Bought an item on eBay but the seller disappeared, unable to open a dispute on eBay nor Paypal

[yuxiang]

Hi experts,

I bought an item about a month ago on eBay and the seller has stated that it has sent the item. The estimated delivery date was 5 July to 21 July. On that day that I recieved the notification email from eBay that the seller has sent the item, I also received a distressing email from eBay(I suppose?) that the listing has been removed. However, when I went online to search for related topics, the community said to wait until the end of estimated delivery period before opening up a case with eBay. Today was the next day after the estimated delivery period and I have yet to recieve any items. When I open up eBay, I noticed that I cannot find the seller on eBay, under the transaction, it says "This user is no longer registered on eBay". And when I tried to open up a dispute with the seller on PayPal using that transaction, I could not complete it (there was an error after clicking "send" at the "send a message to seller" portion). I'm not sure why I could not complete it but I believe the buyer has fled and has un-registered the account similar to that on eBay. And being unable to start a dispute, I don't have the option to escalate the dispute.

Now I feel like an idiot for buying things online...

I need advice on what I should be doing now to claim and hopefully get my money back. And I also hope that other users don't follow my footsteps and fall victim to such fraudulent sellers.

Please help!!!

[kernowlass]

@yuxiang

How do I open a dispute with a seller when a purchase goes wrong?


You can open a dispute in the Resolution Centre of your PayPal account within 180 days of payment if:
•You don’t receive the item
•You receive an item but it’s significantly different than the description on eBay or on the seller’s website

By opening a dispute, you can communicate directly with your seller to work out a problem transaction.

If you reach an agreement with the seller you can close the dispute. If you're still not happy with the result, you can escalate the dispute into a claim. We'll review the claim and decide on reimbursement.

To open a dispute:
1.Log in to your PayPal account.
2.Near the bottom of the page, under 'More about your account', click Resolve a problem in our Resolution Centre.
3.Click Dispute a Transaction.
4.Select the button beside the transaction you want to dispute, then click Continue.
5.Select ‘Item dispute’, click Continue and follow the on-screen instructions.

Note:
•Generally buyers must wait at least 7 days from the date of payment to escalate a dispute for an item not received
•Where an item has not been received, please ensure you have given the seller enough time before opening a dispute

https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/first-dispute

[yuxiang]

Hi kernowlass,

Thanks for your prompt reply.

I do know that I can open a dispute through the resolution centre and contact the seller first through "report a problem" > " item dispute". However, when I reach the part "write a message to seller" and pressed "send", a error message pops up: "We're sorry, something went wrong. Please try again.". No matter how many times I tried, the result is the same.

I personally believe that this person has de-registered his PayPal account. So now I cannot even open a item dispute case. I also believe that he knew of this loop-hole in this system and purposely made use of it to cheat people's money and get away without any method for us to contact him again. And for why I would say so is because he de-registered his eBay account as well and I cannot open a case with him on eBay either. I think this is no longer just a simple item dispute but a case of someone making use of PayPal and eBay's flexibility to create and delete account to get away with our money with no intention to send us the items we paid for. I hope a PayPal employee sees this, cause I think that it is a loop-hole that needs to be mend, and if PayPal really cares for its users, it should fix this immediately, else more people will become victims of such fraud.

Please give me an alternative recommendation.