Scammed on EBay advice

GadgetGuru

Firstly, assuming you have the phone serial and IMEI numbers, have the phone blocked so it cannot be used. Possibly contact the police and get a crime reference number - they have the power to try to locate the phone via its IMEI as well (I know they can as I had an incident with a £750 iPhone once - they traced it twice).

There’s no point contacting eBay since they will side with the buyer in this case considering you have no proof of delivery to the buyers registered address. I’m afraid this has been an expensive lesson. All you can do at this point is cough up the £250 and put it down to a loss and lesson learnt, or continue to ignore all eBay messages and debt collector threats, hoping that they will stop one day, however long it should take. You really have no other course of action.

km1500

you could try contacting one of the 'Sally sorts it' columns in the papers. No harm trying, even though you voided seller protection from ebay

km1500

IftiBashir said:

Firstly, assuming you have the phone serial and IMEI numbers, have the phone blocked so it cannot be used. Possibly contact the police and get a crime reference number - they have the power to try to locate the phone via its IMEI as well (I know they can as I had an incident with a £750 iPhone once - they traced it twice).

There’s no point contacting eBay since they will side with the buyer in this case considering you have no proof of delivery to the buyers registered address. I’m afraid this has been an expensive lesson. All you can do at this point is cough up the £250 and put it down to a loss and lesson learnt, or continue to ignore all eBay messages and debt collector threats, hoping that they will stop one day, however long it should take. You really have no other course of action.

Not sure a crime has been committed - non payment or disputing payment is not a criminal.offence

You would have to prove deliberate fraud.

soolin

OP, if you read this then do this urgently, does tracking actually confirm delivery? If so take a screen shot of the tracking page RM often have additional information if you click on the link, and if so screen shot that as well. Keep the screen shots safe in case anyone comes up with a way to fight this.

soolin

stevelogan said:

If that's a common scam, then ebay customer service should know about it already and take some actions, right?

It isn't just an ebay scam, it used to be anywhere that took payments through any system like paypal that requires item to go to the address registered with them. So yes, most of the places, ebay included take definite action by warning people how to protect themselves and claim seller protection. If you are unsure about keeping yourself safe on ebay then start here

Payment dispute seller protections | eBay

Evidence of successful delivery
Tracking information from a shipping carrier that shows all of the following:

• A delivery status of "delivered" (or equivalent in the country to which the item was delivered);
• The date of delivery;
• The recipient's address that matches the one found on the Order details page, including the city/county or postal code (or international equivalent); and
• Proof of signature confirmation uploaded as an image while challenging the payment dispute, for orders with a total cost of £450 or more. Learn more about our signature confirmation requirements

trust.no.1

soolin said:

smithers1981 said:

Thanks for replies she rang EBay lady very sympathetic but said nothing she or EBay could do.

lesson learned I have eBay account we can use if needed so will hold off paying u less they take her to court.

buyer sent texts to her phone but that number no longer in use.

smithers1981 said:

Ah just read my account at risk too hey ho no real loss 

I probably would caution against using your account. In the past ebay have been  known to charge the associated account for the outstanding balance and I wouldn't risk them still doing this further down the line. 

If this is the case, I am  amazed that Ebay can recover a wife's debt from her husband's account.

I would understand in the case of a minor and their parents, but surely not husband/wife unless the debt was incurred jointly in both their names?

User_101122

I would cancel any Direct Debits set up to EBay and basically tell them you’re not paying.

They might pass the account on to a DCA who might add on fees and charges but ultimately I can’t see them going down the CCJ route over a £250 disputed debt.

Might be a good idea closing any other accounts and not using them again Incase they try and get the funds off you that way, but ultimately I’d tell them to do one.

If you get a county court claim form through the door, then you’ll have to have a rethink but I think that’s highly unlikely.

km1500

Why? The user has been scammed which is aeful, but it is not ebay's fault. Ebay provide perfevtly good  seller protection but the OP did not follow the rules.