I have been scammed out of $7200.00

[Socke]

Who sends a valuable item without insurance? And I'm pretty sure you bought it including insured shipping.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

I have yet to see the Post Office screw up, especially with insured items. I keep the receipt handy until I have been Emailed that the package has been received. I would keep a ticket for $20 in my wallet until ack'd, let alone $7,200! This sounds like a scam.

If EBay and Paypal do not do more to combat this, such as "Paypal chargeback", they will be history as scam artists and crooks drive them into "Junk bond" status. Put your money in, and hope you get a return on it.

 

[Nick R.]

My father, who's a postman, says that the best way to insure package delivery is to get insurance. Delivery confirmation and the like are a waste of money because even if a package is lost no one cares. However, with insurance, since there's money involved, there's someone responsible for the article every step of the way until it's delivered.

 

[Heath]

Jorge, I hope you either get the camera or your money back. Here in Australia, if an item is sent by rgistered mail the delivery person has to get a signature for it. Sounds easy enough. Recently I have had 2 parcels delivered that were registered and guess what, nobody signed for them. I go tthe parcels after they were left on the front porch. Anyone could have come into the yard and taken them. I live on a main road and with a shop 2 doors down there are always cars parked out front so no-one notices any suspicious vehicles. I guess I am ranting here, so I will stop now.

Good luck with this mate.

Heath

 

[Doug]

Easy enough to rant, Heath! A sender can specify "Adult Signature Required" for UPS shipping, but that doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't still end up left unattended on your porch, or someone else's porch, or in the bushes! Most of the UPS guys are very good about this here but sometimes a corner is cut. A buddy had a $1500 computer hard drive delivered to the same house number, but on "North Maple St." instead of "South Maple St." Just left it on the porch.

I've chosen to avoid this potential problem by having all packages go to the UPS Store two blocks away. Always someone there to accept it.

 

[ChrisN]

Not wrong Heath. I just received my Weston V back from QLM (lovely job, too) in a box with a big red "Signature required" sticker on it. The lady in the Post Office just glanced at it and handed it over, no signature or ID needed. Sheeesh!

 

[tedwhite]

My post office guy would pull up to the mailbox in his little truck, and if the camera or lens package didn't fit into the mailbox he simply dropped on the ground next to the mailbox post inside the fence. I live on a remote dead-end street so not much chance of someone picking it up and moseying off. However, the drop was about three feet, so I went to the post office and explained to the postmaster about delicate rangefinders on very expensive cameras, and could he have a chat with my postman. He did.

Now my packages are deposited gently on my front porch. Unless they're from Russia, in which case he knocks on the door as I must sign for them. I saw him at a party recently and he said, "Jeez, Ted, I didn't know they were cameras..."

Ted

 

[kiev4a]

One of my first ebay purchases was from a seller 150 miles away in Sun Valley (a member of this forum, BTW) I sent a cashier's check by certified mail. Two weeks later it still hadn't arrived. Had to cancel the check and drive over to Sun Valley get the camera. The check turned up more than two weeks after it was mailed. When I complained to the PO I was told that the receipt on the outside of the envelope probably caused it to jam in the processing equipment somewhere. So much for taking precautions!

 

[vodid]

Paypal & ebay...

Paypal & ebay...

That is simply awful, Jorge. Here's my experience with problematic transactions from both Paypal and ebay...

Bought a computer once from a business in Florida, turned out to be a scam outfit, they wouldn't send the computer (six weeks overdue) and they wouldn't return my money. They REQUIRED that the computer be paid for using ebay. Then they stopped accepting phone calls and wouldn't return emails. I went ballistic. Called federal agencies, state agencies, etc. I contacted Paypal and filled out some paperwork, but this was about 4 years ago when Paypal was still somewhat new, and perhaps they were being more responsive at that time. Essentially, they told the seller to either return my money or lose his Paypal account, so he returned my money. A lot of hassle & emotional trauma, but at least the story had a happy ending, thanks to Paypal.

My experience with ebay is that everything is automated, and there is no one you can contact...by design, they don't give a crap. I went through their automated procedure to resolve disagreements, and it is worthless unless the seller is conscientious, and you woudn't be in that situation in the first place if that was the case. It was a misrepresented $350 item and the seller would not answer emails. Through a bit of sleuthing, I got the sellers daughters phone number, and hounded her about her dishonest mother. Sent the phone number to several other buyers who'd been ripped off by the same seller, so the poor daughter had to hear about what a scumbag her mom was from a small parade of disgruntled buyers.

With a sum as large as yours, however, you'd think it would get the attention of both ebay and Paypal in terms of protecting the perceived integrity of their companies, as well as maintaining the public perception that it is a safe vehicle in which to do business.

I hope you retrieve your money, and the scumbags get what they deserve...JAILTIME. Bastards.

 

[Flyfisher Tom]

FYI: USPS insurance receipts exist only in USPS's computer system, but it is not "trackable" on their website to the public like delivery confirmation, certified or registered. That is why when sending by USPS, it is recommended that sellers send by insurance coupled with Delivery Confirmation, which is trackable. For an amount this large, the seller really should have sent it by Fedex Express which is better at tracking and insurance.

Yikes, I feel for you Jorge. Keep us updated.

 

[Flyfisher Tom]

Caveat: Jorge and his source at the PO is right however ... if it was insured, the insured number will show up on the actual receipt. Seems like the guy just lifted an unused insurance number and emailed it to you. I'd file a police report asap and contact someone in the local prosecutor's office. good luck

 

[Jan Brittenson]

Mmm... Could there be section 999 in the air?!

 

[Sean Reid]

I'm hearing more and more about this kind of thing recently. A friend of mine just lost $4000 buying a Ducati motorcycle via E-Bay. Seller took the money and ran. I'm not sure yet what she's able to do, if anything... Jorge, I'm very sorry to hear that you got ripped. When I first read this I was hoping that an honest mistake was made but that's seeming less and less likely.

Cheers,

Sean

 

[tedwhite]

Sean:

Very sorry to hear about the Ducati rip-off. I am a motorcycle person (Velocette Thruxton, Triumph Trophy 500cc, Bultaco Metralla, Moto Guzzi T3, , Kawasaki Ninja, W650, among others I'v owned in my life). I would never buy a big ticket item on ebay. Period. I've bought and sold a few bikes, mostly via owners' groups on the internet, or through Cycle Trader. If I bought one I drove to the seller's place and examined the bike before I paid for it, and the title and all that stuff was easily verifiable, etc. If I sold one the buyer came to my place.

Love those Ducatis. Here in TankTown, AZ we have an amazing number of Ducati owners, including Cagivas, and several Aprilia owners. Not bad for a town of 6K residents.

 

[RObert Budding]

I bought expensive stero speakers on e**y once. But I used an escrow service because of the size of the transaction. It was worth the added expense!

I hope you have a good outcome.

Robert

 

[BAPIEMAI]

Sorry to hear that for the Ducati but seems she had it coming, she made two critical errors.

A) How on earth do you purchase a used bike without seeing it is beyond me. I always at least want to hear the motor running before buying one.

B) Why on earth do you want to buy these pathetic excuses for bikes ? Even if she wasn't scammed the darned thing would never work properly.

All kiding aside stories like that make me not to trust the Internet for purchases. I only buy items that are in driving distance so that the transaction is hand to hand.

I will only get my Voigtlander (because noone has it in Greece) from the Internet but from a respected dealer such as Rober White or Cameraquest.

 

[Paul T.]

Jorge, please let us know if you paid with PayPal via your credit card. As has been pointed out, this is the only safe (ish) way of buying expensive items - obviously, you need to do a chargeback.
If you paid via a PayPal balance, unfortunately you'll only be able to get the first $1000 back. My experience of one non-arrived item was that PayPal refunded me the enture $150 within a month. The seller has to send the item using online tracking - if not, they're liable, whether or not they have proof of posting. Have you contacted PayPal already, if you didn't fund via a CC? PayPal phone numbers are, I believe, (888) 221-1161 and (650) 864-8000

 

[stet]

I read somewhere that it's actually fairly difficult to pay by credit card with paypal, that a CC is basicall used as a backup, unless you manage to figure out what hoops to jump through to make it a primary source. I tried to use a CC one time, and carefully reading everything along the way believed my transaction had gone through that way. It was only when I got teh receipt emailed that I learned that it was done via bank transfer, and the CC was considered a backup.

When I searched around about this, I read some accounts about people adding credit cards to make a big purchase, only to have Paypal wipe out their checking account and charge the balance to the CC.

 

[bmattock]

Sorry to hear that for the Ducati but seems she had it coming, she made two critical errors.

Nobody 'has it coming' to have evil done to them. I understand that in Texas, it is a legal defense to murder to argue that "he needed killing" but in most other jurisdictions, criminals cannot argue that they should be excused because their victim was stupid or made an error in judgement.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[ScottS]

I read somewhere that it's actually fairly difficult to pay by credit card with paypal, that a CC is basicall used as a backup, unless you manage to figure out what hoops to jump through to make it a primary source. I tried to use a CC one time, and carefully reading everything along the way believed my transaction had gone through that way. It was only when I got teh receipt emailed that I learned that it was done via bank transfer, and the CC was considered a backup.

When I searched around about this, I read some accounts about people adding credit cards to make a big purchase, only to have Paypal wipe out their checking account and charge the balance to the CC.

I've never had a problem charging by CC (although the largest paypal purchase I've made has been in the $400-500 range). The default is always the bank balance -- I think it's on the second screen, but at the place they show the funding source, you have to actually click the "change funding source" link, then choose your credit card. Then Paypal gives you a warning page to the effect that "are you sure you want to use a credit card? It's really easy to use your bank account, and if you use a credit card, you are not eligible for paypal protection up to 1000" -- of course, you lose paypal "protection" but you gain your credit card company's protection.

The only time I was unable to charge a paypal purchase to a credit card was when I had a positive paypal balance -- they warn you about this "feature" in one of their FAQs but it took some digging to figure that out. Since that point I've always moved received payments immediately into my checking account so that the CC option remains for future purchases.

Scott