 days of opening the dispute.

If you escalate the waiting period is a lot longer - a month I think - whilst paypal investigate, etc.

V1NNY

What’s to stop the seller for example sending me an empty box now (or a box full of rubbish) & then entering the tracking number of that package in the dispute console in paypal? How would paypal see this?

If he is real sneaky then he can just send me any old package via a tracking method, not mention it to me, and hope that someone signs for it at my end & then simply provide paypal with the tracking number & win the case??? As I’m under the impression that paypal will be satisfied that a package has been delivered. Then they will close the case & I will not even be able to file for ‘Item not as described’.

The seller has yet to respond to my previous emails, neither have they replied in the opened dispute on paypal.

Is there anything else I should be aware/wary of in a situation like this? Or anything I could do to cover my back, should he try to pull any stunts?

Blacksheep1979

There was a recent post where someone tried sending an empty box back - paypal found against them.