Ebay.com Bait and switch, credit card fraud, mail order fraud Internet

I consider myself lucky as unlike the over 5000+ complaints of fraud done by ebay and paypal to consumers, the two problems involving credit card fraud done by them to myself over the past 12 years I was able to get a sheriff involved and problem dealt with without that normal (Its a civil matter) responce. For the 5000+ people who were ripped off, I will give my 2 cents worth and hope this helps recoup some of your funds.

First and foremost, Ebays system is allowing the sellors outside of the USA to scam and rip off the normal consumer inside the USA. They know this is happening, but as these mega sellors are their bread and butter, they choose not to do a thing about it. Im going to list a few scams, and a way to get your money back as long as it was done by credit card.

The biggest scam to date done through ebay is by out of country merchants. They use the delievery confirrmation tracking numbers as proof they delievered the goods. Most banks when they see this, will pay the merchant in their favor stating the item shows its delievered. If you know your bank manager like I know mine, they can most likely get this reversed. Here is how the proof of tracking scam goes. I unsuspecting consumer buys an item, or multiple items at a much cheaper price then they find in the US. What then happens is either only 1 item is shipped out of an order of 10, or nothing at all but some trinket just to show SOMETHING was delievered.

Last year I purchased 5 miniture tvs and the merchant shipped me a broken radio. At least that is what it looked like. When I contacted my bank, I got a letter that they are still paying the merchant in their favor as it shows the item was in fact delievered. This would normally mean I would most likely have to take ebay or paypal to small claims as its next to impossible to take the merchant to court, but what I did which worked saved me all that trouble. I forgot to mention the broken radio came in a padded envelop that was 5 inches long in length, and 2 inches in width, and less than one inch in depth. On this padded envelope was the postal tracking information. I brought this envelope and the broken radio to my bank manager and showed her the letter from her bank and the supposed delievery. Once she saw there was no way in hell that 5 mini tvs could be shipped in that small padded envelope that had the tracking information on it, she contacted loss prevention and updated them on what was happening. Next day I got a call to let me know I was fully refunded and a block put on my card to prevent paypal from taking the funds out again. To be honest, if Paypal and Ebay refuse to fix the issue and its a lot of money, you really should close the card and if they have your checking account info, the account as well otherwise some later date, they will go back in and take those funds. Even if its 8 years later like what happened to my wife. Another story for later.

Bait and switch auctions and hidden fees. This one has been going on forever, and Ebay has even made it easier for these outside merchants to rip us off more while lining their own pockets. When you do a search for lets say an mp3 player, many a times below the listing are more of the same type and listed even cheaper so you click on them. These auctions are the worst and you really need to be careful of them. Even when an auction closes and you get a message another auction of the same item has just opened, you got to be careful! Here is where you click the new lower priced item. DONT EVER LET EBAY TRICK YOU INTO ACTIVATING AUTOPAY, which is a feature where the moment you click buy it now, or if you win an auction, it automatically pays the seller. They are hoping you wont notice, but what happens is the item you clicked on isnt at $3.95 like the picture showed, its more like $30, but you wont see this unless you scroll through the different models. You could be clicking on a mp3 player that shows its $2.50 and hit buy it now to get hit with $30 that gets taken out immidiately because you had aotopay up and the item that really was $2.50 was the data cable for it. Here is a hidden fee example. I missed out on several tshirt auctions as I was outbid but told the seller had another auction of the same type. I clicked on the auction and set max bid for $4.00. The first price that shwoed was $1.00 which would raise up to $4.00 should someone else bid as well. What got me was this tshirt was showing really cheap for an auction that was little more then a day left on it and it made me wonder why no one else bid on it so I looked through the entire auction to find out why. They had a $40 S&H charge for a kids tshirt? I luckily had enough time to retract my bid, but had it been like the others where there was less then 24 hours in the auction left, I wouldnt have had the choice to retract. And worse, if I had autopay set, Id have most likely paid $44 for a t-sjirt that sells all over the US for $20. 

Here is a HUGE dont as well. DONT rely on Ebays support. If you did fall victom for a scam, call your bank immidiately and start up a charge back. Reason for this, most states only allow for 60 days to dispute a purchase. Ebay knows this and will drag out their so called Resolution Center past the 60 days that actually may sound long, but goes by so fast that once the time does pass, you shoudlnt be suprised when you are told they are going to side with the merchant who sent you a broken raidio instead of 5 mini tvs. 

Bootleg items. This happens more often then you know. Ebay and Paypal at first tried to send me packing when I bought a stargate dvd set and instead got a bunch of dvds written in market. This has happened to me twice. The first time after I thought I would be ripped off with Ebays help, I actually was able to track the shipment to the town and state it was shipped from, called the local sheriffs dept who in the end arrested a child. Ebay was fast to fix that issue. With bootlegs, Ebay now a day is more enforceful of preventing it, but for the other matters, you need to get your bank involved or your going to lose a lot of money. 

When all else fails, and it sometimes does, meaning 60 days went by and your bank cant/wont help and ebay sided with the theif merchant. This is where you decide if its worth the time because this last option will most likely take a full day of your time at least once if not more. It all depends on your state. This is small claims court. If this is under $20, I just uphappily write it off. But if its over $100, I use my small claims court and in my state, due to the laws here, its a huge blessing here. Why? In california, all small claims cases must be handled by normal people, meaning NO ATTORNEYS! I have won most of my cases because of this against the largest of companies because they cant use their attorneys. I use my locak law library to look up what info I need and go to court. I only lost one case in my lifetime, and it wasnt becaue of the defendant being right, it was because  sued the wrong person. Another story too. 

So, to make it short: Dont use autopay, look at price by scrolling though all options, get bank involved and show them item if scammed and dont rely on Resolution ccenter. 

One last thing, Im not sure if Ebay still auctions vehicles, but if they do, dont buy there EVER. Just read up the horror stories here. People have lost a lot of money paying for non existant vehicles, to ones that have leans on them the sellor failed to mention. The list goes on. Sorry for the spelling mistakes. Not my keyboard, not my PC, Im just lazy =)