Ripped off on eBay, can I do anything about it 3 months later?

[thirdname]

I bought a pair of used speakers on eBay around Christmas. They were very poorly packed, sitting in used cardboard boxes with crumpled newpapers as packing material. One speaker had a broken woofer, and both had minor cosmetic damage on corners. The boxes were falling apart.

I contacted the seller. He said he would order a replacement woofer. I waited a few weeks, he said he'd been ripped off and not received it. He told me to order a replacement woofer and he would reimburse me for the cost, approximately $100. I did, it took a while to arrive, and by then the "discussion had expired" so I couldn't reply to him on eBay. I emailed him through the email address he used with Paypal and received no response.

I've called him on the phone a number of times. Got through once and he said he would pay, and didn't. Got through again, and he asked me for my Paypal email address again and said he was paying right then. Nothing. I've called him a number of times since then and received no answer.

It's been more than 3 months now, and it's apparently too late for me to initiate a dispute on eBay. It appears to be the same on Paypal. I also can't find any link to leave negative feedback at this point. Is there anything I can do at this point, or am I screwed?

[buddha_david]

You could sue the guy in small claims court, other than that you are pretty much boned.

IANAL, YMMV, etc.

[Reply]

Are you sure you can't leave negative feedback?

[IAmNotSpartacus]

Did you pay by credit card or bank transfer/paypal balance?

[Sparky812]

You need to pursue him in small claims court.
I've had a similar experience, e-Bay's response was that they merely connect buyers and sellers much like a "Classifieds" section in a newspaper.

[thirdname]

Originally Posted by IAmNotSpartacus

Did you pay by credit card or bank transfer/paypal balance?

I used Paypal. I'm not sure if it directly takes it out of my bank account, or if it uses my check card that draws on that same account. The check card has protections like a credit card, I believe. I'll have to check later when I'm on a private computer.

He lives in another state, so doesn't that make small claims court impossible? It would cost me more than $100 just to travel to his jurisdiction for one day.

ETA: when you go to report a problem on eBay, it tells you to contact the seller first to try to resolve it. But it doesn't mention that you're screwed if the seller can stall for two months.

[thirdname]

So now it appears that I'm being ripped off by another seller.

I bought an item on April 13. It didn't arrive and I didn't hear from the seller after a few days so I sent him a message (on eBay's message system) on 4/17. He replied saying he would ship it the next day and give me a tracking number. I didn't hear from him, so I sent another message on 4/21 and then a 3rd on 4/22 demaning to know where the item was. He sent an message on 4/23 saying there was a mistake on the shipping label, blah blah blah and he would ship it on 4/24 and send a tracking #. Then I heard nothing. I emailed him again on 4/26, and no reply.

So anyway, I tried to go to eBay's resolution center to open a case and report the item as not received. I don't want to let this guy run down the clock like the last guy. Ebay said I had to wait until 4/28 before I could report the item as not received. (This gives the buyer 2 weeks to ship.) So now it's 4/28, so I tried to report it, and ebay's resolution center website says:

The item is probably on its way. Please allow enough time for the seller to process and ship your item. If you still haven't received the item by May 12, 2012, please contact us. You can also try contacting the seller.

What the hell? First it gave me that same message, but saying to wait until 4/28, and now it says 5/12. Is the date just going to keep changing until it's too late? What am I supposed to do?

[thirdname]

Well, apparently I can open a dispute through Paypal, so I went ahead and did that.

[cynyc]

Meanwhile you can do a reverse look-up of his phone number on whitepages and get his address if it is a land line. Then what I don't know.