Ebay purchase gone bad...

I bought a "new condition, three-week old" tailgate on ebay... was described as such, even followed up with seller to confirm. The seller confirmed the condition to be true.

So it arrives with four significant dents (I believe three may have occurred during shipping, one was definitely there before-hand). I provided proof to the seller that the claim is legitimate, and that the damage is to the tailgate which I purchased from the seller.

Yesterday, I filed a dispute through paypal for the full refund of the purchase price and shipping, which I believe is warranted. It was immediately "escalated" to a claim, in which Paypal determines what happens next... (and it sounds like that could take some time).

That's a quick summary... but does anybody have any experience with situations like this? What are the chances I'm getting my money back?

(Message edited by phenom_1819 on February 19, 2010)

Did you pay for shipping insurance? If so, you may want to file a claim with the company that was used.

The chances of getting your money back are very high, you just have to wait for PayPal to investigate your claim. It shouldn't take longer than a week or so to receive a decision.

I went through the Paypal claim process a couple of weeks ago and got all of my money back. The process is confusing, though I think they have it that way on purpose to weed out the scammers just trying to get something for free.

After I filed the dispute an e-mail was sent to the seller. The seller did not respond, so I escalated the dispute to a claim. I received nothing from Paypal (e-mail wise), but when I checked the status of my claim on Paypal's website it said that Paypal was awaiting more information from me and if I did not submit this information the claim would be canceled. The problem was that they never asked me for any info, so I had no idea what I was supposed to send?

I then sent Paypal an e-mail for clarification. They wrote me back and said that they had everything they needed and that they would decide the case in my favor. The next day I got my money back.

In retrospect I think the key to a successful claim is to conduct ALL communication between you and the seller through E-bay and not through your own e-mail account. This way Paypal can see all of the communication between you and the seller instead of you having to send them copies of e-mails which may or may not be fabricated.

After it was all said and done the seller sent me a request to cancel the transaction. I assume he did this so the negative feedback would be deleted if the transaction was canceled? I declined his request.

Your chances are excellent. Paypal sides with the buyer 99% of the time, and screws the seller (even if they are not in the wrong). Case in point, I shipped a wakeboard, buyer claimed not recieve it, when in actuality he knew I didnt get a tracking number and therefore (under PP policy) he was entitled to his money back.

I got screwed as a seller by paypal last month. Sold a product and this punk kid claims it's not working 2 weeks after he got it. Left my hands perfect and I know it's working just fine for him. I could do nothing but take it back and paypal had given him his money back. Shipped it back to me and was still just like I sent it. Working perfect. Punkass kid decided he did not want it or found a better price. Really irritating.

Thanks for all the replies. Good to know I'll probably get my money back if I just keep going along through the rounds. Sorry to hear many of you have been screwed by the system as ebay sellers... it sounds like the guy I've been dealing with has been burned a few times too (all with dented tailgates, which he admitted to me... which I thought was interesting). Still, I did nothing wrong and got screwed. I would feel bad for him... if there wasn't one huge dent caused by direct impact... with no damage to the packaging in that exact area.

Thanks for the feedback guys!

Good luck! Paypal is great for a buyer, but as a seller I will not use it.

My last two ebay transactions have not been the greatest. All I can say is that the sellers were looking through rose colored glasses when they described what I bought. Perfect, means perfect.... at least to me.

When my truck speedo cluster PRND21 indicator lights went out I bought a replacement cluster from a guy that was advertised as perfect condition with about 100k miles on the odo. The indicator lights on the new cluster did not work at all. In the light you could see the odo had about 151k. I filed a complaint and paypal ruled in the sellers favor without even hearing my rebuttal to the sellers claim. I got ripped off. Seller claimed the issue must be my truck. During the time of the dispute I had swapped the cluster with my other truck and it worked perfectly, later had my original cluster fixed and it works perfectly today.

Yes, you can get scammed. I have about 500 ebay transactions, only 2 or 3 have turned out bad.