Serious advice needed!!!! Please Help!!!
 

I have bought something off of E-bay. My last time, I swear. But heres my problem. The seller had over 250 feedbacks however, some not so good. I took a chance and bid. The item ended at $200 and I won. I sent a money order and he e-mailed me that he had recieved it. Then came the excuses, weather, wrecked car, and now his "packages" were stolen at the wrecker yard so no item to send. I had had it with him so I told him I wanted a refund. He said he would send it when he felt like it in 3 months!!!
So I reminded him that it was a US Postal Service Money order he cashed and that was mail fraud! Now he is saying for me to prosecute and that he is never mailing my $$$ back. Do I really have any way of getting my money back? If it was $10 or so I would right it off but it is $200. Can the Postal Inspector help me or am I screwed? I know E-bay collections is a joke. What to do?

Thanks

BBB:confused:

Contact ebay and tell them your story. They'll get right in the middle of it.

I had to get them involved in a similar deal once. They took care of me.

Give copies of all your correspondance to the Postal inspector and see what they say- I'll bet they talk this guy into returning your money. (If they can find him )

had that happen to me, bought some trim for my Monte, guy said he was in a car wreck and the trim was in the car, ya right, meh gotta watch out sometimes

i work for the post office ill ask some of the inspectors about it tommorrow.

better yet here you go
http://www.usps.com/postalinspectors.../ContactUs.htm

please post the guys name so others dont suffer the same fate, i guess ive been lucky but ill get bit eventually, i guess its part of the game. sad.

The good news for you is that ebay covers you for $200(no kidding). I had a deal go sour on a $500 purchase and I went through the rounds with ebay and filed a few things. You have to fill out some forms and fax some stuff. So I finally got $175 from ebay, they charge $25 for processing. It will take a few months but you need to file ASAP so you don't pass their deadline for when you can take action.

contact e-bay and the post office, and you may contact your lawyer and see what kind of leg or arm you have to give to them (also most lawyers will give free phone consult if it is a short call)

post his name and location maybe he lives close to a board member and we can help.

its definately mail fraud hes using the mail to commit the act of stealing your money. I wish youd post the name too

Sucks when a few bad apples ruin it for everyone. Whenever I sell something, I don't do it until I have the item boxed up and ready to stick an address to; a little motivation to rapidly complete the transaction.

Granted, shipping stuff is the WORST part of ebay selling, but getting completely bent stinks. I've got 2 negatives in a row from one dude that I bought tinted vent windows from (both were bent to whiz and unusable, and he gave me neg. feedback. The other was a guy I sold a leather motorcycle jacket to that had been down before; told him it had rash, sent pics, did a favor shipping to England, then left me neg. feedback because the rash was "worse than the pics and description."

There's a lot of a##holes out there; just need to be careful. Thats why this messageboard is great; I'd rather buy off here than ebay anyday!

I had a similar thing happen for $28

Never received the item. Contacted the Postal Service, and they issued a refund on the Money Order. Mainly because I did a tracer, and they found it hadn't been cashed. Supposedly the guy went out of business.

Three years later he cashed it, falsely of course. And the postal service wanted me to pay them back.

Postal insurance is nothing but a rip off as well. They won't pay off on claims.

I just went through a few weeks of something similar with the seller in the Northwest. He insisted he'd not send me anything and had no problem cursing up a storm via e-mail.

I got ebay, paypal and square trade all in the middle of it and he did finally ship the items against his will.

You have certain time frames to get matters resolved, so gather your information, dates, details, e-mails, etc...and forward them to the security center at ebay.

Hope it works out for you. Seems as if I have a transaction go bonkers 1-2 times per year.

JT

E-bay
 

I purchased a swimming pool for my kids from a seller on e-bay. The auction was over and i didn't win, but he e-mailed me saying that he would sell me one for the price i bid. So isent him a 1,500 dollar money order. E-mails and phone calls were fine till he got the money, then he would not answer his phone or answer e-mails. This went on for a while, then he finally e-mailed me saying he had got a damaged shipment and it would be another couple of weeks. Another month went buy and still no pool. I tracked him down vial the internet and realized i had a freind that lived about 50 miles from him, and the friend is with the FBI. I had him pay the guy a visit, and i got a pool 5 days later and a whole bunch of free goodies.
Sometimes you got to lean on them a bit.
I will never buy anything outside of e-bay again.I had no leg to stand on, except maybe mail fraud.

I make it a point to never bid on something where the seller has any negative feedback. I don't want to take any chances. No matter how bad I need what they may be selling.

IMO I wouldn't totally agree w/ not bidding on something just because the seller has a negative, you have to consider that the more feed back you have the greater chance that you will run into the person that can't be made happy no matter what you do (and yes there alot of bidders like that).

The other thing you have to think about is how long has it been since the seller has gotten a negative, many new sellers make mistakes and get Bidders P.O.'d - it's not because they are cheats or rip offs, it's just that they haven't learned what to do or who/what to watch out for yet (I had the same problem when I started out on it feedback )

but you do have to be carefull who's stuff you bid on, and please post the guys ebay name so I can have a new addition to my blocked bidders list.

Shawn