ArkiStan

Usually with that type of feedback score, I don't think twice about buying. Isn't that what feedback scores are all about? But I guess I just got reeeeeally unlucky. The guy was selling twenty $200 Amazon gift codes for $180 (Buy It Now) each. He had tons of feedback from people who had bought that exact item from him many times. I must admit, this is a petty petty scam by typical eBay fraud standards, but It's still pretty disappointing. You'd think that with all the time and effort that he put in to getting that perfect feedback score, he'd exit with a much larger scale heist. $3600? What a small-time crook. I've filed a claim with PayPal, but because it's not a tangible product, I'm not getting my hopes up too high.

Oh well. **** happens.

Stan

SteveB

If you filed your dispute within 45 days and follow up when you get the letter to upgrade to a claim you should get the money back. See my thread in here about the issue I had getting money back from paypal.
Don't give up !!

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lindysd

Good luck with that and keep us posted on the subject.

Thanks.

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ArkiStan

I did get the letter directly from eBay's Loss Prevention Department telling me to open a dispute and escalate to a claim. I did that so hopefully things will turn out well. Thanks for the encouragement. SteveB. It really would be great if I got my money back.

ArkiStan

I will. Thanks lindysd.

mojo

as good as ebay can be, sometimes it's also a real bitch.

good luck, stan

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nate el bueno

Unless you looked at the feedback of the people who bought from him, he could have created his own feedback through multiple accounts. I think that all that would require is a different email address, because I believe you can have several accounts from the same home.

ArkiStan

Yeah. I guess I never checked how many "unique users" he got his feedback from. anybody have any idea how long it takes for these claims to be processed?

SteveB

I wouldn't just work with ebay, go to paypal too and do the same thing.
Do you fund your paypal account with a credit card? If you do, file a dispute with them, the credit card. right away. Then paypal will fight with the seller because they have already been charged back for the money.
If they agree with your dispute you will get the money in a few days normally.

Prngr44

I didn't think multiple positives from the same user increased your feedback total overall?

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Markel

A personal friend almost got scammed on a very expensive camera sale through eBay. It turned out that the scammer had hijacked the account of someone with perfect feedback. In this case, through some link with the sale the buyer was able to find the home telephone number of the scammer (sent a package with a used music CD inside). They called him and told him his fingerprints were on the CD case, that they had his personal information, and unless he immediately refunded the several thousand dollars the information would be furnished to the authorities. He returned the money, but sadly [NOT!] the authorities had somehow already become involved....

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ArkiStan

I'm woking through PayPal at the moment. I have an open claim and PayPal is working on it, I believe. I've heard bad things about claims on intangible items (gift codes sold through email) though and not getting my hopes up too high. It's heartbreaking, yes, but thanksfully it's not an amount of money that will put me out on the street.

WhiskeyPapa

It's not unusual for eBay scammers to set up an ID, conduct several minor auctions to gather a positive history, then run their scam. However, 90 unique positive feedbacks is sort of high for that type of activity.

I'd say it's more likely that his account was compromised through some phishing email.

Anyway, forget "working through PayPal at this moment" - file a claim right now with your credit card. This is no time to play nice.

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ArkiStan

My Paypal is setup with my debit card and checking account....ugh...

Any advice?

SteveB

If you haven't already, then file a dispute with your bank. Same as filing with a credit card. When I spoke with my bank it didn't sound promising but it's worth a try.
Stay on paypal, I know they got tired of hearing from me but it paid off in the end. I will go ahead and state the obvious, make sure in the future that you don't fund paypal with your debit/check card.

WhiskeyPapa

It's alright to fund a PayPal transaction with your debit card, as long as you run that transaction through as a Visa/MasterCard. When you do that, you are covered by Visa and MasterCard's zero liability policy. If you let PayPal take the money out of your checking account, then you have no options other than working through PayPal.

One thing on your side is that this guy probably scammed 19 other people. PayPal is more likely to believe you when they've got other people making the same claim.

DarkFury

This is probably my biggest gripe with PayPal...

They won't let you default your payment to your credit card, therefore with every transaction you have to manually switch it to credit card... and then it asks you "Are you sure... there are so many more benefits from using your bank account... etc, etc.."

I'm like... YEAH, I'm sure... Why do they have to make it so hard on that part? Do they make more money on non CC charges? Probably... I'd think. Visa/Mastercard must be charging them a fee as well which THEY are trying to avoid.

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beachgirl

ebay just changed their rating system. take a look see.

SteveB

It is OK to fund paypal with your debit/check card but using a regular credit card gives you one more means of disputing a bad deal. When I had my problem my bank treated the transaction as a withdrawal. The form I was given to fill out didn't really seem to cover what had happened. Luckily paypal gave me the money back the day I got the form from the bank so I didn't have to go through them.

_=DeltaForce=_

See if you can contact the bank and file a dispute. It worked for me once. I use credit card (Amex) all the time when paying through paypal..

ArkiStan

Thanks for the encouragement people. I guess there CAN be positive experiences with Paypal afterall. Thankfully, I won't have to nag the bank now.

Daedalus

Wow, really glad to hear it.

cadetevon

That's so cool! Congrats.

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