UPDATE! Severely cheated (I still think a little screwed, too) on e-Bay)

[icecube]

For those interested:

Well, apparantly the story may have been true. But after a nice but firm e-mail, (actually about 10 of them), today I finally received this computer (two weeks later)!!

http://www.pc.ibm.com/qtechinfo/MIG...ormation&subtype=Technical+Specifications

I paid $415 for it, which is I think at least $150 less then what a similar one would go for these days.

I just explained to the seller that I was disappointed in what had happened, but I wanted to explore all remedies before taking legal action if any (not that I can think of any). He said his friend reluctantly agreed to sell it to me, and the rest is history (after a dozen or so e-mails and shipping details of course)

Lesson learned is a simple one--be nice. There's no way this deal would have happened if I had yelled and screamed bloody murder.

Thanks to everyone for bearing with me while I vented through this. This is the first time I had trouble with an online transaction. I guess I was due...



Ok, looks like my streak of never being screwed (or screwing others) on the Internet has come to an end.

I just won an auction for a new computer on eGay. I got a pretty good deal. My winning bid was probably $100-150 less than what this system would typically go for.

The buyer contacted me. Asked me how I wanted it shipped, how I would pay, etc. I e-mailed him back.

The next e-mail I got from him informed me that he was selling this item for a friend, and that his friend had decided he didn't want to sell it at this price. His friend didn't care that the pseudo-seller's reputation would be hurt on eGay.

Well, I guess either:

1) This story is a lie, and the seller just doesn't want to sell it anymore/at this price or
2) This story is true, and I am still screwed.

Anyway, just wanted to seek some advice on what kind of recourse I have in this maze of deceit (I don't foresee that I can do anything but leave negative feedback, but wanted to see if anyone else has dealt with this).

Hey, I guess at least I didn't lose any money in this "scam". Still, I'm not happy...

I'm really sorry that this isn't a hot deal, but I thought the forum members could learn something from it nonetheless. I will understand if this thread is deleted/locked/moved/whatever.

Thanks in advance,

Icecube

 

[nealr]

You take a chance when buying on Egay. There are probably some things you could try to do to get the computer, but you're probably going to have a hard time, and the $100-200 savings you'd get would probably not be worth the pain. Since you paid nothing so far, just chalk it up as a missed opportunity. It's not a big loss(other than emotional), since you didn't pay for it.

If you let it get you down too much, you'll only be making life miserable for yourself. My advice is to let it go, and forget it ever happened.

 

[lizardboy]

best thing you can do i put a scatching comment in his feedback...make it more difficult for him to sell future items

 

[yakswak]

I'm with Nealr there. Just forget about it. You didn't lose anything in this ordeal anyway.

Go ahead and leave him a negative feedback, that's what that rating system is there for.

 

[SinMen]

Complain to EB@y

 

[cmv]

Yeah, it sucks but you didn't loose money. You should be happy that the seller didn't take the funds and then decide not to ship...

 

[Ranger X]

Give him a bad rating and contact Safe Harbor. What else can you do but that? Just be thankful that you didn't pay and give him that bad rating.

 

[XRdirtHead]

Leave neg feedback and go find another deal...

 

[mastaki11a]

If he gets reported 3 times = Banned right?

 

[SnoopCat]

the only thing you can do is to send me $20 through paypal and give that guy bad feedback.

 

[mrVW]

What the hell is wrong with people. Nothing but newbie idiots post new threads on this form any more?

E*bay is just like classifieds. You are whining because you LOST NO MONEY! Do you whine when somone has a car for sale, you go look at it, and then you don't like it.

You do understand that if a buyer sells something for $1000, he has to pay e*Bay a percentage -- THEY CHARGE THE SELLER, regardless if he delivers on it or not. That seems like recourse enough. What, you wasted 10 minutes of your time? You think he should have to be hung or something?

You aren't dealing with a store, this is person to person selling... of course things like this happen every day! That is why e*Bay is cheaper than stores.

 

[negatv]

If he doesnt want to sell it to you, chances are you really dont want to buy it (or anything else) from him anyway... Most likely the computer never existed. Now that would be getting "screwed".. you didn't get screwed at all.

 

[OutlawWolf]

What if the seller is telling the truth.
If that happens to me. I may just give him a neutral rating.
But his story is shady though.

 

[SigEpUCI]

You think you got egay screwed? Check this out, I freaking bought an NSX on egay motors 4 days ago... After the auction, the dealership refused to sell, claiming there internet guy made a mistake and there was supposed to be a reserve set... When I threatened to sue the b#stard, he laughed and said do what you gotta do, obviousouly, he realized that legal fees would make the venture unpractical. Your best recourse is to take a bat to this guy, and steel the computer.

 

[auyong]

go whine in another forum. You did not even get ripped off and you want to whine.

 

[Eminem69]

ummm..... bought an NSX from eg@y...... ok...... yea..... you can go look at a nice NSX in the Cornell Apartment Parking Lot SigEpUCI

 

[StumbleBum1]

The answer is simple: Leave him negative feedback and get on with your life!!

 

[SigEpUCI]

Em, hahaha that red NSX you refer to is a friend of mine. Nice clean example of a 93, drives really nice too.

 

[render]

$hit..You didn't lose any money...Why are you whinning here?

This is a freaking hot deal.

Lock this thread.

 

[AtomSmasher]

DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY WITH IT !!!! I had a similar experience with a hi-end cd player with accesories on Eb#y recently. Won the auction, sent payment and then went thru hell with the seller. Very slow shipment, needed multiple emails before he would respond. Always responded with a semi-plausable excuse and was polite, but the bottom line was he wasn't shipping. Finally after a LOT of pestering, he shipped and I received only part of the items contracted for. More emails with no response. More excuses from the seller. Finally, I filed a Fraud report with Eb#y and sent him a (polite) email telling him about the Fraud report. His tune changed overnight & I received the balance of the merchandise I had paid for. So, what I would suggest is A) Don't send negative feedback, that might prompt him into sending you negative feedback just to spite you, then you'd have a hassle getting rid of your negative f.b. B) Definatly file a Fraud report with Eb#y (online) & notify him of this. Eb#y will also investigate & notify him (Remember, the auction is a binding contract according to Eb#y & you've got an email from the seller indicating he wouldn't sell at the contracted price !!). C) I'd probably not go thru with the transaction if he then agreed to sell at the negotiated price as I wouldn't trust this person at that point. Make as much trouble for him with Eb#y as you can, but I wouldn't send him any money after the notification you got. People should honor their commitments & if they don't they don't deserve to be allowed to sell online. If he is dumb enough to let a 'friend' use his account and his friend screws him over then he deserves whatever he gets.

 

[AtomSmasher]

DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY WITH IT !!!! I had a similar experience with a hi-end cd player with accesories on Eb#y recently. Won the auction, sent payment and then went thru hell with the seller. Very slow shipment, needed multiple emails before he would respond. Always responded with a semi-plausable excuse and was polite, but the bottom line was he wasn't shipping. Finally after a LOT of pestering, he shipped and I received only part of the items contracted for. More emails with no response. More excuses from the seller. Finally, I filed a Fraud report with Eb#y and sent him a (polite) email telling him about the Fraud report. His tune changed overnight & I received the balance of the merchandise I had paid for. So, what I would suggest is A) Don't send negative feedback, that might prompt him into sending you negative feedback just to spite you, then you'd have a hassle getting rid of your negative f.b. B) Definatly file a Fraud report with Eb#y (online) & notify him of this. Eb#y will also investigate & notify him (Remember, the auction is a binding contract according to Eb#y & you've got an email from the seller indicating he wouldn't sell at the contracted price !!). C) I'd probably not go thru with the transaction if he then agreed to sell at the negotiated price as I wouldn't trust this person at that point. Make as much trouble for him with Eb#y as you can, but I wouldn't send him any money after the notification you got. People should honor their commitments & if they don't they don't deserve to be allowed to sell online. If he is dumb enough to let a 'friend' use his account and his friend screws him over then he deserves whatever he gets.

 

[AtomSmasher]

DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY WITH IT !!!! I had a similar experience with a hi-end cd player with accesories on Eb#y recently. Won the auction, sent payment and then went thru hell with the seller. Very slow shipment, needed multiple emails before he would respond. Always responded with a semi-plausable excuse and was polite, but the bottom line was he wasn't shipping. Finally after a LOT of pestering, he shipped and I received only part of the items contracted for. More emails with no response. More excuses from the seller. Finally, I filed a Fraud report with Eb#y and sent him a (polite) email telling him about the Fraud report. His tune changed overnight & I received the balance of the merchandise I had paid for. So, what I would suggest is A) Don't send negative feedback, that might prompt him into sending you negative feedback just to spite you, then you'd have a hassle getting rid of your negative f.b. B) Definatly file a Fraud report with Eb#y (online) & notify him of this. Eb#y will also investigate & notify him (Remember, the auction is a binding contract according to Eb#y & you've got an email from the seller indicating he wouldn't sell at the contracted price !!). C) I'd probably not go thru with the transaction if he then agreed to sell at the negotiated price as I wouldn't trust this person at that point. Make as much trouble for him with Eb#y as you can, but I wouldn't send him any money after the notification you got. People should honor their commitments & if they don't they don't deserve to be allowed to sell online. If he is dumb enough to let a 'friend' use his account and his friend screws him over then he deserves whatever he gets.

 

[AtomSmasher]

DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY WITH IT !!!! I had a similar experience with a hi-end cd player with accesories on Eb#y recently. Won the auction, sent payment and then went thru hell with the seller. Very slow shipment, needed multiple emails before he would respond. Always responded with a semi-plausable excuse and was polite, but the bottom line was he wasn't shipping. Finally after a LOT of pestering, he shipped and I received only part of the items contracted for. More emails with no response. More excuses from the seller. Finally, I filed a Fraud report with Eb#y and sent him a (polite) email telling him about the Fraud report. His tune changed overnight & I received the balance of the merchandise I had paid for. So, what I would suggest is A) Don't send negative feedback, that might prompt him into sending you negative feedback just to spite you, then you'd have a hassle getting rid of your negative f.b. B) Definatly file a Fraud report with Eb#y (online) & notify him of this. Eb#y will also investigate & notify him (Remember, the auction is a binding contract according to Eb#y & you've got an email from the seller indicating he wouldn't sell at the contracted price !!). C) I'd probably not go thru with the transaction if he then agreed to sell at the negotiated price as I wouldn't trust this person at that point. Make as much trouble for him with Eb#y as you can, but I wouldn't send him any money after the notification you got. People should honor their commitments & if they don't they don't deserve to be allowed to sell online. If he is dumb enough to let a 'friend' use his account and his friend screws him over then he deserves whatever he gets.

 

[AtomSmasher]

I apologize to everyone for the multiple posts. Got an error message from the forum when I tried to reply several times that there was high traffic & to try again later. Didn't realize it took my post each time. Sorry ...

 

[GoldenTiger]

"My time of being screwed (or screwing others) is now at an end"

You get back what you do to others... serves you right. How do you think the people you screwed felt when they found out they had been gipped?