Gift Card Nightmares!

[mark.wooba]

I have an unbelievable story to tell here. I like buying Gift Cards on eBay because you sometimes get them at a nice discount. I rely on the eBay Money Back Guarantee, which appears prominently under the Buy button on gift card listings (I don't rely on PayPal with gift cards, because I know PayPal explicitly excludes gift cards from their buyer protection policy). In the small print, eBay does exclude "intangibles", but items sent by registered or trackable mail cannot be defined as intangibles.

This last month, I've been stung 4 times buying gift cards:

1) CARD ARRIVED WITH $440 MISSING CREDIT

Bought a $500 Coles gift card, but when it arrived it only had $60 credit. The PIN was still covered up. Turns out that the Seller had put a photo of the card number on the listing, so someone had taken the number, executed a brute force attack on the Coles gift card website until they got the PIN (Coles should stop this, you can execute unlimited tries with the PIN on their site, or could as of when this happened), then the thief had cloned the card with a magnetic strip reader/writer, and used $440 credit at Liquorland in SA (I am in QLD, seller in VIC).  Fortunately the seller was very nice and refunded me, and they took it up with the police, so this never became a PayPal or eBay claim.

2) SELLER USES ME FOR A CHEAP LOAN

Another seller sold me a $230 card and simply never sent it. 2 weeks later she emailed me "sorry, there is no crdit on that card and I have to refund you". The paypal refund was "pending" for 6 days, then failed. I wrote to seller asking for immediate refund. She then refunded me properly. The only explanation that fits is that she needed some money over Xmas, an interest-free short term loan, so sold a fake card to get it!

3) SELLER SELLS ME CARDS THAT NEVER ARRIVE

Another seller sold me a $400 Woollies card that simply has not arrived. It was supposedly sent by registered mail. Numerous attempts at getting the registration number for tracking purposes did not meet with success. I did get one email, via gmail, saying "I am so sorry for the problems with your purchase. I am looking into it now and will get back to you very very soon." I heard no more (that was 2 days ago). Ebay case opened, waiting for seller response, and no response after 2 days.

4) SELLER SELLS ME $1500 BUNNING GIFT CARDS, NO TRACE

Last week I bought about $1500 worth of Bunnings Gift Cards from a seller with a seemingly good feedback record. I was immediately given an Auspost Platinum Express Post reference number (next business day delivery), but 3 days later the number shows no activity on the Auspost site, the seller is not responding to messages, and it seems to have gone missing! I called Auspost and they say they have no information on that tracking number and that the sender must contact them...

Note that these purchases all happened more or less in the same time period, around Xmas and New Year, so I am now **extremely** wary of buying gift cards again on eBay.

I have yet to test whether the eBay Money Back Guarantee looks after me. I've been a member for 15 years and spent tens of thousands of dollars through eBay, so we'll see how they look after me. I would not have thought items sent via registered post, and clearly not sent (no tracking), could be written off as "intangibles". And there are legal implications to putting the "eBay Money Back Guarantee" logo under the "Buy" button on a listing, I am told (my son is a lawyer). So we'll see.

Comments welcome...

[harley_babes_hoard]

stop buying gift cards on ebay!!

[mark.wooba]

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@harley_babes_hoard wrote:
stop buying gift cards on ebay!!

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I hear you. It's worked well for about 6 months ... few problems, now this, a real sh1tstorm.

[mark.wooba]

Just finished speaking to PayPal about the $1500 purchase. PP representative said that physical Gift Cards ARE covered by the PayPal Buyer Protection. They are only not covered when they are digitally transferred gift cards.

She agreed the tracking number was not showing any activity and placed a hold on the funds.

I asked her to note on the case that the buyer (me) had been told that this transaction IS covered by the PayPal Buyer Protection.

[robinsonmarineparts]

I had feeling you would say that!

[mark.wooba]

Sorry, robinsonmarineparts, but I'm not sure of your purpose or meaning in this thread. If you are suspicious of me or think I am bogus in some way, please explain why. I can assure you I am a genuine person and everything I am saying here is true.

[black*poppy]

I think RMP just means it would be interesting to hear how these cases go, nothing more.  I took the smiley face to be a friendly gesture.

[mark.wooba]

Positive news: after the PayPal case was opened, and despite ignoring multiple messages and emails, the seller in the $1500 case (#4 above) wrote to me:

Yeah its my policy to wait for funds to be available before I send as Ive had funds pulled from me in the past after sending goods. I also have the purchase receipt card serial numbers and can if need be convert to bunnings ecredit card that I can scan and email immediately and its another option if you want today or I can just refund Im not sending till funds cleared and availible in paypal.

I wrote back that I had paid from a positive PayPal balance, so the funds should have cleared immediately to his account. I can't understand what he is talking about!

The other case above (#3), the guy wrote to me claiming that he was away and his "bloody wife" had dropped the ball and not mailed it, and it was now on its way to me Express.

I'm now cautiously optimistic.

[kopenhagen5]

The payment could be as pending in his PayPal account and he doesn't have access yet being a larger amount.

Or it's pending due to the new money back guarantees - 

Based on your postage method and information you provide us, funds that are temporarily placed on hold should be available:

• 3 days after we can confirm the order was delivered when you provide tracking information automatically through buying and printing your postage on eBay.

• 7 days after your latest estimated delivery date when you manually upload tracking information ormark the item as posted in My eBay.

• 21 days after your buyer pays if you don't upload tracking and you don't mark your item as sent in My eBay.

Perhaps ask him if an estimated clearance date is showing.

[i-love-my-sheep]

Has the $1500 seller sold much? If not, he might be having his funds held for 21 days by PayPal. Their latest ingenious idea. Sellers are told they can't hold off sending until the 21 days are up, but some are still doing it. They pay dearly for it though when buyers express their disgruntlement via feedback and stars.

[mark.wooba]

He's sold 70 items. I'm amazed at what you are telling me about how long funds are held. As a Buyer (who never sells), I had no idea.