1st Freakin Ebay

[The Ringer]

Wow this freakin sucks! My 1st very ever purchase on Ebay is turning out to be one of those nightmares I have been hearing about Ebay. Well I sent A money order to this guy for $190 bucks and he got in on April 5th. Well I got ahold of this guy yesterday and he said he didn't see Frodo in his so called Wharehouse.? So he said it must have been shipped out but when I ask for a tracking number he said the guy he does packages with had EYE surgery so he can't see WTF! He just is telling me to call back or he will call back with a number but im thinking he is just givining me some BS story. Anbody ever do business with a TV Movie Gifts on the bay? Oh and he said SS is sending out another Frodo for insurance reasons? Which I don't understand.

 

[Jen]

That sounds kind of fishy to me...I've never dealt with this company before. I would tell him to provide you with a tracking # asap or you will file a complaint with eBay. Sucks that you paid with a MO....I always go paypal unless I know the person I'm dealing with.

 

[El Roranous]

Uh oh. The excuses start rolling in. Sorry man, it kind of looks like this will not end well.

 

[p!tu]

The guy had Eye sergury!!!! WTF!! what the hell is he doing shipping censored!!!

 

[dekadentdave]

You're first mistake was to send a money order. NEVER and I mean NEVER pay with a money order or cashier's check. They are non-refundable.

 

[customizerwannabe]

Word to the wise dude. ONLY use paypal. You can easily get your money back if they can't provide a tracking number. Hope it works out for you.

 

[The Ringer]

I know I'm a stupid for using a MO and I need to get a PP account does it cost anything and how does it work? A Link?

 

[BadMoon]

Eye surgery will do that to you!

 

[Jen]

I know I'm a stupid for using a MO and I need to get a PP account does it cost anything and how does it work? A Link?

It's free and you can either have the money come from a checking account, debit card, credit card....it's easy to sign up. It's the seller's who get stuck with some fees when they receive money...but sending never costs anything.
Just go to the website and it will explain how to sign up: www.paypal.com

 

[gambit]

Word to the wise dude. ONLY use paypal. You can easily get your money back if they can't provide a tracking number. Hope it works out for you.

word

there might still be exceptions to this though

Once I bought an apple Ipod to my friend and the seller was with 90 transactions with 99% positive.

I paid with paypal around 330 $ including shipment and after 3 days I opened a dispute as she did not send it and did not respond to my messages.

I never get the money back nor the IPOD

I wrote several times to paypal but they keep saying that the user is no longer registered and they can't do any f.. s..t. at this time.

so paypal is also not 100 % trustable unfortunately

 

[EVILFACE]

I don't buy anything off ebay from people that don't use paypal. No way would I send that amount of a money order to someone.

 

[Chicky]

We feel for you and hate when collectors get ripped off by bad vendors. However, the majority of the vendors are legitimate.

We always caution people to ask tons of questions, review seller feedback and amount of auctions they have held before making purchase decisions.

Please PM me to let me know which Frodo product you were looking for.

Best,
C

 

[i86time]

Amen. I don't want to burst all your bubbles, but if you think by paying w/ paypal that you're protected from scammers, you're 100% wrong. If you get in a transaction w/ a scammer, the second they receive your funds in the account, they can drain that to their personal bank account or they can spend it on a paypal purchase. Even if you only sent that person $1, if s/he doesn't have any money in the account (but yet has the paypal account linked to a bank account with any amount of $$ or a valid credit card) you will never, ever see that money from paypal again. The ONLY exception to this are those auctions where it states that you're guaranteed $2000 or $200 in buyer protection from paypal. If a person wants to scam you, and you somehow let them (either by accident or because you fell for a 'too good to be true' deal) there's little you can do to get your money back. On top of that, if such a thing happens, paypal will not give you their contact information (unless you get a subpoena). Always get the phone number/ address of the person you're dealing with. I don't know how it is now, but you used to be able to pay by only knowing the persons email addy, and as the buyer it did not automatically show you the sellers info after you sent payment. It's no guarantee, but it makes it easier to file a criminal/ civil case if you have that info. I speak from experience. Sad thing is, it happened over 3 years ago and people are still getting scammed in the same manner and paypal does nothing.

As a seller, I only take cash, money orders or personal check from reliable bidders. Just because a person doesn't accept paypal payment, there might be a good reason.

word

there might still be exceptions to this though

Once I bought an apple Ipod to my friend and the seller was with 90 transactions with 99% positive.

I paid with paypal around 330 $ including shipment and after 3 days I opened a dispute as she did not send it and did not respond to my messages.

I never get the money back nor the IPOD

I wrote several times to paypal but they keep saying that the user is no longer registered and they can't do any f.. s..t. at this time.

so paypal is also not 100 % trustable unfortunately

 

[EVILFACE]

Amen. I don't want to burst all your bubbles, but if you think by paying w/ paypal that you're protected from scammers, you're 100% wrong.

True, but I would rather use paypal than send a stranger a $190 money order.

 

[LOTRFan]

True, but I would rather use paypal than send a stranger a $190 money order.

Using PayPal in connection with a credit card is almost a sure-thing, if PayPal can't/won't do anything; your card company most certainly will.

 

[Bannister]

Using PayPal in connection with a credit card is almost a sure-thing, if PayPal can't/won't do anything; your card company most certainly will.

Exactly. The only way I send money through Paypal is with a credit card. The only time I don't do this is if it is someone I know.

 

[My Lord]

Using PayPal in connection with a credit card is almost a sure-thing, if PayPal can't/won't do anything; your card company most certainly will.

That is how I have my account set up. I don't sell on ebay, nor have I ever received money via paypal mostly because I am unsure of the fees involved.

I recently got scammed for $225 on ebay. I paid via money order, a very costly, and painful lesson it was.

Money Order = Zero protection/or recourse if the person decides to run.

Paypal = Some protection is better than none.

 

[LOTRFan]

Money Order = Zero protection/or recourse if the person decides to run.

Well not entirely, Postal Service (USPS) Money Orders are trackable, and failing to deliver goods purchased is a form of mail fraud (or so I was told by a local USPS worker). I have never gone down that path, so I don't know how effective the tracking is on them.

 

[i86time]

Using PayPal in connection with a credit card is almost a sure-thing, if PayPal can't/won't do anything; your card company most certainly will.

Using your CC will offer protection, but using paypal offers no additional protection. The big problem is, they're basically the only player in town since ebay bought them.

If you do file a dispute, yes, you should get your money credited back from the CC company. Paypal will also (or at least did to me) suspend your account due to supposed fraudulent activity until you fax in a current statement w/ your account & personal info and some sheet they want you to fill out and sign. I refused to do this since I felt they may somehow construe this as a gesture that I was admitting the original charges were valid and they would re-bill me, and thus start the whole process over. When I called them and asked them what the heck they were thinking by doing this, I was spoken to quite unkindly and told that I violated their TOS by initiating a chargeback after going through the dispute process (even though they did not return my full amount). I never sent them anything, and haven't touched my account since. So while you may get the money back, you most likely will not be able to use paypal again- which wouldn't be such a bad thing. There's always the possibility that your CC compnany will also see paypal for what it is, merely a mediator in a transaction, and refuse to issue a credit (though I don't know if this has ever happened). Hopefully I'm geting my point across that paypal is just a huge headache to deal with and cosnumers should always be aware of such things.

 

[Jen]

I've personally only had good experineces with paypal. One time I spent about $150 on an item and 3 weeks passed and I still hadnot received it. I tried contacting the seller several times through email and phone messages and never heard back. I then started a dispute with paypal and they immediately froze her account and low and behold a couple hours later she calls me and gives me some b.s. excuse, but did ship my order out FedEx piority and I received it the next day. I then closed my dispute and all was good.
However, like someone else said, if the seller has no money in their paypal account then I reckon, you could get screwed. There will always be scammers, but if you are dealing with purchasing items online, I find it wiser to try and get some protection, rather than none...therefore I use paypal and a credit card and have everything insured. I would never buy something from a stranger with a money order...if they complained about paypal fees I would much rather pay an extra 3% and cover their fees and have some security than none at all.