Think I've been had - Ebay - what to do next?

[Happytohack]

Can't believe I've been this stupid

. Bid for saddle on Ebay and won it. Seller was a new Ebayer with only 2 positive Feedback. Anyway, I paid by PayPal immediately for saddle and sent Ebayer a PM asking when saddle was to be collected by Parcel Force (as stated in listing). No reply. Next day, repeated question - no reply. Next day, repeated question - no reply.... you get my drift. Several days later, I've not heard a word and Ebayer has been active on Ebay bidding on several items and winning them with MY MONEY. Their Feedback has now gone from positive to negative. I have now discovered that the picture of the saddle they advertised was actually taken from the manufacturers' website

so I don't think I have a cat in Hell's chance of getting my saddle. What to do next?

 

[LOZHUG]

Gutted!

Contact Ebay.

 

[christian]

yeah get in touch with ebay. This happened to my sister she won an Ipod about 6 weeks ago and hasn't got it yet.

 

[moodiestmare]

If you pid by paypal you can get your money back. Unfortunately its a long process. You have to open a dispute with them.

 

[tikino]

report it to ebay andsa you have a safety net throught paypal to get your money back and good luck

 

[the watcher]

You could go to the Police, sounds like a deliberate fraud

 

[Shannagolden]

You should have the sellers address available on paypal. If so pay 'em a visit!
Try not to be too disheartend though, most Ebayers are genuine enough.

 

[dozzie]

I would contact paypal asap. Not sure what they will say but worth a shot. Paypal can reclaim the money if it is still in the account.

 

[Shannagolden]

It wasn't that brahma western saddle was it? I was tempted but decided against due to lack of feedback & the fact that they didn't seem to know what it was worth (thought it might be pinched)

 

[Horseyscot]

Don't panic, if you paid by paypal you will be ok. You need to tell paypal about this (think they call it 'open a dispute'). You give them the details of your purchase, and problems and they look into it. Same happened to me (except I bought a Christmas tree

) and I had money back in my account within 24hrs. Might not be resolved as quick as this but you will get your money back. Thats why I always pay with paypal when I buy off ebay.

Good luck

, and let us know how you get on. sx

 

[Keltic]

Open a dispute, you are covered with paypal. I had allsorts of problems with a pair of boots i bought and as soon as i got a disput going they sorted it pronto.
Good luck

 

[wizgirl]

opened disputes with paypal twice and got money back both times . you will too

 

[dozzie]

You are only covered with paypal if they have money in their account. If they have emptied their account by spending the money...you wont get it back.

That is my experience of Paypal.

 

[poiuytrewq]

Yeah you have to open a dispute but i think you have to wait for 14 days after winning the item- or after paying not sure.
I had the same sort of thing but with a less valuable item- I got my money back via paypal but yes it did take a good few weeks.

 

[xxcharlottexx]

As others have said contact both ebay and paypal.
When i was on my gap year someone mangaed to hack into my paypal account and 3 transactions totaling over £500 were taken out of my account. Paypal were very helpful and quickly sorted my money to be returned so theres deffinately hope for you!
Good luck!

 

[Happytohack]

Yes I did pay by PayPal - can't believe I have been this stupid, but really thought it was genuine saddle (not a Western one, but a Copperbeech treeless), but happened to look at the Cooperbeech website after I had paid

and saw the identical photo to the one I had been bidding on

How long should I give it before I open a dispute with PayPal?

 

[dun_in]

The seller may still be genuine but inexperienced in using the system/realising that they have to look at messages now and again. I've used manufacturers pics myself to sell things in the past ( -oops, copyright

), though if it's a used item I make this clear.

Otherwise use the dispute process as mentioned once the time limit is up.

 

[claireelizabeth]

Open the dispute now as you first have to communicate with the seller through the paypal dispute system then if there is no response you can esculate it. They give you a step by step guide on what to do when you open the dispute.

The only thing I would say is DO NOT close the dispute until you have either the saddle or your money back in your hands. My brother closed a dispute after someone said they would dispatch the item that day but it never arrived and he could not re-open the dispute and lost his money

Good Luck

 

[carys220]

I think ebay and PayPal require you to give the seller 7 days to respond, not 100% sure though and as you can prove they have been active since you paid they might take it earlier.....find a number and call ebay I say!

 

[Tinypony]

This is what you need to do immediately. Open a dispute with Paypal, then as long as they still have the money in their account the funds will be frozen. Don't worry about waiting a number of days or anything, I know from experience that Paypal will open a dispute within a week of an auction closing.
Then Paypal will notify the seller that a dispute has been opened against them and they have a chance to respond. You will be given the timescales to follow, and can close the dispute any time if it gets sorted.
If the seller can't prove they have sent the saddle with a trackable carriage method, you're going to get the refund. Paypal always find in favour of the buyer unless the seller has some really good proof to sort things out.
Your protection is through Paypal, there is some via EBay, but Paypal will be much better.

 

[*hic*]

Log on to eBay, go to community and the discussion boards and then the Q&A board and ask on there. They are a little snappy at times but will know exactly how to proceed.

 

[louise4208]

I bid for and won festival tickets on ebay, the seller contacted me, and said that I would recieve the tickets in the royal mail. To cut a long storey short, I didn't get the tickets, the seller took my money out of his paypal account then closed down his ebay account.
Paypal said they could only refund me £50, (I paid £500 for the tickets - I know, I'm such a wally

). They could only refund that amount because the seller had taken the money out of his paypal account.
Paypal would not do anythong to help the situation, neither would the police

.
Sorry, I guess this is not what you want to hear! I'll never use ebay again!

 

[Happytohack]

Paypal would not do anythong to help the situation, neither would the police .
That's terrible

I thought I would be guaranteed to get my money back as I paid through PayPal. Why wouldn't the police do anything as basically the guy stole your money? I'm getting worried now

 

[Happytohack]

Thanks Jemima_too - will go and have a look.

 

[vanessadud]

I think you have to wait 14 days after your item was won then you can open a dispute in the mean time you can request there telephone no. and try ringing them best of luck

 

[louise4208]

Paypal said that in their terms and conditions - if the seller leaves them money in their account, it will be refunded. however, if they take the money out of their account, Paypal can only refund a max of £50.
The police said if this was their terms and conditions, there is nothing they can do! So basically, hell mend me! It's so infuriating when the people who are meant to help you in these situations, ie. the police or paypal, do nothing!
This was 3 years ago, I haven't used it since. I now want to sell a Barnsby saddle on ebay, but I could never ever rip someone off like that.

 

[mintaka04]

[ QUOTE ]
I bid for and won festival tickets on ebay, the seller contacted me, and said that I would recieve the tickets in the royal mail. To cut a long storey short, I didn't get the tickets, the seller took my money out of his paypal account then closed down his ebay account.
Paypal said they could only refund me £50, (I paid £500 for the tickets - I know, I'm such a wally

). They could only refund that amount because the seller had taken the money out of his paypal account.
Paypal would not do anythong to help the situation, neither would the police

.
Sorry, I guess this is not what you want to hear! I'll never use ebay again!

[/ QUOTE ]

Ooo-er, this is worrying.
I didn't know this about e-bay/paypal.
I haven't had a real problem in three years of use, but will say that I am wary of new e-bayers, particularly those selling high-value items.
I know this doesn't help OP much, but I hope you get your money back. I would have thought that you would get your money back, but as has been shown here, that may not be the case.

I guess the moral of the story is always check the sellers feedback and don't buy high value items from new e-bayers.

 

[Tinypony]

[ QUOTE ]
I think you have to wait 14 days after your item was won then you can open a dispute

[/ QUOTE ]
No - you don't. As an EBay seller I have had a dispute opened against me 3 days after the item was paid for. Basically, don't hang around trying to find out what to do, the longer you leave it to open the dispute the more likely it is that the seller will withdraw their funds and close their Paypal account. Just log in to Paypal and follow the instructions.

 

[Syrah]

Step by Step PayPal if anyone has any problems with Ebay.

Firstly, there are TWO levels of protection. Either £150 or £500. It will state clearly on each auction which level of protection is available in the box on the right hand side of the auction page.

If you have any problems with either not receiving an item (INR) or the quality of the goods not being as described (SNAD), you open a dispute with PayPal.

Ebay DO NOT offer any protection anymore. They used to, but when they brought in the two levels of protection last year, they scrapped the Ebay protection.

You can open a dispute with PayPal immediately after paying. You don't have to wait any length of time. Open it via your PayPal account. If you open it via Ebay, it will tell you to wait 10 days, you can bypass this.

Once the dispute is open, any funds that are in the sellers account are immediately frozen. So in the case of the saddle, it's advisable to open a dispute immediately as it becomes apparent that the seller is a scammer.

You then have 20 days to escalate the dispute to a claim. You MUST do this within the time limit otherwise your claim will be automatically closed and you will lose.

For an INR, the seller has to provide online trackable proof of delivery.

If they don't, you will win.

If the funds were not available in the sellers account, you will be automatically given a refund up to the value of protection offered, either £150 or £500.

Any amount owing to you over the guaranteed refund amount, will remain owing to you and PayPal will try and recover the funds.

HOWEVER - IMPORTANT - there has been a recent glitch with PayPals software where claims have been processed incorrectly and buyers haven't been receiving the refunds they should. You must challenge PayPal over this. Phone them or go to the Ebay Community boards, the Postage and Payment board. There is a pinned thread at the top of the board. Post the details of your claim on there and one of the Ebay Pinks (James) will challenge the incorrect claim for you.

If anyone ever has any problem with PayPal, please feel free to pm me. I can quite often be found on the Ebay Community boards, either Q&A or the Payments board.

 

[Syrah]

A couple of things I forgot to mention.

You have 45 days from the date of the transaction to open a dispute.

If the level of protection is less than the amount you paid and PayPal were not able to recover all of your funds, contact your credit card company if you use one with your PayPal account.

Credit card companies may do a chargeback on your behalf for the outstanding amount.

Some Debit card companies will also do this so it's worth contacting them.