Been done on EBAY

[steelroe]

Won an auction for Parrot bluetooth 3 weeks ago on ebay. Paid immedialely via paypal and no sign of the item yes. Have tried to contact seller several times to no avail.

How do I proceed now, never had this problem before so dont know how to claim (if that is even possible)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0297365953

[ikeane]

Going from what I hear, paypal are very customer orientated. ie I'd contact paypal immediately and they'll look after you. From what I've read on various threads they'll often refund the money to the customer pretty much without question (something that Ifound hard to believe but there's been a few cases around). Keep us posted.

[CJ]

Rory, if you've made every effort to contact the seller to no avail then open a dispute, more info here:

http://pages.ebay.com/paypal/buyer/protection.html

CJ

[steelroe]

Cheers for the replies guys. Not received any replies despite several attempts. Openend dispute on ebay an paypal.
Lets see what happens

[mcgon1979]

paypal heavily favour the buyer... You should have no problems at all getting a refund. You have 45 days from time of purchase to open the paypal dispute. (which you have done, so its all grand)

[fatboyfat7]

See what the seller says:

'Relisted due to time wasters'

and

'PLEASE NOTE YOU BID TO BUY,
SORRY TO BE BLUNT BUT I AM SICK OF PEOPLE NOT COMPLETING SALES, THANX'

ironic...

[steelroe]

Finally got a reply after lots of trying. Seller came back to say "he was sorry but he was in hospital for 2 weeks".
I took this as being true and hoped all was well.
He then said he would forward the item once payment was made. I promptly reminded him payment was made over 3 weeks ago. His reply was that the payment was now locked in his paypal account and he would send the item once I withdrew the dispute.
My reply was that once I received the item I would retract the dispute and also change the negative feedback.
Call me paranoid here but it was amazing at how quick he replied once the dispute was opened. Within minutes, and I have sent several emails over the last few days to no avail.

[gary d]

Not beyond the relams of possibility, but sounds fishy to me!
I reckon you should stick to your guns, don't withdraw the dispute till you receive your item. If he dosen't deliver you should get your dough back anyway, as you have fulfilled your part of the contract by making an instant payment at the time of winning the auction. IMO

[mcgon1979]

your dead right Rory. Don't withdraw disputed till its resolved. i.e. what your bought is in hand and your satisfied.
Not to be cynical, but I seen worse scams than that (pretending to be sick to get someone to withdraw a dispute)

[Muad_dib77]

hey... dont withdraw your paypal dispute...

ever... and if you dont get your money you can claim through your credit card company...

[steelroe]

Latest update.

I refused to withdraw the dispute until unit is in my have and working. And in all fairness the seller has agreed. It was posted yesterday so all going good I should have it tuesday. So this will turn out good after all me hopes.

[colm_mcm]

Good idea to make sure it's working, we've had a lot of issues with the CK3100 LCD models.

[Kace]

So he hadn't even posted the thing to you before all this happened ?? ! Sounds like he was trying it on alright.

[mcgon1979]

getting done myself lads... bought a phone for 350euro.. its going on 10 days and the dude has not posted it yet he has it in stock in UK apparently... says he needs paypal to clear. yeah right.... totally lame.
will open dispute on monday. sellers can no longer leave buyers negative feedback, so i will be leaving him neg i think

[Sebastian]

I'm in the same boat here.

bought a charger on the 20 of march .. uk seller.

5 weeks from then and still no sign of the item.
pm'd the seller last week and got the following reply just the other day '' It will be with you soon. Regards''

WTF ?? it's not like he's on the moon and sending a size of a house parcel

[mcgon1979]

Whats happening here lads is whats called "drop shipping"... The sellers in UK don't actaully have the item in stock (even though they say they have). When you buy their item, they order it from asia and when it arrives, they repack and send to you. Thats why it takes weeks to get an item that is purportedly "in stock" in the UK...
NEgative feedback them all the way or others won't know. I was gonn abuy my phone in Germany, but bought in UK as I thought I'd have it quicker. big mistake. the seller had feedbqack of 95% with 1000 sales. I thought that was "ok" not great. Then I opened up the feedback and saw 10s of grey/neutral feedbacks. My fault. Always check the feedback in detail.

[Baldrick]

Whats happening here lads is whats called "drop shipping"... The sellers in UK don't actaully have the item in stock (even though they say they have). When you buy their item, they order it from asia and when it arrives, they repack and send to you. Thats why it takes weeks to get an item that is purportedly "in stock" in the UK...

Dropshipping is actually a bit worse than you describe. Dropshippers are middle-men who never handle the goods. You order from them and pay. When payment is processed, they purchase the item from the Dropshipping website at greatly reduced price giving your delivery address. Dropshipping company then post directly to you giving no indication of their identity. As you say, this can take weeks as item may not be in stock anymore etc. Also, if item is shipped from outside EU, you might get hit for VAT and/or customs duty. Scrutinise ads carefully as, under eBay rules, this latter point must be mentioned.

NEgative feedback them all the way or others won't know. I was gonn abuy my phone in Germany, but bought in UK as I thought I'd have it quicker. big mistake. the seller had feedbqack of 95% with 1000 sales. I thought that was "ok" not great. Then I opened up the feedback and saw 10s of grey/neutral feedbacks. My fault. Always check the feedback in detail.

Agreed. Study feedback carefully. Personally, I won't have a second look if less than 99%. Even then, check how much negative was in the last month and find it (might involve scrolling through dozens of pages, but well worth it). Also examine how positive feedback was achieved. If you're buying a high priced item like a phone, 99% positive feedback isn't worth a curse if it's been achieved by selling lots of low priced items.

Probably stating the obvious here Hope you get sorted out with your phone.