Yeah it sucks.
Well, I put the charge in contest at Visa, and entered the first Ebay fraud report today, so I'm not gonna get hit for the dough.
That's why I'd recommend ALWAYS putting Ebay charges on a credit card, so at least there's recourse if things go wrong. If I just drafted out of my bank account, or used a money order,...
-pffffffft-,...
the money's gone, the thief is gone, and there's nothing to show for it, and NO RECOURSE. ALWAYS USE A CREDIT CARD FOR EBAY!
Now I stay away from people who say they don't accept Paypal, or who request money orders only. IMO that's a bad sign.
Likewise, if a person says, "this is not a picture of my unit, but mine is exactly like that", NEVER believe him. Another bad sign.
There are others.
If an Ebay seller has a low [post] transaction count, then that's a warning sign. As much as that's hard on [Newbies] new sellers, it's the fly-by-nights that are DEFINITELY the ones that have low numbered rating, like 7, 9 or 13. Sorry Newbies!
Also, the fly-by-night Ebay scam artists build up a short NORMAL Ebay history, then BAM, hit as many people as they can SIMULTANEOUSLY, and disappear. When you have your problem, the Ebay feedback seems to be okay, positive, but check back months past your Ebay scam, and you'll see that at a similar time to your own, the feedback goes all negative: "paid but didn't recieve item",... but of course, that many months later, there's nothing you can do about it.
What really grates on me about this, is that these people know how to work the system, and are fly-by-night, so they'll set up an alias, make a few normal transactions, but when they turn to ripping people off, and absconding with the money, they're so gone, it's not even funny. Fly-by-night, that's all there is to it. The info on the seller you can track down is often fraudulent, like in my present case, or what's worse, even if it's correct, and the person answers the phone & talks, & STILL doesn't send the item,... there's literally nothing you can do about it, is there? I mean, who's gonna pack up and go cross country on some dubious information, with a name and an address, to go knocking on doors to settle up? Who in their right mind would do that? Not to mention, not exactly convenient. Well? What's the answer?
I considered turning their shit into the FBI, for INTERSTATE FRAUD, which is a FEDERAL FELONY, which I'm sure carries with it a stiff jail sentence.
In fact, now thinking this through, I'm gonna go-FBI on 'em, first thing Monday. I'll start phoning around to see how I can put their shit in a snit with the FBI! Isn't the FBI interested in interstate internet fraud? I hope they are, or WTF are they good for?
I'm pissed, to say the least. Stay tuned. Sorry for the rant!
