I have been an Ebay user since 2005 and recently I lost $630 through it.
I purchased 2 items from the same Seller in February 2014 and have not received them until now which is May 2014. The type of scam i felt victim of was new to me at that time, obviously.
The seller at the time of the transaction had only excellent feedback from approximately 70 ebayers. The items were highly specialized pieces of technical equipment, not something commonly used and desirable, so chances of meeting a scam artist are usually much lower, but not impossible.
I have not liked the Seller from the get go. He was uncooperative and stubborn. I purchased 2 items from him and asked to combine them in the same box to reduce shipping costs. This is normal practice on Ebay, yet he refused. I felt it was very unprofessional, so I delayed payment until we figure our discrepancy on shipping. He immediately felt a complaint with Ebay, I was also able to explain my position to Ebay Rep by phone. I explained that Seller does not agree to any common Ebay practise and would not allow either combined shipping or a pick up from his location which was suspicious. Ebay was very formal, did not listen to me reasons and took Seller's side, threatening to suspend my account for non payment. I had no choice, but to pay which I did. Seller immediately provided a longer delivery date (about 2 weeks if I remember correctly) which is quite long for a domestic US delivery. Yet to my surprise, when 1 week later I checked the transactions online, the delivery date was postponed further into the future. 1 week later it was postponed yet again and so on and so forth. When I realized something funny is going on it was too late. My call to Ebay met no sympathy, they said I waited too long and they have 30 days complaint policy. Paypal had a longer 45 days policy, but it was also over their limit by the time of my call. They (Ebay and Paypal) got out on technicality, but that technicality was created by the fraudulent Seller. The funny part is that the mentioned technicality is not in their favor. Ebay Rep confirmed to me that they count those 30 and 45 days from the delivery date, and since that date was moved few times and not passed even when I write this comment, they should be liable even by their own standards. But good luck in proving that to Ebay…
Ebay understood very well the Seller was fraudulent and has suspended the Seller for the fraud, yet they refused to compensate me, the victim. I think Ebay totally took advantage of me, understanding that I will not go to court. The amount is too small and I am too small against them, too...
My advice to whoever reads this post is to be very cautious and not deal with Ebay Seller or Buyer when your gut feeling tells you so. Also, when buying through Ebay:
- don't consider that Seller's positive feedback will stop him from running with your money
- read Ebay's fine print on their policies
- report all problems to Ebay customer support early
- AND MOST IMPORTANT: Do not trade in excess of the amount you are comfortable to lose completely. DO NOT HOPE THAT EBAY WILL PROTECT YOU AND COVER YOU FOR LOSSES! Remember that Ebay will find any technicality on which they can get out of any responsibilities even if their actions are barely legal according to their own policies.
