PayPal
Not-as-Described eBay Phone, Dispute Closed Without Action
- 05-21-2008
- 5
On May 4 I purchased a wireless phone from a seller on eBay and paid for it through PayPal. I received the item about 2 days later. In the auction listing, the phone was said to be in brand new condition, with a completely clean ESN and all original accessories. The auction also clearly stated that I would receive an additional charger and battery at no extra cost. This wasn't the case at all.
The phone had dents and scratches everywhere along its casing. As if that wasn't enough, the phone had 8 very visible dead pixels running from the center of the screen upwards toward the left. The phone did not come with all of its original accessories, nor did it come with the extra battery and charger.
Out of curiosity, I called Sprint to check the ESN of the phone. The ESN was not clean. It is linked to a fraudulent account.
After realizing all of these issues, I contacted the seller by e-mail, and he made several attempts to get the phone back without giving me a full refund. I was not able to come to an agreement with him, so I turned to PayPal.
I opened a dispute with PayPal, informing them that the item I received was significantly not as described. The seller did not even acknowledge the dispute, so I felt I had no choice but to escalate it to a PayPal claim.
Once I attempted to escalate this issue to a claim, PayPal immediately closed the dispute, basically saying that my problem was not important enough for them to take action on.
I dug up PayPal's phone number and called them. I was told by 3 representatives that there was nothing that could be done, and they made no attempt to do anything.
I made another transaction around the same time, but I never received that item. I filed another claim with PayPal, and they reimbursed me for about 2/4 of it. When I called and asked about the rest, they told me there was nothing they could do about that, it is just gone.
Company: PayPal
Country: USA
State: California
City: San Jose
Site: paypal.com