Scammed through PayPal

VanessaJean

Tattooed Princess
O.G.
Jun 24, 2007
11,467
1
I just had my first ever bad experience with internet shopping. I need help. Any advice would be so appreciated! This is what happened:
I am getting married in October and I want to buy my DF his dream guitar. I found one on EBay and made 3 "best offers" and all were declined. I messaged the seller after the 2nd offer and was told that my third offer would be accepted but it wasn't. Seller told me they had made a mistake with setting the lowest offer they would accept and asked me to pay through PayPal.
Stupidly I did. The seller was very nice and helpful until he had my money. he promised to ship next day after payment and didn't respond to my emails or send me tracking. He finally responded almost a week later and said he had shipped the guitar but I didn't get any tracking info and he has ignored my daily emails.
I filed a claim with PayPal after a week went by with no response, tracking or guitar arriving. I checked his feedback today and there were 2 negs saying he was a scammer that weren't there when I paid for the guitar. I contacted the 2 people that left the FB and they are waiting for their claims to be decided too.
I guess I am wondering if I have any hope of getting my money back since I did not technically pay through eBay? Any help would be great!
 
So this was done outside of ebay? You sent him money without it going thru the ebay system as a sale? Did you use a credit card to pay thru paypal? If you did, you can dispute the charge with your cc company.
 
Hi VJ! So sorry you are getting the run around from this seller!

Did you pay with your Paypal Balance or with a Credit card through Paypal?
Am I correct in reading that you ended up paying for the item outside of eBay?
Can you post the link to the auction?
Did you file a Paypal Item not Received dispute and escalate it to a claim?

ETA: Sorry- Cowprincess and I posted at the same time but I think you see where we are going with this!
 
Yes, I was stupid enough to pay outside of eBay and used my credit card through PayPal. I did file a dispute and then escalated it to a claim. The auction has been removed but still shows up in my "Did not win" items but when I click on it it says the auction was removed.
 
Yes, I was stupid enough to pay outside of eBay and used my credit card through PayPal. I did file a dispute and then escalated it to a claim. The auction has been removed but still shows up in my "Did not win" items but when I click on it it says the auction was removed.

Ok, so did Paypal reject your claim?
You did a good thing by paying with your credit card. If Paypal "can't recover the funds" then you need to contact your credit card company and request to do a chargeback because you paid for goods that you did not receive.
 
Ok, so did Paypal reject your claim?
You did a good thing by paying with your credit card. If Paypal "can't recover the funds" then you need to contact your credit card company and request to do a chargeback because you paid for goods that you did not receive.

:yes::tup:

PP does have a buyer complaint policy for non-ebay transactions for INR, so they MAY be able to recover the funds... hopefully you will know w/in 10 days of your payment. If they cannot, file the charge back.
 
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Unfortunately, you may have to learn a very costly lesson.

In the long run no matter how good the buy is, it is really better to go through

ebay and paypal for protection.

Contact your credit card company and do a chargeback.

Hope you will be bale to recover what you spent
 
VanessaJean,

How did you go with this? I am currently in a similar situation to you and am interested to know if you managed to recover your funds through Paypal?

I am in Australia so I'm not 100% sure if the companies here do chargebacks!

Thanks!
 
Hi Ellie Mae - I posted this in a separate thread:

I wanted to buy a bbag from a reputable seller (2000+ feedback, all 100%) through ebay (buy it now) and contacted the seller for further information about the item. Each time, she replied pretty much immediately. I told her I needed time to think about the purchase as it was quite an amount of $$$. She told me that if I didn't buy through ebay, that is, she sent me an invoice through paypal, she would offer me a discount as she would save in ebay fees. I accepted her offer and paid her on Tuesday.

When I paid on Tuesday, she said that she would post my item the next day (ie wednesday) and let me know the tracking number. I did not hear from her on Wednesday at all and sent her an email just to ask her to let me know the tracking number once she has sent the package. She replied back on wednesday night saying that her internet was disconnected during the day, that she was sorry and would send my item tomorrow (ie. thursday) and let me know the tracking number.

Today is friday and I still haven't heard from her. The seller is in america and I am in Australia so I know there's time differences etc but I'm just getting paranoid given that I have not purchased through ebay and I don't think it will be as easy getting my money back through paypal if there are any issues.

Am I overreacting? This is THE most expensive fashion purchase I have made and I am feeling very nervous about it. I wouldn't be feeling as nervous if I had bought through ebay but given that I have not, I feel quite sick about it all.

My other problem is that the delivery address I gave her is my current work address. I am finishing up at my current job in two weeks so if she doesn't manage to post the bag soon, I won't be at this job when the bag arrives. I have emailed her to tell her this but there has been no reply.

I am going crazy with worry!

Has anyone been in this position before? Am I overreacting given that its only been a few days since purchase?
 
Hi Ellie Mae - I posted this in a separate thread:

I wanted to buy a bbag from a reputable seller (2000+ feedback, all 100%) through ebay (buy it now) and contacted the seller for further information about the item. Each time, she replied pretty much immediately. I told her I needed time to think about the purchase as it was quite an amount of $$$. She told me that if I didn't buy through ebay, that is, she sent me an invoice through paypal, she would offer me a discount as she would save in ebay fees. I accepted her offer and paid her on Tuesday.

When I paid on Tuesday, she said that she would post my item the next day (ie wednesday) and let me know the tracking number. I did not hear from her on Wednesday at all and sent her an email just to ask her to let me know the tracking number once she has sent the package. She replied back on wednesday night saying that her internet was disconnected during the day, that she was sorry and would send my item tomorrow (ie. thursday) and let me know the tracking number.

Today is friday and I still haven't heard from her. The seller is in america and I am in Australia so I know there's time differences etc but I'm just getting paranoid given that I have not purchased through ebay and I don't think it will be as easy getting my money back through paypal if there are any issues.

Am I overreacting? This is THE most expensive fashion purchase I have made and I am feeling very nervous about it. I wouldn't be feeling as nervous if I had bought through ebay but given that I have not, I feel quite sick about it all.

My other problem is that the delivery address I gave her is my current work address. I am finishing up at my current job in two weeks so if she doesn't manage to post the bag soon, I won't be at this job when the bag arrives. I have emailed her to tell her this but there has been no reply.

I am going crazy with worry!

Has anyone been in this position before? Am I overreacting given that its only been a few days since purchase?

Let me go find your thread & will reply there...