Major issue with eBay and expensive item

BostonB

Seems a very poor system if its allows people to be scammed so easily.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/money-saving-tips/11127669/My-eBay-buyer-protection-nightmare.html

I would do the same, cancel the cards and let them chase it.

8_Ace

Prepare yourself for a bad ending on this, the buyer is pulling a fast one, there's no chance of a return. Cutting off Ebay / Paypal is the best you can do.

Ebay have already shown you the extent of their customer service /support. This is a real sickner.

spurious

Haven't both eBay and PayPal offices in Dublin? I'd be getting a solicitor onto them pronto and simultaneously contacting thejournal and similar sites.

bluemartin

ArthurGuinness wrote: »

I can't shut it down when it's in arrears. I cancelled the debit card that's linked to it though.

That is good, I had the misfortune of dealing with ebay once, I can tell you it was a living nightmare pushed from pillar to post, there is absolutely no direct line to speak to an appropriate person, they make it as difficult as hell for the sellers. Good luck OP, fight your case with them and I am glad you have your money. The whole ordeal must have been very stressful for you particularly when such a large sum of money involved.

flutered

i had two similar experiences, you have one chance which is your carrier/curiour, you have paid them to deliver safely an item of value, this would have adeclared va;lue and insured to that value, contact them and explain that the recipent is not happy.

kev1986

same thing happened to me but for far less money a couple of years ago so i packed in using ebay. Another thing that happened to me as well twice was id sell an item as described the buyer would receive the item upon receiving the item they would then mail me saying the item was not as described and if i didnt send another item similar they would report me and give me bad reviews.
on both occasions told them they could have a refund but never heard anything back very strange

Pipmae

This thread is an eye opener. I use eBay/Paypal for low monetary value goods and I only buy, not sell. It's a total disgrace if this scammer gets away with it.

Best of luck OP - I really hope it works out for you.

dubscottie

Are you 100% sure you have been talking to Ebay and the e-mails you have got are from them?

Reading your posts my alarm bells are ringing..

They contacted you on your landline? It sounds daft but there is a new level of bank scams (the ones when you think you hang up to call your bank, but really are still connected but talking to someone different claiming to be your bank). Cant pull that scam to a mobile number..

You said you were on the phone for 2 hours?? Was it one call or many? Why could you only find a UK number? Was it to the same person? No company would keep you on the phone for 2 hours.. They would take your number and call you back.

It is so easy to fake sites and links etc.. What was the email address that messages came from??

Maybe its just me.. Check the "ebay" and "paypal" sites you looked at..

Also they should give an item number.. Not "the mobile item" as you said in the OP..

degsie

CB19Kevo wrote: »

All i can advise is keep records of everything,Emails,photos,record phone calls and get names of anyone who contacts you.
I would call there bluff,Looks like they have not investigated at all.
How much positive ebay feedback have you?

A photo of the item prior to shipping would help.

dubscottie

degsie wrote: »

A photo of the item prior to shipping would help.

+1 on that..

Sold something on Ebay myself that was expensive enough.. Went all bells and whistles on the postage..

Had pics to had however to show the condition right before it was posted should they say otherwise..

Never heard back from the buyer so presume all was well.

flutered

it does not matter one whit, the bay of thieves come down on the side of the buyer, as without buyers it would not exist.

ArthurGuinness

JohnBee wrote: »

Again Arthur, did you scrutinize the pictures? The scam is pointless if it was your guitar that he sent pictures of broken up, that way essentially he gets a refund but a worthless broken guitar. It is highly possible the pictures sent are not your guitar. Make sure you scrutinize for differences as that is the classic ebay scam.

It's hard to tell all the pictures are very close up and taken with a bright flash. The color is correct but I cant tell you much more. I requested further but none arrived.

ArthurGuinness

dubscottie wrote: »

Are you 100% sure you have been talking to Ebay and the e-mails you have got are from them?

Reading your posts my alarm bells are ringing..

They contacted you on your landline? It sounds daft but there is a new level of bank scams (the ones when you think you hang up to call your bank, but really are still connected but talking to someone different claiming to be your bank). Cant pull that scam to a mobile number..

You said you were on the phone for 2 hours?? Was it one call or many? Why could you only find a UK number? Was it to the same person? No company would keep you on the phone for 2 hours.. They would take your number and call you back.

It is so easy to fake sites and links etc.. What was the email address that messages came from??

Maybe its just me.. Check the "ebay" and "paypal" sites you looked at..

Also they should give an item number.. Not "the mobile item" as you said in the OP..

Hi Dubscottie.

Yes I am certain I was talking to eBay directly, all correspondence came through the messenger interface accessible through the my eBay platform.

I searched every section of the Contact Us pages on the website and its a nightmare. You have to go through a list of problems, click on the link that best suits your scenario and you are then advised to contact them by email or live chat depending on the issue. They say they are contactable by phone but I was never given the option.
I clicked on all troubleshooting issues and found no option to phone them.

I contacted them through Live Chat and asked for a phone number and I was directed back to the same page.

I tried calling Pay Pal in Dublin but couldn't access them unless a logged a fault via my Pay Pal page where they sent me a code via email to input into the phone when I rang them - which I did. When I got through to an actual human person they told me they couldn't help me that there was no direct line number in Dublin unless I went through a similar process via the Contact Us section on the eBay website.

I called a few Irish numbers listed as eBay lines but none worked.

I finally tracked down a number in the UK, called it and was asked for a code as with Pay Pal didn't have one so just bashed in random numbers until it gave me another option. Next option was to enter your postcode into an automated system, same thing - based away nine or ten times until another truck load of options was presented. After twenty minutes of pressing 1 for this two for that I made it trough to the call centre in Manilla.

I told the same story to 3 different people who put me on hold five or six times while they went to consult different people. I began recording the call when I got through to a person, when I hung up the record time was 1hour 55 minutes not including the 20 - 25 minutes I spent trying to get through to them.

I'm dealing with the real deal here I'm afraid. I have been using eBay since 2008 and I am very vigilant. The item number was listed else where in the email.

ArthurGuinness

degsie wrote: »

A photo of the item prior to shipping would help.

I took photos of it just before putting it into the box, and when it was in the box etc. Offered this to ebay, they had no interest.

KomradeBishop

Ya if all this is accurate, this is incredibly screwed up behaviour from ebay, and perhaps it might be something that news websites would be interested in airing.

There is a semi-popular tech website that I read a lot, Pando Daily (semi-popular among the average reader, but highly popular among tech industry), which 'maybe' would be interested in airing this - but it's a small and very busy site, so maybe not - worth sending an email anyway, as they really like airing critical articles on Ebay (because of its founder, Pierre Omidyar), so maybe right up their alley: info@pandodaily.com

It'd be a very small/tiny news story compared to what they normally write about, but can't hurt to send an email.

GarIT

You said you had recordings of the phonecalls, post them on YouTube, it could get some attention.

*Check the legality of that first.

bluemartin

ArthurGuinness wrote: »

Hi Dubscottie.

Yes I am certain I was talking to eBay directly, all correspondence came through the messenger interface accessible through the my eBay platform.

I searched every section of the Contact Us pages on the website and its a nightmare. You have to go through a list of problems, click on the link that best suits your scenario and you are then advised to contact them by email or live chat depending on the issue. They say they are contactable by phone but I was never given the option.
I clicked on all troubleshooting issues and found no option to phone them.

I contacted them through Live Chat and asked for a phone number and I was directed back to the same page.

I tried calling Pay Pal in Dublin but couldn't access them unless a logged a fault via my Pay Pal page where they sent me a code via email to input into the phone when I rang them - which I did. When I got through to an actual human person they told me they couldn't help me that there was no direct line number in Dublin unless I went through a similar process via the Contact Us section on the eBay website.

I called a few Irish numbers listed as eBay lines but none worked.

I finally tracked down a number in the UK, called it and was asked for a code as with Pay Pal didn't have one so just bashed in random numbers until it gave me another option. Next option was to enter your postcode into an automated system, same thing - based away nine or ten times until another truck load of options was presented. After twenty minutes of pressing 1 for this two for that I made it trough to the call centre in Manilla.

I told the same story to 3 different people who put me on hold five or six times while they went to consult different people. I began recording the call when I got through to a person, when I hung up the record time was 1hour 55 minutes not including the 20 - 25 minutes I spent trying to get through to them.

I'm dealing with the real deal here I'm afraid. I have been using eBay since 2008 and I am very vigilant. The item number was listed else where in the email.

An astonishing and articulate description of Ebay customer service, absolutely appaling, it's enough to scare anyone away from using their service.

ShortyGotLow

Been using ebay on and off for the last few years and never had any trouble so far (touch wood), but this thread is really opening my eyes to what type of company they are. I'd be extra cautious dealing with them again in the future. I find Amazon's customer service incredible so try to use them more these days.

wmpdd3

OP looks like the eBay system is wide open to abuse.

What's doing me and a friend doing three sales /disputes a week like this and getting 6k from PayPal?

This makes aliexpress look good.

Is be very tempted to put this out in the public domain.

10-10-20

Very concerning practice.
I'm watching the outcome of this as it will affect my use of the site.

ArthurGuinness

Thanks for the kind words folks. I was thinking about uploading the full phone call to sound cloud and sharing it here but will have to check legality first. I am also going to get in touch with a few journalists. I can't do anything now except sit it out and see if I get the guitar back and if they will chase me for the money.

endacl

ArthurGuinness wrote: »

Thanks for the kind words folks. I was thinking about uploading the full phone call to sound cloud and sharing it here but will have to check legality first. I am also going to get in touch with a few journalists. I can't do anything now except sit it out and see if I get the guitar back and if they will chase me for the money.

I'd be careful about that. I'm open to correction, but unless you've specifically informed the other party (...for training and quality purposes etc.) you can't record them. Or broadcast them without consent.

On the other hand, do what you can to not let them away with it.

A Dub in Glasgo

I have been on ebay since 2001 and they always side with the buyers. It is incredibly easy for a buyer to scam a seller on ebay and it is the sellers who provide the income to ebay and paypal. There is no way whatsoever I would be selling such a valuable item on ebay.

I would abandon the ebay & paypal accounts and ignore ebay

Edit: I looked into this a little further and can see you sold the guitar on 13th November and received negative feedback soon after. The buyer protection conditions for SNAD is

1. Buyer to contact the seller, a case is then opened. Seller has 8 days to deal with it before ebay / paypal step in
2. During the case, it is usual for the seller to ask the buyer to return the item
3. It looks like Paypal stepped in after 8 days as the buyer did not get what they want
4. Ebay / Paypal will then look at it (probably superficially) and nearly always side with the buyer
5. They refund the buyer and then chase the seller

I think you made a mistake in not asking the buyer to return the guitar during those initial 8 days as ebay will not care about the merits of your defence. It would at least flush out if the buyer would seriously send a tracked parcel back to Ireland. At least you would have a broken guitar back and can chase the courier for damaging it (if

sassyj

I'd contact Conor Pope, does consumer affairs for the Irish Times

nlgbbbblth

I am surprised you actually got through to a human in Ebay. Their customer service is shocking. All automated / formula-type responses.

I think there was an employee of theirs posting on Boards a few years ago. Defensive and robotic.

Hope things work out for you.

9de5q7tsr8u2im

whats the current situation of this OP?

Rgb.ie

Did you withdraw the funds from the paypal account?

ctbfashion

hi,

yes i think we would all really be interested in following what happens in this situation maybe to help the rest of us in the future would appreciate an update when you have any news and get a chance

cheers and good luck.

regards,

Worried Ebay business seller.

ArthurGuinness

Hi folks, quick update on the current situation. Did not receive item back. Ebay sending me emails telling me to pay them back the £1899.00 plus €242.00 final value selling fee or an agent from their debt collection service will be assigned.

Tearin It Up

ArthurGuinness wrote: »

Hi folks, quick update on the current situation. Did not receive item back. Ebay sending me emails telling me to pay them back the £1899.00 plus €242.00 final value selling fee or an agent from their debt collection service will be assigned.

Its alot of money, considering you gave away your guitar for free. It doesnt take two weeks to send back a guitar. How about getting some legal advice.