This is a bit of a shame, but it does illustrate that the best-laid plans can go awry.
Ran across this post on digg (warning: coarse language in comments section) that was a link to a Canadian former eBay PowerSeller's feedback page that trashed his feedback rating to steal a few thousand dollars from a few dozen customers. Several Christmas gifts won't be arriving. For three of the buyers on the first page of feedback, it looked like their first purchase on eBay. Ouch!
I've only had a couple of transactions go bad on eBay. The first time I bought some discounted gift cards from a seller, and he went bankrupt shortly after the check cleared. There was no indication from the seller's feedback that this would happen. I recovered about half of my money, slowly, through the bankruptcy court, until the rest of the debt was cancelled. Since then, eBay has placed limits on sellers as to how many cards, and for how much, they can list at once, because apparently I wasn't the only one that had a bad break with these cards.
The second time was for a lot less money (a music CD). We filed a complaint with PayPal, but the extent they will work the problem is to transfer money back from the other person's PayPal account. If it's not there, then there are fewer options.
This discussion on PCWorld.com outlines some options. An excerpt:
“PayPal […] has its downside. Like credit cards, it promises
complete refunds for transactions by people who spoof your identity.
But its protections against unethical merchants are far less extensive.
It covers payments of up to $1000 for qualified eBay purchases that go
sour (you don't get the item, or it's “significantly not as
described”). But “qualified” here means that the seller meets certain
requirements (including 98 percent or better positive feedback) and
that the item is tangible and physical (as opposed to a service or
software). For non-eBay transactions, even if PayPal finds your claim
valid, PayPal will get you a refund only if the seller's PayPal account
has enough money to cover the claim.
If you use a credit card
to fund your PayPal account, you might be able to recover your money
via a chargeback through the credit card company. But because PayPal is
on the hook for the entire amount, it expects you to exhaust its
dispute resolution process before turning to your credit card company,
and the wait might result in your missing your credit card issuer's own
deadlines for redress requests.
So if you get a bad seller and you boogie, you may be able to charge back the amount if you paid with credit card through PayPal. If it's check, money order, or direct debit, though, this option isn't available.
This is a reminder that eBay isn't quite as safe as buying in a store. The deals I've gotten on eBay, though, have outweighed even the substantial setbacks I incurred with the couple of bad deals. Overall, the feedback mechanism is effective at weeding out the bad sellers, and is almost always an indication of a good seller. But there are exceptions, and that's part of the nature of the animal.
Caveat emptor!
I started off selling on eBay about a year ago and have worked my way up to be a PowerSeller, woo hoo! I think if you only buy from people with a good feedback rating you should be okay.
I have a friend that bought a cell phone on eBay and they actually had the nerve to mail her a box with a brick in it before taking her money!
It seems you hear the most about people's bad experiences and not about all the great ones. Luckily for us eBay users the positive transactions far outweigh the negative ones.
The proof is in all the positive feedbacks given to thousands of sellers. That's why I say buy from people with high feedback and you shouldn't have anything to worry about.
John,
To be fair, some credit card companies will let you chargeback for just about anything; paypal has its uses, but I still try to go directly through my amex whenever possible.