PayPal can be helpful, unlike their parent eBay, who are totally worthless. If the goods are not delivered, and the seller has a PayPal account, PayPal can usually freeze the sellers funds sufficient to make a refund. However, you must usually wait some reasonable time to allow delivery, but not more than some maximum time, which used to be 30 days. If you already have good reason to believe the auction was a fraud, I'd go ahead and file a PayPal complaint.
Regards,
Jerry Moos Big Spring, TX
Charles Andrews <chasds@mindspring.com> wrote: I recently bought a nice colnago super on ebay, and I paid with cash from my paypal account. No credit card payment on this one.
Now, it seems very likely that the seller was a scammer, and the sale was a fraud. Since I won the auction, I have heard nothing at all from the seller, after payment, and after repeated e-mails asking for confirmation of payment
This is just the second time this has happened to me. The first time involved a european seller. I had paid by credit card, though, so my credit card company got the money back for me.
This time, I may be s-o-l. I'm posting for the collective wisdom of the list. What would be the best way for me to get my money back? I'm going to start with PayPal, but I'm not very confident they'll be much help. What are my other options?
The seller invoice did include a street address, and I'll be sending snail mail there today. But, you see, I have no idea if the seller listed on the invoice is in fact the person who got the money, although everything looked on the up-and-up, both on ebay, and on paypal.
any tips on what I might do next would be appreciated. Makes me feel, increasingly, that I'm not going to buy higher-priced items from anyone I don't know in some way, either personally or by reputation..
Please mail any useful tips privately.
Thanks.
Charles Andrews
Los Angeles