Here is a run down of my situation.
I am on eBay looking for 1 terabyte external hard drives. I find one for a "too good to be true price", and I choose to buy it, while I know I may be taking a risk. I figured **bleep** it, I've been using eBay for 10 years I've never been flat out **bleep**ed over. So I use buy it now and pay with my Visa, through Paypal.
| Apr 05, 2011 | PAYPAL *XUANWUQINGZ 4029357733 |
A few days after I paid, I noticed the seller has not shipped the product, so I contact him and I received no response. At this time I notice his otherwise perfect eBay feedback is taking a dive into negative and many people are leaving comments about not receiving their USB thumb drives and there is no contact with him once the money is paid.
Okay here is the next part of my story, on April 9th I get this email from eBay (I will paste it below).
Dear darkfigure,
Please be aware that the following listing:
280653810543 - Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1 TB USB 2.0
We're writing to let you know that we removed the listing for the following item that you bid on or won:
280653810543 - Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1 TB USB 2.0
Most items listed on eBay are legitimate, and there are many things we do to protect our members from buying items that aren't. One thing we do is remove items reported to us as allegedly infringing through the eBay VeRO program.
In this case, we removed the listing because the copyright or trademark owner of this product reported that they believe the item may not be authentic.
What to do next:
If you won the item and haven't paid for it yet, don't pay for it.
If the seller offers you the item outside of eBay, we strongly encourage you *not* to accept the offer. These types of transactions are extremely risky and are not covered by eBay buyer protection programs.
If you've already paid for the item through eBay and want to get your money back:
-- You can open a case in our Resolution Center. You have to wait 7 days from the day you made your payment before you can open a case.
-- To access the Resolution Center, go to:
http://resolutioncentre.ebay.ca
-- Under "I bought an item," select "I haven't received it yet."
-- We'll walk you through the process for getting a refund. Because we removed the listing, you won't be able to look up the seller's contact information.
If you paid but didn't go through eBay, here are some things you can do:
-- If you paid using Western Union (800-325-6000) or MoneyGram (800-926-9400), contact the company directly.
-- If you paid by check, contact your bank to stop payment.
-- If you paid by credit card, contact your credit card company to dispute the payment.
We want to make sure you get your money back safely and quickly.
Regards,
eBay Trust & Safety
H53916
So, on the directions of this email and my mounting concerns I filed the complaint with Paypal as eBay instructed (with absolutely no "walk through" or any sort of "help" from them). Everything did seem pretty straight forward, Paypal wanted a million days to confirm each step.
Suddenly the seller provided a tracking number, he never provided me with one and the auction stated free shipping. When I clicked on his link I swear it would not work, but none the less the tracking number turns out to be legit as I did receive a package in the mail that featured this tracking number.
Just to be clear I purchased (or thought I did) a "Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1 TB USB 2.0", what I signed for was a small manilla envelope. I come in to my house and open it up and inside is a forged Chinese Dragon Dollar. Look them up on google to see what these are if you don't know. Real ones though are worth about a thousand dollars.
Interestingly the seller I purchased the "Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1 TB USB 2.0" from also sold lots of pewter jewellery and rings, which is where he garnished most of his favorable feed back from. It seemed clear the the fraud began with the USB Thumb Drives and External Hard Drives.
Anyhow, upon signing for this package I figured "oh now he will have proof for Paypal, as I signature the release of this package, I better change my claim", big mistake I think. I changed my claim from "item not received" as eBay recommended, to "item received is drastically different then shown" or something to that affect, I am paraphrasing at this point.
So now I am totally **bleep**ed, Paypal says I am eligible for a refund if I return the "merchandise" to the seller. Once HE confirms it returned, they will release the money to me.
HELLO lol! He took my money, sent me a bloody pewter coin and has since closed his eBay account, I am supposed to pay to send this pewter garbage all the way back to CHINA so this guy can just not accept it, and claim to have never recieved his "merchandise" back?
How is this protecting the buyer, how is this fair?
The seller has closed his eBay account.
The seller has sent me a pewter coin, not an external computer hard drive.
The seller is not at a confirmed address (btw I need the address to send this coin back, I cant seem to find the address anywhere)
Ebay themselves sent me an email saying they pulled the ads.
Paypal, WAKE UP, your rigid claims system is total b.s.
Tomorrow I am calling Visa to see about a charge back and I won't use Paypal anymore.
