I think I am being scammed....

[demonization]

I purchased a digital camera on eBay 3 days ago and its price seemed pretty good (around AUD $650) and it was about 30% of the average market price for this camera in brand new condition. It was advertised by a local seller located in Vic, so I did pay attention to the seller's rating which only had 4 positive feedbacks, but I thought it could just be because the seller did not have much activities on eBay before, and everyone would have their first time. It was a 'Buy it now' deal and I did pay it by using credit card through PayPal.

However I received an email from eBay the following day saying the listing that I was following is now removed due to some reasons. I then tried to view my order details for this camera under 'My eBay' purchase history, this order is no longer publicly accessible. The seller's account now becomes 'unregistered' in eBay (I am pretty sure it was 'registered' before), so I can't even contact the seller through eBay any more. I then tried to contact the seller via PalPal because it seems to have the seller's email address, but there has been no reply so far. He probably does not even check that email account. I now opened a dispute in PayPal and system does not allow me to escalate this issue to claim yet, but I think I will do that as soon as it allows.

I am not sure what will happen when the dispute is escalated to claim. Will I get my money back?

thanks

[amber-eyed-girl]

Ring Paypal first thing Monday and tell them the seller was deregistered by eBay, and your purchased item removed as a listing. They should escalate it for you. If the seller has gone you should get a refund.

[harley_babes_hoard]

don't wait ring them asap oops you just missed tonights close.

1800 073 263 (toll free)
+61 2 8223 9500
Our service hours:

6am to 10pm AEST Monday to Friday
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[lyndal1838]

Did you read the email from ebay.....it would have told you to open a dispute in paypal to get your money back.

[modestbods]

Take the steps as advised above, asap.

In the meantime don't fret, if the camera doesn't arrive in the time period that was given you will get your money back.

You have two security blankets, firstly there's paypal. If the seller has been deregistered for breeches & you don't receive the camera in a timely manner, ie by the end of the coming week, all benefit of doubt is yours, you will win the paypal claim.

Even if by some twist you didn't win via paypal, you then have the added 'back up' afforded you by your credit card. Your credit card provider won't care if you lost the claim via paypal, if you tell them you didn't get what you paid for they will reverse the charge and ask questions later. The onus is then on the seller (or paypal on the sellers behalf)  to prove (on balance of probabilites) to your cc provider that you did get what you paid for.

 Bear in mind that you and only you are the cc providers customer in this instance, so from their pov the only party they wish to please is you, they are 100% on your side. They will take your word over all others as near gospel, until such time as sufficient evidence is produced to convince them otherwise.

Good luck.

[modestbods]

Oh & btw, the odds are that the seller, being so inexperienced, has simply fallen foul of ebay in error by not dotting all the 'i's' and crossing all the 't's', it's very easy to do.

The first time I tried to sell something I had my account suspended and got completely locked out of my ebay  account, all because I tried to use Auctiva (an ebay owned third party listing service) to list my first item to sell without having first 'registered' my account as a selling account. This despite ebay not providing details on how to do that when using auctiva to list with (it turned out that the only way to register for selling was by listing your first item directly via the ebay listing process). Fortunately I was able to get it all fixed within 24hrs, and after posting my first ebay listing (a 1 day listing for a novel titled "Nothing To Read Here" with the listing description of "50 loose blank A4 pages inside a plain manilla folder serving as an adhoc cover/jacket" for a $99 BIN... odd there were no takers lol) I was good to go.

[phorum_junkie*]

There is no need to panic or to ring Paypal. They will not do anything any quicker because the seller has been deregistered. Sign into Paypal and find the transaction there, open a dispute for item not received. I would advise you to then wait a while before escalating to a claim to see if anything arrives, it is unlikely but it is far easier to change a dispute to item not as described than it is after you have escalated to a claim.  Paypal under their own policies have to give the seller the chance to provide tracking information and should they do so after you have escalated Paypal may just close the dispute in the seller's favour and you will have the devil of a job getting them to re-open it.

It is almost certain that it is a complete scam and nothing will be sent but you have to allow fo rthe chance that something may arrive, you have up to 45 days to open a dispute so no need to do anything straight away.

[demonization]

Hi guys, Thanks for all of your suggestions. I called PayPal this morning and they escalated my dispute to claim, so it may take up to 3 weeks to get it resolved. I will keep you posted with the outcome.

[maraghost]

My experience is if you payed through pay pal yes you will get it back.

However: AUSTRALIAN EBAY is full of scammers. I buy more off USA eay than Australian EBAY and have never had a problem with US EBAY but Australians seem to think ebay is a game or something. Also I have complained to Australian Ebay NUMEROUS times when there are clearly countrerfiet items being sold. but Australian Ebay doesnt sem to care. It's frustratingt to see how slack they are. BUt GREEDY as can be.

[i-love-my-sheep]

The exact same thing happened to a friend of mine. He bought a digital camera from an Australian seller, then the seller went NARU within 24 hours of him paying. PayPal refunded him, but it took 21 days. Would be interesting to know if it's the same seller! I don't know what his sellers username was, but I do know they were in Tassie.