I bought a small microphone for my camera in July. I made an offer to the seller since he had activated that option, and he then accepted to sell me the microphone for $24 instead of the original $27. Although, he sent me a message before shipping; it said something like "thanks for patronizing me". Over a month passed but the microphone hadn't arrived yet. It happens often for products to take this much when being shipped from China to Europe. I wrote the seller a message, but he didn't respond. I sent another one, still no answer. I decided to ask help from Paypal, explained the situation and the seller gave the "tracking number" a few days later. This wasn't a tracking number per se, just a shipping document number... I buy everything from Chinese sellers that offer free shipping. They always give you this "tracking nr.", but it doesn't really work. Most of these just say when the item was shipped, a few of them will tell when the parcel left the country...but in all these years, only twice I've gotten a real tracking number that listed every movement, and confirmed that the final delivery was made. Anyway, Paypal had estimated that the case would be resolved by the 30th of October, but the case is still in review and there's been no further contact by the seller. I was browsing my purchase history today, and noticed that the seller I bought the microphone from wasn't a registered user anymore!! I started looking through his feedback. During the past 6 months, over 80% of the feedback is NEGATIVE, full of people claiming they never received the item. And to every negative feedback, he has responded with positive remarks like: Fast payment. Good buyer! As if he is mocking all the people that bought something from him and got scammed...I've been a total idiot for not checking his feedback prior to the purchase, but his rating was ~86% so I didn't worry too much 😞 I'm worried I won't be able to get my money back! Have you ever had such an experience? Has the seller closed his account to avoid paying me (and probably other people) the refund he owes? I've always assumed that purchase money was kept in escrow until delivery, or until feedback is given by the buyer, but I'm starting to think that this is not the case...right? I know $24 is not much, but I'm just an unemployed student...and I live in a country where the average monthly wage is $300. Please HELP!
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