topic Re: Need urgent advice on problematic purchase in Buying

Need urgent advice on problematic purchase

redtrinity777 — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 23:19:41 GMT

Hey guys,

On Sun 18th November I purchased a piece of DJ equipment for my husband from a new seller in Canada, and paid instantly for it (Paypal instant bank transfer).

All seemed well, however, the next day I received the following message from the seller:

"Deer Customer. im very sorry to inform you I had the wrong pay pal account set up to my ebay... i forgot to type in a few numbers at the end of my paypal login. the write pay pal is ******@gmail.com."

I immediately went into a panic when I realised that my $190 had been claimed on the other end by someone named 'Sarah D'. I spent the morning on the phone to both Ebay and Paypal, who instructed me to contact the person via their supplied email address and ask for the funds back - if there was no action taken on their part by the end of this week, then Paypal was prepared to force it out of their account and return it to me.

Anyway, I sent a polite but direct email to this Sarah person, and prepared to wait for a hopeful response.

That afternoon, I get another message via Ebay from the seller:

"Hey sorry about the mix up on the mixtrack pro. I've got it all figured out. I isued a refund to your paypal account if you would like to complete the purchase please send payment of 190.00 USD to my bank verifed paypal account: *****(at)gmail(dot)com. Thanks for your patience for I am new to eBay but not new to business or customer Service. Let me know iff you have any questions.

Sarah."

I also notice that my funds have now been refunded. Confusing, but obviously the seller WAS on the end of the original email/paypal account. The refund also had this message attached to it:

"send payment to ******@gmail.com to complete transaction. I will ship tuesday with tracking. Thanks".

Despite the initial problems, my husband is still keen to go ahead with the sale, so by his request, I re-forward the payment to the new email address supplied (directly via Paypal, since I was unsure whether they had updated their email address info on Ebay yet) along with all the item details in the payment description (item ID etc) just to be safe.

The payment was claimed the following morning.

Anyway, since then on 19th November (5 days ago) I have been unable to contact the seller at all. I have sent them 2 messages over Ebay, asking if they have posted the item as expected, asking for a tracking number (I paid an extra $10 for express post w/ tracking), any sort of update on what was going on.... no response whatsoever.

I don't know what to do. My husband says we should just wait and see if the parcel arrives next week ("maybe they haven't been checking their email?" is his justification) and assume they posted it on Tuesday as they said they would. On the other hand, I have a bad gut feeling over this sale, from the initial payment account problems to no communications, and am really starting to reconsider it.

I also admit I had bad feelings to begin with over purchasing from a new seller (0 feedback, member for 1 day) however hubby reassured me that the buyer protection program would save us from any issues, so we should chance it - this is the cheapest price he has been able to get this particular piece of DJ equipment for, so he thought it was worth the risk 😕 I'm really regretting this whole thing.

I would really appreciate some advice on what to do now.

Cheers,

Nikki.

Re: Need urgent advice on problematic purchase

leader-of-the-band — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 23:27:39 GMT

I also admit I had bad feelings to begin with over purchasing from a new seller (0 feedback, member for 1 day)

others will be along to help with your main problems. I have always found that my gut feelings are better indicators than anything else.

In future, if it doesn't feel good, do not buy.

Re: Need urgent advice on problematic purchase

2106greencat — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 23:33:03 GMT

As leader said 'gut feelings' are a good indicator, however as it is done now, I think you should follow hubby's advice and wait. If you have not heard from your seller or received your item open an INR dispute via Paypal, you have 45 days from time of payment to do this, personally I would open at day 40, (earlier if you wish of course) you have a further 20 days to escalate to a claim, so if the item arrives in that time, you can close the case. If not, you will receive a full refund via paypal.

Re: Need urgent advice on problematic purchase

redtrinity777 — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 23:45:42 GMT

In future, if it doesn't feel good, do not buy.

Oh believe me, I won't be letting this happen again 😐 Generally I avoid purchasing from new sellers with 0 feedback, especially for expensive items like this. Hence why I just feel like I want to pull out of the whole thing now, and be done with it 😕

Lesson learnt - that lesson being never to listen to my husband when it comes to buying off of Ebay LOL! What a nightmare this whole thing has been sofar.

Re: Need urgent advice on problematic purchase

redtrinity777 — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 23:50:17 GMT

As leader said 'gut feelings' are a good indicator, however as it is done now, I think you should follow hubby's advice and wait. If you have not heard from your seller or received your item open an INR dispute via Paypal, you have 45 days from time of payment to do this, personally I would open at day 40, (earlier if you wish of course) you have a further 20 days to escalate to a claim, so if the item arrives in that time, you can close the case. If not, you will receive a full refund via paypal.

Greencat, thank you SO much for your advice. When would you suggest to be the earliest reasonable time to dispute, if I don't want to wait the entire 40 days? Keeping in mind that I DID take the option to pay an extra $10 for express postage and parcel tracking.... which looks possible that I won't get either of those options provided now 😕

Re: Need urgent advice on problematic purchase

leader-of-the-band — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 23:58:38 GMT

Lesson learnt - that lesson being never to listen to my husband when it comes to buying off of Ebay LOL! What a nightmare this whole thing has been sofar.

well, originally, I was going to say that exact same thing but thought better of it. I would tell hubby to get his own eBay account!

Re: Need urgent advice on problematic purchase

2106greencat — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 00:18:04 GMT

If it were me, I would only give it a couple of weeks, mainly because you don't feel right about it. Try and contact the seller once more, then if no reply in say 3 business days (next Thur) I would go for it. Sometimes opening the INR can spur the buyer to attention, but whatever you do once you have opened it, do not close it until you have your item. Don't accept any excuses, or it is in the mail, or here is the tracking # etc, they may try to take you past the day's for escalation. And remember once you close a case you can't reopen it. If no response or parcel by the following Thursday escalate to claim. At least you will feel at ease onceit is in paypals hands. Good Luck

Re: Need urgent advice on problematic purchase

2106greencat — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 00:19:16 GMT

Oh, and as leader said - tell hubby to get his own eBay account, then he can deal with the stress :^O

Re: Need urgent advice on problematic purchase

syrupsmummy — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 00:25:31 GMT

I love the Moogle on your signature, OP 🙂

Sorry I have no advice. I just couldn't ignore the Moogle. Very cute 🙂

Re: Need urgent advice on problematic purchase

2106greencat — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 00:29:27 GMT

spur the buyer seller into action - sorry

Your moogle is cute, so is your puppy syrups

Re: Need urgent advice on problematic purchase

lyndal1838 — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 00:32:11 GMT

Has the seller given you a tracking number yet?

Canada Post is the slowest, most expensive postal service ever known to man and I would suggest at least doubling the time given by the seller/ebay.

I have not had personal experience of the service your seller has offered, but all other services take a minimum of 9 days from Canada, and mail from Ontario is often slower as it has quite a long way to travel internally, before even reaching an International Dispatch Centre.

Re: Need urgent advice on problematic purchase

redtrinity777 — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 00:52:33 GMT

Has the seller given you a tracking number yet?

Canada Post is the slowest, most expensive postal service ever known to man and I would suggest at least doubling the time given by the seller/ebay.

I have not had personal experience of the service your seller has offered, but all other services take a minimum of 9 days from Canada, and mail from Ontario is often slower as it has quite a long way to travel internally, before even reaching an International Dispatch Centre.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. I guess it will all depend on their communication in the meanwhile. No, I don't have a tracking number... they said they would post the item off on Tues if I immediately forwarded them payment to the new paypal address, I followed their instructions and did just that. But that was the last I heard from them (5 days ago). My follow-up messages seem to be falling on deaf ears 😞

Another thing that is kind of strange is that the original paypal account was addressed to a "Sarah D.". But after forwarding payment to the new account as requested, I noticed on the transaction info, it was "Sarah A" - her surname had completely changed for the 2nd account ?:|

I really don't know. I'm stumped at this stage as to what exactly is going on at the seller's end 😕

Re: Need urgent advice on problematic purchase

redtrinity777 — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 00:53:25 GMT

Haha, nice to see all the fellow Final Fantasy fans around, btw 😉

Re: Need urgent advice on problematic purchase

*sparklz* — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 00:54:08 GMT

I am new to eBay but not new to business or customer Service.

Sorry but does not ring true.

I know we all make spelling errors but in their initial message to you there is a hell of a lot for someone not new to customer Service.

I would not wait any more than 2 weeks before opening a dispute and more so since they are no longer in contact after you paid to the other PP account.

To stop contact once this was done rings alarm bells straight away.

The old saying if it sounds to good to be to true then is usually is.

Re: Need urgent advice on problematic purchase

lyndal1838 — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 01:11:20 GMT

You do realise the item you bought is not new, don't you?

Re: Need urgent advice on problematic purchase

digital*ghost — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 01:18:17 GMT

Just for the sake of clarification, when you sent payment to the second account, what options did you choose? (i.e. you can send money as a gift, for a service - neither of which are recoverable, or you can send for goods).

Re: Need urgent advice on problematic purchase

redtrinity777 — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 01:18:58 GMT

You do realise the item you bought is not new, don't you?

Yes. That's not an issue, so long as its in good & working condition. Which its supposed to be, according to the item description....

Re: Need urgent advice on problematic purchase

redtrinity777 — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 01:23:34 GMT

Just for the sake of clarification, when you sent payment to the second account, what options did you choose? (i.e. you can send money as a gift, for a service - neither of which are recoverable, or you can send for goods).

I chose to send it for payment of goods. Also made sure to include all the Ebay item information (item name, ID number, etc) in the description, so it can be directly linked to the Ebay purchase.

Re: Need urgent advice on problematic purchase

lyndal1838 — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 01:23:59 GMT

I would not be overly concerned by the bad spelling. If English is not their first language their gasp of spelling can be awesomely bad.:O

Re: Need urgent advice on problematic purchase

digital*ghost — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 01:31:25 GMT

I chose to send it for payment of goods. Also made sure to include all the Ebay item information (item name, ID number, etc) in the description, so it can be directly linked to the Ebay purchase.

Oh, good. 🙂 I suspect some scammers (and I'm not saying your seller is...yet) will try this stunt because they think by circumventing the eBay checkout, the payment won't qualify for buyer protection, but as long as the payment is sent for eligible goods - as you have done - it has exactly the same protection as a payment made via eBay.