I've never had to open a dispute before, but here's my story.
Bought an item from the UK worth 4000$, off a craigslist-like site(gumtree)...it looked legit, serial number was correct, price was decent to the description, seller had details on the item(guitar) that most scammers wouldn't have added.
Seller also seemed to have a registered business up and running.
I sent the money in late november 2011.
Two weeks forward I still haven't gotten any tracking number, although he said that it had been shipped...around christmas I still haven't gotten any item, so I mail him and ask: He says that the package was sent back to him, due to some workers strike in England/UK, and that he'll ship it out the 28th.
Forward to last week, still haven't heard ANYTHING from him since christmas, so I open up a dispute.
Within a day he sends me an angry email stating that the package has been sent out, and I can't back out of the deal now. I ask for a tracking number, and still not a **bleep** thing.
In the dispute he replies to ebay that he's a legit business owner, and that it's unreasonable for me to open a case since the package was just shipped out. etc, but still hasn't posted any type of tracking or confirmation number (I see that paypal has given him 15th Jan. as deadline for providing receipt)
Now, I'm afraid that he'll go on and send me a fake number...i.e, he'll walk down to the post office and send me a letter or something like that, just so that he'll have a legit number to provide.
My window of time is closing up, and if he pulls off a stunt like that, is there ANYTHING I can do to protect myself?
4000$ down the drain is a hard hit for my personal economy as a student.
