Con Artist

daPOD

Hello, first post so hi!

I'm fairly new to ebay, and have sold and purchased a few items in my few months trading.

However on the 24th Feb i purchased a phone from a seller and paid instantly using paypal. The seller was very prompt in her emails advising me on the 26th that she had posted the item. I paid for Special Delivery.

However, the 27th came and went and no phone arrived, rather odd i thought so i emailed the seller to see what had happened. No reply.

Another day passed, i waited for the postman and still no phone arrived. Emailed the seller, no reply.

On the 3rd day, she was left feedback for another transaction, stating that it had not been sent, and she was to be avoided. Alarm bells began to sound, so i decided to pull her contact details from ebay and give her a call.

She hung up on me as soon as she realised i was calling about ebay. I thought it may have been a problem with the line, so called again only to find myself put through to voicemail. No problem i thought, she might be busy. So i called again at around 6pm - but no, this time i was told to P*** off, and she hung up.

I decided to open my claim with paypal after this, and informed them of the facts. She then 3 days later applied a tracking number to the claim, and it's fake/invalid. LC XXXX XXXX GB

She's since been left another negative feedback, saying another item hasn't been posted. So i think she's just been on a get rich quick scheme.

I'm not able to reply to the dispute now, so hopefully paypal will realise she's given a fake number and refund me. What do you think my chances are? good or bad? It's over £100 and i'd rather it was returned to me.

motorguy

I dont mean to be the bearer of bad news, but whilst you will probably win the paypal dispute, the money will be long gone. Sorry.

aqueoushumour01

as you've got their contact details, send them a letter saying you'll get the police involved if you don't get a refund.

police may be interested as this seller has obviosuly done this a number of times recently.

daPOD

I contacted the police but they didn't seem too bothered.

Ebay fraud is all over the place now i was told. Charming.

I am covered by the £150 protection scheme on ebay, so fingers crossed i will see some money recovered. However if not, i'll just take legal action.

rockin_plumber

Is your paypal account funded by your Credit Card ??

If so you can claim back through them.....

daPOD

It is indeed, but can i do it without getting in trouble?

Do i just call up natwest and tell them the my story and see if they can refund me?

codger

Forget the stuff about not being covered: you are if you paid by PayPal. And whether or not the seller's account is empty or not. PayPal will go after her if they're out of pocket on the deal.

Re chargeback: do not go this route too early; PayPal hates chargebacks and you'll need to work with PayPal first.

Re police: yes, you could get a Crime Number. And you could write to the seller threatening all kinds of things. However, you're going to be wasting your time at this stage: it's only a relatively recent situation, so work with / through PayPal and eBay first.

frivolous_fay

codger wrote: »

Forget the stuff about not being covered: you are if you paid by PayPal. And whether or not the seller's account is empty or not. PayPal will go after her if they're out of pocket on the deal.

Although I do have an - I think - appropriate amount of faith in paypal, that's not strictly correct.

All sellers who offer paypal will have '£150 buyer protection' and in most cases, it's enough to cover the buyer. If the seller is nasty enough and savvy enough to empty their account in plenty of time before a dispute is opened, the buyer may well lose out. Oddly, in these cases the maximum paypal is able to return is £105, and sometimes nothing at all.

Paypal do tell you that they will go after the seller. But please don't set great store by that - in cases where paypal are unable to return the full amount, I have NEVER heard of a case where they managed to follow the first refund up with the remainder.

superflygal

Poor you, i really hope you get your money back without too much trouble. Its sickening when this happens.

A similar thing happened to my DH. He bought a "tiffany necklace" Dec 2006 for me, that never showed up. Visa refunded us though, so we were ok in the end.

Can you post sellers ID to warn others from buying from such an EVIL thief?

Superflygal x

Diane_239

pay pal nearly always find in the buyers favor so hopefully you should get your money back have you been on the community boards in eBay? you will find loads of help on there about what you can do know.
good luck

reehsetin

get a crime ref number, write a letter recorded delivery, saying you have informed the police as shown by the crime ref number and if your money is not returned you will be pursuing it with the police and through the small claims court?
hopefully scare them into paying it back