Ripped off on Ebay

jeffporsche · 05-17-2002, 08:13 PM

Just to give all of you a head up, I was completely ripped off by member paintwise1. I was bidding on a 78 SC decklid and at the last 10 seconds I was outbid. The winner e mailed me the next day to say that he found one locally and that he no longer needs the lid. He said that I could purchase it for the high bid, so I did. When I recieved the lid it looked like someone beat it up with a metal base ball bat, then ran it over with a truck. I have never seen such a piece of crap. I e-mailed him and he said that he sold it in good faith as is! I told him that I wanted a refund and that I was shipping it back to him. He never refunded me and stated that he will only relist it and give me the ending price minus his fees. Needless to say I am not protected through E bay since I was not the high bidder and it was over 30 days with paypal so I have no choice but to come up with other means of compensation, to take him to court. His e bay name is paintwise1. Below is a link to the lid. Watch out for this guy.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/ebayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1813013280&r=0&t=0

pegasus9 · pegasus9's Garage

Thanks for the heads up. Sorry to hear about your mishap.

You should tell paintwise1 to go suck cowballs!! I'd be darn pissed too !!!

makaio · 05-17-2002, 08:36 PM

THat $ucks! I hate when people get ripped off, because thgen it ruins it us honest guys.

steve911 · steve911's Garage

If you paid by Paypal using your credit card, contact your credit card company (in writing) and tell them you are disputing the charge and why.
they will reverse the payment to paypal, which will in turn go after the deadbeat seller. should get his/her attention rather quickly.

good luck

jeffporsche · 05-17-2002, 10:13 PM

I have a standard account through payapl that does electronic payment through my bank account not a credit card. pay pal said that they can't help

Doug E · 05-18-2002, 03:03 AM

Sorry to hear this as I've never had a bad a ebay experience.

The part I find interesting is that the seller has a 157 feedback rating so clearly there are many others who claim to have had positive dealings with him.

Brian993 · Brian993's Garage

I would contact ebay. They will help, sounds like this guy pulled a scam.

jluetjen · jluetjen's Garage

If I understand you correctly - you didn't actually buy the part on ebay - did you? It sounds like you bought it from the winning bidder not the original ebay seller. If that is the case, it isn't really an ebay issue. What has been the feedback on this guy on Ebay? It sucks none the less because the guy sounds like a real creep.

Brian993 · Brian993's Garage

It still sounds like a setup!

Kurt B · 05-18-2002, 05:52 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by BigBpainta
It still sounds like a setup!

'

I'm with you here! I DOES sound like a friggin setup!
Worse than bad ebay, it's fraud if it is what it seems like.

LeeH · 05-18-2002, 07:21 AM

Did you actually pay the seller or did you make payment to the person who was the high bidder?

What's interesting is that the high bidder bid on and WON auctions of four different rear deck lids in April.

Porscheguy · 05-18-2002, 08:01 AM

I am with you Lee.

maybe the high bidder has a thing for 911 lids, a lidphomaniac?

Joking aside, unless the seller was in agreement with the buyer, it does not look like it is the ebay sellers fault.
the picture shows a nice, dent free lid,
it looks like the high bidder is the one who took you for a ride.

take a picture of the lid and send it to the original seller on ebay and ask him to confirm if that is the lid he sold to the high bidder.

unless you can prove the high bidder and the seller were working together, EBAY wont help. it actually condems this kind of deals.

my sympathies
JCB

Brian993 · Brian993's Garage

Well at least it was only a couple hundred. Cheap education. I am sure you will be a lot more cautious in the future. I almost said suspicous but there really should be no reason to feel that way with honest people.

Sean Hamilton · Sean Hamilton's Garage

I'm looking at the Photos on a flat LCD monitor. To my eye it looks dented down toward the lower portion of the deck lid, along the edge and up on the surface and scungy inside. The original owner has been careful ti take the photos to avoid reflections light refraction. Was he trying to conceal its true condition (too)? Pulling a shifty on eBay? Then there may then be something for eBay to answer for - 3rd party or not.

Still, the deal has ripped you Jeff and I hate to hear this sort of thing. It's happened to me and just seems to linger and fester. We all loose a little confidence in internet dealings when we hear of this.

feelyx · 05-18-2002, 09:07 AM

Sounds like mail fraud to me, contact the post office.

Tim in Sac

jeffporsche · 05-18-2002, 09:09 AM

The High bidder e mailed me and said that he wants to transfer his high bid to me, because he bought a decklid locally. I bought the decklid off paintwise1 and he shipped it to me. I have a high resolution monitor and I did not see any dents or the metal warped when I recieved it. The good thing is that he only lives 4 hours from me. I sent this piece of crap back to him about 3 weeks ago. Still no refund and he blocked me from sending him e mails. I have to send him emails from my brothers aol account.

LeeH · 05-18-2002, 09:20 AM

I'm not defending the seller for shipping a trashed deck lid, but the auction makes no mention of the condition. All it says is "1978 911 SC Deck lid."

If a seller says and item is in "good" condition I make a point to ask why it's only good and not "great" or "mint."

Maybe a paintless dent removal place can straighten it out for you.

jeffporsche · 05-18-2002, 09:23 AM

The dents are no problem it is that the metal on the bottom of the lid is warped. I have one small dent and I decided to buy a new on instead of having any bondo on my car, I hate bondo, My bodyman said that warped metal on the lip of the lid is extremely had to repair.

Reg · 05-18-2002, 09:38 AM

I was burned too

It really ticked me off too. I have had plenty of good deals both buying and selling. I guess sooner or later everyone will get burned.

nostatic · nostatic's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by LeeH
Did you actually pay the seller or did you make payment to the person who was the high bidder?

What's interesting is that the high bidder bid on and WON auctions of four different rear deck lids in April.

There are two probably scenarios. The first is that the high bidder is a reseller. Given the details presented so far, this doesn't sound like the case.

The more likely option is that the "high bidder" is either the seller using another ebay account or a friend. The fact that the bidder "bought locally" and offered to "transfer" his bid is suspicous.

Since you bought "outside" of Ebay you are not protected by their (weak) policies. BUT, I would send them an email with the account names of both the seller and high bidder, and also include any previous auctions won by the high bidder. If you want to post the emails for all the people involved I'm sure one or more of us here would poke around (mmm, traceroute) and see if there are any obvious connections. We love a good conspiracy!