Hello everybody,
Just wanted to share with you my worst eBay experience. I don't know whether 'naming names' is appreciated so I won't name the seller for now.
In January this year I bought a Sandcrawler with which looked like a nice box on eBay for â'¬450,-. A day after that the seller (a Frenchwoman) listed another one. This one had inserts, but a lesser box. Being an MIB Vehicle collector, I contacted her to sell me the inserts for an extra amount of â'¬100,- (I'm crazy, I know). She did.
About a week or so later she contacted me (in bable fish English) that the Sandcrawler had been returned to her. She said she had made an error with the address and would send again. This made me scratch my head for the first time, and a little bit wary.
I turned out to be right. The Sandcrawler arrived a week later. It was okay, but the box was totally destroyed and contained something that could be a part of an insert, but could also easily be just a piece from a cardboard box.
Because I had become even more wary of this woman, I didn't contact her through normal messaging, but opened a dispute with Paypal ( I had to open one for the â'¬ 485 (inc shipping) and one for the extra â'¬ 100,-). She reacted by denying that the Sandcrawler I got was different from the one she listed and accusing me of trying to swindle her. In the meantime she even verbally abused me by email and threatened me with litigation (being a law graduate myself I wasn't that scared). I tried to stay nice (as I thought getting angry wouldn't help me) and eventually she relented. She invited me to send the Sandcrawler back so she could refund me.
Well, I did that, but woe to me: the on line tracking never got updated further than 'arrived in France'. When I called the Postal service however they said that it was delivered.
Time ticked away (Paypal has a 20 day limit on how long a dispute can be open, after that you have to decide whether to close or escalate to a claim), and the seller denied and kept denying that she had received the Sandcrawler back. She even told me to be patient because she had contacted customs and the parcel was still allegedly still there.
After the 20 days of the Paypal dispute had almost ended I decided to escalate it to a claim. Again this resulted in accusations of trying to swindle her and threats of litigation and going to the police. But I persevered.
About a month later, Paypal started to address my case. They asked me first to return the item and provide proof of tracking (by fax). I already sent the item of course, but I guess they only use standard communication. After that I heard nothing anymore. What did happen was that the seller listed another Sandcrawler with the same (stock)photos she used with mine. The description of the box however sounded exactly like the one I received (missing a flap). I contacted Paypal about this, but received no response.
In the meantime (thank the gods) I had asked for an investigation by my Postal Service and they at last came through with proof of delivery (her signature!) I contacted paypal again and at last things went forward. I faxed the proof of delivery and Paypal refunded. Only the â'¬ 485 however, as the extra â'¬ 100 'couldn't be linked to goods' (my mistake, I should have asked the seller to link it to an eBay item, but what did I know?).
The seller ranted one more time how she was a victim of a beautiful swindle because she now had no money and no Sandcrawler, but after that, there was silence.
Well, that was my story. Anyone with a worse experience?
Just wanted to share with you my worst eBay experience. I don't know whether 'naming names' is appreciated so I won't name the seller for now.
In January this year I bought a Sandcrawler with which looked like a nice box on eBay for â'¬450,-. A day after that the seller (a Frenchwoman) listed another one. This one had inserts, but a lesser box. Being an MIB Vehicle collector, I contacted her to sell me the inserts for an extra amount of â'¬100,- (I'm crazy, I know). She did.
About a week or so later she contacted me (in bable fish English) that the Sandcrawler had been returned to her. She said she had made an error with the address and would send again. This made me scratch my head for the first time, and a little bit wary.
I turned out to be right. The Sandcrawler arrived a week later. It was okay, but the box was totally destroyed and contained something that could be a part of an insert, but could also easily be just a piece from a cardboard box.
Because I had become even more wary of this woman, I didn't contact her through normal messaging, but opened a dispute with Paypal ( I had to open one for the â'¬ 485 (inc shipping) and one for the extra â'¬ 100,-). She reacted by denying that the Sandcrawler I got was different from the one she listed and accusing me of trying to swindle her. In the meantime she even verbally abused me by email and threatened me with litigation (being a law graduate myself I wasn't that scared). I tried to stay nice (as I thought getting angry wouldn't help me) and eventually she relented. She invited me to send the Sandcrawler back so she could refund me.
Well, I did that, but woe to me: the on line tracking never got updated further than 'arrived in France'. When I called the Postal service however they said that it was delivered.
Time ticked away (Paypal has a 20 day limit on how long a dispute can be open, after that you have to decide whether to close or escalate to a claim), and the seller denied and kept denying that she had received the Sandcrawler back. She even told me to be patient because she had contacted customs and the parcel was still allegedly still there.
After the 20 days of the Paypal dispute had almost ended I decided to escalate it to a claim. Again this resulted in accusations of trying to swindle her and threats of litigation and going to the police. But I persevered.
About a month later, Paypal started to address my case. They asked me first to return the item and provide proof of tracking (by fax). I already sent the item of course, but I guess they only use standard communication. After that I heard nothing anymore. What did happen was that the seller listed another Sandcrawler with the same (stock)photos she used with mine. The description of the box however sounded exactly like the one I received (missing a flap). I contacted Paypal about this, but received no response.
In the meantime (thank the gods) I had asked for an investigation by my Postal Service and they at last came through with proof of delivery (her signature!) I contacted paypal again and at last things went forward. I faxed the proof of delivery and Paypal refunded. Only the â'¬ 485 however, as the extra â'¬ 100 'couldn't be linked to goods' (my mistake, I should have asked the seller to link it to an eBay item, but what did I know?).
The seller ranted one more time how she was a victim of a beautiful swindle because she now had no money and no Sandcrawler, but after that, there was silence.
Well, that was my story. Anyone with a worse experience?
( even though it was for bits of cardboard :lol: ) Did you pay via Credit card? Can you reverse the charges? It sucks getting ripped off (as a buyer or seller)- hopefully it doesn't happen too often.
