ASM #4....a Cautionary eBay story.....

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 10:01 pm

After 7 years of using eBay for >500 successful transactions with nary a problem, I finally got bit on my recent (a couple of months ago) purchase of Amazing Spider-Man #4, which I paid for on March 30, and never received.

The ending was happy, I got my full purchase price refunded by my credit card company today, but there were several lessons learned that I'd like to share with everyone:

1) Paying with Paypal: ALWAYS use your credit card.
After going round & round with eBay & Paypal, the finally told me there was nothing they could do and that I should contact my credit card company to get a refund. After calling the credit card company, they were very helpful and did provide the credit to my account (~$250), but I would have been out of luck had I used my checking account with Paypal.

2) Creating a dispute: Open a dispute if you do not have your item after 30 days
I was advised to do this by both eBay & Paypal. Once you open a dispute, the seller has 10 days to resolve with you, there is no negative ramification if the dispute is resolved between the parties.

INTERESTING FACTS:
* You must open an eBay dispute within 60 days
* You must open a Paypal dispute within 45 days

Since the Paypal dispute window is shorter than eBay's, do not delay in creating your dispute. An interesting side-note to this is that you cannot leave feedback on a seller after 60 days from the sale, so if you wait too long (like I did) you will not be able to leave a negative feedback on a seller who never sends your item.

CAUTION:
Beware of this seller: mezzatesta (mbuba@bigpond.net.au)

TIMELINE:
* I won & paid for the auction on March 30th
* After a bit of time without hearing from the seller (a week or so) I messaged him via eBay. I got a response a few days later saying he had been out of the country but he'd be putting the book in the mail soon. He was going to send it surface mail as that would be cheaper and I should expect the book in 4-6 weeks (seller was in Australia)
- OK, I wanted to be nice about it, but on reflection, what seems to have been happening here was a delay tactic to get me to not be suspicious about not having the book until after the Paypal dispute window had passed.
* On May 15th, with no sign of the book, I messaged the seller via eBay again, this time with no response. I'm patiently waiting the entire time because I don't want to be a jerk about it.
* After not hearing from the guy, I open a formal eBay dispute around May 23d. Seller has 10 days to respond.
* Zero response from seller, who successfully waits out the 60 day period so I now have no option of leaving feedback
* June 3rd, I close the dispute & have it forwarded to eBay Trust & Safety
* June 9th, talk to both eBay & Paypal to see what I can do about this. They say Trust & Safety has made note of the behavior, and will take action if a pattern is established with this seller (so basically, they do nothing based on a single report) and they would not tell me the resolution in any case. They recommend I call my credit card company.
* Call the Credit card company, and after asking me some questions, and getting their hands on some of the e-mails I saved, they credit my account the full amount.

LESSONS LEARNED:
* Pay with your credit card
* Open a formal dispute with eBay after 30 days
* IF you don't have your item after 40 days, open a dispute with Paypal
* Leave your Negative feedback BEFORE 60 days (Sellers can no longer give a punitive "Negative" to a buyer, as of about 3 weeks ago)

Anyway, somewhat of a happy ending, I got my $$ back, but I'm back in the Market for ASM #4.

3 to go! #1, 4, 8

Wood · Post by **Wood** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 9:47 pm

That's unfortunate Bob but at least you were lucky in that you got your money back. I've actually heard some nightmare stories about eBay over the years; although I've been fortunate to never have dealt with one. I generally won't transact with someone if they don't have a rating of at least 99.5% and a visible history of transacting in books of a similar grade; but even then you're subject to some shady crooks.

I recall a story where Kevin got ripped off for more than $4,000 for Amazing Fantasy #15 as I recall. Fell hook line and sinker for a bait and switch scam where he agreed to pay via money order outside the eBay resolution system, and thus never got his book or his money back. YIKES!

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 10:30 pm

Wood wrote:I generally won't transact with someone if they don't have a rating of at least 99.5% and a visible history of transacting in books of a similar grade; but even then you're subject to some shady crooks.

This guy had 100% positive (with over 100 feedback), and had a sale of ASM #5 to his credit.....plus, the book I bought was allegedly CGC graded 4.0, so grading accuracy was not a concern.

Not sure how he went so horribly sideways for this deal with me, but people are known to change.....

Wood · Post by **Wood** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 9:19 am

JLAFan wrote:
Wood wrote:I generally won't transact with someone if they don't have a rating of at least 99.5% and a visible history of transacting in books of a similar grade; but even then you're subject to some shady crooks.
This guy had 100% positive (with over 100 feedback), and had a sale of ASM #5 to his credit.....plus, the book I bought was allegedly CGC graded 4.0, so grading accuracy was not a concern.

Not sure how he went so horribly sideways for this deal with me, but people are known to change.....

UGH! That sucks; but like you said, sometimes people can change on a dime. Maybe he ran into serious financial difficulties and that led him astray. Either way at least you got your $$$ back.

Burrell · Post by **Burrell** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 10:44 am

Did the issue sell for significantly less than guide value? Maybe he wasn't happy with what he got for it and decided to just ignore you and hope you went away.

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 11:02 am

Burrell wrote:Did the issue sell for significantly less than guide value? Maybe he wasn't happy with what he got for it and decided to just ignore you and hope you went away.

As a matter of fact, it did sell for about half guide.

I'd much rather have had him not take my money before deciding to ignore me though

dbm · Post by **dbm** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 10:19 am

That is weird; if he just wanted to back out he could've used the old 'it accidentally got damaged\lost\destroyed' excuse and refunded your money. I've had that happen to me before. At least I assume it was an excuse.