Scammed on eBay, seller unregistered, anything I can do?

This is the first time I've been flat-out scammed on eBay- I won an auction for a used PS2 The Rumble Fish for $20.49. Cheap as hell since it didn't have the instructions and the seller had zero feedback (yeah, should have been a sign, I know).

Seller sends me a prompt e-mail thanking me for payment, and that he'll send the game in a few days. He waits 10 days to send the game and e-mails me with a DC#, which is valid. I receive a little bitty package (envelope too small to be a PS2 game) today with a DVD-R inside. I put the DVD-R in my PC (yeah, also not a good plan) and see what's on it- you guessed it, Rumble Fish code.

So I go to file a PP complaint. Guy is no longer a registered eBay user (his ID was "superkewl08"), and the envelope has a return address that is nothing like any of his other contact info; name "Amy Curtis" with a Texas address (his real name seems to be Daniel King, if anyone down in the Lone Star State knows this motherfucker).

And of course, since I wanted to file the PP complaint before he'll have the warning to pull all the $ out of his account, it won't let me file ANYTHING without trying to resolve with him first. So I sent him an e-mail telling him to refund me or I file a paypal chargeback.

Oh, and I did the funding as bank transfer, not credit card, so VISA chargeback isn't an option.

Is there anything else I should try doing? I'm basically just resigned to losing my money at this point. At least it's only 20 bucks, but the fucking principle still pisses me off. Last couple weeks have sucked bad enough, and then this asshole goes and steals from me.

It's probably a waste of your time, but you could complain to ebay if you want.

Never buy from zero feedback sellers, and always do a little research if they have a feedback rating that's in any way suspect.

I try to pay for ebay stuff with a credit card, so you have a way out if you've been stiffed. Credit card companies are pretty good about helping you out of those types of situations, even if it is just so they can continue to fuck you over on interest charges.

galfordo said:

It's probably a waste of your time, but you could complain to ebay if you want.

Never buy from zero feedback sellers, and always do a little research if they have a feedback rating that's in any way suspect.

I try to pay for ebay stuff with a credit card, so you have a way out if you've been stiffed. Credit card companies are pretty good about helping you out of those types of situations, even if it is just so they can continue to fuck you over on interest charges.

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Yeah, I normally try to avoid 0-feedbacks, but this one was cheap enough that I figured what the hell. But never again for anything, no matter the price, that's for sure. At least on here a zero-feedback seller might ship first, or have some member who knows him.

And you're damn right about that credit card part, obviously. There's no damn way I'm getting my money back since there's so little ability to trace it and no 3rd party at risk.

Lesson learned, I guess.

Thanks for the help, though!

I didn't know the Rumble Fish was out on PS2...

Sorry for your ebay experience. I'm pretty much done with ebay, except for cheapass electronic equipment.

It probably works on a Modded PS2, sell it and make up a little of what you lost.

Sorry to hear it jro. PayPal pisses me off by not letting me set my default payment to come from my credit card, at least from what I can tell. So I make sure to change it to CC each time I use PP to keep the power of the chargeback on my side.

eBay and PayPal relatedscams, are the odds stacked against us honest people? I sure as hell would like revenge on a certain no longer registered user!

From the Ebay transaction..Did you get a phone number to call..?(sellers phone number)

sounds like your fucked, same thing happened. My mother wanted to buy photoshop legit, so we got it on ebay mad cheap, we get a cdr in the mail, I am furious, I go to complain and bam the fucker is unregistered.

The Rumble Fish...oh god what a very BAD game that is....downlaoded it....played it.......threw it away, what a waste of time!
the game controls so badly its not funny, and even the attacks and moves arent that great either....and the levels werent to good looking either....
my advice...never buy this game...just play it at an arcade if your bored.
thank god for torrents! if i boguht the damn thing i wouldve felt so bad!

after all its a Sammy game

Why would anyone buy from a zero-feedback seller?!?!?

lachlan said:

The Rumble Fish...oh god what a very BAD game that is....downlaoded it....played it.......threw it away, what a waste of time!
the game controls so badly its not funny, and even the attacks and moves arent that great either....and the levels werent to good looking either....
my advice...never buy this game...just play it at an arcade if your bored.
thank god for torrents! if i boguht the damn thing i wouldve felt so bad!

after all its a Sammy game

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Did I ask for your opinion of the game? No. Shut the fuck up if you don't want to post something constructive. Try to be little less useless next time.

@chris1: I might have been able to get his phone number if I had looked before he unregistered, but now I can't get anything other than "member in United States since May 10, 2005, no longer a registered user." And I can't get his phone number off PayPal either. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

@LWK: That sucks about your mom and PhotoShop. I guess most people who use eBay long enough seem to get fucked over sooner or later. It seems like once someone unregisters, bam, there's not much that you can do if the $ didn't come from a credit card.

Well, I'll still file a PayPal complaint to see if I can at least cause him the headache of a frozen PayPal account while they take their time to tell me that they can't do anything.

Can't you play at least the DVD-R on your PS2?

Won't make your money going back but still better than nothing.

IF you decide to throw out the DVD-R, send it to me. I'd like to see if it works on my PSII with swap magic.

But that sucks that he's a ripp off artist.

Sorry to hear you got ripped off. I have been ripped off three times, twice as a seller and once as a buyer.

All three transactions were in the 20-30 range and I ended up just letting them all go as a loss. Ebay and Paypal didn't really give a shit and they make me jump through hoops.

If the loss was bigger, I would tell you to see it through. (and you may still want to because you were screwed). However, you may just want to let it go and not get anymore worked up about it.

About buying from a zero feedback? Doesn't everyone start with zero feedback?
If everyones policy was not to buy from people with zero feedback, there would be no sales.

The price on this auction was low, so I think you were right to put the bid in. It is not your fault that there are some scum bags out there.

The only solution in this situation is to load a duffel bag (or two) full of firearms, knives, saws, grenades, and any other really dangerous and cool shit you can think of and pay "Amy Curtis" a little courtesy call.

Shit, who cares if she has nothing to do with it? At least you'll get to kill someone because of the deal.

sQuareh4t3r said:

The only solution in this situation is to load a duffel bag (or two) full of firearms, knives, saws, grenades, and any other really dangerous and cool shit you can think of and pay "Amy Curtis" a little courtesy call.

Shit, who cares if she has nothing to do with it? At least you'll get to kill someone because of the deal.

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Yeah, I figure it would go something like the end of Jay and Silent Bob Strike back- I knock on the door and say "Is Daniel King home?" She says "No, there's no one here by that name. I'm Amy Curtis, is there something I can help you with?" And WHAM with a big kick to the head.

No, I wouldn't do that. I agree with you, Gameoz, that it's not likely worth the time and effort on my part over $20. There comes a point of diminishing returns, I suppose.

@Robert: I actually did try- totally without reason to think it would work, I did pop the DVD-R into my JP PS2, and since it's not a modded system, it told me to insert the proper type of disc.

@norton9478: I'm sorry to say that there's really not much left of the disc at this point... I was already in a bit of a bad mood, so having a useless DVD sitting there, mocking me, made me think, hmm, you get smashed now. Broke it in half and tossed it in the trash. Sorry I didn't think of trying it on a modded PS2 in time!

Again, thanks to everyone who's posted useful stuff in this thread. It makes me feel a little better to know that I'm not the only one who fell for something on eBay.

I was wondering if you went back to the original auction page and tried to pay by other means then Paypay,say by Money Order..The users mailing info and phone number might still show up.

I wonder if this will still work though the user is unregistered..I've never tried it with a unregistered user.
Search: Find Contact Information
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQtZvbQQsofindtypeZ9

Enter User ID of member

You can request another member's contact information if you are involved in a current or recent transaction with them.

Item number of the item you are trading with the above member

Contact information will be emailed to you, and the member whose information you requested will receive your information as well. Information can only be used in accordance with eBay's PrivaPolicy
.......................

I'm just trying to help more as I HATE to see people get ripped off on Ebay..
I may not get my Money Back with a Phone Call..But the phone call usually stirs up more trouble for the individual then what it was worth.

If you have the address, it is possible to get a phone number from it. www.switchboard.com can do a "reverse lookup", maybe try that.

My advice...

screw feedback.

Stay away from sellers with names like "pimpdaddy69" "slickdawgOG" and all that other nonesense. They might be kids, but more importantly they're probably idiots.

DanAdamKOF said:

If you have the address, it is possible to get a phone number from it. www.switchboard.com can do a "reverse lookup", maybe try that.

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No address for him. Only a name and a country, not too useful. And I've tried to look up contact information on eBay, which was also a wash- nothing listed at all, not even a real name.

Well, I had my PayPal claim all filed, but then I got to worrying that he could lie that I owed him a refund for an item that he had shipped to me in that envelope, and I could get frozen or screwed (I think that's how the scam goes, isn't it?) so I decided that my $20 isn't worth the risk or the trouble and canceled the claim.

Then I sent him an e-mail that said "I think there's a special level of hell reserved for e-Bay scammers. Enjoy my $20."

Really makes me feel for those guys who've been scammed out of $100s or even $1000s on Neo deals.

My problem has always been that PayPal and or Ebay have to know who these people are but they don't seem to give a fuck. And...if they really don't know, what does that say about these companies.

It may have changed but a couple years ago Ebay wouldn't even investigate a loss under 25.00.

And....Paypal and their reversals. Someone could write a book on this scam.
If you have ever had a reversal you know, that PayPal won't even provide you with a real reason. It infringes on the personal information of the other person. Yeah the person that kept the product and got their money back.

Jro...you are bringing back bad memories.

i ll never used ebay anymore... got screwed 2 times on the same game: the reap for PC. It s a good pc shooter, 2 times i bought it "new and sealed" on ebay and both times i received damaged copies giving crc errors. Hopefully i managed to construct a correct CD out of the 2, but i hate that kind of stuff...

On the other side i managed to get a brand new kingdom'o'magic but that experience was enough

I got scammed one time on E-bay and what a bastard it was. Sold a Zelda collectors edition sealed for like $69.99. Sent it off and the one time i forget to get a DC# the twat claims through pay-pal he did not get item. I even produce the receipt of postage to him, and paypal and yet they still ruled in the buyers favour. I've sent over a hundred packages and not one has got lost. Man was i pissed. So the only thing i could do was withdraw all my money from Paypal before the freeze, and then proceded to deposit a dollar at a time over a space of 2 months. I gave him his refund, but i made the bastard wait.

Damn. After reading everyone else's horror stories that make my little misstep look like nothing, PayPal and eBay in particular really seem like risks. That damn PP scam that you got hit with, Gameoz, and I was worried about, that one really seems nasty, in addition to all the other ways you can get screwed.

I'd pretty much gotten to where I almost ( ) only bought from big stores (i.e. Yamatoku, hit-japan, etc) or sellers I'd had good luck with from before or know from here or reference (16-bit, Yao James, etc). So now I think I'll have to switch over to that line of thinking pretty much exclusively, I guess.

You guys got all the good stuff anyone could ever want to buy, anyway.