Serious problem with an eBay sale!

[Gurm]

Ok folks, this is a bit long but please bear with me.

I put a bunch of items up on eBay. One of them was a cell phone.

Some guy, named Eli Antar, purchased the phone via PayPal. This was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I immediately e-mailed him telling him the phone would not ship until the following Monday, due to my need to cancel my plan and package it up and get to an open shipping location.

No response.

I e-mailed him again on Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) telling him all was on track.

No response.

I e-mailed him again on Monday saying the phone had been shipped, via US Post, Insured mail. The post office wouldn't guarantee anything faster than 4 days due to him living in NYC and the whole Anthrax thing.

No response.

Tuesday, I get an e-mail from PayPal saying he has complained due to non-receipt of the phone. I send him an e-mail saying "What the ****?"

FINALLY, a response. From someone named Joseph Zarger (HUH?!?!?) He swears at me, calls me names, says he "knows how things work" and that I've had "a whole week to get him the phone". GOOD LORD, does he not know Thanksgiving is a ****ing national holiday? And WHO THE HELL IS HE?

I mail back saying that hey, the phone will be there eventually.

No response.

I continue to mail every few days, saying "what is going on?" - and get a total of one other response threatening me and swearing some more.

I call up PayPal, and complain that this guy is screwing with them and me... since the auction clearly stated that I had 10 business days to get him the phone, and he cancelled the payment on business day 2. THEY tell me I'm out of luck (so much for PayPal) unless I shipped via UPS or FedEx.

Finally, 30 days go by. PayPal, which has held the money in arbitration, gives it back to him since I have no proof of delivery (the Post Office is currently tracking the shipment for me).

Then all of a sudden, out of the blue, this guy posts POSITIVE feedback about me on eBay. Of course the feedback makes no sense. Says I provide "prompt payment" and "communicate well". Is this the same person?

So I e-mail him. "If you posted positive feedback, can I assume you got the phone?"

NOTHING.

So I respond to the feedback, saying "Hey, this guy is on crack, and defrauded me."

I also post feedback on HIS account, saying he defrauds people. I note that out of 80 responses to his account, fully 10 are people saying "sent money, never got item" or "sent item, he pulled payment".

So he complains to an online service (SquareTrade), says I'm defrauding him (despite the fact that he HAS his money back). He's clearly just pissed that I gave him a negative review, and is attempting to "strike back".

Problem is, I am out both a $200 phone and the $125 he paid for it. He has both his money and (I can only assume) the phone.

What would YOU guys recommend me doing?

I hesitate to pull rank (meaning, I have ways to go over everyone's head at eBay), but this is getting ****ing ridiculous.

Advice? Opinions?

- Gurm

[KvHagedorn]

Pull rank? what are you talking about? If you can pull strings, YANK THEM HARD!

[PowerHungry]

Complain to Ebays fraud department. My dad bought a Jornada 720 for 400 dollars (new in package), he even talked to the lady, but as soon as he sent the money, he lost contact with her. She never responded. So he sent a fraud report to ebay, and her account was suspended. Luckily he got his money back becasue the money order was refused because her bank had freezed her accounts. The least that you can do is to stop him from doing this again.

[Gurm]

KvH,

You shouldn't ask. When I'm obtuse you should realize that I'm being obtuse for a reason. I'm a big enough geek that I know people... that's all.

I simply hesitate to pull strings when they're far enough up the chain.

- Gurm

[Wombat]

You could try to get him for fraud. To use the phone, he'll have to put it on a plan. You have the ebay transaction, you have the serial number of the phone, and he'll have to give the serial number to somebody if it's ever put into service. Even if you don't get HIM, you could file the phone as stolen. Somebody will have to give it back to you, then he's their problem.

PayPal will be of no help. They never are.

[KeiFront]

Complain to Ebays fraud department. If you are the only one that's complaining they won't put many effort in your compalint but if already more people complaint about him they will definatly do something about it.

[Dilitante1]

I agree with Wombat on this one.....

Report the phone as stolen, give the police as much information as possible on the buyer, they may be able to get further with Ebay/Paypal than you with the power of thier office/courts behind them.


-Dil

[[GDI]Raptor]

You should report this case to your local police department, and send him an e-mail about it! Also tell eBay about it!

Good luck!

[DentyCracker]

I say do whatever is necessary to stop this guy

If you have to pull rank then do so. Of course the obligatory reporting of him for fraud etc. etc.
This just confirms that I'll not be trading anything on e-bay.

[Gurm]

Denty,

Don't be so hasty. I've done DOZENS of trades on e-bay and this is the first problem. If I had done due diligence (checked his profile BEFORE sending) I would have known better.

- Gurm

[The Rock]

Maybe instead of pulling those strings in a harsh manner, you could do it in a different way. Tell the "strings" that this guy who defrauded you would make a good example and send a message about people who commit fraud on Ebay. They could fry the guy and get all kinds of good PR for cracking down on fraud. If that dont work, email Rosie O'Donnell.

Bart