Fraudulent seller

[ke-67181]

For expediency, I purchased an item via the Guest Checkout service.

The seller contacted me a few days after the purchase via ebay email to inform me they did not have the item (ahem) and inquired whether I might identify a suitable replacement.  I did, and sent a response within 20 minutes.

I waited 10 days for an update, either some form of further communication or the arrival of the item.  Nothing.  I then inquired as to the status.

Again, no reply.  Some days later - quite some time unfortunately because of work-related travel - I remembered and inquired, again.  As before, nothing.

I have attempted to report this fraudulent behavior but it has been difficult because at some point I am faced with a screen that asks me to 'register' for an Ebay account.  When I enter my email, ebay tells me I already have an account.  I sign in, but then I cannot view the 'Guest' order, which makes sense, but there is no way to associate it with my account.  If I sign out, I circle back to the 'register' phase.  I'm stuck in this limbo and unable to properly report this.

It appears I will lose this money.  Ebay has made it exquisitely difficult to get any human intervention in this matter and seems content with making this purely between the seller and myself.  I don't use ebay often because of trust issues; this is simply validating my stance.  I made an exception here - as I have on occasion - but if this is not resolved in my favor, it does mean that I have basically a 10% failure rate with Ebay based on my experience.  That's not good.

So this is my last ditch effort.  Any help would be appreciated, but at this point I do not expect any.  Ebay's solution to these issues appears to be to bury its head in the sand and, as if confirming Ebay's desire to avoid any responsibility, expects buyers to 'ask the community.'  So here I am. 

I look forward to the community's ability to get my money back from the seller and/or reconfigure Ebay's system to merge 'guest' accounts with verified user accounts.  I'm not optimistic.

[disneyshopper]

Purchases made as a guest are separate from purchases made as a registered member. You will need to sign in with the email address you used as a guest along with the PASSCODE that ebay sent to you in an email. Then you can file an Item Not Received case to get your money back.

[ke-67181]

Yep.  That didn't help.

I got the 'passcode,' which was basically part of the process of resetting my password, which is not really something I needed to do, but, hey, I'm used to Ebay's circular website flow at this point.  All went well and then.... "We can't find this transaction."  It cannot find that transaction because the transaction is associated with a 'guest' account even though the email address used is associated with a 'registered' user account. When I 'got the passcode' it was for my registered user account not the 'guest' one. (It so happens that the 'guest' and the 'registered' user are one and the same.)

At heart, this is a website flow issue.  Either the site needs to be able to merge these two accounts or otherwise recognize that they are the same person OR not allow me to check out as a guest in the first place.

Of course, had the seller acted properly and either sent me the item or refunded the item when it could not honor the sale this would also not be an issue.  It is clear the seller is not honorable.  The fact that Ebay steps out of this issue - has decided to sit on the sidelines -  is negligent.

[house*of*paws]

Hi @ke-67181 

If you still are within 30 days of the estimated delivery date you were given when you purchased the book … you can file an ‘Item not received’ dispute from the link in the confirmation email you received from eBay following the purchase.  It will be in your personal email account.

If you’ve already passed the 30 days … then apply for the refund from PayPal or your credit card company.

[ke-67181]

Thanks for the tip.  I've messaged - again  - the seller to see if the business wants to make this right.  Unless there is some resolution to this in the next 48 hours, I'll do just that.  I don't like to do it, but at this point I have no qualms about reporting whomever is listed as the 'seller' on my credit card - be it Ebay or the actual seller - as having acted fraudulently.

It goes without saying that I'll never use Ebay again.  In my experience, you can't use it even 10 times without getting hosed.