I used Paypal's Buyer Protection to get my money back on an Ebay item. It took a while to go through the dispute process but eventually my $11.98 was credited back to me. It was a lot of trouble considering the small amount of money, but there was a principal involved.
The auction took place in September. I purchased a cell phone charger but when it arrived, it was not the one described and pictured. I emailed the seller and told him I was returning the item. Of course I paid a little extra at the post office and got a delivery confirmation. Several days after the item was delivered to the seller, I emailed him again... and again. No response.
Paypal requires that you open a dispute within 45 days of the original transaction in order to use their guarantee. So when the deadline approached, I opened the dispute. This action sends a message to the seller letting him know and giving him a chance to respond. Eventually he offered to refund a small portion of my money, but I held out for the whole amount. It was fortunate that I still had the post office tracking information; I had to submit it to Paypal so that they could verify that I returned the item. But finally I won my case.
I also left negative feedback for the seller on ebay. He retaliated by leaving negative feedback for me! Later he offered to retract it if I would retract mine. I did not. So I have one negative feedback.
The seller uses the names Sandiskman, Cellularking, and XMRadioKing. He has 97% positive feedback so obviously he doesn't rip off everybody. Of course, a policy of leaving retaliatory feedback and then offering to retract it if you drop yours probably gets rid of a lot of negative scores and boosts his percentage. I see that he is a Square Trade Member and it looks like they actually encourage this sort of feedback trading!
ReplyDeleteThat's an appalling practice. You should write to eBay customer service!
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