e bay rip off?

[The Flying Mouse]

Hi folks.
Wanted to ask if anyone else has had any problems like this?

On Tuesday, Jo bought an item in her account from a seller who seemed to have a lot of items for sale, and although he had around 50 negative feedbacks, he had about 9000 positive, so odds should be good, right?

Yesterday we sent a postal order off to cover the item (the address BTW was a PO Box)

I've noticed today that the seller is no longer registered with e bay, and all the items he had for sale are no longer available.

I'm having a rather disquietning feeling about this


Looks like a rip off artist who's done a bunk with the cash.


What I want to know is there any way that a seller can realistically give himself thousands of positive feedback scores, then wait for a sucker to buy one of his goods before closing down and moving on?


Has anyone else had this kind of thing happen to them?
If so, what did you do about it and did it work?

It's only about £11.50, but it's the principal of the thing, and I wouldn't like to see him rip anyone else off

Cheers

[djfierce]

i guess if they had two accounts (which is worryingly easy in ebay) they could list stuff and then buy it and leave feedback but i would imagine they would pay alot of sellers charges for nothing, as to what you could do about it, as it wasnt a paypal payment i dont think you have alot of protection, you could try reporting the person but as they closed their account i doubt there is much ebay will do, we got screwed with ebay sellers selling tix for what was eventually the cancelled tour last fall, and even though we paid thru paypal we never got anywhere complaint wise,as we bought the tix more than x amount of days before reporting it, it fell upon the honesty of the sellers i'm afraid to which none of them were, they bagged the money we paid them and also the refund they got.

in the words of my childhood hero 'calamero'
"IT'S AN INJUSTICE, IT IS "
(works better with the accent lol)

good luck though hun, sorry i couldnt really help

[The Flying Mouse]

From looking around the e bay website, it looks like e bay do not have much interest in seeing to fraudulent practices on their website

You cannot even open a unreceived item report for 10 days (by which time any trail there is would have gone long cold).

The seller could have a duplicate account, but the feedback left was from many many accounts.

I can't see someone being able to create THAT many accounts on e bay , but you never know.

Sees an awful lot of trouble to go to to rip off £11.50
And as you said hun, the sellers charges would cost a mint.

[wolfy35]

Somewhere on ebay it does say not to send money to a PO box but as usual on there its somewhere you can only get to after you file a non delivery report.

You can cancel the postal order if you have the receipt for it and it has not already been cashed. If it has been cashed you can report it to the police as fraud because this person has used deception or a fraudulent act in order to get your money.

You can set up a paypal account easily and if you do this you do get automatic insurance against non delivery and dodgy sellers.

[snowy]

Yes there is a way you can increase your feedback status on Ebay. If you look through the Watchdogsection on the BBC website, they did an article on fraudulent activities on the internet & Ebay in particular and it was mentioned there.
Though the bad news is that there is little you can do and yes Ebay don't seem to care or be doing much about it!

[AndrewG]

I only ever buy stuff on eBay if I can pay via PayPal or cash with local pickup. PayPal will usually get your money back if something goes wrong. Happened to me 3 times or so and got fully refunded. Look at the level of cover PayPal offer for the seller; £150 or £500 and if it covers the thing you are buying.

[allrevvedup]

Ok since i work for PayPal i thought i'd stick my two cents in...don't kill me for it but here goes.

I think ebay is having a hard time cracking down on fraudulent sellers, however what i will say is there a lot of people who go in blindly (no offence meant Neil, cause i'm not referring to your situation) and see a pair of ugg boots, ghd straighteners or even one scam that had plasma tv's being sold for $100 and just throw the cash at it and don't bother to check out who they are buying from.

Neil in your case, i'm sorry...it happened to me years ago , i was buying an autograph, stupidly sent by postal order but found i got done and the phone number was listed as a private number...somewhere in wales.

basically folks, if it looks too good to be true it usually is. Tickets are the worst, do not buy them if the seller does not have them in hand cause we will ask a ton of questions about them.

there's just things paypal can't cover and people expect paypal to cover everything, when it's just not possible...best bet is make sure if you are buying on ebay that you are protected through buying with paypal.

check the feedback, including negative cause that can tell you more then the positive.

if it looks too good to be true, contact the seller and also ebay (only by email as far as i know)

don't blame paypal if your ebay coupons don't work and if they don't check your ebay id is registered with paypal. (we get about half a dozen calls each on this a day and it's a pet peev of mine)

oh yeah and don't pay for downloads through paypal, another thing we can't cover cause how do you prove their is something wrong with it?

oh yeah and one last thing, please don't scream and swear at us much maligned customer service agents down the phone...believe it or not we do want to help you sort things out

[allrevvedup]

Originally Posted by AndrewG

I only ever buy stuff on eBay if I can pay via PayPal or cash with local pickup. PayPal will usually get your money back if something goes wrong. Happened to me 3 times or so and got fully refunded. Look at the level of cover PayPal offer for the seller; £150 or £500 and if it covers the thing you are buying.

and if you're a seller don't ask someone to pick an item up...if you can send it recorded delivery instead or we can't cover the seller,

[Pudding]

Originally Posted by wolfy35

Somewhere on ebay it does say not to send money to a PO box

I thought that would just be common sense I think you can put this down to a lesson learnt costing £11.50

Pud

[The Flying Mouse]

Originally Posted by Pudding

I thought that would just be common sense I think you can put this down to a lesson learnt costing £11.50

Pud

Actually, Pudding, i've had a few transactions myself where payment has gone to a PO Box, the item was posted the day payment arrived, and i've received the item 3 days after the auction finished.

Just because someone likes to keep their private home address private, doesn't have to mean they're up to no good.

[Pudding]

Originally Posted by The Flying Mouse

Just because someone likes to keep their private home address private, doesn't have to mean they're up to no good.

Of course not, that's why Jo's been ripped off £11.50 Personally if they don't do Paypal then I'm not interested.

Pud

[djfierce]

i have to admit, i'm the same, i know they pay a charge but it's up to them, they have to accept they will attract less buyers if they dont.

[The Flying Mouse]

Change the name of the thread

Arrived this morning.
Two brand new radio mics .
Last one I bought was £250, Jo has got TWO for £0.99
Dare say the quality won't be as good , but i'm sure they are going to be useful for something (even if it's to let the punters use).


This thread should be called e bay bargain now

[Monstro]

Originally Posted by The Flying Mouse

Change the name of the thread

Arrived this morning.
Two brand new radio mics .
Last one I bought was £250, Jo has got TWO for £0.99
Dare say the quality won't be as good , but i'm sure they are going to be useful for something (even if it's to let the punters use).


This thread should be called e bay bargain now

Or you could use the "what we've bought off ebay thread"?????

[The Flying Mouse]

Not exactly what the thread was about Michael

[Pudding]

I thought the thread was about being ripped off on Ebay NOT getting a bargain. However, you're a mod and you can make up your own rules as you go along.

Pud

[24K]

Not being funny but i would never in a million years pay for something via a postal order sending it to a P.O Box.
I am not interested if they do not do paypal, it is the safest way, you are covered and i have found them to be excellent.

[The Flying Mouse]

Originally Posted by Pudding

I thought the thread was about being ripped off on Ebay NOT getting a bargain. However, you're a mod and you can make up your own rules as you go along.

Pud

Well, it saved making a new thread that something I thought was a rip off wasn't a rip off after all

Still, nice of you to give your permission

[Pudding]

I wasn't giving my permission, just pointing out a double-standards. Lesser threads would have had one of these ---> puppies thrown on it already

Pud

[The Flying Mouse]

Yeah, yeah, OK Pud

Just to go over this thread again for the slower members of the class

The thread was about a possible rip off that happened on e bay.

Then I posted what we call in the grown up world a "up date"
That means new information Pud

Just because the update was positive, and that all turned out well in the end, doesn't mean that the post is off topic, as it's all to do with the same item

Hope that made things clear enough there.

I can always try again with crayon diagrams if you wish

[duke knooby]

Originally Posted by The Flying Mouse

Then I posted what we call in the grown up world a "up date"
That means new information Pud

Just because the update was positive, and that all turned out well in the end, doesn't mean that the post is off topic, as it's all to do with the same item

Hope that made things clear enough there.

I can always try again with crayon diagrams if you wish

was that really necessary or helpful??... leave the sarcasm to me

[The Flying Mouse]

Who's being sarcastic?


I'm just trying to explain in really really small words that a thread about an item does not go off topic because you post an update about the same item where all turns out well.

I'm even typing slowly in case that helps

[Battybarb]

Amanda has been on ebay for ages and she always looks to see how long the people have had an account with ebay as well as feed back,

[Pudding]

Originally Posted by The Flying Mouse

I'm just trying to explain in really really small words

I don't think we'd expect any big ones?

Pud

[melon]

Originally Posted by 24K

Not being funny but i would never in a million years pay for something via a postal order sending it to a P.O Box.
I am not interested if they do not do paypal, it is the safest way, you are covered and i have found them to be excellent.

I tend to stick to paypal too, unless its something I am desperate for, like I got ripped off for some beer glasses, and because it was through paypal they refunded me the full amount.