Help! I think I may be getting scammed.

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Rasen

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EDIT: New developments, nothing earth-shattering, but I felt like postiing more.

About two weeks ago, I won an auction for an item. A week ago, I emailed the seller to ask what happened(he responded to that one, but it was to an old email address, so I missed it.). So this week, I started a dispute with Paypal.


The seller contacted me, and informed me about his earlier response, as well as saying that on his ME page in eBay, he says items are usually shipped within two weeks after winning. So I figure it's my mistake, and I'm happy.

Now, the seller contacts me, saying:

"I am sorry but there is a delay in shipping. I planned on sending you a tracking # after shipping but Paypal limited my account and took $400 from my bank account do to your claim/dispute filed. The money in my bank account was my only available funds and I was going to use it to ship all of my customers orders. I am in the process of trying to get my money back from paypal. They are holding a little over $608 of mine in total. I think they are over reacting to your claim, and I feel like a victim. I will ship your order as soon as I have the money to do so. This misunderstanding has ruined my week. That money was very important to me. Please do not make such claims to others in the future to avoid paypal from taking advantage of their members. I ask for your cooperation in this matter."
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Horrified, I apologized for the trouble caused. I was about to close the dispute, but caution stopped me. I called Paypal, and they informed me that they wouldn't do what the seller claimed.

So I contacted the seller, and he replied with:

I am being serious. There is no other reason unless they are trying to rip me off. They claim it is for safety reasons and I have to wait for a letter in the mail to verify a code they are sending me. Read nopaypal.com to find out about others who have the same story as myself. I honestly am a victim unless they return my money soon. Thanks for your cooperation. I will keep you updated. Please contact me with any concerns. I will even communicate with you on the phone if needed. I will prey that they return my money.
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So here's my question:

I think I'm being scammed here, but has anyone ever encountered something similar? Has Paypal ever limited your account or taken your money due to a dispute(not claim) being filed?

Right now, I'm giving the guy the benefit of the doubt, and I'm thinking I'll just tell the seller that I no longer want the item, and when he sends me back my money, I'll close the dispute.

What do you think?
 
Don't close ANYTHING with paypal until you receive your items. If he refunds your money the claim will close and it will be done with. Do NOT close it unless you have your stuff.

Yes they do put a hold on the money when a claim is filed (in most cases). So yes he probably doesn't have access to the money. That isn't your problem though. Once you get the stuff in the mail he will have access to it again.

Edit: Didn't see you said dispute. I don't think they hold anything when just a dispute is filed. If I were you I would immediately change the dispute to a claim. I sell a lot of stuff and don't ever remember having money held when a dispute was filed (only when the change it to a claim). How they handle things might change though when your account has a certain amount of transactions.
 
item ships within 2 weeks??? What the hell!?

Am I one of the few ebayers that puts in my auctions; Item ships immediately when auction is paid for and actually mean it? Seriously its not that hard to make a shipping label with paypal, request a pickup from your local postal carrier. I guess im one of the few who thinks thats neccessarry....
 
[quote name='schuerm26']Edit: Didn't see you said dispute. I don't think they hold anything when just a dispute is filed. If I were you I would immediately change the dispute to a claim. I sell a lot of stuff and don't ever remember having money held when a dispute was filed (only when the change it to a claim). How they handle things might change though when your account has a certain amount of transactions.[/quote]

If a claim has been filed against you and is resolved, are there any negative stuff you have to deal with, like a bad credit report or something?

I've been giving the person the benefit of the doubt, and I haven't elevated the dispute to a claim yet because I wouldn't want to hurt someone who may already be dealing with a lot. So I was thinking of telling the selller I'd give him a certain period of time to refund the money.

However, if after the claim is resolved, everything is cleared up, then I might as well just file the claim.
 
Sounds like a sob story to bait you into closing the dispute. Once you close it I'd bet he'd stop responding to any e-mails.

As the seller he has a very simple way to close the dispute himself. Ship what you bought to you and provide PayPal with a DC or tracking number.
 
I believe when I had my paypal issue with some guy when the dispute for "Not as described" was made my account was frozen for $1025USD the auction went for. I could be wrong though, my memory is pretty bad.
 
[quote name='wubb']Sounds like a sob story to bait you into closing the dispute. Once you close it I'd bet he'd stop responding to any e-mails.[/quote]

That's what I was thinking. But in the even it isn't just a sob story, I was wondering if anyone knew if having a claim filed against you negatively affects your credit history or something forever. If not, I'm just going to elevate the dispute to a claim.
 
[quote name='magiic']I believe when I had my paypal issue with some guy when the dispute for "Not as described" was made my account was frozen for $1025USD the auction went for. I could be wrong though, my memory is pretty bad.[/quote]

Do you remember if it was frozen at the time of a dispute, or a claim?
 
Im pretty sure it was when the dispute was filed. Let me check my account and see if I can figure out when things happened. Give me like 5 minutes. As far as I can tell from my account history when the dispute was filed the money was frozen. My account says Temporary Hold on December.5 and the name attached to it is Buyer Dispute. I check some e-mails and the dates match up. My money was frozen as soon as he filed the dispute.


In all reality though. Don't close the dispute sounds like this guy is trying to fuck with you.
 
[quote name='BasketCase1080']item ships within 2 weeks??? What the hell!?

Am I one of the few ebayers that puts in my auctions; Item ships immediately when auction is paid for and actually mean it? Seriously its not that hard to make a shipping label with paypal, request a pickup from your local postal carrier. I guess im one of the few who thinks thats neccessarry....[/QUOTE]

I do it too, I do it exactly as you do it, and most buyers are flat out shocked when I ship the same day or the next day. I never realized why until I bought something from someone on Ebay, and it took almost two weeks to get to me.
 
[quote name='magiic']Ya when I sell on ebay I ship same or next day. Two days at the very latest if something holds me up.[/quote]

That's been my experience with most sellers. Of course, I try to be understanding because there might be circumstances I am unaware of. (Perhaps the person is travelling a lot, or on a short holiday)
 
Why are you feeling sorry for this guy? You paid for an item and he has not shipped it to you yet. Are you telling me he can't come up with the $10-20 to ship the item?
Do not close the dipute until you have your item or money. Once closed you are out of options.
And no, it does not show up on his CR.
I buy and sell on ebay all the time. Up to two weeks to ship is ridiculous. Once I am paid I ship next day.
 
[quote name='Rasen']That's been my experience with most sellers. Of course, I try to be understanding because there might be circumstances I am unaware of. (Perhaps the person is travelling a lot, or on a short holiday)[/QUOTE]

Then he shouldn't be selling stuff on ebay if he was on a short holiday or travel a lot.
 
I'd like to thank everyone for their replies. After hearing from you all, I've decided to upgrade it to a claim.

When it comes to waiting, I'm a patient enough person. My primary concern when starting the dispute/claim was if his story sounded true. While that webpage he directed me to, nopaypal, seemed fishy, I didn't want to dismiss it offhand.

Thanks again.
 
Filing a claim does nothing negative to him beyond putting a hold on the account for the amount of money that you paid him. So unless you paid him $608, he's full of shit (or he's got other people filing disputes against him too). Whatever you do, don't close the dispute. I would simply escalate it to a claim, inform him that he can either ship said item or refund you in full, at which point the dispute will be closed. No if's, and's, or but's. He's definitely trying to scam you and as soon as you close the dispute, he can keep your money and item and there's not a damn thingyou can do about it. (Well, at least not through paypal or ebay).
 
[quote name='Warner1281']Filing a claim does nothing negative to him beyond putting a hold on the account for the amount of money that you paid him. So unless you paid him $608, he's full of shit (or he's got other people filing disputes against him too). Whatever you do, don't close the dispute. I would simply escalate it to a claim, inform him that he can either ship said item or refund you in full, at which point the dispute will be closed. No if's, and's, or but's. He's definitely trying to scam you and as soon as you close the dispute, he can keep your money and item and there's not a damn thingyou can do about it. (Well, at least not through paypal or ebay).[/quote]

Agreed, once you close the case you're basically at the seller's mercy. You can file a mail fraud claim as well as report it to your local police dept. But basically you'll be at a loss & if you file a chargeback with the CC company, Paypal will come after your ass. Don't listen to any sob story bs, tell him to ship or refund you through Paypal. You may possibly only recieve a partial refund though if he spent most of the funds & they are unable to recover anything from his CC's or Bank account on file. Paypal will also charge you a percentage for recovering your money, but anything is better than nothing.

Even if he ships with a tracking number do not close out the case until your stuff arrives incase the fucker attempts to mail you a box of dog turds.
 
Dont close anything. This hapened to me not that long ago. I had a dispute filed against me during that big snow storm in denver my package got delayed due to the snow and before I got the ups notice and was able to contact the seller a dispute was filed. I contacted him and it took about another week for my packge to arrive, and in that entire time frame my letter from paypal never came. It came a week later. So what im saying is dont close the dispute untill you get your item but be patient paypal can be very slow with their responses so your seller may have a tough time.

And paypal only freezes the amount in question at the time of the dispute.

And two weeks is insane for shipping next buissnes day is the way to go how hard is it to go to the post office.
 
[quote name='Rhippo']I contacted him and it took about another week for my packge to arrive, and in that entire time frame my letter from paypal never came. It came a week later. So what im saying is dont close the dispute untill you get your item but be patient paypal can be very slow with their responses so your seller may have a tough time.[/quote]

Hm. So the seller's story wasn't completely full of BS. I'd feel bad about escalating the dispute into a claim, except that somehow got the seller miraculously find funds to ship on the same day.

And he no longer accepts Paypal, instead asking for check/money order. Signs of a scammer?
 
The seller may/may not have shipped the item. I got a tracking-number for USPS.

I was debating whether I should take a $30 hit and open up the item when I receive it(it's a grab-bag type item, so it'd be unfair to just open it, say I don't like it, and return it), just to see if this guy is a scammer or not.

Well, item hasn't arrived yet, but eBay recently contacted me to let me know that it had suspended his trading privileges. So I suppose a number of people other than me filed disputes/claims.
 
[quote name='secretvampire']Until you have the item or your money back, whatever you do, don't close the dispute. It's his own damn fault.[/QUOTE]

Agreed.
 
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