lost money in ebay buying Arcam tuner

I won an Arcam T61 tuner auction in ebay on 28th April. The seller is called frasershifi. I paid by paypal and sent him a few emails but never heard from the seller called Mark Frasers. I found that his ebay registered phone number is the same as a shop called Frasers Hi Fi in Slough, so I called the shop a few times, but got no reply. I phoned the Observatory shopping centre admin office where the shop is, the staff told me that Frasers Hi Fi was closed down last week!

Now it has become obvious that the owner Mark Frasers has the intention to shut the shop and auctioned a few items in ebay just before he closed the shop. I don't think I will hear from him at all. I will need to file a claim in ebay after 10 days of the auction. I will not get the full 139 pounds (including postage) back, but hopefully I will get some money back. Even though I paid by paypal. Paypal doesn't provide protection in this transaction because the seller has less than 50 feedbacks and the item doesn't meet the paypal protection requirement. I will also contact my credit card company as well, but from my past experience, credit company doesn't refund money paid to a third party such as paypal.

This is the first time I have been conned in ebay, this will teach me a lesson and in future I will be very cautious in buying anything in ebay.

Regards
Hon

 

AFAIK, Ebay complaints procedure is a toothless dog.

Ebay relies on the goodwill of all concerned, and in general it works very well, in over 300 transactions, I have never been conned as such, one or two dodgy descriptions but no ones run off with my cash, even stuff from the states and hong kong, I have had a few items damaged in transit, by Amtrak, (the local guys are excellent, its the central clearing depot in walsall, a cleaner friend of mine used to work there and said they don't give a toss and chuck stuff around)
...sending and receiving, and a few funny people on te other end, there are strange ones out there. Very strange.

but it works in general, and yes is open to fraud, dont' count on getting cash back, count yourself lucky it wasn't 1000s.jsut a cheap tuner.

 

It stinks when this happens.

If he had a shop open recently there should be some record of him with the Slough council or elsewhere maybe, you may be able to track him down.

 

e-bay

You can claim through your credit card company`s fraud protection plan, I know this to be true as a close friend got ripped off to the tune of £120 buying a mobile phone only a few months ago, same as you he paid using pay-pal, phone never came, E-bay couldn`t have given two f**ks, Pay-Pal cared even less. My mates actions were as follows......
Report the incident to E-bay.
Report the incident to Pay-Pal
Report the incident to your local police station, gain a crime record number.
Report the incident to the SELLERS local police, you should have his address.
Report all this to your credit card company.
You will then receive a refund of your total outlay. I think it took a while, as these things always seem to do (unless you`re a speeding driver/rider waiting for your ticket or court appearance!) with the local constabulary

In the case of my mates phone it transpired that the guy had tried to do it loads of times. The credit card company actually chased up the seller with the aid of the police and actually caught up with him and brought him to book.

good luck

 

What cat said. Report it to your credit card company and they should make a full refund on the payment.

-- Ian

 

If you have his address from e-bay, go round with a cattle prod, you won't get your cash back but god you'll feel better. I hate dishonesty like this, praying on peoples hard earned rather than earning it themselves.

The shop has probably gone into receivership and there is all sorts of red tape when this happens. Expect a letter from the receivers but don't expect a cheque from them the pecking order is their fee then HMCustoms and excise then trade suppliers finally custommers. If they are in receivership it will slow down your credit card payout as they will wait to see the outcome before paing up.

 

Sorry to hear that. I wouldn't risk anything over 100 quid on ebay myself. Everytime I have arranged to meet up and pay cash. If you treat it the same way as any other ad in a magazine or paper just for a contact to meet, you'll be ok.

 

Thanks a lot for the support from all of you. I have contacted my Visa card bank this morning and the lady told me that the bank will call me in the next 7 days to find out if I am eligible for any refund. Since I paid via paypal, the lady told me that I should contact paypal in the first instance.

Ebay doesn't allow me to report a non-received item 10 days before the auction ends, so I will have to wait after 8th May. The ARcam tuner auction does not qualify for paypal protection as I previously stated because there is no paypal protection icon on the auction page, but I will still report it to paypal.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5770168890&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWN:IT&rd=1

I was so naive to think that Frasers Hi Fi was a reputable hi fi shop in Slough, so I paid by paypal immediately after the auction ended. After I bidded for the tuner, I searched yell.co.uk to find out the address of Frasers Hi Fi and I thought the transaction would be safe. How wrong am I.

Mark Frasers has used a hotmail address and he hasn't registered a full address in ebay, so I cannot track him down.

I doubt if I will buy much in ebay from now on. It is a mine field for buyers.

Regards
Hon

 

It was! I've been in there many times. I hadn't been into Slough for a while though and went in on Sunday - was surprised to find the shop closed. I thought maybe they'd moved to a new location, but it appears from this thread that Frasers is no more!

 

I've just done a directors search and there is no record of a Mark Frasers which means he is going to be very hard to trace .

It seems the company was not reigstered with companies house.

It seems odd that it wasn't a LTD company.

 

you may want to check to see if there is an official liquidator or whateverthey are called. if the shop has closed due to bankrupcy you may have been unluck to have purchased something that is part of the assets being sold. the liquidators / bankrupcy company may still honour your transaction though as you are probably paying more than they would get at a traditional auction.
worth a try anyway.
ther than that - follow the procedure and you'll get your dosh back via your cc company.
cheers


julian.

 

Didn't know that about PayPal, makes me realise PayPal is even more useless than I thought. Is there any "safe" way to deal with people with less than 50 feedbacks (excluding pick-up yourself obviously).

eBay just doesn't interest me any more, all my most successful buys have been on hififorsale.com and gear there is generally alot cheaper than eBay.

Hope it all works out OK Hon.

 

Best thing to do with ebay is use the distance limiter, that way you only see items within the distance you specify so if you win the auction you can go and see what your buying before the dosh leaves your pocket.

And if a seller dont want you coming round to collect then he/she obviously have something to hide.

 

Not always I don't like people coming to the house becuase of my parents, my parents hate waiting for people, and my mum ends up making sure the house is spotless etc. I remember when I sold my DAC which I made a nice profit it on, that was sold via ebay, they wanted to come round to collect it, I agreed but they were 1 hour late and kept phoning to ask for directions.

It is amazing how many people cannot understand the concept of an A-Z.

The poor bugger wanted it for a nice Arcam CD player as well (I felt to mean for not telling him that it may not be as good as the DAC already in his Arcam) I got positive feedback though so he must have been happy with it.

Now when sellers want you to meet in a pub car park that is when you know they have somthing to hide.

 

could info be got from the local authority's tradings standards office?

 

i live with my folks, too, and don't really like people around the house.

not always, AT, I have met many a person in a mway service station, its just convenient, as we both know where they are, landmarks and all that.

95% of ebay is kosher.

 

I don't live with my folks, but Mrs H would have fifty fits if various unknown bods started turning up on the doorstep with bundles of used fivers.

 

Wasnt talking about selling stuff, was on about buying.

It just one way of making sure you dont get ripped.

 

I don't have a car so buying stuff from peoples houses is not really convient for me, I have bought stuff from loot as a youngster though, my dad got sick of it in the end.

Ebay has got too expensive for computer stuff though

When I graduate I will be selling some PCs to make money before I get a real job, these PCs will be going for around £250 so I will have to make steps to ensure I am not conned by buyers.

I've only ever once had a problem with ebay when they claimed their goods have not arived 2 months after I posted it, it didn't make any sense and it was sent at 3:00am in the morning. I told him I have the receipt but he first needs to go to his post office and thenI will do the same, he neve replied back. He was just trying it on quite clearly.

 

Its just one of those things really, ebay is a site thats based on trust so is wide open to those that will take advantage of that trust.

I was bitten on ebay a couple of years back and have been wary since.