Anyone got cheated in eBay before?

[Son of Matrix]

Tomorrow is the next business day so hopefully Son of Matrix will have some luck.. I know its unlikely... But lets see...

If S.O.M decides he wishes to contact police, would he be able to recover his funds?

Best of Luck S.O.M, and hope you are able to recover your funds with ease, an d that police are co-operative. Excuse the idiots on the forum who wish to be rude and forget the fact that 1300GBP is a large sum of money to lose.

Hi Zainjetha, you are such a nice person! However, by posting this, I stand ready to be humiliated as long as some other people will not get cheated by that guy again. I think that is more important to me than my own humiliation. I will be giving him one last chance tomorrow.

Thank you for your support and prayers. What goes around comes around.

 

[cheekybobcat]

I think people are too paranoid these days. Not everyone is a scammer and I know for a fact that people make sort of a living from eBay.
My buddy buys and sells on eBay all the time. You guys have to have some trust in human kind. Not everyone is out to get you...
Although it does seem fishy with 4 identical MBPs, who knows how he got them. I know my pops got 2 Dell laptops from work and sold them both on eBay. They were identical.
Have some faith man. I think you'll get it.
I hope you do. It's a great machine
And even if you don't, worse comes to worse, I'm sure that the authorities can track him via IP address or some other way. Good luck though S.O.M. You had faith in man; I hope your faith is held in good hands...

 

[spooky mulder]

call ur bank this sounds like a scam...

 

[Son of Matrix]

call ur bank this sounds like a scam...

The bank will not do anything as they cannot freeze the amount I have banked in to him with cash as I am not the authorised signatory of his bank account. I have talked to the bank manager about this and the only thing I can do is to go to police. I think it's worth to save few more months more to get a first hand laptop or a refurbished laptop from Apple. At least you have the peace of mind and WILL have something.

I think he is a really amateur scammer or a real seller. We shall see tomorrow.

 

[Hankster]

I think people are too paranoid these days. Not everyone is a scammer and I know for a fact that people make sort of a living from eBay.
My buddy buys and sells on eBay all the time. You guys have to have some trust in human kind. Not everyone is out to get you...
Although it does seem fishy with 4 identical MBPs, who knows how he got them. I know my pops got 2 Dell laptops from work and sold them both on eBay. They were identical.
Have some faith man. I think you'll get it.
I hope you do. It's a great machine
And even if you don't, worse comes to worse, I'm sure that the authorities can track him via IP address or some other way. Good luck though S.O.M. You had faith in man; I hope your faith is held in good hands...

Does your friend ask his buyers to deposit money directly into his bank account? Does he keep in communication with his buyers? Does he answer the phone when his buyers call him or reply when emailed?

I do hope this seller isn't a jerkoff and the OPer gets his machine, but usually there's a reason a person feels scammed. Good luck tomorrow.

 

[Hello.there]

Ah people, some of you are being awful harsh on the OP! He's admitted he's been daft but since when was being daft a hangable offence? He'll learn from this, but let's reserve our contempt for the scumbag who appears to have scammed him.

 

[cheekybobcat]

Does your friend ask his buyers to deposit money directly into his bank account? Does he keep in communication with his buyers? Does he answer the phone when his buyers call him or reply when emailed?

I do hope this seller isn't a jerkoff and the OPer gets his machine, but usually there's a reason a person feels scammed. Good luck tomorrow.

No. Haha. He accepts PayPal and normally keeps in contact via e-mail. I don't know if he has ever given a phone number but I do know he is very into his e-mail and checks it several times a day. He is a legit seller; and hopefully so is the guy S.O.M. bought from.

Ah people, some of you are being awful harsh on the OP! He's admitted he's been daft but since when was being daft a hangable offence? He'll learn from this, but let's reserve our contempt for the scumbag who appears to have scammed him.

Personally, I am not trying to take shots at S.O.M. Simply trying to reassure him of the decency of human kind. There are more good then bad in the world; it's just that the bad get all the coverage.
Again, good luck S.O.M. I whole-heartedly hope that you will wake tomorrow, hear a knock, and find a nice MBP for you to dabble with the rest of the day.

 

[spacecadet610]

Everyone makes mistakes; seems he has learned his lesson.

hope it works out well in the end!

 

[chinarider]

No joke there. If you're bored you can read my VERY long post about this subject: http://adventuresandbox.com/2007/11/15/my-ebay-and-paypal-nightmare

Long story short, it turned out OK but the buyer lied to PayPal and there was pretty much nothing that I as a seller could do. Totally sucks.

To be honest, seems like this buyer is more a Moron then a scammer. A 120g drive will NOT read 120g, even when empty. He was probably reading the free space with OS installed.

 

[kfordham281]

To be honest, seems like this buyer is more a Moron then a scammer. A 120g drive will NOT read 120g, even when empty. He was probably reading the free space with OS installed.

That could have been the case. But to lie to Paypal about contacting me throws up a huge red flag in my book no matter if the guy was a moron or not. In the end it turned out in my favor anyways but the hassle dealing with it all was a pain in the @ss...

 

[zainjetha]

Excuse my negativity, but would it be late to cancel the transaction, considering it happened on Friday...

SOM, call your seller from a private number and ask him whether the goods have been dispatched, he should have DHLem them to you, otherwise suggest meeting in a spot accessible by the two of you. Perhaps Euston wouldn't be too hard to get to for the both of you considering he's on the outskirts of London, and the exchange of machine could take place there??

Keep pestering the bastard, you have every right to... Keep at him.. And write a review on him at ebay.co.uk to prevent this happen ing.

 

[Son of Matrix]

Excuse my negativity, but would it be late to cancel the transaction, considering it happened on Friday...

SOM, call your seller from a private number and ask him whether the goods have been dispatched, he should have DHLem them to you, otherwise suggest meeting in a spot accessible by the two of you. Perhaps Euston wouldn't be too hard to get to for the both of you considering he's on the outskirts of London, and the exchange of machine could take place there??

Keep pestering the bastard, you have every right to... Keep at him.. And write a review on him at ebay.co.uk to prevent this happen ing.

He did not reply my e-bay message.
I have SMSed him today at 10:37 am, as below:-
My friend, lets cut the long story short. 3 choices for you today:
1) Send the laptop and give me the tracking no.
2) If you cant deliver, write me a cheque to the (my name) and give me the tracking no.
3) Expect a call from the police.

If I dont receive a response on 1 and 2 today, then you have chosen your karma. Hope you can make the correct decision. Think about it. Last chance before you live in fear as a criminal.

---------------------------------------------------
and Guess what???

NO REPLY FROM HIM. oh well...

 

[zainjetha]

Sorry SOM, to ask a stupid Q.

Why SMS him, keep calling him? SMS gives him the option not to reply.... keep at him.... He will eventually answer your call? Does his eBay profile say his address or would bank be willing to disclose this info?

I highly suggest confronting the bastard face to face and demand:
I)the machine or money back
II)an apology (on his knees) for wasting your precious time...

 

[ChrisK018]

I recently bought a pricey vintage guitar off eBay with the "Buy It Now" feature. The pictures were not that great, but it looked authentic enough. The guy contacted me right away-- to say it would be a few days before he could send it due to a 'family emergency...' but he did send it-- and emailed me the packing slip info.

When the guitar showed up it looked a bit dodgy, but I had it checked out-- and it was authentic.

I realize that my little tale has little to do with the shady seller the OP is dealing with, but after a number of stressful days and worrying that I got shafted by scammer in Arkansas (really), my story has a happy ending.

Good luck!

 

[acearchie]

Reminiscing when my dad bought something off eBay only to lose it all... the guy had sold the item legitimately then decided in his last move to sell 10 of them with no actual product....

The police were never able to recover my dads money!

I don't want to deter you but these things sometimes cant be resolved!

 

[RedTomato]

While I agree it's possibly a scam, are we being a little bit quick here?

If I understand it right, the OP sent the money on Friday 4th April. It's now Monday 7th April. It's a little early to start threating violence, bad karma etc.

He could be a scammer, or he could be someone with a job, a life and a family, who can't get to the bank to check his money's arrived for a couple of days yet, or can't get to the post office, or needs to clear off his old data from the laptop.

To be honest, if it was me selling a laptop on Ebay, it'd take me a few days to get everything sorted out. I had to wait 2 weeks for Apple UK to deliver me a monitor adapter for my macbook. They have a slightly more slick shipping operation, but still took a few days to email me a shipping tracking number.

The OP has all the details needed for a full report to the police, let's calm it for a bit OK?

 

[brad.c]

While I agree it's possibly a scam, are we being a little bit quick here?

I agree. It's far too soon to find out that you've been scammed, and far too late to stop it from happening.

I hope this works out for the best, and I understand being antsy for a resolution, but it's quite possible the seller is legit, but slow. Pelting him with increasingly threatening demands due to buyers remorse is not going to help. Even if he's legit, that will not make him move faster.

Personally, I had an eBay experience with a software reseller that was (to my understanding) skimming the surface of legality by selling a volume piecemeal as part of an upgrade-to-own path. I discovered this after the fact and challenged the purchase, but instead of assuming the worst, I was polite, patient and firm. In the end, we reached a fair and agreeable compromise.

I hope your experience turns out positive!

 

[Son of Matrix]

Sorry SOM, to ask a stupid Q.

Why SMS him, keep calling him? SMS gives him the option not to reply.... keep at him.... He will eventually answer your call? Does his eBay profile say his address or would bank be willing to disclose this info?

I highly suggest confronting the bastard face to face and demand:
I)the machine or money back
II)an apology (on his knees) for wasting your precious time...

Yeah, he's not answering my calls and I left him voicemail on both his phones. His not replying means that he wants me to go to the police.

He has smsed me last Wednesday that he has received my money!!! (Not sure why he do that. If he is a really really really scammer, he won't be bothered at all to reply or he is just playing with time to scam more people???)

I will write a report to ebay saying that this seller is suspicious and ask them to suspend his account. I mean if he has some family problem or other issues, he can tell me first but I will at the same time still suspect he's conning. Until I receive my laptop, I am highly suspicious on this transaction.

He has even relist the item for the 2nd time on Sunday but didn't bother to reply my message to him that I sent on Friday.

Oh yeah. I will not be meeting him in person for fear of getting mugged by him or something. You will never know. Better be safe then losing a life or spending some time in the hospital if he gets violent.

 

[arkitect]

This is surely no comfort, but:

I have used and traded on eBay since 1997 — and the one thing that never fails to astonish me is how bad some people are at communication.

This person might just be one of those.

I hope it still works out for you.

 

[LeahM]

Yeah, he's not answering my calls and I left him voicemail on both his phones. His not replying means that he wants me to go to the police.

He has smsed me last Wednesday that he has received my money!!! (Not sure why he do that. If he is a really really really scammer, he won't be bothered at all to reply or he is just playing with time to scam more people???)

I will write a report to ebay saying that this seller is suspicious and ask them to suspend his account. I mean if he has some family problem or other issues, he can tell me first but I will at the same time still suspect he's conning. Until I receive my laptop, I am highly suspicious on this transaction.

He has even relist the item for the 2nd time on Sunday but didn't bother to reply my message to him that I sent on Friday.

Oh yeah. I will not be meeting him in person for fear of getting mugged by him or something. You will never know. Better be safe then losing a life or spending some time in the hospital if he gets violent.

Take a screen shot of the ebay ad that way you can say that he keeps relisting it. That way you have some evidence. Or something atleast. You just never know.

 

[applemax]

I'll never buy anything on eBay for more than £50. S.O.M. - if i were you, I'd name and shame him on here - we can do some digging for you who knows, one of us might know him!

Check this guy out - http://blog.mcfearsome.com/2008/03/22/wow-your-a-moron/

similar situation to you (he had his stuff stolen). He released his details online, the geeks got digging and they got his stuff back.

 

[acearchie]

Give us his username...

Some of us may fall into the same trap if you dont

Also try searching his username on google... I for one always sign up for things acearchie (silly I know and you can dig up a whole lot of stuff on me from doing that!)

See if he does aswell and maybe one will have his address or other useful information!

 

[RedTomato]

He has smsed me last Wednesday that he has received my money!

I didn't know that. That's good news. Basically, you have his bank details, his phone number, and an SMS confirmation that he received your money.

I've read a few other scam stories, and most other people who get scammed never get that much information. The SMS message can easily be dug up by the phone company with a legal order.

Keep a diary of when you won the bid, his account details, what time he texted you, when and what messages you sent him, any responses etc.

Yeah, he's not answering my calls and I left him voicemail on both his phones. His not replying means that he wants me to go to the police.

No it doesn't. You're over-reading it. It just means he's not communicating. Personally I'm more leaning towards the bad communicator theory.

I will write a report to ebay saying that this seller is suspicious and ask them to suspend his account.

As said above, it's too early. Give him a chance. Waiting a few days to make your report won't harm your report.

I mean if he has some family problem or other issues, he can tell me first

Why should he tell a stranger? Most adults I know are reluctant to make excuses or tell a stranger about a personal issue.

Oh yeah. I will not be meeting him in person for fear of getting mugged by him or something. You will never know. Better be safe then losing a life or spending some time in the hospital if he gets violent.

Why would he mug you? He's the one carrying a £1300 laptop. You've already paid for it, you won't be carrying any money. And you already have his personal details. Arrange to meet him in the pub inside Euston station or some other very public place. London's mainline stations are some of the most heavily surveilled public places in the world. You're probably safer in Euston than in your own home. There's even an excellent newly built UCL hospital over the road (only joking )

 

[mashny]

I never have and never would pay directly to someone's bank account (or use a money order or check) because if a problem arises you have no recourse.

I had a problem a couple of years ago when I bought a set of computer speakers for about $125. The left and right speakers worked, but the subwoofer was toast. I emailed him requesting a refund and he obnoxiously replied something like, "Hey, didn't you read the fine print? I said the speakers are sold 'as is,' so you get what you get. You get no refund." I considered complaining to PayPal but decided it was not in their best interest to help me, so I called American Express (the card I used to pay my PayPal purchases). I also figured that over the years I had spent over $100,000 on Amex, so they would have that much more incentive to help me. Amex took the information and said they would contact the seller and give him a chance to tell his side of the story. About a month later I got an email from Amex saying that the seller never replied to their query, and that they would credit my account the $125. I then contacted the seller explaining the situation, adding that if he wanted his speakers back it would be at his expense. I gave him the pickup address and he did indeed pay to have them sent back to him. Interestingly, he never gave me feedback. I'm sure if Amex had decided in his favor he would have trashed me in the feedback, but he realized it was not in his best interest to do so.

After that happened, PayPal canceled my account, saying I had failed to live up to my contractual obligations... I now use my wife's PayPal account when necessary.

The lesson is, NEVER pay for anything on eBay if that payment method gives you no recourse should something go wrong (my sister just got scammed by about $200 on a guitar she bought on eBay using a money order to pay). And, if it's a significant amount of money, don't rely on PayPal: complain to the credit card company. In my experience, American Express is by far the most helpful when it comes to dispute resolution.

 

[jackc]

After that happened, PayPal canceled my account, saying I had failed to live up to my contractual obligations... I now use my wife's PayPal account when necessary.

Really, what is their justification? According to your credit card company it was a legitimate dispute, they should be glad they didn't have to deal with it.