Feeling Like a Dummy

[Fauve]

I just need some adivce in case the seller turns out to be a scammer.

I won a high-end Bottega Veneta eBay auction # 290043434051.

From all I have learned about Paypal chargebacks and harrassments from both sellers and buyers, I can understood a seller's reasons for keeping an auction private and also not accepting Paypal.

I have had a good e-mail correspondance with the seller and did a bank wire transfer to pay. The money cleared and she e-mailed me her Mum would mail off the purse. She was in Paris on assignment. She had mentioned in an earlier e-mail that she would be travelling shortly after the auction ended.

However this past weekend I just wanted to look at the amazing purse and noticed now she is "not a registered user." I freaked.

I do not like to over-react and start to accuse someone of scamming me so I nicely e-mailed her to ask if the purse had yet been sent and if she had a tracking number. I have not heard from her, but I only sent the e-mail Saturday and she very well could be working in Paris. She lives in England.

If she turns out not be be legit, what can I do??? Will eBay release her personal information to me. I have all her bank information but if she is a crook she could easily close out the account.

I have bought other high-end itmes and never had a problem.

I am feeling like a dummy today however I am trying to be trusting.

Thanks girls,
Fauve

 

[amamxr]

yes,do a search on ebay contact a seller and then input the auction item and the sellers ebay id. you should get an email with the sellers info and they will get one with yours.. Ladies, correct me if I have missed something..

 

[Marly]

I hope she turns out to be legit. I also understand your concerns.

One piece of advice in the future is to be aware of their ID history. Doesn't always mean "bad", because there are reaons for everything, but I would be wary of anyone who changes their ID frequently. I looked up your auction and she had a differnet user ID from April '06- July '06, then changed her ID from July "06- Oct."06. Then once again from Oct '06- and now is no longer a registered user.

You also should go to the ebay main page and click on "live help". Ask your questions there as well and they usually respond fairly quickly. Good luck.

 

[Fauve]

Well I went to eBay live and got her phone number so at least I have that. Will give it a few more days and then call. Then will file if nothing comes thru and look into the law and international fraud if that is the case. I hate to think it is.

Thanks.

 

[Christiflora]

Sorry to hear about your situation. I would be extremely concerned at this moment, because there are all signs of scam, wire transfer, lost registration, and seller gone away. My first reasction is to try to get my money back ASAP, even if there is a slim chance that the listing is legit. Would you call your bank where you did the wire transfer about how you can stop or reverse the money transaction?

Check the website www.ifccfbi.gov to see if there is anything that would help. I used it to get my money back from a crooked seller who sold me a fake bag from US. Is your seller residing in US? If so, filing the criminal compalint will definitely help, in addition to the usual route of eBay claim.

The seller's contact info (phone and address) will be helpful when you file the criminal claim.

Remember in the future do not ever, ever do a transaction with wire transfer. Always pay with a charge card, because this is the ONLY way you can get back ALL of your money quickly.

 

[Fauve]

I am in the USA and seller is in England.

I am so disturbed she is no longer registered. I could just have gone to Bottega in NYC an dpurchased the bag instead of etting involved in this eBay stuff.

Thanks. My husband did the wire transfer for me thru his account. I will see hat he says. I assume there is no way to stop it as was told by the seller that it had gone thru and she would start the process of sending the purse out.

 

[Christiflora]

The only thing left to do, besides hoping your item will arrive, is to start the eBay claim process for item not received after x days from end of auction per eBay instruction.

 

[annanas]

hopefully she's just suspended for non-payment of ebay fees, which i guess could happen if she's away and not checking her e-mail. i wouldn't be *that* concerned about the ID changes, she just added underscores the last time she changed it. but still, i'd definitely try to contact her. her feedback isn't great on a few points but it's not awful either, there was something from a buyer about paying with paypal but she doesn't accept it from what i see so that sounds like the buyer's stupidity rather than her fault. as does the one saying that she tried to "bully" them into wiring her money. if she never accepted paypal, well, read the auction properly. if she did that could be shady but we can't know that. as we all know there are reasons for not accepting paypal. wire transfers aren't always shady, i've never had a problem with one, which is more than i can say for paypal... what's good is that she doesn't have anything in her feedback about selling fakes or items not received.

you said you'd had good correspondance and i guess the wire transfer would've taken 2-3 working days to reach her? the auction finished on the 1st, i guess you'd have transferred the money on the 2nd, it reached her last monday or tuesday i take it? i'd give it until the beginning of next week before i got too concerned. parcelforce aren't the most marvellous and that's who she's using to ship, and some sellers don't send you the tracking number. i always do and it annoys me when they don't but it does happen, and that seems plausible since her mum was going to send it.

hope you do get your bag!

 

[Fauve]

re: eBay auction 290043434051

Since my post here, the seller and I have had alot of correspondance. She seemed ok and honorable, telling me she had been the victim of a few bait and switches and that she was no longer a registered user because another seller was spreading rumors about her to eBay. Her letters were well composed and I felt the story would have a good ending.

Anyhow the purse arrived today. It was beautiflly packed etc but when I opened the protective felt outer bag and looked at them embossed logo and the leather zipper pull, I could tell the purse was NOT legit. The logo should be in a serif face and it was sans serif. I have seen the real one many times. I emailed her and have heard nothing.

THis was a MAJOR MAJOR crook and I was ignorant and had not yet discovered TPF and was unaware of the various scams.

So I am writng everyone here to tell them NEVER pay by anything other than a credit card. I am utterly discouraged but just want to pass along my message. I could so easily have gone into Bottega and bought the real one here in NYC.

Thanks for reading.

dummy Fauve

 

[Fauve]

I am just putting in one of the letters from the seller to show ou how convincing she was:

Hi,

I know. The stress I have been subjected to in unreal! I receive up to 40 emails daily from people asking me to purchase their replica items or being just really nasty!!

I have also had people purchase bags and some Diane von Furstenburg items (which I rarely sell now) then inform me they do not like them and ask for a refund ! Me being the nice person I am said no problem... I received a 'plastic' bag through the pos once, a pair of thin replica jeans, a dress with 'made in China' label on it and a jacket that had not label at all on it!! After several days complaining to ebay etc the buyers, each time got off with it and kept my items! I was nearly £2500 down because of it - all times ebay have done nothing.

They are so good at taking your selling fees then doing nothing when you need support!

Sellers really have no support net to fall back on. This is partly because there is so many horrible out there corrupting the site and giving sellers a bad name!

Another time I bought something and sent cash through the post...not recorded as I believed to seller to be a nice person - they then said they never received the payment!!

Now with all this harassment ebay for me is one big headache ...I may just go back to selling through word of mouth as before!

What do you think??

Regards,

S

 

[chicky]

OMG - i've just checked out your seller....and she recently had a couple of fake Chloe bags for sale, which i had not long ago posted up on the Chloe forum. I'm sorry you didn't find tPF before it was too late. x

I really feel for you - all this unnecessary hassle.

What's your next step...? Item significantly not as described process?

Sending you big (((hugs)))

 

[Bagpuss]

The pictures of the bag on the chair look particularily poor- the strap looks wider than it should be and it hangs almost sideways. The bag looks thinner too. But you already have the authenticity problems spotted- don't feel like a dummy, she knows her game alright. Now go get her!

 

[Fauve]

Well I just filed an "Item Significantly Not as Described" at eBay.
However I paid via bank wire (WHICH I WILL NEVER DO AGAIN FOR ANY REASON) and I am 100% sure she will not contact me now and it was an international transaction to boot which makes things so much harder.

I just do not know how any other human being could do this to someone but then again I am not a crook. This was a lesson to me to be more careful. Luckily it was only money I lost but I just wanted to post here so others will see the level of scamming another person will go to. For $400 more I could have gone into BV and purchased the real one. I got caught up in the emotions of the auction.

I will continue to e-mail her and tell her I have all her personal information and am taking the matter up with international fraud experts. Does anyone know what happened with her fake Chloe bags?? Unfortuanately I would never have looked in that forum.

Maybe we should start a new forum just for frauds???? To warn others what to look for???

Thanks again all. I do need a hug and appreciate it. I am trying to put it behind me. The stupid thing was I wanted to wear this purse over Thanksgiving. I did not realize this one was copied also. Bah humbug.

Can you imagine if I had purchased grey market medical drugs and gotten ill or died? It is a real lesson to truly only buy from the real merchant.

This is the first time I have been scammed and I will NEVER buy a purse on eBay again.

Fauve

 

[kore]

I do not know how any other human being could do this to someone but then again I am not a crook. This was a lesson to me to be more careful. Luckily it was only money I lost but I just wanted to post here so others will see the level of scamming another person will go to. For $400 more I could have gone into BV and purchased the real one. I got caught up in the emotions of the auction.

I don't understand it, either. How do people like that sleep at night?! I would feel so, so guilty if I even unintentionally "scammed" somebody, nevermind if I did it intentionally.

I will continue to e-mail her and tell her I have all her personal information and am taking the matter up with international fraud experts. Does anyone know what happened with her fake Chloe bags?? Unfortuanately I would never have looked in that forum.

Maybe we should start a new forum just for frauds???? To warn others what to look for???

Thanks again all. I do need a hug and appreciate it. I am trying to put it behind me. The stupid thing was I wanted to wear this purse over Thanksgiving. I did not realize this one was copied also. Bah humbug.

Can you imagine if I had purchased grey market medical drugs and gotten ill or died? It is a real lesson to truly only buy from the real merchant.

This is the first time I have been scammed and I will NEVER buy a purse on eBay again.

Fauve

(((big hugs))) I'll keep my fingers crossed that the seller has a shred of decency in her and refunds your money. Keep us posted!

 

[emmalawyer]

This is just an awful story. It's always my first instinct to WANT TO TRUST people --and most of the time I've learned to keep this tendency in check...which is only too sad in itself. It always makes my blood boil when I hear about this kind of fraud where the target of the scam is an actual person with little or no recourse. It just seems so pointlessly ill-intended, malicious & just plain heartless... , Then again, I cannot imagine actually being THAT jaded without also being utterly miserable. Her life (w/the business trip in France, mailing mom & all the other fiction she so convincingly threw in) is just as FAKE as the bag she sent you, so I can't imagine it being at all rewarding on any level.....


Many, many HUGS to you...