Options for getting a refund from a fraudulent seller

Question

I won a bid and paid immediately. Shortly thereafter the seller initiated a cancellation because they didn't have the item listed for sale, and didn't refund my payment. This is the seller's first and only sale, so I believe it's a fraudulent transaction. I got one reply back to my many attempts at asking about a refund, which just said I will refund. Nothing since. How do I get help from ebay?

woodland_gnome · Answer

eBay will not actually cancel the transaction until funding for a refund is in place (cancelling for "out of stock" etc.--the one reason eBay lets seller choose from a list of reasons that does not blame the buyer--does not result in full refund of the seller's eBay fees so even if eBay had a hold on delivering the remaining funds to the seller there may not be enough for eBay to refund from that so they bill the seller's funding source for the difference, and are likely waiting to see if that goes through). Did you receive the message about cancellation from the seller or from eBay. If the latter, what exactly did it say about the cancellation and the refund?

If you don't get full refund (or a package from the seller containing the item as described--if it is missing or damaged or otherwise not as described come back for more advice) by the time the estimated delivery date you were given when you paid has fully passed, go to your Purchase History for that item, click the link for more options and select that you haven't received the item, then follow instructions from there. If you haven't gotten the item as described or a full refund after 3 days (but before 21 days) from doing so go back and you should find a link to "Ask eBay to step in" to get your refund. At that point eBay is contractually obligated to you to cover an item not received (or significantly not as described) so eBay will cover the refund regardless of what they can or can't recover from the seller.