ripped off on ebay.. nothing new.

[dr5chrome]

What is the name of your state? CO

We purchased an item on an ebay auction. The seller agreed to a 60day timeframe for the funds. We sent some of the funds as good faith.

We soon realized that the item sold was not what was listed and the seller conveniently left out some vital information related to the equipment, making it worthless.

I already know in this case i should not be held to the auction given this information. The problem is getting the money back I sent.

PAYPAL is 98% of the time, no help. On top of the issue at hand the seller manipulated the system to have paypal drop the issue, in other words the seller lied.

What recourse do I have to get my money back? I didn_t know that I couldn_t sue in small claims someone in another state, from my state. Did i read this correctly in the forum??

Should I kiss my money goodbye, or do I have recourse?

Thanks

David Wood

 

[divgradcurl]

What is the name of your state? CO

We purchased an item on an ebay auction. The seller agreed to a 60day timeframe for the funds. We sent some of the funds as good faith.

We soon realized that the item sold was not what was listed and the seller conveniently left out some vital information related to the equipment, making it worthless.

I already know in this case i should not be held to the auction given this information. The problem is getting the money back I sent.

PAYPAL is 98% of the time, no help. On top of the issue at hand the seller manipulated the system to have paypal drop the issue, in other words the seller lied.

What recourse do I have to get my money back? I didn_t know that I couldn_t sue in small claims someone in another state, from my state. Did i read this correctly in the forum??

Should I kiss my money goodbye, or do I have recourse?

Thanks

David Wood

It's not that you can't sue someone in another state in small claims court -- in many states you can -- it's just that it is not practical. First off, in virtually all of these types of cases, the proper "venue" for an action is in the defendant's state, and a state generally lacks the jurisdiction to haul someone from another state into it's courts, so it's easy for the defendant to get the case dismissed. Even if the case is not dismissed, the state doesn't have the jurisdiction to enforce the judgement against someone residing in another state. So, as a practical matter, you need to sue the person in their own state.

Some states, like California, simply don't allow you to sue someone who is out of state, period. Most states do allow it, but the jurisdictional issues and the difficulty in enforcing an out-of-state judgment generally make suing an out-of-state person in small claims court impractical.

So, you'll likely either need to sue them in their own state, or eat the loss. This is the tricky issue with purchasing goods from other states.

 

[dr5chrome]

thanks very much! Seems when I figure out how to avoid these problems another different issue comes into play..

regards
dw

 

[statefan]

Unfortunately, this happens way too often, and the "bad" guys seem to usually get away with continued misconduct. I found an interesting website, eBayersThatSuck.com, where people can post their adventures with a less than honest buyer or seller. There are several interesting stories, including some remedies to their solution, along with phone numbers and email addresses which might be of some help. (Make sure to read the comments after the post, some are completely off the wall, but some share the information listed above.)

Good luck.

 

[twocats]

If you paid by Paypal and your claim was denied, you can go to your credit card company and do a chargeback. The CC company will be charging Paypal, not the seller. It will be up to Paypal to recover their funds from the seller.

If you did not pay by credit card, you will have to look at other options but it appears to me that you never received the item because you do not say that you paid the entire purchase price. You only say you paid partially then soon realized the item was not as described.

If you did not receive the item, how do you know it was not as described? Most Ebay sellers will not send the ittem out until it has been paid in full. Did your seller send it to you before you completely paid for it? Or did you read the description and assume that the item had parts that the seller did not say it had?

Some things to know about Paypal:
1.) one dispute to a transaction - pick "item not as described" dispute if the item is different from what you thought was auctioned. Pick "item not received" if you paid but did not get the item.
2.) you have 45 days to file a dispute through Paypal. One minute past 45 days and they will not accept your dispute.
3.) Always try filing with Paypal before doing a chargeback through your CC.
4.) Always pay with a credit card through Paypal. Do not use a debit card or Paypal cash from your checking account through e-check or existing funds. This allows you to do a CC chargeback as a last resort.