on 26-02-2013 12:34 AM
Hi everyone. I believe I have been scammed on a pre-order game of GTA5. I pre-ordered this game through a seller who at the time had decent feedback reviews - however the release of GTA5 had changed from its rumoured release date of late 2012 to 2013. I accepted this, and opted to buy different Christmas presents for my family this Christmas, and give the pre-ordered game as a birthday gift. However now that im attempting to make contact with the seller, he hasn't replied to any emails, and he no longer has any items for sale. What a coincidence.
He was extremely quick to file a "non payment complaint" against me, 2 days after I purchased the item, but now hes nowhere to be found, and I cant file a paypal disbute as its been passed the required number of days.
Does this mean my money is gone, and theres no hope of getting it back?
Also, this would make an extremely easy scam to make money, shouldn't ebay have better systems in place to prevent these people being able to sell these things? and why don't ebay check before allowing them to rip people off?
on 26-02-2013 01:39 AM
eBay don't exactly allow sellers to rip someone off, there are systems and checks in place but for the most part it's up to the buyer to not allow themselves to be ripped off.
There are rules regarding pre-sales, and they must be able to be sent within 30 days of purchase, which is a decent window of time as there is still 15 days to the 45 day limit on being able to open a claim, so personally, as soon as the release date was pushed back, I would have requested a refund, maybe purchased again if pre-sales were still available. In my opinion, any decent seller would understand the reasons for requesting a refund, and have no problems with issuing one. In fact, I'd half-expect one to be offered without being requested in such circumstances, but if it was refused, at least I'd have a sound basis for not being willing to give the seller the benefit of the doubt.
At day 43-44, it would - again in my opinion - have been reasonable to open the dispute, but not escalate it to a claim, which you have up to 20 days to do, effectively allowing a 60+ day window for items to arrive and/or any problems to be resolved. This info is obviously not going to help with the current situation, but I hope it helps with any similar situations in the future.
A seller can't open a non-paying dispute less than 4 days after purchase.
If you funded your purchase with a credit card, you may be able to initiate a chargeback - you'll have to speak to your card provider to see if that's possible.
The only other option is reporting the seller to the online fraud squad (a division of QLD police, I believe, but they handle national complaints). It may or may not help recover the funds, but even if the seller is not responding to messages, I would alert them to any intentions to report them, giving them one last chance to refund voluntarily before it becomes a police matter.
on 26-02-2013 01:45 AM
When you pay via Paypal it gives you protection however you need to open a dispute within 45 days after you paid so yes you have lost your money unless your payment was funded by a credit card. If so you might receive a refund through your credit card's provider.
As to your last question ebay can't find out if items are in a seller's possession anymore than you can. Never trust anyone and always make sure you can open a dispute on time.
on 26-02-2013 01:50 AM
From what other members have said threatening to report a seller to the online fraud squad is a way to scare a seller into giving you a refund and the police can't actually do much but it's worth a try.
on 26-02-2013 10:19 AM
GTA5 has had a release date of March 2013 in US since Sept last year.
Sorry OP, this kind of thing purchased in advance is not a good idea, simply because you had no chance of getting the item within the paypal dispute time frame. If the seller is no longer registered then apart from a charge back there is not much more you can do.
on 26-02-2013 01:26 PM
GTA5 has had a release date of March 2013 in US since Sept last year.
Sorry OP, this kind of thing purchased in advance is not a good idea, simply because you had no chance of getting the item within the paypal dispute time frame. If the seller is no longer registered then apart from a charge back there is not much more you can do.
It has now been given an official release date of September 17th this year..
on 26-02-2013 02:17 PM
NOOOOOO - OMG I am gong to have one really annoyed kid when he finds out - SSSHHHH
on 26-02-2013 03:36 PM
Tell him to buy Saints Row 2.. I had way more fun making my character than the whole game of any GTA games... Seriously, you can whack people with parking metres and anything you can pick up and swing
on 26-02-2013 03:47 PM
I guess thats the problem with pre-release sales
If you sell one, the seller is required to post it within the time frame of their Pre-Sale policy, but if it gets changed as patchoo has just said, the sellers should do the right thing and refund.
this is why these sellers should only list when it has offically been released and not before, this way it saves them from a mess from handing out refunds
on 26-09-2013 04:46 AM