AuctionCut

Has anyone else experienced this?

I purchased an item and paid for it in full ($61.00) within two minutes of the close (May 15th).

Organizing shipping was my responsibility. I called the seller's husband (the initial email I received from the seller instructed me to speak to either of them) the next day (May 16th) and arranged for UPS to pick up the following day (May 17th).

UPS refused to pick up the item unless it was on a pallet (which was not what they told me when I scheduled the shipment) and the seller's husband called me back immediately to advise me of this. I asked him what, if anything, he could do to help. He willingly offered to see if he could get a pallet/crate/frame or something else that would satisfy UPS and call me back.

When I had not heard from him by the morning of the fifth day (May 22nd) after we had spoken, I called him and he passed me over to his wife. She said that she was just going to sell it to the underbiddder.

When I checked the item details on eBay, it was apparent that the seller had accepted a second chance offer about 24 hours after my conversation with her husband (I do not know when she made the offer) on May 18th and completed the transaction on May 19th.

My understanding of the legal situation (I am a CPA and a Scottish Chartered Accountant but not an attorney) is that title passed to me upon payment and that the seller actually stole the item back from me in order to make the second chance offer.

I am pursuing dispute resolution on PayPal and have made a fraud notification on eBay. I am still undecided as to whether to involve the police.
I also intend to ask eBay how they propose to prevent this kind of fraud.

Comments anyone?

Jonathan

That's pretty bad. Perhaps ebay need to change the rules so second chance offers can only be sent out if the original transaction does not go though.

Did the seller refund your payment?

After a fair amount of pressure, I received a PayPal refund. eBay professed to be interested in pursuing the illegality of the situation but I suspect they were only posturing.

What a terrible way to treat you. I hope they have been banned as that is just not fair. I guess at least you got your cash back but still that isn't the point!

scotsca wrote:After a fair amount of pressure, I received a PayPal refund. eBay professed to be interested in pursuing the illegality of the situation but I suspect they were only posturing.

I tend to disagree that it was only posturing. eBay has a major stake in keeping people happy, where ever this is possible, and making sure buyers and sellers alike feel they have been treated fairly.

I know it is a huge company, and often people fall through the cracks, but just for their own benefit, I doubt posturing is on the list of things to do when investigating fraud.