Q. Help! I got burned on eBay! I bought something, then I paid
for it and got nothing at all! What do I do? Thanks!
A. You found it on
eBay, that perfect model of a 1998 Pontiac Firebird. You paid for
it, and you think it all went well - until three-and-a-half weeks later
you realize you have no Firebird whatsoever in your mailbox. You've
been e-gipped. So now what do you do?
Well it's not as hard to get some help as you think. First, let's
review what you're options are:
Case One: You were the high bidder on something, you
contacted the seller, got a response, sent out the money, and never got
your item. Communication has ceased with the seller, and it is more
than thirty days after your winning bid.
This is a big problem to handle with eBay. In fact, even I have
gotten scammed out of money on eBay. However, it is thankfully not
occurring often. Basically what happened in this case is you bought
something (real or not), and the seller either legitimately had a real
problem and never told you about it (not likely) or just decided to
steal your money.
If this has happened, you're probably going to want to take some
some action. The first step should always be to try to contact the
seller once again, maybe from a different email address or by other
means. (It's always a good idea to get the phone number of the seller
when buying something). But if this doesn't work, you need to report
the seller to eBay. You can do this at eBay's fraud
protection center.
Case Two: You were the high bidder and got your item, but it
was either broken or not what you asked for.
Thankfully, this problem is on the decline on eBay, but it still
happens. First, try to contact the seller. If this doesn't work (i.e.,
he does not respond), then once again, you should probably go to
eBay's
fraud protection center and report it.
However, what happens if the seller answers the email saying that
the product which you bought is complete and what you asked for. This
is time for a mediator to decide who's really right, and SquareTrade is the
place to do it. Think of it as an Internet Judge Judy.
Case Three: You bought something on the a, such as a cell
phone, from a non-eBay website, and paid using PayPal
- but got nothing.
Thankfully, once again, this is a rare case, but it does happen.
Since this is not eBay, and you are pretty much on your own here, there
really isn't a whole lot of options. However, PayPal does offer fraud
protection programs.
As I said before, you should try to contact the seller by all means
possible, but if this does not work, you will then need to report them
to PayPal. You can do this at
the Buyer Complaint Center.
In the end, Internet buying might not sound safe, but it generally
is, as long as you always make sure you know what you're getting and
trust the seller. 
