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...

[mark.wooba · Accepted solution]

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@PAYPAL wrote:

We have concluded our investigation into your case and have decided in your favour. We were able to recover $1,535.83 AUD, and this amount has been credited to you.

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That's it, it's all over now and I can move on. Won't be buying another gift card on eBay again.

Thanks to everyone who made positive contributions to this thread. To the haters, eat my shorts.

[robinsonmarineparts]

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@mark.wooba wrote:

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@PAYPAL wrote:

We have concluded our investigation into your case and have decided in your favour. We were able to recover $1,535.83 AUD, and this amount has been credited to you.

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That's it, it's all over now and I can move on. Won't be buying another gift card on eBay again.

Thanks to everyone who made positive contributions to this thread. To the haters, eat my shorts.

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Well played, you beat the system, i hope you can sleep at night.

[2011.narelle]

You started the thread with "i have an unbelievable story" so don't blame those who didn't believe those who didn't believe the claims of an ebayer with 60 bad transactions.

You were already  sure of your refund/s  before the 1st post,so the update on the refund was not exactly a surprise to you.

You have a very thin skin with posters & probably with sellers.I'd much rather deal with michellebartley than you.She cops more flack than you did & she never barks at the posters answers if she doesn't like their opinions.& she didn't list the intricate details of an unknown scam works  in her post either.

Whatever.Good luck to you.

[2011.narelle]

Snap,robinson.looks like we are the only haters

[robinsonmarineparts]

Bugger, only 2 of us, goes to show how easy it is to scam people on here.

Old mate even told us how to do it. lol

Gotta laugh, never mind he provided a good belly laugh with his back flips.

.

[lyndal1838]

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@2011.narelle wrote:

Snap,robinson.looks like we are the only haters

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I would not say I am a "hater' but I still think the OP was lucky to find a paypal rep who does not know that they do NOT cover Gift Cards.  And I was not the only one to point this out.

I guess I also add my thanks to the OP for drawing attention to himself, even if I am not a seller.

[li.vish]

Hi everyone, the discussion is getting a little heated.  Please be sure to keep your communications civil.  Thanks!

[robinsonmarineparts]

Haters may be haters but scamers are scamers.

Pay pal and Ebay even reward the stupid.

[robinsonmarineparts]

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@mark.wooba wrote:

Thanks, retailtherapist! I felt like I was the evil-doer here for a while, with the scrutiny I was getting!

Anyway, Case #3 is now closed, with money refunded by Seller. I think he realised this was not going to end well for him, with potentially serious consequences.

Case #4 ... I dunno, the guy is just strange. He won't send me the goods, he won't refund me, and he won't cancel the sale. He won't answer emails, and there is no feedback on his account for the 13 other Bunnings Cards he supposedly sold in the last month (to 2 buyers). It's a bit fishy!

He submitted the bogus (unused) Platinum Express tracking number to the PayPal dispute as proof he sent it, but there is nothing on the tracking, so PP have asked him to upload documentary proof of delivery (which he does not have or cannot have, since it was never delivered). If he sends me an empty envelope, I'll be opening it in front of my local policeman as evidence.

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What did the police say?
 

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