Beware scammer, and I dont care if I lose my money. Im giving a negative comment.

zzs568
Community Member

I have paid for an external ssd drive advertised as 16tb capacity, the drive in fact held barely 1tb. After googling for information ,I soon became aware that this was a scam,and a number of different sellers were offering the same at similar prices. I alerted the seller to the fact that this unit was not what was claimed to be, and asked for a refund. I promptly sent the item back with a request for a signature on return to place of origin. The Seller informed me he would refund me the item after I had firstly left a "positive" comment. The fact is though that their item was falsely advertised as being 20 times the capacity it could hold. I would be lying to give a positive comment, and not only that- The seller wanted a positive comment first, before he would return it. That to me is blackmail. I suggested this to the seller, his reply was that he would refund it after it had returned and after I had made a positive comment first. Because it would be bad publicity for him. I checked with australia post. It was returned 4 days ago. And having to been "signatured for" I know he received it. Even though his last message suggests he has not recieved it.I cannot leave a positive comment. That would be a lie and helping the next victim believe the item was genuine. I want my money refunded, but I will not leave a positive comment. I have kept a copy of our entire conversations as proof.
Stan.

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Re: Beware scammer, and I dont care if I lose my money. Im giving a negative comment.

By the way, some time ago somebody came here with a similar case. They had even opened the external case and inside... there was not even a drive but just a memory card, which explains why the so-called external SSDs on eBay are so tiny (at least some of them). The real ones are not so tiny if you look again at the OfficeWorks link.

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Re: Beware scammer, and I dont care if I lose my money. Im giving a negative comment.

yes, via ebay messages. and sent myself  a copy to my email for proof as well.

 

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Re: Beware scammer, and I dont care if I lose my money. Im giving a negative comment.

To start a live chat, you have to go to the help page, scroll down to "contact us" and go through all the options until a live chat window appears. Do it first thing after the long weekend, or even on Monday, as it is not a public holiday everywhere.

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Re: Beware scammer, and I dont care if I lose my money. Im giving a negative comment.

Yes, thats how I realised I was too naive. -It was too good to be true. I soon found it would cast $1000 if it was real. Not $50

 

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Re: Beware scammer, and I dont care if I lose my money. Im giving a negative comment.

Onto that, now.

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Re: Beware scammer, and I dont care if I lose my money. Im giving a negative comment.

I’ll repeat – did you open a refund request/case within eBay?

 

eBay's refund/returns process (under its MBG) is entirely bot-driven, and you must act according to the requirements explained very clearly in the MBG policy page.

 

You can’t simply send the item back to the address on the parcel. That would almost certainly be a logistics company/warehouse address, not the seller’s address (in China). 

You can’t use your own means to provide evidence of returning the item. eBay will not really care about emails and chats. It’s bot-driven; eBay has specified what evidence is required.

 

To be refunded, you have to open a case in eBay, give the seller three days to resolve (by refunding you or by accepting a return - in which case you send back to the address given in the dispute, or by offering a replacement – which I would certainly not advise anyone to accept from a Chinese eBay seller), and if the seller doesn’t resolve within that time period, you will see an option appear for you to ask eBay to “step in”, which would see you refunded in full.

 

You're so fixated on giving feedback. Did the negative comments in the seller’s feedback stop you from buying? No. Chances are high that the seller would get the neg removed (as eBay China is a different kettle of fish from eBay Australia and the Chinese eBay sellers get away with egregious behaviour)… or the seller would continue to bug you for feedback revision or they’d simply retire the current account temporarily until the negatives slide off the 12-month period, in the meantime using their other account/s to sell. If you think you can make them sorry for cheating you, think again.

 

The ONLY recourse that will hurt them and give you recompense is to follow through with refund dispute.

 

Since you’ve already sent back the item to some NSW address, it’s not looking good for you, but try to convince eBay Live Chat reps that you erred through inexperience, and push for the refund with the utmost politeness.

 

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Re: Beware scammer, and I dont care if I lose my money. Im giving a negative comment.

I went to purchase history and did return item thingy.

 

Message 17 of 34
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Re: Beware scammer, and I dont care if I lose my money. Im giving a negative comment.

Good.

 

You are certainly not obliged to give the seller a positive in exchange for your refund!

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Re: Beware scammer, and I dont care if I lose my money. Im giving a negative comment.

Im only "fixated on feedback" because it is obvious to me the seller wants to avoid negative feedback. He has stated that 3 times in messages to me. I never read the comments he had previously received until just recently.

 

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Re: Beware scammer, and I dont care if I lose my money. Im giving a negative comment.

https://www.ebay.com.au/help/policies/feedback-policies/feedback-extortion-policy?id=4230

Sellers aren't allowed to:

  • Demand that buyers take actions related to Feedback in order to receive their purchased items, such as requiring a buyer to leave positive Feedback and high DSRs before they'll dispatch the order
  • Offer refunds or other monetary compensation, or additional items or services that weren't part of the original listing, in exchange for buyers leaving specific Feedback or revising negative or neutral Feedback

It is also important to look at the seller's feedback before buying. If you do, you will avoid unpleasant situations like this in the future.

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