I cannot tell you how upset I am with eBay & PayPal right now. I thought that if a person listed something on eBay there was at least some kind of support for the buyers of said items. I cannot get help from anyone on this matter. Seller can lie, cheat and steal from honest buyers. And you have no way to fix it.
My husband needed minutes for his Net10 pre-paid phone. He has had this account for 5 years, and had time credits that will keep the phone active until November 2014... even if he never adds minutes again.
I saw a listing on eBay and decided it was a good deal. You get 900 minutes for $40, and the seller (lanyouxidebye) l ists the item location as Atlanta, GA.
This was my first item purchased from eBay Classified Ads. I click on the link provided, and purchase the item using PayPal. This was on October 1, 2010.
Instead of the 24 hour promised load time for the minutes, it took 4 or 5 days... and several messages sent to the seller, demanding that he send the minutes, before said minutes were loaded into the phone. I was so afraid we had been scammed on this one. But, finally, the minutes were there.
On Friday, November 26, 2010 @ Midnight, I tried to call my husband's phone, to let him know I was on my way home from work. I got a recording that this phone user was not accepting calls at this time. I called 5 different times, and also texted 5 times. No response.
I was frantic for the 1 hour & 20 minutes it takes me to get home. My husband is stuck in a wheelchair, and I have to leave him alone for 12 hours a day, while I go to work. This phone is his only way to call for help, if he should have an emergency.
When I got home, he was okay... but there was nothing I could do to get that phone to work. It still showed a balance of 503 minutes and days of service lasting until November of 2014.
Saturday, November 27, 2010 I called Net10 (using MY pre-paid phone) to ask them why my husband's phone isn't working. They tell me it has been deactivated, and I will need to call back on Monday, because that department is closed. I got aggressive, and she told me that the account had been deactivated due to a "credit card charge back" from the fraudulent card I had used to buy the minutes. She then said I would need to send them a money order for $65 to have the phone turned back on. I told her I didn't even have a credit card, and had paid for the minutes using PayPal.
They had me on hold for almost an hour, waiting for a supervisor, who just kept repeating what the other rep had been telling me. She must have told me 25 times, that I would have to send them a money order for $65. I told her fat chance of that happening. We already paid for the dang phone card!
I have found out that the seller is in CHINA! Not Atlanta, GA. What a fraud!
How can eBay allow people to list items in such a fraudulent way? How can PayPal not help me with this situation? I have paid for this item, and they took it back. I have nothing. Actually, I have worse than nothing. My handicapped husband has lost his 5 year old Net10 phone account. We have lost 4 years of days of service credits saved up. All because of some scammer in CHINA, who I didn't even know WAS in CHINA.
Is there no protection for buyers of items in eBay Classified Ads? They shouldn't even come up in regular searches!
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