Like for instance, you buy a video game console. You get box and find out there is nothing inside. What could you do to get your money back? Tell Ebay? Call The Cops? What do you have to do to insure 100% guarantee?
2006-12-20 11:11:37 · 9 answers · asked by Emran 1 in Consumer Electronics ➔ Games & Gear
Understand what you are bidding on, ask questions up front.
The way I improve my odds of getting it is to buy from sellers with good feedback. Generally I will not buy from anyone with less than 98% feedback. You can do business with them, but I refuse to. There are some exceptions, like when I buy a car I do not care what his feedback is because I personally inspect the car and ask my questions face to face before I bid or pass on bidding.
Once I bought from a seller who did not deliver and I found out about his personal life and threatened blackmail and he delivered. That was so easy I look forward to doing it again to the next fraudster. Another time, less critical item, I waited and gave negative feedback 30 seconds before 90 days were up so he could not give me negative feedback because the time to give feedback expired. I'm waiting on one of those right now the jerk doubled his advertised shipping fee.
2006-12-20 11:22:13 · answer #1 · answered by waplambadoobatawhopbamboo 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Oh no....sounds like you've been scammed and paid with something other than your credit card. Scammers on ebay do this all the time because when using paypal, all paypal demands from the seller is a receipt showing he sent you something. It doesn't matter what it is, an empty box is fine, as far as paypal is concerned. You didn't say how you paid, so I'll assume you used paypal and the funds came out of your bank account.
Do NOT bother contacting Ebay. It is a complete waste of time unless it is a large, very pricey item you paid for.
You need to take a picture of the empty box, just for your records, and march all the packing materials, and the box it came in right down to your post office. See, postal fraud is taken very seriously, it's a federal offense. **File a report with the post office. **
Then, or even first, **call your bank** and see what they can do.
**Then call Paypal.** You need the 800 number. To find it, Go to Ebay and click on the "Community" link, and find the "Paypal" discussion forums, where people talk about Paypal. Ask there for the 800 number for Paypal because Paypal doesn't publish it but the people in that discussion forum will give it to you right away. Call Paypal and make sure you are happy with the response before hanging up.
The appropriate response from Paypal should be, "Thank you for bringing this to our attention, we will be putting the funds back into your account immediately and investigating this fraud for you."
**Don't accept anything less from them. ** They're sneaky so be wary. Keep them focused on the "I want my money back in my account" part of the discussion.
Then, **call the police and file a report.** Someone just robbed you, the empty box is a common scam. YOu can also try to file a police report in the town where the box was sent--which is probably a better thing to do to get the crooks.
Never buy anything on ebay again unless you used a credit card, which offers protection on online purchases. Paypal ACTS like it's safe, but it isn't. The scammers know how to get around paypal rules.
What fun. Sorry this happened to you.
2006-12-20 11:36:34 · answer #2 · answered by Vik 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Paypal's Buyer protection is worthless!!! If you pay with Paypal, make sure you pay with a credit card so you at least have options if you get ripped off. If you pay with an instant bank transfer and get screwed, you can forget about ever getting your money back.
Here is what will happen if you pay using a bank transfer with Paypal and get stiffed by the seller.
1. You receive an empty box (or whatever the problem is)
2. File a claim with Paypal with a webform stating the details.
3. Paypal investigates the claim (this takes forever, sometime weeks)
4. Paypal acts as judge and jury by deciding weather or not you are entitled to a refund.
5. If paypal says no, that is it, they will help you no further.
6. If paypal sides with you, they will reverse the charge from the seller's paypal account to refund your money.******This is where their buyer protection is worthless. If the seller has already transferred the money out of his paypal account into his bank account, you are screwed. All paypal can and will do at that point is to freeze the seller's account until he makes good on the money he owes you (which is usually never and you are left with nothing).
Here is what happens if you use your CREDIT CARD to fund the transaction on paypal:
Steps 1 to 4 above are the same except that in step 1 you also contact your credit card company, explain what has happened, and request a chargeback.
5. Regardless of what paypal decides, when your credit card finishes their investigation, they will reverse the charge and you will not be responsible for the loss, Paypal will. It is then Paypal's problem to try to collect from the loser that stiffed you.
Paypal advertises everywhere about how good their buyer protection is, when in fact it sucks. All they can do is freeze someone's paypal account until they repay monies owed to people. This is a worthless policy because most people that are willing to blatantly rip someone off on eBay are using hijacked eBay seller accounts and hijacked Paypal accounts. They don't care if the accounts get frozen, they will just use another phishing scam to get more accounts.
ALWAYS FUND PAYPAL PAYMENTS WITH CREDIT CARDS!!!!! You are much better protected
2006-12-20 11:56:32 · answer #3 · answered by Steve 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If this really happened to you I would go back and check what you ordered. Always make sure it says what you are ordering down in great detail. Sometimes auctions will try to trick people into buying something that "appears" as if it is the item you want. For instance if it just says "XBOX" you could receive a box in the shape of an "X" If that happens it's your fault and you bought it for what it is. If you are sure you bought something and know it is the item that you intentionally purchased you should report it right away and get your money back. Make sure no one else gets scammed by that person.
2006-12-20 11:19:36 · answer #4 · answered by doubleospanky 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
If you pay by paypal youre covered. Otherwise ebay is usually very good at helping people like you get there money back. Those dam box sellers
Cops wont do much unless its over 1500. Ebay is good But paypal the money and make sure you have a confirmed address.!
2006-12-20 11:14:18 · answer #5 · answered by dave_lyss420 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
use a good credit card with fraud protection..-bank of america will stand by products u buy from vendors.--make sure you keep records--print out his listing as an example of the item.--then go to the bank and dispute the charge.
2006-12-20 11:21:59 · answer #6 · answered by george l 2 · 2⤊ 1⤋
i heard about this one guy that purchased an xbox 360 box and when he got it, it was just that - the box.
i also heard there was nothing he could do because the ad was advertised as just the box, apparently he didn't read the full complete advertisement, he just saw the picture of the box.
2006-12-20 11:20:36 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
First contact eBay then contact the seller and demand a replacement or a refund including shipping costs.
2006-12-20 11:20:35 · answer #8 · answered by crawler 4 · 0⤊ 3⤋
you are screwed
2006-12-20 12:16:14 · answer #9 · answered by mallondaniel 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋