posted on December 22, 2000 01:27:52 PM
Back in the beginning of december befoer I realized all the problems with exchangepath, I sold a ps2 which the buyer promptly paid for by exchangepath. While I normally ship out the next day after receiveing payment, I had started seeing threads onhere about exchangepath fraud and thought something smelled funny with this transaction.
The buyer was a o feedback (1 pos and 1 neg) buyer. When I pulled his contact info it gave the name of john smith in a town about 3 hours away from me. When buyer paid for this he paid under the name joe schmoe with a totally different email address but a mailing address in the same town 3 hours away. I did not mail but instead emailed the buyer asking for an explanation of the different names and email addresses. I figured in a worse case senario if he was a legitmate buyer, I could deliver the ps2 in person and he would get it in the same amount of time as priority mail. I did a series of 2 withdrawals from exchangpath, one for $500 the first day and a second for the remaining balance the second day.
On the monday when exchangepath suddenly suspended everybody my account was also suspended with this money still in it but already having been requested to be deposited into my checking account. After several days of calls and emails, I was finally contacted by someone in risk management. I was told that the buyer had paid with fraudulent funds and my acount had been suspended because I tried to withdraw these funds. After explaining my side to this man, I was told that my account would eventuallybe reinstated but none of that money would be deposited in my account. In all this time, the buyer never explained the different names to me or even contacted me at all. The phone number he gave ebay at always just rang with no one answering it despite the time of day I called so I figured it was a con.
2 days after the call from exchangepath, the buyer finally contacts me to say his acount is also suspended and he doesn't know why. I gave him the email address of the man I had talked to at exchangepath and suggested he talk to him.
I planned on relisting the ps2 the next day but unfortunately couldn't due to the fact that I developed complications with my pregnancy and ended up in the hospital having my daughter 3 months early. She is doing fine but will need to spend the next 2 to 3 months in the hospital.
I was released from the hospital earlier this week and hadn't even really begun to consider what to do with that stupid system. Imagine my shock to find that the $100+ second deposit went into my checking account while I was in the hospital and that the other $500 is still sitting in my now reinstated exchangepath account. I contacted risk management yesterday to find out what was going on. I was promised a reply by the end of business yesterday and so far haven't heard back from them yet.
So now I am sitting here with the ps2, part of the money that I am half expecting to be pulled out of my checking any time and an active exchangepath account I doubt I will ever use again. I know at one time some from exchangepath was posting on this board and I am hoping to attract their attention and get some ehlp to get this resolved. I do not have the time nor the energy to deal with a lot at this time as my main concerns for future are going to be both my 2 children at home and my daughter in the hospital. I do need to get this resolved though.
