ebay paypal warning

[damian]

Hi all,

Many of you will already know this but for those who don't:

There is a 45 day time limit on opening a dispute on ebay or paypal. If you don't open it by then your on your own and they won't give you a refund or any help.

I bought a leatherman and paid 30 June. Never arrived. I asked politely for the seller to chase up the post office. They stalled past the deadline now I've got no knife and no money and there is nothing I can do. I can't even leave negative feedback.

Sometimes being patient and polite doesn't pay.

[Batpig]

Dear Damian,

Thanks for the warning; very timely in my case. For what it's worth, that truly stinks, and you definitely deserve better. Pity that sort of thing doesn't just happen to other guys just like themselves; sort-of a "closed-shop" thing - like one Pawn shop screwin' over another... Anyway, let's hope the very same knife has somehow found it's way into the Seller's underbelly in the meantime...
(Ahh, if only the world worked that way...)

Just out of interest, what was the guy's reputation like, and how many trades did he have up his sleeve?

Best Wishes,
Batpig.

[Rum Pig]

Thanks for the info I did not know that.

With the feedback do not give feedback until you have received the goods and tested them, no matter how much the supplier asks and if hassle you too much say that you will leave feedback but because you have not tested the product it will be a negative feedback and they normally shut up then.

[TermiMonster]

A similar thing happened to me a couple of years ago. And to rub salt into the wound, paypal just don't seem to answer their 1800 number. I probably tried 20-30 times to get through and not once did they answer. Now I just use bank transfer or, preferably, cash on pick up.
But that doen't suit everyone.
cheers
TM

[TP1]

Thanks for posting this. I have no doubt some unscrupulous vendors know the time limits very well and stall customers until it is too late to get a refund.

I have been burnt like this myself and will now always open up a dispute where there is a problem and explain to the vendor that I need to do this to protect myself under the Paypal rules.

[munruben]

Thanks for the warning damian, sorry to hear your experience.

[Scribbly Gum]

Even if you lodge a dispute on time with Ebay over a matter, you may still miss out.
This particularly applies to buyers who have paid for but not received goods. If paid by paypal your dispute is "investigated" by Ebay to the point of asking the vendor to please explain. The vendor can lie about sending or can simply ignore the ebay request.
Even if Ebay finds in your favour, its only recourse is to make a payment claim on the vendor's paypal account.
If there is little or no money in it or the linked bank account, you will receive the joyful news that Ebay has found in your favour and settled the dispute with a deposit to your paypal account (of what little they could garnish). My own experience of a $200 account - paid by me but goods never mailed by the vendor - was to the tune of $0.37.
That is - thirty seven cents.
Clearly in this case the vendor re-negged on the mailing then all but cleaned out his own accounts to forestall a Paypal claim.
As far as Ebay and its bank - Paypal were concerned - the matter was settled.
Caveat Emptor - Let the Buyer Beware
SG

[damian]

You have to keep this in perspective. I've been on ebay for 10 years and had many wonderful transactions. I've saved a LOT of money buying online. Thing is the polulation there is like the population everywhere, there are a % of a*h*'s.

I made the warning because this is a clever loophole in the ebay system and this person exploited it well.

I paid for a GPS a week out from our NZ trip, garmin with nz maps and I'd hoped to use it on the trip. Something must have happened to the vendor just after I paid because previously good feedback went all red at once, no one was getting thier items. Maybe they were selling stolen goods and got busted. Anyway I got a refund through paypal, eventually.

The seller is jen-jen134:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....m=150458010551

This is the item. As you will see they have plenty of positive feedback but that is no garantee. Scammers have found a way to circumvent the feedback system getting 100's of positives in no time. Also the best way to hide a scam is within legitimate transactions. Maybe they only do this to international buys. You will see in many of there auctions a note to wait 30 days for international postage. That takes care of 30 of the 45 days right there, then requests for a few more days and holding out promises of refund will get the rest.

You can leave feedback beyond 60 days by accessing the item and using the feedback link off that, but I missed that deadline aswell.

As I say doesn't always pay to be patient You just have to undestand the rules and cover yourself.

[KevM]

Damien,
You may very well find that you have access to leave feedback. Go to My eBay, them scroll down to the Shortcuts panel on the left hand side click on the "Leave feedback" option.

Is your item still visible on this new screen?

[damian]

No. It was early last week but I was still hoping the seller would cooperate with me. I think that one disapears after about 60 days but you can access the feedback tab for about another 30 days by going to the item number and clicking leave feedback from there. Unfortunately I waited too long

Just remember ebay are not your friends. Don't expect them to help you, be careful in your dealings and mostly things will turn out well.

[Sprog]

Check with your credit card company, you may still have options through them.

[s8ns_Angel]

Hi,
I Recently bought 2 mobile phones off of ebay, however the item was taken off of ebay so i started a dispute with paypal. This seller had 99.9% positive feedback, with over 2000 sales up its sleeve. Paypal started the dispute and the seller gave paypal a Tracking Number... The Item arrived in a parcel not even big enough for one phone let alone 2. Inside was an american silver coin.
So i changed my dispute to "Item recieved not as described" Paypal then asks for evidence of this claim. So the only evidence i had was the parcel, so i took photo's oof the parcel, wrote down the sizes, took photo's of the tracking id and the coin. However they wanted more evidence .. which i didn't have. So the seller won the case, got my money, wasted my time, and never recieved any feedback on ebay. So this seller could be under another Ebay ID, ripping off more and more people in this way. PayPal is not as safe as it claims to be,

Be Aware Of The Asshats