Ripped Off on E-Bay

Back in May I bought a product from e-bay for $53, including shipping and I never received the item. I filed a report with Paypal, but since it was past 30 days (a rule I didn't know about) they won't do anything. It seems like e-bay can't do anything since the seller is no longer a registered user. What can I do to get either the product or my money back?

I would innundate the seller with emails. Give us the email address.......who is it? not on ebay anymore? 30 day rule? thanks for letting us know. Now, who was it?

This is the e-mail address
Slammjamm2@aol.com

Since I bought the item, he/she has gotten a lot of nonpositive feedback. The member name is Slammjamm2.


This message was edited Jul 8, 2004 10:09 AM

LOOKS LIKE THE HANDLE FIT THE GLOVE TO ME!!

"eyes"

Unfortunately a lot of that happens, and ebaY has NO protocol to advise new Buyers upfront about the rules. Plus, they also have NO way to ascertain the veracity of anyone who signs on to sell items.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. I buy a lot from eBay and also do some selling. I've only had 2 bad experiences out of about 600. I recommend reading the feedback of any seller you are buying from before bidding and don't buy from those with more than one or two negitive feedbacks. Also be sure to leave negitive feedback before 30 days on anyone you truely have a bad experience with, although I would try to resolve the problem with them personally first. Most eBayers will go out of their way to see that you are happy, but there are always a few bad ones out there.

Don't ever buy from anyone without a good track record. I agree with that completely. I also won't buy from someone who is new to ebay, just for that reason. I'm sorry about your bad experience. If you paid via Paypal with a credit card, you might take it up with the credit card company.

I believe you can leave neg. feedback for up to 90 days. If you think they will reciprocate, do it on the last day, right before it is blocked.

Every time you go to a fair or a promotion fill out everything you can requesting info, quotes and drawings for free presents in their name they will get lots of mail. Ernie

This message was edited Jul 9, 2004 6:34 PM

ew, that's naughty, Ernie, but such a great idea!!

Did you file a fraud report with e-bay? http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/questions/protection-program.html?fromFeature=My%20eBay&ssPageName=STRK:MEBRLC:006

You say that the guy is no longer a registered user, so you might have to hand it off to the US Postal Inspector. If they have enough complaints, they can get the information from e-bay and go after this person.
Here is where to go to file a mail fraud complaint with the US Postal Office.
https://www.usps.com/postalinspectors/fraud/MailFraudComplaint.htm

This guy obviously needs to be stopped.

Kelli: I am sorry for your bad experience on eBay. I looked at this person's page on eBay and apparently they are still registered as they have two neutral feedbacks in the last month. They do not have any items listed for sale at present.
I have sold on eBay for over four years and have a 100 per cent positive feedback with over 1,500 transactions. I have only had two non-payers in all this time.
One should always check a sellers feedback before buying on eBay. I would never buy from a person with more than 5 negatives, let alone 148 NEGATIVES as this seller has. I agree with sweezel, file with eBay and your postal inspector. If you paid by PayPal, you have recourse with them.
This person should be barred from eBay. Anyone with 148 negatives should NOT be allowed to continue selling.
Bill

This message was edited Jul 9, 2004 9:55 PM

This message was edited Jul 9, 2004 9:58 PM

On the midday radio programme I was listening to yesterday, this was a topic of discussion. Apparently under UK law eBay isn't fulfilling it's obligation as even though it's only an intermediary, there should be much better buyer protection than there is.

I'm so sorry to hear that this has happened to you, as said above, if you paid by credit card, even through paypal, there might be some comeback for it.

He's not a registered user (I just looked) but on his ME page, he has a website and this is the email for that Danboy8315@aol.com trouble is now we can change our emails addresses as often as socks, it might not be valid but it's worth a try at least. He seems to have shut up shop there too.

For anyone who is thinking of using eBay and is worried about this, look for sellers with a good feedback of 98% or above (and read the latest feedback, it can tell you a lot), also look at the location, there are some countries which you should take even more care when dealing with them. As much as many of us bend over backwards to help buyers and maintain 100%, some buyers (it works both ways) will leave negative feedback for the slightest of things and use it as a threat too, 98% usually indicates a good seller.

I understand that there is a US company (maybe more than one, perhaps in other countries too) that is allowing eBayers to buy feedback, if you suspect this (someone who has gone from 0 to 500 similar feedback in the space of a month or two, beware!)


This message was edited Jul 10, 2004 5:45 AM

I've been buying from ebay for ages and never had anything go bad. Was VERY UNSURE about using credit card on paypal. For the first 6 mo. or so I paid with money orders. However some US banks charge too much for money orders so very gingerly got a credit card with max $500 on it. Thati s the one I use on paypal & it has been fine so far. What bad luck you have had.

Where does he live. With so many DG subscribers, am sure someone lives right near him/her. What were you buying.

Snoopy Ginny in Canada who gets so MAD when hearing about this kind of thing.

I think it would be a great shame if people stopped buying and selling on ebay because there are a few bad apples in an enormous barrel.

It seems that ebay does try to get rid of people who break the rules. I had some very nasty bidding practises perpetrated on a (fairly) valuable item I was selling and the two culprits were thrown out.

As far as credit card fraud over the net in general, I think,as long as you stick to secure servers,such as PAyPal use, your card info is much more secure than it is if you make a purchase over the phone using a mobile, or even giving your card to a waiter in a restaurant.

Two years ago, some very small computer and musical instrument shop in Humble, Texas tried to bill my card for $1,900 for an imaginary purchase. It took just one phone call and a letter to my card company to get the money refunded within two months. (I still haven't the foggiest notion how they got my details).

Suppliers who charge your card on the basis of not having the card in their possession at the moment of sale, have to prove to the credit card company that they have provided the goods or services if you complain, otherwise the credit card company just deduct the amount from the would-be seller.

I don't the postal service can help you because nothing was send through them that was not as advertised. However, if you sent a check or money order by snail mail, then you might have viable recourse....

Here's a different site for auctions and selling:

http://www.sellatonce.com/cgi-bin/auction/main.pl

I've joined it, and will probably place my vinyl records on it, once I get it organized.

It happened again, this time for a purchase of $86. This person had no negative feedback in the recent months at the time of my purchase, but she got some since then and is no longer a member. This time I filed a complaint with Paypal before the 30 days were up, so we'll see what happens. Disreputable person #2 is Dariece Radford, id. name, cbaymanic1, stampthings@excite.com, in Salt Lake City.

I filed a mail fraud report for Disreputable person #1. I don't know if it is applicable, since nothing was mailed, but it can't hurt to try.

Both this item and the other rip-off were paid through Paypal, but from money I had in my Paypal account from things that I had sold on E-bay, rather than via a credit card. That was my "mad money", and yep, I'm kinda mad now.



This message was edited Jul 20, 2004 11:59 AM

How long has it been since bad auction #2 ended, Kelli?

I cannot BELIEVE yoyu have been ripped off TWICE! Poor baby.

Oh for crying out loud. I hope you get your money back from paypal. Hey isnt doing any transaction over the internet now the same as sending snail mail? So if thats the case they did commit fraud.

Bad auction #2 ended June 22.

i got ripped off twice in my early days buying on ebay - once the product was a knock-off instead of the real thing - and once i paid for something and never got it [other people got screwed too at the same time] ebay and paypal did nothing about either of them cuz they were transactions were less than 2 or $500 - cant remember which. paypal does now have 'insurance' which you can add to the price of a payment. i did that once for something i was a little bit leary of paying...but that one worked out.
i guess with negatives, read them. the one and only one i ever got was ridiculous....in retaliation for one i'd left for someone for nonpayment. oh well. i'm definitely gonna check out that site you posted kelli - and sorry it all happened to you.

Kelli: I am sorry this happened to you again.

Per your quote "It happened again, this time for a purchase of $86. This person had no negative feedback in the recent months at the time of my purchase, but she got some since then and is no longer a member.

No, but she had two neutrals in May, where she did not deliver the goods that were purchased by a buyer. That is a warning signal. Some negatives are a result of retaliation, but a remark that the goods were never received should bring up a red flag.

As you have learned, the eBay feedback system is not a sure-fire way to recommend a seller.

I hope that these experiences do not scare you away from eBay. There are thousands of good sellers there for every bad apple.

Maybe if you bombard this person with eMails and letters, she will refund your money, as she did with the buyer who issued her the two neutrals.

I got my money refunded from the aforementioned purchase #2. Yay!!!

wonderful - was it from the seller or from credit card/paypal/ebay?

It was from the seller, but through Paypal.

that's good to hear!

Well, Kelli... you are batting .500. Baseball Pros would kill for that!!!

GOOD!

Kelli, we bought a tractor 2 yrs ago from Ebay, never buy anything that can't be sent through the mail!!!

We paid a lot of money and had so much trouble getting it, it took us almost 5 months to get it. We filed complaints (what a joke), I called his house and work and left him messages, sent him letters (certified receipt requested) to both his home and work, he wouldn't pick up either.

Finally, I posted a rather nasty feedback on his Ebay feedback sheet. People starting writing me about other problems they'd had with him. I posted that I wasn't alone and had heard from many other dissatisfied customers that couldn't post feedback anymore. They didn't want to put negative feedback because they were somewhat afraid of retaliation. I wasn't and said it like it was.

He posted a feedback on mine, something like....one can't be impatient! Can you believe it?

When we did get the tractor and another farm implement, we think he tampered with them because we had to do a lot of work on "ready to use" equipment!

No matter how good hearted you are, do your homework!!

He has since changed his name on Ebay and doesn't go by the other one anymore. I don't know his new name, can't hardly remember right now what his other was....but I do remember he lives in Boynton Beach, FL.

Kathy

Over the years, I have bought from 30 to 50 items on E-bay and never had a bit of problem until these two that I mentioned. It so happens, that they were also 2 of the 3 most expensive things I ever bought and they both happened within a relatively short period of time.

The most fabulous thing I bought was a big box (10 lbs. or so) of miscellaneous stamp collecting stuff. In it, among many other things, was an old stamp album from about 1925 with some stamps in it. Also there was a little notebook with recipes hand written in it and it was dated 1836. (Why that was with stamp collecting stuff, I have no idea, but it was cool.)

I also got a model of a 1955 Oldsmobile to give to my dad. (He used to have the real thing.) He loved it. The detail was very accurate and he told me all about it.

Oh I have gotten some wonderful, wonderful things on Ebay. I'm not saying don't buy from Ebay, just be real careful, don't buy anything that can't be delivered by US Mail and go with your gut instincts. :)

I've bought books & plants & wierd objects from ebay. Most good, but a few bad. I try to keep the $ amount under $50 total so I won't scream too loud if it doesn't work out. If I can, I try to contact the seller by phone so I can get a better feel for who they are.

I hate to order any plants that won't be shipped for months--you have no recourse if they show up dead or tiny. I have found 3 really good ebay sellers that have become fellow gardeners and friends since.

I've not bought any plants on E-bay but I have sold some. So far, all positive feedback (knock on wood). I'm just a Joe Schmo selling out of my house, but in my case, it makes me try harder to please the customers.

This message was edited Jul 23, 2004 9:09 AM

Kelli,
The best buys I got were from gardeners sellings extras out of their homes. Gardeners like you really care what you are offering to others.

Since I've been on DG, I find enough people willing to trade for most of my needs. And co-ops help us all buy more varities.

One tool that's helped me a lot with eBay is Gutcheck. It's an application which allows you to right-click a user's feedback and get a report of all of it, sortable by several columns. You can also export this data to an Excel spreadsheet. It only works on IE 4.0 or later, so fellow Firefox users will have to use IE to use it. http://www.teamredline.com/gutcheck/