Wondering if there is any recourse for my boyfriend who placed an order with an online retailer for a PS4 "pre-order" that
1) Never shipped the item
2) avoided the filing of the dispute by staying in contact through the 45 days and making excuses/promises that shipment is imminent
3) disappeared from view and communcation once that period for filing had past, including folding the website
4) STILL HAS THE ACTIVE PAYPAL ACCOUNT
5) IS STILL TAKING ORDERS UNDER ANOTHER NAME IN THIS SAME MANNER with the new company being registered to the same addresses
Of course since the purchase date is older than 45 days, we cannot even open a dispute about it, and it was made with available paypal funds so there is no recourse through a cc chargeback either. It is squarely in Paypal's yard alone.
It seems to me that this is a blatant violation as well as a crime that is essentially being supported by Paypal as they will do nothing to remedy or stop it. At the very least, we would like these vendors reported to stop them from getting away with stealing more money from other trusting people, but Ideally we would like to have the money returned that was paid for something that they never delivered, and likely didn't ever INTEND to deliver given the way they conduct their business. Paypal encourages buyers to communcate with and work with the sellers directly and in doing so sanctions this kind of deception.
We are aware that we should have disputed it earlier, but chose to trust the sellers in their communication and are now out 450 bucks for nothing. If it were me that had ordered this, I would have cancelled it and demanded a refund while still within the limited time for dispute, but my boyfriend is not as cynical as I am and he trusted the process only to panic when the seller stopped communicating entirely once that time was past. The most outrageous thing is that these people are still operating and have the active Paypal account and doing this all over again with a new website offering pre-orders of the X1 instead! Seems to me that SOMETHING should be done, but I don't know what.
Is there any recourse through the pre-order policy which is violated by not shipping in 20 days? Or any chance that they will act past the 45 day limit (I read that they may do this ONCE on a buyer's behalf, and this seems a likely candidate as the crooks are still getting away with it as we speak.) This is not particularly inspiring of confidence that this blatant abuse of the system is being employed to rip people off.
