Crooked ebay sellers

The BBQ Pit
1

I’m only out $20, so it’s really the principle more than the money.

I win an auction (for a video).
Seller sends address.
I send payment (USPS money order).
Three weeks later, no video.
I email seller.
One week later, no response, and still no video.
I email seller again.
One week later, still no response, and still no video.

I resign that I’m not going to get it, and that I’ve lost that money.

I look at ebay, and guess what–the video is for sale again.
However, this seller uses exactly the same words and punctuation, down to the periods.
This other seller is also from the same state.

Guess what else? This seller has the same videos (other that the one I was interested in) that my seller had listed when I placed my bid (when I it, I looked to see what else the seller had).

This other seller (not the one I used) has a number of complaints from people that he sells copies (i.e., bootleg) of videos, as opposed to the originals–and doesn’t indicate them.

I have bought a bunch of stuff from ebay, and this is the first time I’ve been nailed by a crook.

As always, “caveat emptor.”

2

Mj:

Can’t you do something to get your money back? The post office always gives you a carbon of your money order - you’d think there would be a reason behind that.

Also, you can leave bad feedback for the seller.

Just a couple of ideas.

Most common question I ask: “What?”
Most common question I get: “Are you really hearing impaired?”

3

I’ve gotten nailed, big time. When I got my DVD player, I noticed my larger TV did not have RCA or S-Video input, so I wanted to get another.

I checked ebay, and someone had a 27" for sale with everything I needed. I won the auction, and agreed to pay the cost (something like $280) plus UPS costs.

The guy doesn’t ship for like 2 weeks, and when he finally does, I get the TV and it doesn’t work. The S-Video input works, as do the RCA jacks, but it won’t receive anything over the antenna or cable. I fuss with it, try every configuration I can, try it at three different cable jacks in my house, nothing.

I e-mail the guy, and he phones me, and we try getting it to work. Of course, " . . . it worked fine here." Well, it quickly becomes apparent that it doesn’t work. So, he agrees to send me back my money plus the cost of shipping it back to him.

I send it back, it costs me like $40 via UPS. A week later, I get a money order for $150. I e-mail the guy and ask, “What the fuck? I pay you $280 for this thing plus shipping, and when it doesn’t work, you try and stiff me? I want my money.”

He e-mails me back with this big sob story of, oh, I had to pay the transaction percentage to ebay plus all the materials and shipping when I sent it to you, which was more than the estimated shipping I charged you, and blah blah blah. I replied, “Hey, too bad, don’t sell broken TVs to people.” (He also claimed that when he got it back it worked fine.) I never saw another cent from the guy.

4

I’m of the opinion that the two sellers were actually the same person.

The “name” that I purchased from is no longer an active ebay seller, so it’s a little late for negative feedback.

And all of his previous items now show up under a different name, and there is no “official” tie to show that they are the same, so I can’t leave negative feedback with a seller that I can’t prove is hopscotching around–it’s all circumstantial.

The last time I checked, it cost $2.50 for the post office to trace a money order. I don’t want to spend any more money on something that I have no guarantee that I’ll see.

5

Man, that stuff sucks…how were the feedback ratings of those sellers? Be sure to leave bad feedback for them so others don’t get screwed…
I’ve been lucky (so far)…

Some mornings it just doesn’t seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps.
Emo Philips (stolen from matt’s webpage)

6

You may want to contact eBay directly. If it is obvious to you, me and others here eBay will likely find it pretty obvious too. I am pretty sure that they take fraud very seriously.

What more could you expect from somebody who lets people kick him to the head?

7

Well, ebay DOES offer an escrow service right on their site… You can also (since I assume you sent the money to an address and had a name to put on the MO) check local directories and make a few phone calls. Shouldn’t be too hard to track him down, unless you sent funds to a PO Box…

Nort suggesting you fly out there to exact any kind of revenge, but you CAN make a few phone calls to him. Harder to dismiss than e-mail…

If all else fails, I have some friends in Brooklyn…

Yer pal,
Satan

8

Don’t bother trying to recover a postal money order. I recently attempted to do so and learned that my idea that postal money orders were very similar to bank money orders was extremely naive. The post office told me that they can not put a stop on a money order like a bank does. He told me the only way I could get my money back would be to recover the original postal money order myself, and then bring in the original for a refund. I asked, “What is the $%^&%^ point of a money order if I have to recover the document in order to get a refund?” He had no answer. Frankly, I don’t see why one should bother with a postal money order as it seems to offer no more protection than sending cash.

“I think it would be a great idea” Mohandas Ghandi’s answer when asked what he thought of Western civilization

9

This is worse than I thought:

This seller has used TWO previous aliases–that is inferential, of course.

Withing two minutes on a certain date, all three had posted positive feedback for one another.

All three have track records of selling bootleg tapes.

The earlier two are now no longer registered.

So, my guess is that the seller a) creates aliases to post feedback to keep a higher rating, or b) once too many bad feedbacks come in, he (she) moves on to another name.

10

If you find out who it is my rates are:

$0.50 per punch
$2 per kick (jump kicks extra +$0.25 each)

  • travelling costs

I think you’ll find those prices hard to beat .

What more could you expect from somebody who lets people kick him to the head?

11

Forgot my smiley face to indicate the preceeding has been intended in the spirit of humour. :wink:

12

Other E-bay options:

Escrow service (already mentioned)

seller can send an item C.O.D., which protects both of you (especially you)

Some mornings it just doesn’t seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps.
Emo Philips (stolen from matt’s webpage)

13

Selling a bootleg movie is a federal crime. Let the FBI know about this person. When you see this person post the same ad under a new name tell Ebay. They don’t support fraud, and will close the advertisment down. Dog the bastard.

14

I have complained to eBay about selling of CDRs, promos and bootlegs,
Safewatch(their agent) finally told me they won’t take action unless I am involved in the sale.

Ebay told me they do not monitor auctions unless asked and due to the stack of complaints it is about a week to ten days for a response.

I can send you email after email wher eBay says “We don’t support the selling of this unfortunately the auction is now closed.”

Fortunately I have never gotten taken too bad. The worst is a 4.00 book I bought in July that the seller still is emailing me “it’s on its way.”

Ebay truly doesn’t seem to care. So it is definately Buyer Beware.

15

I’ve bought a few things over Ebay, including an antique book, with no problem at all. I think more important than the seller feedback is how long the person has been selling; ie their history. If they have like 200 positives, and barely and negatives over the course of 6 months, that’s a pretty safe bet.

A man, a plan, a canal: GatewayDrug

16

Yeah, after I reported it thru SafeWatch, I got a response back that basically told me to “try to contact the seller–and if that doesn’t work, file charges. . . .”

In other words, “We have this complaint service (SafeHarbor), but it’s just for show. If you actually want any action, you’ll need to do it yourself.”

17

ebay has fraud insurance…Or I thought I saw a link to it.

Feedbacks are too easy to forge.

Also, you can contact the police in the city the person lives & ask them what to do. I did that once, but they call them troopers there and they wouldnt do anything unless it was more than $250.00, sucks.

18

This is why it is essential to check the seller’s feedback rating before doing business. If they have lots of positives and few or no negatives, chances are they’re legit. If they have lots of negatives, stay away.

19

Even if you can somehow forge positive feedback, I don’t think there is any way to remove negative feedback. And don’t just go by the numbers: actually read some of it. If it complains of fraud, stay away.

20

i bidded on a rare video and the stakes got pretty high, and i won. two things pissed me off.

  1. i sent a money order so they wouldn’t have to wait for a personal check to clear before sending my video. they waited anyway.

  2. i got a vhs copy, not the original. and on poor quality tape.

the latter would be a federal offense. not to mention they let me continue to bid high when they could make lots of copies.

should i turn them into someone, and who, because of the pirating issue.