I bought X but received Y... NOW WHAT?
... but first some background...
I am semi-retired with a history that includes computer and network support and some time in the two-way radio industry (think: police and fire dispatch radios) and I still do some work in that field. I help out a couple of small patient transport companies (non-emergency ambulance - like taking grandpa to his dialysis treatments) and there is a local 2-way shop that I help out at...
Modern 2-way radios are configurable - you need a laptop (usually plugged into the microphone jack) and some manufacturer-specific programs to do the configuring. I use a Panasonic Toughbook for this - they are a military grade laptop computer originally designed for the Japanese military and hence are very rugged. If my laptop falls to the ground from the level of the ambulance drivers seat it bounces and ignores it.
I have been using a Toughbook model CF-30 with Windows 7 to program the radios until recently. The software from the biggest radio manufacturers have evolved to where they require Windows 10, and the CF-30 just doesn't do it...
So I need a Win10 Toughbook. I went looking and found a more modern Toughbook - a CF-31.
Now a bit more background: I've been using Toughbooks for over a decade... I own a CF-27, a CF-29. and a CF-30. I've been the local Toughbook support guy for a couple of local 2-way shops. The Toughbook CF series has a field swappable battery (for increased runtime), a DVD drive slot (which can hold the DVD drive, a floppy disk drive, or a second battery) and a field swappable hard drive (for easy field upgrades).
So I find an auction on eBay... an affordable Win10 Toughbook frame... the photos (I have screenshots) show a CF-31 with 8 gigs of RAM, no hard drive, no DVD, an internal Webcam and an HDMI connector... But the text says CF-30 with no RAM, no DVD, no hard drive, with Webcam (which is impossible on a CF-30), HDMI (also impossible).... I figure it's a typo... it's a CF-31 and the seller typed CF-30. After all, the CF-30 does not have an internal webcam or an HDMI jack and the CF-31 does.
The missing stuff is no problem... I can swap the RAM, DVD and hard drive from my CF-30 into the CF-31.
I'm hoping to resolve this but so far the seller is being non-responsive.
So I buy it... and what shows up is a CF-30 similar to the one I am currently using, with 4 gigs of RAM, no hard drive, and with a DVD. * * * WRONG ! * * *
I went looking - the seller had both a CF-30 and a CF-31 for sale and it's obvious that he put the wrong shipping label on my box.
Now here's the interesting part. I send an email to the seller through eBay. I'm in Los Angeles, they are 3 hours ahead of me in New York. I've not received a response.
I google the sellers business name and the sellers city. Google displays a sellers computer store in the correct city... and a phone number.
So I call the number. It answers on the second ring. I say "Good Morning, this is (my name) and I purchased a Toughbook through your eBay store."
The gentleman says "We DON'T have an ebay store!" with extra stress on the "don't".
He continued, "You've been hit by a ebay fraudster that cloned our business name, we can't find his place of business or his phone number, and you're the third call this morning about receiving the wrong item". I offer the street address from the package... he says "That's the one he's using, but it doesn't exist, and his business license was issued to a mailbox at a UPS store".
But the ebay page says that the seller has done over 40000 transactions and is 95% positive.
I'd like to resolve this with a CF-31 in my hands (equal to the one that was advertised) and IF the cloned business name is true the seller should be told to use a different name on his ebay store.
I don't want (or can use) the CF-30, I've had mine for over 5 years and I've added a couple of features to mine that the one I was sent doesn't have.
Suggestions / comments are welcome.
Thanks for listening.
