I know the #1 thing that we all know about e-Bay purchasing is to be careful about who you buy from, so I admit I should have known better.
I purchased Microsoft Office 2007 from a seller on e-Bay for around $90.00 who only had 10 feedback. Yep…I shoulda known. Anyway, I purchased it and paid for it immediately. I then get an email from e-Bay telling me that the item was removed, not to pay for it. Ooops, too late! So I immediately called Paypal and let them know. I was told that since e-Bay sent me a warning email, Paypal would refund my money, but I should wait to see if the seller ships the item because they have had no complaints with this seller on his Paypal account (like I was dumb enough to believe that). That was the 1st of May. Oh, the seller also immediately canceled his email address also. The listing said it was in the US and then come to find out was really in China.
About a week to two weeks later, I receive the item. It was plastic wrapped, looked good, so I had my sigh of relief and went on to install the product. It wouldn’t install. Really? Am I surprised at this…uh, no. I noticed that the disks were different than my other Office 2007 disks, so I got to looking and found that the disks had sticker labels, not hologram labels embedded into the disk. So I contacted Microsoft and verified with them that the program was fake. I had to give them all of the information for the guy. I scanned all of the images of the disks, the shipping label, the customs label, gave his email address, home address, everything. I recieved an email back from MS that said…yes, it’s fake.
I then proceeded to contact e-Bay and when I told them that the gu was selling fraudulent software and mentioned him canceling his email account, I was then told by an e-Bay CS rep…”no, we canceled his account, he did not.” I inquired as to why. His response “He had too many complaints of fraudulent software.” WHAT? TOO FRIGGIN MANY? HOW MANY IS TOO MANY? OMG…I’m livid at this point. I called Paypal and informed them about all of this and they told me to file a complaint. This was the 15th of May. So I filed.
The seller responded and told me to send the software back. So Paypal said send it back. Really? I just told you that this guy is selling fraudulent software and you want me to send it back so that he can screw someone else? Did I hear you correctly? Yep, to get my money back, I had to send it back. So I did. Spent $13.00 to ship this back to China (where it wasn’t supposed to be from) Priority International. And I waited…
Paypal canceled the claim because the item wasn’t received. So I appealed. They canceled again because the package couldnt be tracked. I didn’t know Priority International couldn’t be tracked until now. So I called and they told me to fax all of my info to them. So I faxed 20 pages of PROOF that the software was FAKE along with my shipping receipt. They canceled the claim again. Okay, so now I am pissed. So I called yesterday and was told that they really don’t care if it was fake or not, the seller has to receive the package back to refund my money. E-bay also informed me that there was nothing they could (would) do.
So, in short…both e-Bay and Paypal don’t care what someone is selling as long as they get their fees. They have no morals and no ethics, and I was told yesterday that it doesn’t even matter how long you have been a good customer, they just can’t refund money out of the sellers account even if they know that this seller is commiting FRAUD!
I am now looking for another avenue of e-Bay payment because I cannot do business with people that support these kinds of sellers.
Just beware of buying from e-Bay and do NOT use Paypal unless you can afford to lose your money.
This will be all over the internet before I am completely satisfied.
Found At: PayPal: Reviews, Complaints, Customer Claims, Page 14 | ComplaintsBoard