Fair warning for you Ebayers - Avoid seller a..fast...shipper

[mooglesrcute]

I considered putting this under the official Ebay thread, but I did not want this information buried in a dense thread

On April 17th I purchased a vintage Borsalino on ebay from a seller named a..fast...shipper. I have seen other hats posted by this user, judging from this fellow's auctions he combs estate sales and will doubtless auction off more hats.

I promptly paid for the hat, and did in fact receive my hat. It did not fit as well as I thought and contacted the seller about a return, to which he cheerfully responded. I returned the hat, never heard anything from the seller, and actually saw the re-listing within a week.

Then a few months later, I noticed my bank account got hit for the price of the hat, but there was never a return. Assuming the balance was sitting in my paypal account I logged on to find that a refund had never been issued.

wanting to make sure I wasn't jumping to conclusions I emailed the seller. Nothing. Two more follow up emails were answered with silence, as well as a physical letter sent to their address. I got the gentleman's phone number via ebay, when I called their fraud department and found out you can access phone numbers of sellers you've dealt with, and called him. First I got his mother, who confirmed the household not knowing me from adam, and offered to take a message, to which I responded my message would be rather long, and I'd rather just call back at a time when he should return. The truth was I didn't want to leave a message in the hands of someone else, but wanted to talk to him directly.

I believe he wised up though, because he also got an email from ebay when I requested his phone number, and has been avoiding my calls, and leaving my messages un-responded. I have stated multiple times that although it seems to look like fraud/theft from my point of view, I would surely like to be proven wrong and all he needs to do is get in contact with me, but at this point he's left me no choice but to report him to his local authorities, which unfortunately means I'm still out $150 which is still a significant amount of money to me.

That said, if I can prevent any fellow forum member from similar sorrows, then that would ease the pain some.

I have reported him to ebay, his account is flagged, but I don't know exactly what that means, since based on his feedback my incident seems to be an isolated case I assume there will be no consequences. If there are, and he makes a new account, I'd be extra cautious of anyone selling hats on a new account from the Chicago area.

 

[fashion frank]

I had the same thing happen to me on E bay with a seller in England when I bought a bunch of Conan The Barbarian paper backs.

I sent the cash and waited and then nothing , emailed him and he stated he was on holiday and would ship the books, again nothing .
Yet another e mail and then again nothing .

The only way I ever got my cash was by doing what you did and complained to e bay. THEY refunded my monies to me and then THEY went after him .

It does suck and their are people in life that will try to cheat you out of your money but I have to admit in e bay's defense that 99 out of 100 seller's are OK.

I Suspect in your situation he got resentful because he sold it to you and for whatever the reason you returned it and he was sour grapes because he spent time listing it and would have to also relist it, sell it a second time and reship it to someone else ,but that no fault or yours ,that's his price of doing business so shame on him .

I would still keep on E bays behind and demand that they do more than just flag him as I stated THEY reimbursed me my monies and then went after him .

Good luck to you and I hope everything work's out for you .
Please keep us updated as I personally would like to know your final outcome .

All the Best ,Fashion Frank

 

[CaramelSmoothie]

Good advice from Frank. But the problem I see is that he waited a few months before checking to see if the money was refunded. I believe you have between 30 to 60 days to file a complaint. You should always keep on top of that right from the get go to ensure that the monies are refunded once the hat has been returned to them. Also, Paypal will email you when you receive money in your account and tell you which seller refunded it. The fact that you did not receive an email from Paypal was proof that a refund had not been issued. At this point, I would work with the credit card company.You have proof of the purchase on ebay and if you have a delivery confirmation AND can show on his "Items Sold" history on ebay that he resold the hat, you could possibly get your money back.

 

[froguy]

Good advice from Frank. But the problem I see is that he waited a few months before checking to see if the money was refunded. I believe you have between 30 to 60 days to file a complaint. You should always keep on top of that right from the get go to ensure that the monies are refunded once the hat has been returned to them. Also, Paypal will email you when you receive money in your account and tell you which seller refunded it. The fact that you did not receive an email from Paypal was proof that a refund had not been issued. At this point, I would work with the credit card company.You have proof of the purchase on ebay and if you have a delivery confirmation AND can show on his "Items Sold" history on ebay that he resold the hat, you could possibly get your money back.

I've had quite a few purchases through ebay and was initially very hesitant to engage in any appreciable transactions. I believe from my experiences that Ebay has a quite effective system of protection AS LONG AS YOU FOLLOW THEIR PROCEDURES. I suspect that buyers are somewhat more protected than sellers.I've had a very few unpleasant interactions with sellers but have never been burned and left hanging after recourse to Ebay complaint dept. But like any financial transactions, you do have to pay attention and use the tools that are in place to protect you. It's sort of amazing to me that the system works as well as it does. Its a drag when these things occur though. We do want to believe everyone is as trustworthy as ourselves.

 

[mooglesrcute]

Good advice from Frank. But the problem I see is that he waited a few months before checking to see if the money was refunded. I believe you have between 30 to 60 days to file a complaint. You should always keep on top of that right from the get go to ensure that the monies are refunded once the hat has been returned to them. Also, Paypal will email you when you receive money in your account and tell you which seller refunded it. The fact that you did not receive an email from Paypal was proof that a refund had not been issued. At this point, I would work with the credit card company.You have proof of the purchase on ebay and if you have a delivery confirmation AND can show on his "Items Sold" history on ebay that he resold the hat, you could possibly get your money back.

Yes according to the ebay rep I talked to the window for 'buyer protection' is 7-45 days. By the time I even realized I had not be refunded I was well past that. Problem was the only problem I've ever had with ebay was in 99, and everyone has been delightful since, so I just assumed things would work out. Lesson learned, a hard way to learn, but guess that's how it goes sometime. The seller had 25k feedback with like 99% positive, which is still baffling me that he won't even return a call or email to talk about the issue, especially when I openly said 'Hey it looks like I have not received a refund, but if I am reading this wrong, please clear this up for me.'

I asked the ebay rep if I should call back after trying to contact the seller, and he said I didn't need to, he was already flagged. Again, who knows what that means, and my guess is not much because I seem to be in the vast minority of buyers having negative experiences with this guy. I will be contacting the Chicago Police and filing a report within the next few days, as my subsequent calls have all gone to the machine and my messages un-returned. I imagine that's where things will end, and nothing resembling justice will happen. Not a fun lesson to learn, but one I surely will not repeat.

Caramel, when you mentioned working with the credit card company, how does that work exactly. I mean I've had to contest charges on my visa or what not over the years, but those were for fraudulent charges. In this case I did pay for the hat via paypal, which actually is just linked to my checking account. In my situation can you contest a charge. I mean I can't go to my bank because I did make the payment via paypal, I guess I could look into paypals fraud solutions? If they have any?

Here are the two auctions for anyone interested party. Thing is, this guys should be thanking me that I returned the hat, because I feel like I got it on the low end of what it's worthy. In retrospect, I should have just resold it myself, because returning it even cost me shipping.

Original sale
http://web.archive.org/liveweb/http...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Resale weeks later
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-B...3-8-Wind-Trolley-Cord-/230978233599#cvip_desc

 

[Tomasso]

the problem I see is that he waited a few months before checking to see if the money was refunded. I believe you have between 30 to 60 days to file a complaint. You should always keep on top of that right from the get go to ensure that the monies are refunded once the hat has been returned to them.

Bingo! If a dispute is filed in a timely manner eBay/PayPal will place a freeze on the seller's PP account in the amount of the purchase price. He will then be bombarded with notices from eBay and if he is unresponsive his listing privileges will be suspended.

 

[TheDane]

[...] I guess I could look into paypals fraud solutions? If they have any?

PayPal was bought by EBay in 2002, and accounts for almost half of EBay's profits. PP has a protection system just as good as EBay's when buying from a non-EB store.

In spring 2011 I bought some grosgrain ribbon worth $92 from a non-EBay web store. The ribbon never arrived, and two weeks later it was still for sale on the site. I wrote a couple of mails to the owner without any response. On the PP-page 'My Account' I then clicked the 'Resolution Center' tab and opened a dispute case. Here I contacted the seller through PP (the usual procedure), but still no response. I had a full refund from PP in about three weeks - no problems at all.

Also with PP you have to make the dispute within certain time limits. If you do, it works perfectly, it seems. As PP and EB practically is the same company, I don't think it will help you now, though.

 

[CaramelSmoothie]

things will end, and nothing resembling justice will happen. Not a fun lesson to learn, but one I surely will not repeat.

Caramel, when you mentioned working with the credit card company, how does that work exactly. I mean I've had to contest charges on my visa or what not over the years, but those were for fraudulent charges. In this case I did pay for the hat via paypal, which actually is just linked to my checking account. In my situation can you contest a charge. I mean I can't go to my bank because I did make the payment via paypal, I guess I could look into paypals fraud solutions? If they have any?

Here are the two auctions for anyone interested party. Thing is, this guys should be thanking me that I returned the hat, because I feel like I got it on the low end of what it's worthy. In retrospect, I should have just resold it myself, because returning it even cost me shipping.

Original sale
http://web.archive.org/liveweb/http...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Resale weeks later
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-B...3-8-Wind-Trolley-Cord-/230978233599#cvip_desc

Those 2 links showing the same hat being sold to you then weeks later to a different buyer in addition to emails between you and the seller confirming that you intended to return the hat are your best bet. Do you also have delivery confirmation through the post office? If so, include that in your evidence too. Go down to your bank and give them those 2 links and they can look at the account and see that you did not get the money returned. In this case, since you paid for it through your bank you will have to take the dispute up with them.