The Video Game Critic

But fraudelent ebay sellers leave me sorely tempted.

Some of you will recall me posting that my PS2 stopped working. Obviously this required a replacement. So I duely purchased another one from ebay. The item arrived and typically didn't work. I contacted the seller and she agreed to replace it if I sent back the broken one. I did so and yesterday I get a message saying the tamper seal on it is broken and consequently I am getting no replacement or refund and to top it off am being demanded more money to have the defective one sent back.

That is not something I am going to take lying down naturally so I opened up a dispute with paypal where the seller pulls their most ridiculous claim yet. That I must have re oved the laser from the system to sell on the black market and replaced it with a defective one.

If need be this is going to court, not only have I lost money, but I will not be insulted by that and have a household of people claiming that not only do I not have the technical skill to open a PS2 let alone fiddle with the laser but also that the thing only spent a few minutes out of it box and the rest of the time it was in plain view of everyone and certainly not taken to anyone capable of tampering with the machine. The seller is obviously committing fraud and I am perfectly happy to have them face the consequences of that if need be.

Hopefully I will not have to go to that hassle however. I have opened a dispute with ebay and paypal. I don't exactly have a great deal of confidence in them however, has anyone here had any experience trying to claim money back this way? How did it go?

Describing how angry I am at this would require words that certainly do not belong on the critics site, so suffice to say I am livid about this, and will not stand for it.

At least you paid through Paypal, which provides a layer of protection by giving you a means to dispute the purchase.  If you also paid using a credit card, that's even better.

A few years ago I ordered a Sega CD (front-loader) and received a top-loader one totally different from the picture.  The seller was a real jerk, so I filed a complaint with paypal.  It took over a month, but I got my money back.

What kind of feedback does the seller have?  If this has happened before you'll have a better case.

[QUOTE=The Video Game Critic]At least you paid through Paypal, which provides a layer of protection by giving you a means to dispute the purchase.  If you also paid using a credit card, that's even better. A few years ago I ordered a Sega CD (front-loader) and received a top-loader one totally different from the picture.  The seller was a real jerk, so I filed a complaint with paypal.  It took over a month, but I got my money back. What kind of feedback does the seller have?  If this has happened before you'll have a better case. [/QUOTE]Unfortunately I didn't use a credit card. I used money that was sitting in the paypal account from some previous transactions. Still at least it was through paypal so there is some protection there.

The seller previously had positive feedback but had only been active for a short time. I guess I should have been more careful there, but they did have a dozen buyers all claiming that they ad had smooth transactions.

I suppose I have learned my lesson though. I will be buying another PS2 on a high street shop where it may be a bit more expensive and a pest to carry home but at least they will replace ith without fuss if it doesn't work.

I was just telling the VGC the other day about how I bought what was advertised as a lightly used perfectly-working Xbox controller on Ebay.  When it arrived and I started using it, the analog stick had a noticeable "pull" to one side.  Thinking maybe I could just fix it myself, I flipped the controller over and saw that the seal over the main screw that holds the controller case together had already been punched through - obviously someone else had the exact same problem and tried the exact same thing to remedy it, only to fail and foist it off on Ebay as working in mint condition.  When I contacted the seller he claimed he'd give me a refund (minus the shipping of course) if I just sent it back to him but not until he received.  Having already been LIED to by this dillweed once I wasn't about to send the controller back and be out absolutely everything (not to mention he'd probably just turn immediately around and re-sell it again to some other poor schmuck), so I opened a dispute with both Ebay and PayPal.  I ended up having no luck though; they basically said "hey, he's telling you if you send it back he'll give you a refund, so you can either do that or eat the cost." but wouldn't consider having him give me a refund first before I sent him the controller back.
Sudz

I got an experience with Pay Pal.    I bought some 360 games, and about 2 hours after I did that the sellers account got frozen for an unrelated matter. .He was caught bidding on his own auctions with a friend's account to drive up his prices.  I told the seller that he had to send the games anyways because I sent the money and it wasn't my fault his account was frozen.  He refused so I opened a dispute with paypal and got the entirety of my money in about 3 weeks

Why didn't you buy a replacement locally? You might've had to pay a little more at a place like EB (90 for a used system, 130 for a new one), but you'd of had some protection and assurance that it works, and a easy way to return it if it didn't.

I wouldn't get your hope up in recovering your money, Paypal isn't very good with stuff like this and usually sides with the seller.

I tend to stay away from buying any cd based systems or equipment from eBay. To easy fro something to go wrong compared to classic sturdy cartridge based systems. I also stay away from buying vinyl records unless they're new because you can't trust someone's grading on the condition of the vinyl.

[QUOTE=Edward M]I got an experience with Pay Pal.    I bought some 360 games, and about 2 hours after I did that the sellers account got frozen for an unrelated matter. .He was caught bidding on his own auctions with a friend's account to drive up his prices.  I told the seller that he had to send the games anyways because I sent the money and it wasn't my fault his account was frozen.  He refused so I opened a dispute with paypal and got the entirety of my money in about 3 weeks
[/QUOTE]

I had to make a total aside here, but I can't help it: "Shill bidding," while not allowed on eBay, is completely legal in real life auctions and very commonly done. I've always found it interesting how eBay differs from a real auction.

-Rob

[QUOTE=Leo Ames]Why didn't you buy a replacement locally? You might've had to pay a little more at a place like EB (90 for a used system, 130 for a new one), but you'd of had some protection and assurance that it works, and a easy way to return it if it didn't. I wouldn't get your hope up in recovering your money, Paypal isn't very good with stuff like this and usually sides with the seller. [/QUOTE]PS2's still aren't that cheap here, and also it is inconvenient for me to buy one nearby. I have back trouble which makes it difficult for me to carry the damn thing home. Did myself a real damage taking my Xbox home I remember.

At any rate petty though it may be, I am not jsut annoyed at my money being taken now, I am also offended that I have been accused of fraud in an attempt to divert blame away from me. Consequently if the paypal dispute does not go my way the next step is the courts. I won't be messed around with like this.