Hi all, I bought an item and transferred the money to the sellers account. The seller says they ha

[hihelen03]

Hello, I bought an item and transferred the money to the sellers account.  the seller says that they have not received the money, despite me sending them a bank receipt of the transfer.  The item is now selling for three times the price I bought it for.  I have tried to contact customer help but when I enter the ID number they say that this is invalid as the account is closed. What do I do? 

[*tippy*toes*]

What do you do? Pray that it wasn't a lot of money because it sounds like the seller has done a runner. NEVER EVER pay by bank deposit unless you have bought from the seller several times before and you trust them. Unfortunately, if the seller is ignoring you, there is nothing you can do as bank transfer has no buyer protection.

Can you post the item number of the item you bought?

[lyndal1838]

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@hihelen03 wrote:

  I have tried to contact customer help but when I enter the ID number they say that this is invalid as the account is closed. What do I do? 

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The ebay account cannot be closed for 6 months after the last transaction.

As Tippy said, there is very little you can do if you used bank deposit as there is no buyer protection for this method of payment.

You could try reporting the seller to ACORN as internet fraud but it probably will not get your money back.

[black*poppy]

Hihelen, I'm sorry your first post to the community boards has been a bit rough. There are a couple if things you can do.

Firstly lyndal is right that the sellers' account cant be closed for a certain time after the last sale. You could try looking under My EBay -> Purchase History and it should come up. Otherwise you must have communicated thru eBay messages to get the bank details so it should be available there.

ACORN are the online fraud police who do take these matters seriously. Just Google the website to report. As you have their bank details you have something that can trace the seller. You can also contact eBay for the sellers' info as they will exchange personal details (name, address, ph no) between trading partners. I have heard of good outcomes on fb in these scenarios with ACORN for amounts as little as $50.

It is ++ recommended to use PayPal for online transactions for this reason, but heaps of people don't in reality. When I purchase off gumtree often it's not an option, I just have to be prepared to gamble x amount I guess.

[lane-ends]

How can they be selling for three times the price if their account doesn't exist?

[chameleon54]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

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@hihelen03 wrote:

  I have tried to contact customer help but when I enter the ID number they say that this is invalid as the account is closed. What do I do? 

---

The ebay account cannot be closed for 6 months after the last transaction.

As Tippy said, there is very little you can do if you used bank deposit as there is no buyer protection for this method of payment.

You could try reporting the seller to ACORN as internet fraud but it probably will not get your money back.

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I,m not sure about all of the ebay technicalities and Lyndal is usually right , BUT I was recently scammed on a purchase as follows.

I purchased a $110.00 item from a seller with 30 feedbacks, 100 % positive and payed with paypal. The item never arrived. Several weeks later I went back to check and the seller had racked up 27 neg feedbacks in the last month. I could not see what they where as the feedback had been made private ( ie. he was not selling from that account any more ) The account was still live at this stage.

I reported the transaction to ebay and suggested they look into the recent history. Within a few days I had my money back and the seller had a message " no longer a registered ebay member " against their account. Ebay had deregistered them. I assume it was a hijacked account.

This all happened within 4 weeks of purchase, not six months. So accounts can be closed soon after purchase by ebay, even if not by the seller.

[lyndal1838]

Yes Chameleon. ebay can deregister an account but the OP says that the item is selling for 3 times what s/he paid so it is obviously not a NARU account.

Also, if ebay closed the account the OP would have been sent an email giving instructions what to do to get a refund if the item was paid with paypal.

I am not sure why the OP would be told the account is closed if the item is relisted.

I suspect there is more to the story than the OP understands and has told us.

[thesoulyearns]

The original poster said the item is listed for three times what they bought it for and not that the seller re-listed it.

[hihelen03]

Thank you for your excellent answer Helen 

[go-tazz]

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@lane-ends wrote:

How can they be selling for three times the price if their account doesn't exist?

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The buyer would be stating that the item normally sells for 3 times the amount they paid,(which is a big warning

sign that it's probably a scam account or a hijacked account).

Eg: if it looks too good to be true it probably is and under no circumstance should bank deposit be used to pay

for such an item,(at least with PP you have protection).

That's why the account would be invalid,(NARU'd).