3 ms·

Some older methods of seller fraud don't work anymore, but there are plenty of new ones that do. I had a seller try to steal $20k from me-- and they told me ri

by nullc 4y ago

Some older methods of seller fraud don't work anymore, but there are plenty of new ones that do. I had a seller try to steal $20k from me-- and they told me right out that eBay wouldn't refund it. They were right. In my case the seller sent an item which was ultimately delivered back to them (they seem to have intentionally munged the delivery details so that a delivery to me was never even attempted). The tracking however ultimately showed "delivered" and that's all eBay cared about. I even got a phone recording of the seller admitting they had it back then demanding more money from me to send it again! Ebay didn't care. (Maybe the seller actually would have come through if I'd paid their ransom but I surely wasn't going to send more money to someone who was trying to screw me over) Through extraordinary effort I even got the full detailed shipment history, including showing it going back to the seller's address (which AFAICT the shipper wasn't really supposed to give me but I basically spent a whole day at their offices). Ebay didn't care, they demanded a letter from FedEx corp on Fedex letter head saying the package wasn't delivered to me (even though you could just see that from the cities named in the online tracking-- it never even made it into my state). I couldn't find any way to extract such a thing from Fedex even with another trip back to their offices. So ebay ruled against me, absurd. Fortunately I was still within the window to reverse the charge on my credit card (though ebay wasted enough time that I almost wasn't)-- and the credit card took care of it. Back to the topic: This law would have done nothing for me. I was already able to track down the sellers identity without difficulty-- but what am I to do with that? I could sue them at great cost with years of trouble and time and a substantial risk that I get nothing-- including my legal costs-- because they're bankrupt or vanish. Honestly I would have much rather spent my time and money suing eBay since at least there would be a possibility of recovery if I won. My entire problem was ebay's pants on head stupid policy that regarded a package as delivered to me even when the tracking made it completely clear that it wasn't. I don't think the seller even had to lie to ebay: they simply had to respond "Here is the delivered tracking number: xyz".

FireBeyond 4y ago
> My entire problem was ebay's pants on head stupid policy that regarded a package as delivered to me even when the tracking made it completely clear that it wasn't. I don't think the seller even had to lie to ebay: they simply had to respond "Here is the delivered tracking number: xyz". Yup. With apologies to the BOFH comics of old... "Click. Delivered. Close dispute. Clickety-click. On to the next one." > Back to the topic: This law would have done nothing for me. I was already able to track down the sellers identity without difficulty-- but what am I to do with that? I could sue them at great cost with years of trouble and time and a substantial risk that I get nothing-- including my legal costs-- because they're bankrupt or vanish. Honestly I would have much rather spent my time and money suing eBay since at least there would be a possibility of recovery if I won. A month after "losing" a phone a guy calls me from a couple of states away. "Hey, I bought a phone on eBay and it's apparently yours. If you got a new one through insurance, could you unlock it for me? I mean, I know it sucks, but you got a new phone and this way I am not getting scammed too". Set of balls on him. I said I wasn't willing to do that, because how do I know he wasn't responsible for my phone being "lost"? So we figured something out. He reached out to the seller, asked for a refund. Seller said "pound sand". I didn't know at the time, but the seller lived -very- close to me. He says to seller. "I am in contact with the legitimate owner of the phone. Refund me or he gets all your contact details." Seller refunds. Buyer gives me all his info anyway. I check out his eBay page, and it's the most blatant case of selling stolen electronics ever. Not just "broken/parts only". But 50+ MacBooks, most "missing charger/accessories", same with phones "no accessories included, as-is". I look at the listing for mine and the IMEI is on the page, to give the illusion of legitimacy. But the last two digits are transposed, so it's not valid. To a cursory buyer, "must be legit, or he wouldn't put the IMEI on the page", to me, who lost my phone, in the event I searched the IMEI, no results. All of the IMEIs were like this, last two digits transposed. Call the police. "Hey, this guy is selling hundreds of thousands of stolen goods". They could not care less. "Well, he probably didn't steal them himself" Uhh? Fairly sure that's still a crime, especially when it's obvious from your listings that you're covering that up. "Not much we can do. Sorry." Whatever. I resisted the urge to drive to his house and pour sugar and water in his gas, but only just.

by nullc 4y ago

FireBeyond 4y ago

> My entire problem was ebay's pants on head stupid policy that regarded a package as delivered to me even when the tracking made it completely clear that it wasn't. I don't think the seller even had to lie to ebay: they simply had to respond "Here is the delivered tracking number: xyz". Yup. With apologies to the BOFH comics of old... "Click. Delivered. Close dispute. Clickety-click. On to the next one." > Back to the topic: This law would have done nothing for me. I was already able to track down the sellers identity without difficulty-- but what am I to do with that? I could sue them at great cost with years of trouble and time and a substantial risk that I get nothing-- including my legal costs-- because they're bankrupt or vanish. Honestly I would have much rather spent my time and money suing eBay since at least there would be a possibility of recovery if I won. A month after "losing" a phone a guy calls me from a couple of states away. "Hey, I bought a phone on eBay and it's apparently yours. If you got a new one through insurance, could you unlock it for me? I mean, I know it sucks, but you got a new phone and this way I am not getting scammed too". Set of balls on him. I said I wasn't willing to do that, because how do I know he wasn't responsible for my phone being "lost"? So we figured something out. He reached out to the seller, asked for a refund. Seller said "pound sand". I didn't know at the time, but the seller lived -very- close to me. He says to seller. "I am in contact with the legitimate owner of the phone. Refund me or he gets all your contact details." Seller refunds. Buyer gives me all his info anyway. I check out his eBay page, and it's the most blatant case of selling stolen electronics ever. Not just "broken/parts only". But 50+ MacBooks, most "missing charger/accessories", same with phones "no accessories included, as-is". I look at the listing for mine and the IMEI is on the page, to give the illusion of legitimacy. But the last two digits are transposed, so it's not valid. To a cursory buyer, "must be legit, or he wouldn't put the IMEI on the page", to me, who lost my phone, in the event I searched the IMEI, no results. All of the IMEIs were like this, last two digits transposed. Call the police. "Hey, this guy is selling hundreds of thousands of stolen goods". They could not care less. "Well, he probably didn't steal them himself" Uhh? Fairly sure that's still a crime, especially when it's obvious from your listings that you're covering that up. "Not much we can do. Sorry." Whatever. I resisted the urge to drive to his house and pour sugar and water in his gas, but only just.