Scammed on Ebay

Scammers are out there aplenty. Craigslist is well known for such including dangerous criminal activity emanating from meetings set up through the site. Ebay has been a safe haven for me in this regard,but I got a rude awakening from a "young" eBayer whose name I shall hold back-for now.

The price of trust

Having listed my strobelight which I listed as being in working condition, which it was, I dutifully sent it off to the buyer after they had paid me through Paypal. After receiving the strobe light, the buyer claimed that it was not working. We exchanged trouble shooting emails and phonecalls, I decided to give the buyer a refund-my big mistake was... I refunded them before they sent back the strobe light. One might think that I am such a loser but, what happened to faith and trust? In any case, I do not condone this, get your item before you issue a refund. She did not send back the strobe light giving such excuses as "I was sick today", "the post office was closed today" and so on.

Ebay to the rescue- I wish!

So the next point was to get eBay involved and solve this dispute, through their dispute resolution I came across a great stumbling block, I could not cancel the transaction to get my money back-it was 45 days after the transaction had taken place. So eBay could not help me but give me a final value refund which was the listing fee on Ebay, a miserly £1 or less. So where did I go wrong?

Dispute Resolution encouraged amongst Ebayers

Ebay encourages eBayers to solve problems between  amongst themselves before they actually contact eBay for intervention. The fact they overlook is that this takes time. With the loophole that they can only deal with issues 45days old or less, it becomes a catch 22 situation where sometimes one is in limbo, awaiting the next person to respond. I was thoroughly disappointed by Ebay on this matter.

Be warned when trading online

I therefore would like to warn anyone doing online trading to be aware of such criminal activity by some internet users. Follow the terms and conditions of the programme you are dealing in/with. Forget being empathetic because some people out there are simple not worth the time and effort.

To the girl who scammed me, all i have to say is, what goes around goes around, I am very disappointed in you and your mother whom I talked to on the phone-shame on both of you!