Got Ripped off on Ebay..sigh

[Kalari]

Meh posting while dinners cooking, got an email today from paypal that made me sad. Back in december I signed up for this preorder deal on ebay for a Dc heroes bust for my best friend. Ive done preorders before so I wasnt apprehensive even though the bust wasnt due to come out till this month I believe. Paid the 50 bucks for the figure and even corresponded with the seller so I thought I was in good faith getting the item. I checked back last week because I figured id be hearing something soon. To find the member was no longer a registered user and his feedback list full of reports of people who realized abit to late that he was not gonna send the items he promised and had pocketed the money. Now 50 dollars may not seem alot to some and heck on a good run of a few months dont make me bat and eyelash, but I had to scrimp and saved last year to get this as a gift for someone very close to me, and now it seems its not gonna happen. And on top of that because it was over the 45 days they allow to complain ebay isnt gonna help and paypal sent me an email to a site to report fraud...basically telling me the same thing "cant help you."

Granted I probably could have avoided this by not preordering or going threw places like wizarduniverse who cost abit more (but I like pinching pennies lol) But I really didnt expect something like this to have happened. And I shocked he managed to dupe this many people at once. Ive definately learned my lesson on buying online specially preorders.

So has this happened to anyone else?

[Quarion]

I'm sorry to hear that this happened to you

I used to ebay quite a lot, and it depresses me to hear that something like this happens.

Good luck resolving the matter!

-Q

[Kalari]

Thanks Quarion *hugs* yeah I still like ebay ive found very good deals and geninuely have good luck with sellers. This one had over 700 feedback and at the time most of it was positive, so I dont know what went on whether some outside source is to blame or not, but a ton of people are out of money for figures and busts from his shop and no response from anyone at the email he provided. I am gonna report it to the site paypal sent me even if I dont get my money back it will make the guy think twice before pulling something like that again (wishful thinking but I can hope) I just feel bad for people who get suckered in because it makes it hard to want to shop online after something like this. I'm just gonna be smarter next time limit prorders to big named stores and save my independant buys like comics to sellers on ebay, have yet to have a problem getting my books ^_^

[cdbd3rd]

Yup. I learned the hard way a few years ago not to do the 'pre-order for a custom made <whatever>' that will alledgedly be delivered AFTER the time to report the fraud expires.

If you used a credit card rather than drawing your Paypal payment out of your checking/savings account, check with them. Their fraud protection usually lasts a lot longer than Ebays reporting time.

[Vardak]

So has this happened to anyone else?

Yep, lots of folks. Saddly, it's quite common. I've taken to using temporary cards for all on-line purchases as well. Recently my wife made an insignificant purchase, less than $10, shortly thereafter her account was charged with a series of other also small charges, always less than $10, one every couple weeks. Of course she challenged each unrecognized charge and they were reversed, but frankly the bank treated her like a criminal after the 1st couple. Ultimately we closed the account, inconvenient. I'd imagine there are plenty of folks that simply would not have noticed at least some of the charges.

If the creativity of criminals could be focused properly, we could achieve world peace.

[deathtouch]

If you paid paypal with your credit card you should be protected somewhat, thats a avenue I would persue, when I moved to the states I bought a mobo+cpu from some fool on ebay and they didnt work, paypal was not helping so I got my credit card involved and they took care of it

Sorry to hear that happened to you though **** scam artists...

[Kalari]

Thanks cdbd3rd and deathtouch I will look into it with my creditcard company hopefully it can be resolved. Oh and im sorry to hear about your experience to Vardak and I agree if they focused that energy into something positive who knows. Im just gonna be leary even with paypal on where I spend my money from now on.