posted on December 4, 2000 07:15:07 PM
I sold a ps2 last week that sold for almost $600. Buyer paid for the item the next day by exchangepath. I now regret saying I would take this service but at the time it looked safe. I was a little concerned when the buyer paid for it using a different email account and wanted it sent to a different name completely than he registered on ebay with. The buyer has a rating of 0 with 1 neg and 1 pos. He wanted this shipped out saturday but I wrote him friday asking for an explanation of the different names and email accounts used.
As of today my exchangepath account is suspended. Because of the flood of calls and emails they probably received today I have no hope of hearing from them for several days. As this item won't be worth much more than retail soon, I really need to relist it quickly if I am going to get it anywhere before christmas. There has been no answer at the phone number he provided ebay despite about 50 phone calls over the weekend from me at all times of the day or night.
When is it safe for me to relist this and just offer to send this buyer back his money if and when he ever bothers to respond to my emails. He lives less than 100 miles from where I do so I was originally not worried about delaying mailing this. I figured if he was very upset and turned out to be honest, I could always just drive up and meet him at one of the local malls to give him this thing.
And if I do relist this stupid thing, what is a safe way to offer for payment services. I amthinking of saying bidpay only or money order only and I will pay the fees for bidpay. I don't even think billpoint is safe is it?
Sorry to hear about your problems. It doesn't sound like a good sale to me.
Here's the number for the head of fraud prevention at ExchangePath, Sean McGinn:
914-390-9205.
Give him a call tomorrow. You may only get his voice mail, but detail what's going on & tell him the money is still in your account and you still have the merchandise & you'd like to work with ExchangePath to figure out if this is the real deal or a fraudulent payment.
posted on December 4, 2000 07:47:45 PM
Thanks vargas. Unfortunately I was stupid enough to request transfers on friday afternoon and saturday afternoon requesting the money be transferred into a separate checking account I use for paypal and online purchases only. If I could ever talk to a live person at exchangepath, I would find out if there is any way to cancel these transfers and send the money back to him. I am also wondering if it turns out to be a stolen credit card, should I file a fraud report with the local police. Since he lives so close to me, it would be very easy for me to pursue this if I wanted to. I am so mad at myself right now it isn't funny. I thought this would be a nice way to earn a little extra money for christmas but instead looks like it is going to cost me big time. I have to pay the ebay fees since this auction ended in nov and now will have less money for christmas instead of more.
posted on December 5, 2000 09:28:55 AM
Most stores will only shipped merchandise that was charged to the billing address on the credit card. Perhaps you could use their wanting you to ship to another address as a reason to cancel the sale - an apply for fee refunds.
After reading this I think in the future I will require payment directly to me on large purchases in money order. With a hot item such as Playstation 2 you will quickly be able to sell it again. They might actually be doing you a favor - bids will go higher as parents get desperate.
posted on December 5, 2000 06:48:52 PM
Just thought I would give everyone an update. I received a phone call at 7 pm tonight from a man identifying himself as jacob. He called from a diferent number than the ones provided here but said he was from their fraud department. Basically he told me my account was suspended because of the account of the user that paid for the playstation was fraudulent. The account was one of the ones registered with out a credit card and was unverified. the money was acquired from a stolen credit card and transferred to that account and then paid to me. So my account will eventually be reinstated after an investigation is completed within about a week.
Luckily I had not shipped out the playstation because the name on the ebay account and the name given to ship to were totally different and the buyer would not respond to explain why. so I am out my listing fees but nothing else.
Now I just have to figure out how to word the feedback I am going to leave this con artist. Think I can get away with something like "tried to pay for auction via credit card that was apparently stolen" without getting in trouble from ebay. I figure the guy won't be around long but I want to leave him a neg just for my own satisfaction.
I also have to try and figure out how to list this playstation so I can sell it without getting ripped off. I know I won't take any type of credit card (including billpoint or paypal even though I am signed up for both) My husband thinks I should take them from someone who has a good rating on ebay but not sure I trust anyone anymore. Lmiting it to US only isn't important as this last person wanted it shipped to another town in NY less than 2 hours from me. Any suggestions?
