AuctionCut

Hi all this is my first post and is the forum I chose as I would like to warn everyone to an encounter I have recently had on ebay, firstly i'll set the scene, the item i was wanting to purchase was an Iphone 3GS 8GB that was unlocked officially not from the use of software or jailbreaking etc, I am an ebay member with 2500+ with 100% positive feedback.

I searched ebay for phones without contract / iphone / 3GS / 8GB then altered the filters to only show newly listed items and Buy It Now... I myself had done my research and was expecting to pay anywhere between £200 - £250 for a boxed, good condition iphone.

Over the space of an hour of refreshing the page and reading a fair few listings a listing came up for what i want at £160 Buy It Now, I quickly read the listing and made my purchase.

Title - Apple iPhone 3GS - 8GB - Black (Unlocked) Smartphone

Listing Read - In excellent condition. Perfect working order, Box and all packaging present, 2 cases to go with phone 1 black leather one and a pink plastic one. Any questions please feel free to ask Thanks.

Postage - £5.00 - Standard Delivery

Delivery - Estimated within 4-5 working days

So I was happy with my purchase as you can imagine, the seller made immediate contact via the ebay message system and said "Thank you for winning my iphone, I am busy working during the week but will post first thing on Saturday morning", The day I purchased was a Wednesday, so I was ok with the sellers message and emailed back with "Thank you for the contact message, I am happy for you to mail the item on Saturday, can you please let me have a copy of the tracking number once mailed", message came back from seller "no problem".

On the sunday morning I had still not heard from the seller so i sent a message "Hi there, I have not heard from you concerning the tracking number for the phone, did you manage to post it", message came back on sunday evening "yes, sorry phone went dead yesterday and couldn't find my charger, item was mailed with Royal Mail, will send you tracking number when i get home".
On Monday morning i had still not heard anything so my message was "Hi, am still waiting to hear from you regarding the tracking number, can you tell me it and what day do i need to wait in for the parcel", no more reply's came back, and upon all messages i sent I did not recieve any response at all.

I decided to give the benefit of the doubt and thought that if the seller had mailed it on Saturday afternoon via either 1st or 2nd class recorded or special delivery I would at least have it by Wednesday, no parcel arrived, I sent another message at this point, but still no response, so I thought to myself maybe she'd sent in 2nd class parcels, Royal Mail website states 3 - 5 working days, so i decided to wait until the mail had been on the Saturday, this was a full 10 days after purchase and a full 7 days after the seller said she'd mail it, well saturday came and no parcel, I tried one last message to the seller, but still no response, so ebay system said I cannot start a dispute until the following Monday, but i know that you can start a dispute quicker and immediatly via Paypal, so i started a dispute and gave the seller another 24 hours to contact me before i would escalate this to a claim.

with just two hours to go until the 24 hour deadline i had mentioned, the seller repaid the full funds back to me by the way of a refund, I was shocked that the seller had done this, and there was no explanation from the seller just one sentence that said "thank you for the loan"?

well bemused, i thought strange, but i've got my money back, but the best part was still to come...

The seller had got my email address from paypal and sent me an email and i am going to copy and paste it here, by the way, it was sent from a hotmail address. it says ....

"Hi Buyer

Sorry you did not receive the item you purchased on the Buy It Now listing.

The item never really existed but we new a buyer would not be able to resist the price of the item, we use ebay as it's a great source of ready cash and is a great Payday loan service, why go in to a high street shop to borrow cash and pay high interest charges on a short term loan when people will give you the money for free.

We have now repaid your monies and thank you for the interest free loan that you lent us.

We hope you manage to find the item you thought you were purchasing at the great low price that you thought you were getting.

All the best."

That was the email, I couldn't believe it, what a scam, Payday loans via ebay, I thought i'd well been had, I have now forwarded the email on to ebay and to paypal and have printed a hard copy with a letter to pass on to the police.

I believe this must be fraud and just thought i'd let you guys know about my experience as I was not only shocked but gutted, I don't think I will ever use ebay again after this episode.

Jabou