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Won auction on eBay, paid, but never received the goods?

I sent a money order for payment to a seller on Ebay, I STILL have not received the DVD/VCR player that I paid for. What can I do? I sent the payment on or about May 31st.

Dave's Answer:

Oh, there's not much in the world of auctions more frustrating and upsetting than the sinking feeling that you might have been ripped off by an auction that you won.

Fortunately, there are some things you can do at this point to try and salvage the situation, but first, let me say that I do not encourage people to pay their auctions via money order. Why? Because there's no paper trail, no proof that the money order was ever received or cashed.

That's where something like Paypal is such a benefit: you have proof of payment and they offer an insurance option for auction purchases (and remember, Paypal is an eBay company too).

eBay has what they call their Standard Purchase Protection, which it describes as:

Most items are covered up to $200 (minus a $25 processing fee) under eBay's standard purchase protection program.
Before you file a claim through this program, eBay encourages you to contact the seller (most issues can be resolved with a single phone call), or use a free online dispute resolution service like SquareTrade.
If you paid for your item with your credit card using PayPal, contact PayPal directly.
If you purchased the item outside of PayPal with a credit card, contact your credit card company. Most companies provide 100% online protection.

eBay has specific details about the Purchase Protection eligibility requirements and offers a link to let you learn more about the program.

A critical note here is that your claim must be filed between 30 and 90 days after the listing ends. By the way, if you're at the point where you don't want to send another email to the seller without results, do check out eBay's Item Not Received Process for help.

While we're on this subject, it's well worth occasionally reading eBay's Safe Buying Tips: in your case, it'd be interesting to go back to the original auction and see whether these would have set off any alarms in your head if you would have been considering them prior to submitting your winning bid.

Note: This article was written by contributing editor and all-around nice guy Chuck Eglinton.

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Categorized: Auctions and Online Shopping (Article 4069)
Tagged: auction scams, ebay, fraud, paypal
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Comments

Unfortunately, not all sellers will accept PayPal, so you're stuck with money orders. My suggestion to anyone who has to send a money order.. make a copy of the money order and send it certified, return receipt requested. Yes, it costs about $4 to do it that way, but you will have proof of delivery and when you get the receipt back you get a signature and the date it was signed for. It may not get you your merchandise in a true scam, but at least you'll have SOME proof that you did send it and it WAS received.

Posted by: Diane at July 14, 2005 3:31 PM

please can you help . I have paid by paypal a firm that sells how to arrive and thrive in ireland , about a month ago , but no email adress or i can not get in touch , needless to say i have noy received any thing from them.
please can you help.
thank you.
John

Posted by: john mckay at August 19, 2007 11:59 AM

Yea i have a problem on a laptop i bought, paid for an item, never got it, the seller told me it was to be delivered on a date but didnt respond to any emails after that date passed, i went through paypal and could only cover 12% of what i paid for, (itm cost=$1,700 paypal giving me $200 USD)

still can't contact seller, paypal/ebay wont do anything else and my creditcard company is going :"its not our fault u chose ebay"
i have no idea what to do next other than go on a berserking rampage :( (oh yea im an unemployed student who needed this itm and can't affor another one!!)

Posted by: Sara at September 19, 2007 6:46 AM

i bought item on aug 06. i chose the 4 -6 weeks delievery. on sept 21 i finally got a response from seller he said it will be there shortly. 2 weeks later i responded i demanded a refund. he said he would give it to me but i would have to wait 10 more days so that he could find my order. 2 and half months of excuses. he was so professional but he was a liar. now i lost about 147.98 in goods and ebay nor pay pal said the 45-60 days limit has passed. i have the emails to prove my purchases and the emails he send me stalling me. PLEASE HELP ME

Posted by: Patricia at October 13, 2007 3:40 PM

I just had the same problem. A seller told me to send a check because she was having trouble with Paypal. I sent the check but she didn't send the products. I have her address now since she told me to send the check. Can I call the FIB to have her arrested? Buying from eBay is annoying!!

Posted by: Bruce Ma at November 5, 2007 9:46 AM

Hi there,

I ordered the merchandise on Oct-30-07 so I am still within the allotted time period but what do I do if the eBay seller is no longer on eBay? It is a company and they have their own website but they are no longer a seller on eBay. I have contacted many times with no response.

Posted by: Kristina at December 14, 2007 11:55 AM

eBay hs a page called INR (Item not recieved, or significantly not as described) Disputes.

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?InrCreateDispute

though if eBay rules in your favor you will never get all tho money back, in a similar fasion to PayPal.

Posted by: Ray at January 20, 2008 1:44 PM

"I do not encourage people to pay their auctions via money order. Why? Because there's no paper trail, no proof that the money order was ever received or cashed."

Incorrect. There is a number on the back of every MO for customer service that you can call and check and see if your MO was cashed or not and the date it was. By Law you must be provided this information if you are the purchaser. Obviously since only the person you made it out to can cash it, there's your proof.

Posted by: Ed at March 11, 2008 10:42 AM

i ordered a cell phone on ebay payed 312.00 for it and did not recieve it yet and i am wondering where is it or how long will it take to come in can you please let me no.thank you and plesase let me no as soon as possible thanks

Posted by: al francis at April 29, 2008 5:33 PM

I have a lot to say, but ...

I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!