Please help, I'm at a loss.. What options do I have, if any??

[mozismyshepherd]

I won an auction for 3 concert tickets. I was going through some **bleep** & they buyer agreed to let me pay in 2 instalments. He didn't want me paying by PayPal due to fees being taken out (yeah, you can see where this is heading). He agreed to lower the cost of the tickets by $145.

Upon winning the auction, he sent me an invoice he got for purchasing the tickets from the Sydney Opera House.

I paid by bank transfer. 2 payments of $650 in total. I provided him with receipts of said transactions. Now he's saying that he only received $200.

....In his last email he stated:
"I today received an invoice from ebay for $103 for the sale of the morrissey tickets to you however still no sign of $450 or anything further from you (including an email) other than the $200. I have to tell you I have no money to pay my credit card bill let alone the ebay bill and am beginning to wonder whether you have even transferred any more than the $200. I am letting you know that if I do not receive the additional $700 balance in my account by close of business Thursday I will cancel the sale and return $97 to your account subtracting $103 to cover the cost of the ebay sale and my losses.
IF I receive the FULL amount of $700 in my account by COB Thursday the tickets remain yours and I will cover the cost of the eBay sale."

I then contacted eBay & was told that I should not have paid via bank transfer (yes, I know I am stupid, please don't tell me something I already now. I was stupid & desperately wanted these tickets). I was also told that the conversations should've been done through eBay, not me replying to his emails (no. I didn't know this).

I messaged the seller on eBay, replied in length to wrote he wrote & stated that he couldn't cancel the auction & keep my money, & that I will be opening up an investigation with my bank, which will take 10-15 business days. No reply.

Thursday has come & gone, he's still not replying, hasn't sent any of my money, nothing... Ebay have said that they're trying to get in touch with him.

What do I do know? Is there anything I can do?!

Yes I know I was stupid to pay via bank transfer.. It was a rather daft thing for me to do. What I would like to know now, is, what (if anything) can I do? Should do? Or have I lost my my money as well as the tickets...?

Thank you in advance.

[joethenuts]

read your last post  before this one you stated 2x $650   not $650  in total   lol   [message26 post]

[elusiveeditions]

Joe, I was quoting the OP. I know, the whole thing is confusing. It's ok darl.

I must say, you remind me of an elderly drunken uncle of mine- one minute he's so adorably wrong that I'm very fond of him, but the next minute I'm tearing my hair out in frustration.

[springyzone]

I'm seeing where Joe is coming from.

Mozis said:

I paid by bank transfer. 2 payments of $650 in total. I provided him with receipts of said transactions. Now he's saying that he only received $200.

....In his last email he stated:
"I today received an invoice from ebay for $103 for the sale of the morrissey tickets to you however still no sign of $450 or anything further from you (including an email) other than the $200. I have to tell you I have no money to pay my credit card bill let alone the ebay bill and am beginning to wonder whether you have even transferred any more than the $200. I am letting you know that if I do not receive the additional $700 balance in my account by close of business Thursday I will cancel the sale and return $97 to your account subtracting $103 to cover the cost of the ebay sale and my losses.
IF I receive the FULL amount of $700 in my account by COB Thursday the tickets remain yours and I will cover the cost of the eBay sale."

I  take this to mean Mozis claims to have paid a total of $650, $200 + $450.

The seller is claiming to only have received the $200 and wants the additional $700.

So like Joe, I take the total cost of the tickets to be $900.

This whole story is fraught, it really is.

We have a buyer bidding on tickets he/she wants but then can't pay for, we have him/her negotiating a discount after the sale & now we have the buyer saying $650 has been paid, when the ticket price (as far as I can see) is $900.

The seller went wrong right at the start, the seller should have put in an unpaid item dispute, no negotiation at all, and simply relisted those tickets.

As Joe says, they have a limited shelf life and it will be harder to sell them as the date comes closer and a dead loss once the date has passed.

Perhaps the seller could have cancelled the sale and got fees back, but how experienced the seller is I do not know.

As for fraud, if the seller really does have the money in the bank account, yes that is theft but whether police will interfere I am not sure. A friend had a tradesman take $1400 from her for work on a fence and he never turned up after that to finish the job. Police told her it was a small civil case, not a criminal case because not much money was involved. All the same it would be worth a try.

But the bottom line here is the tickets have not, as far as I can make out, been fully paid for, so no wonder the seller is a bit narky and fed up. Not saying it excuses theft at all but I am not 100% convinced here that the seller has received that other $450 or even the rest of the money owed.

It's a messy case and I am not sure we are hearing the whole story.

[joethenuts]

100%springzone    have a look at message 7      ,that does  not sound like a person that has deposited $650.

[mozismyshepherd]

Yeah Joe, you are right, I wanted to scam the seller & have him take me home after the concert.. My game is up.. *sighs*

I'll commit fraud for concert tickets. That's why I'm on here asking for advice, that's why eBay are investigating & want take action against him and not me.........As my first post said - it was 2 payments of $650 in total.... Never did I say 2 payments of $650....

Both amounts were paid via bank transfer. Not card or cheque. I don't know where you came up with that, Joe. I did say I paid by bank transfer which I have receipts for. The money left my account, and was transferred to the sellers account number provided (this was verified with the bank). I double checked the account details with the seller before I made any payments. And no, my account wasn't overdrawn.

Perhaps you should read what I wrote before you go in attack mode....

[lyndal1838]

Just ignore Joe.....he is like a terrier with a bone, even when he is wrong.

[cq_tech]

Which is most of the time.

[mozismyshepherd]

I feel like I have to state/clarify a few things rather quickly as my phone is about to die.

The post written here was done in a panic. Maybe I didn't word things properly, I don't know... All I wanted to know was if there was anything I could do to recover my money. I didn't & do not want both the tickets & money! This has been a horrid experience and a lesson learnt the hard way. All I came on here for, was to see if I can recover any of my money o.. I don't have money to waste...so if there is anything that I can do to get my money back...

I, in no shape or form, wanted to scam the seller, or jeopardise getting these tickets! You could only purchase tickets if you were successful in a ballot run by the Sydney Opera House. Which I obviously wasn't successful in hence me bidding on this auction.

I had every intention to pay the amount the tickets went for! - I NEVER asked him for a discount!! He himself freely OFFERED to discount the tickets, there's emails to prove this. I never once mentioned anything nor did I accept or decline his so called generous offer. I was willing and prepared to pay the amount the auction went for, period.

As per Sydney Opera House T&C:
Tickets had to be transferred to buyers details by the 24th of April. Tickets are not sent out until 2 weeks prior to the performances - 12th of May.

Other eBayer's selling tickets to the same event at the time had the same kinda terms, along with being able to pay in 2 parts - part payment payable upon auctions end or before the 24th of April, the other half was to be paid just before hard copies were sent out OR upon ticket pick up.

I waited for the recommended timeframe for bank transfers to be processed. I asked the seller to keep in touch with updates.

He then stated he only received $200 out of a total of $650 sent, I said I'd get in touch with my bank. Once the weekend was over I did so. Bank confirmed sellers account details, said the funds have left my account & that he should have received it by now.

I then got in touch with eBay, gave eBay all the relevant info. Ebay told me that NO further money is to be sent until an investigation is completed by them & my bank and that they'll advise the seller of this.

A week passed, eBay say he's uncooperative with them & that they will take appropriate action. They also advised me to send all the correspondence between me & the seller, as well as proof of my bank transfers (screenshots, receipts, statements, etc)...which I have done.

-I've done nothing other than what the seller requested me to do so. I wouldn't have done anything to jeopardise getting these 3rd row tickets, that is the truth.

AFAIK, he has no right to keep any portion of my money as his loss, especially when he will be getting a FVF..

If some see me as a scammer, that's fine. Everyone is entitled to their opinion :)...I didn't come here to any cause conflict, I came here for advice (For which I am really grateful of receiving).

Speaking of advice..

I have done what some of you awesome people suggested & sent him an email at his private & work email stating that if he did not return any money found to be on his bank account ASAP, that I will have no choice but take legal action through ACORN and other relevant agencies...so will if he replies.....

Once again, I thank all of you've who've given me advice, I really, truly appreciate this. Thank you so much 🙂

[bakeandfry]

You have been givin exellent advice already, now im going to give my own advice, from one phone user to another phone user, stick around and learn from everyone, there are some very knowleadgable and exerianced boardys here,
Some times with phone it can feel like your a couple of steps behind everyone because of mobile site being your defalt view.
Im not going to say its easy using phone for 100% for ebay selling and buying or using the boards with it also, but you will learn heaps as you go along.

[harley_babes_hoard]

Good luck Moz, let us know the outcome.