whelmed
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posted on March 21, 2002 10:52:38 PM
Hi. Here's my tale of woe. A seller had a Beck CD up for auction on eBay. According to the description and the picture posted with the CD, this was a Japanese import version of Midnite Vultures. Great, I thought, I'll make a couple bids and see what happens.
I won the auction. CD arrived and it was the *domestic* version of the CD, which I already own. (The Japanese import has one extra track on it.) I contacted the seller and made a formal complaint through PayPal. Seller agreed to refund my money. On Monday of this week he claimed that he had mailed the money to me 14 days ago. No go. I emailed him today to give him an update, and he has BLOCKED ALL EMAIL I SEND HIM!
The amount of the purchase was under $25. Am I just out of luck here? I can recoup part of my loss to this !@#$%*&, but wanted to ask here first if anyone has any other ideas.
It's just so disappointing to experience the downside of eBay. My experiences other than this jack@$$ have been overwhelmingly positive.
whelmed
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quickdraw29
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posted on March 21, 2002 11:25:35 PM
Contact safeharbor, file a fraud report, but wait a couple weeks to see if payment arrives. Keep the sellers email.
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mballai
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posted on March 22, 2002 03:48:40 AM
You could try a secondary email and/or use ask the seller a question through eBay. If he were to block eBay email he'd get booted off eBay.
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superman100
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posted on March 22, 2002 07:22:22 AM
If the seller sent it without tracking, tell Paypal that you never received it.
Paypal mosty likely will not act on "not as described", but will reverse the payment if the seller can't prove that he shipped it to you.
Also, if you used your credit card to fund the payment through Paypal, dispute the charge directly with your credit card, rather than waiting for Paypal.
Paypal usually waits until the 60 days are past for you to dispute it with your CC company before they say that the seller doesn't have any money to reverse the payment. Paypal will certainly not refund the money out of their own pocket.
[ edited by superman100 on Mar 22, 2002 07:24 AM ]
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BananaSpider
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posted on March 22, 2002 07:32:58 AM
[i]If the seller sent it without tracking, tell Paypal that you never received it.
Paypal mosty likely will not act on "not as described", but will reverse the payment if the seller can't prove that he shipped it to you.[/i]
A seller commits fraud and your advice to the buyer is to commit fraud?
I can assure you that is NOT good advice!
[ edited by BananaSpider on Mar 22, 2002 07:45 AM ]
Okay, why the heck isn't this UBB code working?
[ edited by BananaSpider on Mar 22, 2002 07:46 AM ]
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sonsie
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posted on March 22, 2002 07:39:14 AM
How is it fraud? He never did receive the payment, and has no evidence that the seller actually sent it. All he's doing is telling the truth, as far as he knows it.
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BananaSpider
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posted on March 22, 2002 07:43:06 AM
Because he is referring to the item not the payment. Telling PayPal you did not receive an item just because it was shipped without tracking, is fraud.
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stopwhining
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posted on March 22, 2002 08:38:48 AM
author has already communicated with seller that he received the item,except it is the wrong version.
so buyer will be lying if he tells paypal he did not receive the item.
telling ebay safe harbor is a waste of time.
try to sell it on ebay .
also paypal does not get involved with quality issues.
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kiara
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posted on March 22, 2002 09:01:04 AM
How many feedback does the seller have? I would report it to ebay in case he has a habit of doing this and has other reports already on file.
Also use mballai's suggestion about e-mailing him again by asking seller a question just in case your other e-mail was rejected by mistake.
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whelmed
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posted on March 22, 2002 10:37:25 AM
Thanks, everyone! I'll persist a while longer, taking some of your ideas to heart. I'm also going to try to track down his phone number and see if his parents can help me out. 
whelmed
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sulyn1950
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posted on March 22, 2002 10:47:07 AM
If you paid with PayPal, why didn't this guy just refund you back through PayPal? Why did he send it to you and run the risk of it getting "lost in the mail" unless that was his intention.
I would try the suggestion of sending an email through eBay's system. Either with the link for "ask seller a question" or "send to a friend" you can also pull contact info and give him a call.
If he did send it to you through the mail, in what form? Cash, check or money order? He can cancel the last two and then just refund you through PayPal like he probably should have done in the first place!
Only down side to PP-you get charged for receiving your own money back! 
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whelmed
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posted on March 22, 2002 11:00:03 AM
He didn't refund via PayPal (I paid via PP with my PP balance, not a credit card because that option was not available) because he had an "epiphany" that PP was a corrupt institution. I think the epiphany was more likely that he wanted to rip me off.
whelmed
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whelmed
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posted on March 24, 2002 11:24:05 AM
By the way, using "Contact the Seller" feature doesn't help either because that effectively sends an email from my email address. And he's got my email address blocked.
How do I find out the seller's alternate, non-email contact information via eBay? Anyone know?
whelmed
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twinsoft
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posted on March 24, 2002 11:47:13 AM
I recommend you file a fraud report through eBay. That will get his attention.
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stopwhining
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posted on March 24, 2002 11:50:29 AM
may i recommend you just write it off as a loss,pretend you went out to dinner and you did not like the food.
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kiara
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posted on March 24, 2002 12:00:57 PM
whelmed, you can request their contact information here:
http://cgi3.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MemberSearchShow
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mcjane
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posted on March 24, 2002 12:05:28 PM
stopwhining
I must say the simplicity of your advice makes a lot of sense and so does "Sell it on eBay"
whelmed Trying to resolve this will only frustrate you further. Consider stopwhining's suggestions.
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whelmed
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posted on March 24, 2002 08:52:54 PM
Thanks for the "helpful" "advice," stopwhining. LOL.
I'll end this thread with this comment. I don't have the world's highest feedback level. I have only 195 positives--but I have ZERO negatives. This is why this transaction has rankled me so much. Yes, the world has scum bags. Yes, some of them sell on eBay. And, yes, the way they try their hardest to ruin the experience for buyers really really pisses me off.
Bye,
whelmed
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professorhiggins
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posted on March 24, 2002 11:28:14 PM
Sorry to hear about your troubles.
Depending on whether or not you still want this CD, you could always order it yourself.
I've ordered items from Japan on several occasions and could recommend a couple of good vendors. (and NO I don't work for them).
I believe the Japanese disc has 12 tracks and the U.S. release has 11.
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outoftheblue
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posted on March 25, 2002 12:12:12 AM
I had a similar problem once. A seller sent me an item that was clearly not what he advertised for sale.
He said that he would refund if I sent the item back (at my cost). I sent the item back and eventually it came back to me unclaimed. The seller said I would have to resend it to get a refund, so after much hassle I just let the matter drop.
I ended up paying for an item I didn't want and paying for shipping twice but I got over it....
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