Folks,

Forum member, Troy (troyhutz), inspired this post, in part (see his entry on the DiMaggio hat: http://www.network54.com/Forum/thread?forumid=383222&messageid=1127246020&lp=1127501443 ). When a seller defrauds a buyer, what avenues of recourse have people employed to resolve the situation and realize justice? I'd be interested to hear what people have done in order to get their money back. I have heard of people filing mail fraud claims, filing law suits, contacting eBay and Paypal, etc. What have people actually done and what works? I'm currently in a situation where a seller sold me a bad item, agreed to take the item back for a refund, and now that he has the item in his possession again, will not refund my money (giving me all kinds of excuses, stories, and evidence of his active avoidance along the way). Any suggestions? Your feedback, comments, and advice are highly appreciated. I hope this post can evolve into a thread that is repeatedly referred to by forum members in order to help us all resolve this type of problem.

Reid

If you would like to receive my list of game used baseball and basketball items, please email me at rgf2@hotmail.com.

Reid,

For me, it's the principle of the matter when ordeals like this occur. I have only had two instances in the past ten years, which I consider very fortunate considering the quantity of items I have purchased during that time span (knock on wood). Neither item was over $100, but it still pissed me off.

One time I sent money for a Tony Gwynn gu hat, and a month went by with unanswered e-mails. I used the E-bay system to get his phone number and talked to him directly, and was promised it would go out the next day. Two weeks later, no hat. No e-mail response, and phone disconnected. Fortunately, he lived in a smaller city and had a not-so-common last name. I did a phone number search on his last name and called all of them. I had nice conversations with his mother. I also got the number for the local card shop and talked to them (they knew him well). It's amazing how that hat made it from California to Texas so fast.

Another time I had purchased a Barry Bonds auto ball (different seller, but again from California). Empty promises for 2 months via e-mail, and finally no responses. Phone disconnected. I did a search on his address and got his apartment managers phone number. They were very sympathetic to my cause and gave me his new phone number. Disconnected number again. I called the apartment manager back, and told them that the "new" number was also disconnected. They were quite upset with this because each tennant is supposed to keep an updated phone number on file with the apartment manager, and this individual was consistently late on rent. I had the apartment manager tape a tersely dictated note on the individuals door. Again, amazing how fast people respond when it gets close to home. With what I told the apartment manager to write, I bet that guy is still looking over his shoulder.


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Marcus Sevier
www.GameBatStore.com