I'm looking for help from the veteran eBay-ers here... I am quite experienced myself, but got completely burned on a purchase for the first time. Here'* the run-down:

Dec. 14, 2004 - Won auction for PS2 game from established seller, paid with Paypal. This was intended to be a Christmas gift.

Dec. 23, 2004 - Received the wrong item... same game but for the Nintendo Gamecube and not the PS2. Very disappointed since this now meant a late Christmas gift. E-mailed the seller who apologized and asked that I ship the same back, and the right one would be sent along with reimbursement for the return shipping charge. I did so.

A couple weeks passed and I didn't hear/receive anything back from the seller. Sent multiple e-mails and finally got 1-line response that said "sorry about the wait, your game is on its way". I was getting suspicious by now.

Jan. 25, 2005 - Filed a dispute with Paypal for not receiving an item that was paid for. I tried to file a dispute with eBay, but they kicked me back to Paypal since that'* how the item was paid for. Plus it was less than $25 so I don't think eBay could have helped. I was hoping that this would convince the seller to get going.

While Paypal awaited the seller'* response to my complaint, I tried to post negative feedback and noticed that the seller became a non-registered user on eBay and all the e-mails I continued sending started bouncing back. I called the seller'* phone number (from a previously saved e-mail) but always got a machine and no response to messages.

February 21, 2005 - Finally got a response from Paypal (the seller was only supposed to have 10 days to respond, but it took 26 days for some reason?)... they didn't respond to the inquiry, so the dispute is ruled in my favor. But unfortunately Paypal says they were "unable to retrieve any funds from the seller'* account" in order to refund my payment. And the payment was made from a Paypal balance and not a credit card, so I can't dispute it there either.

Does anyone have suggestions on what else to try, or am I totally screwed? :?

You should go to Ebay with all the facts and dates. As the user has changed their profile, ebay can track down the new account and suspend that untill recourse is made.
Be sure to forward you email from paypal as proof.

You're not going to like what I'm about to say, but... Here goes anyway...

Suck it up. Forget about it and move on. Depending on your hourly wage at work... You've probably already wasted twice what you've lost in your own time to try and rectify the problem. For $25 (or less as you stated), I would have been pissed, but moved on once the proper channels were notified. For you to spend your time now to track down the low-life that stuck you is just wasting your time.

Next time, don't do any balance transfers. I don't keep a balance in my paypal account because I can get more interest paid with it deposited in my high interest savings account. I always pay through paypal with a credit card so I have a recourse... Nothing is worse than a credit card company going after someone to get your money back. Paypal really isn't going to go to bat for you over a small sum like $25 and neither is eBay.

So, just take it as a life lesson and learn from it. If all of us tried to make everything right with everyone that ever tried and/or succeeded in screwing us, we would be totally consumed with it so much so that we wouldn't have time for anything else that actually matters.

if you used a credit card as your source for paypal i would contact them, thay might have more power, and possibly get your money back

Thanks for posting. Even though we can't seem to help it is a good piece of info to have concerning PayPal'* approach to this. I would have guessed PayPal would have covered the loss... and I would have been wrong.

... and I never will do so again, believe me. I nearly always use a credit card thru Paypal for purchases, but I just happened to have a Paypal balance at the time from recently receiving a payment for an item I sold. Paypal won't let you pay out any other form of payment if you have a balance, so that'* how that ended up. From now on, any payments I receive will immediately be withdrawn from my Paypal account. In essence, they have lost a part of my business over this situation (because they will never again have my money sitting at Paypal.com for any length of time)... which is unfortunate for them.

It'* not the money I lost as much as the "principle" of the thing, that makes me want it properly resolved. And don't worry, most of my follow-up was done at my work computer during my down-time... so I'm not out too much productivity time.

if you have there number you can get there address and send junk mail to their home

I also got burned at Christmas on a AMT 57 T bird. But being the guy sent me a box of junk I couldn't do anything. Pay- Pal is a false sense of security to get you to spend on E bay.
NEVER GIVE ANYBODY ACCESS TO YOUR CHECKING ACCOUNTS!

I have a PayPal Mastercard.. awesome stuff. Mastercard protection, PayPal ease.


-justin

Sorry to hear that. I was going through a problem with a seller myself but finally got it
resolved today. I hope....... It'* best to use your card if only for issues that you my
need the credit card company to try to resolve & reclaim money back. I know that
doesn't help much now but I hope that ebay will be able 2 assist you.