Hi Everyone,

Just thought I should mention here about one method of Scam sellers are using.  I got caught out, fortunately was able to recover my payment via paypal but it was a stressful event to go through so if I can save someone else the same misfortune...please read on.

I have purchased a number of items from China and never had any problems what so ever.  I recently purchased a Brand new Polar Heart Rate monitor from a user with good feedback on an account that had been operating for over a year. In theory safe.

The item was dispatched with tracking the same day I purchased, all good I thought.  During the next 2 weeks I noticed that the seller was starting to receive BAD feedback.   They then made their profile private so comments could not be read.

About 2 weeks later I received my item.  Not a heart rate monitor watch but a Red Piece of string with a plastic carving attached....bit like a lucky charm...or not so lucky in my case.

I immediately tried to lodge a dispute on EBay BUT the seller had listed the item under vehicles/Go Karts which are not eligible for disputes online as it is assumed you pickup the item.  So I called EBay who said I needed to try and contact the buyer, after about 10 Days I would be able to lodge a formal dispute. 

A great delay tack-tick by the seller.

I instead opted to call PayPal who froze the payment until an investigation had been completed.  They assured me this would be sorted and I would get my money back.  About 4 days passed and PayPal then requested I send the item back to the seller for a refund using a tracking service.  They ignored the fact that I had been scammed and were treating this as a normal "not as described case"

I then investigated myself and found that the Sellers Ebay address was non existent. Their contact phone number was just a music service and the address paypal told me to send the item back too was also non existent. Ie They asked me to send it to a random character name with numbers in it. Not even a real persons name. The actual address was nothing more than a city and country SO had I returned the piece of string it would never have arrived.

Yet more delay tack ticks by the seller.

I then called Paypal again with my new evidence. The call centre representative was quite adamant that I had to send the piece if string back. They even refused me sending them a picture/evidence of what I had actually received and starting to real off some legal terms that I would have to get a police report etc etc. At this point I demanded that I talk with a manager. I was put on hold and then told my case had been ruled in my favour and a refund had just been made.

Since then I have seen the same article using the exact same description being listed by random seller id’s. Whilst I have reported the items to Ebay, they continue to be left active, people are buying the items and now I’m starting to see bad feedback again on these other accounts.

So my advice to others…..

Check the item is in the right category….or at least one that can be disputed online.

Do not accept the run around that you are likely to get from Ebay / Paypal during a dispute. I could quite have easily posted the piece of string back but realised it would never have arrived and a refund would have been further delayed if paid at all.

Happy Ebaying