So, I was the victim of an attempted fradulent purchase on eBay.  I listed my old cell phone, and it was "bought" by someone who then told me they were sending me $50 bucks for shipping over what I asked for to ship it next day Fed Ex.  This seemed fishy to me.

It seemed more fishy when I got an email from "PayPal" (with an "@emailaccounts.com" domain email address) saying they had received the funds.  I logged onto my paypal account, and, of course, no money.

"No big deal, it happens all the time!" is what you're saying now.  This is where it gets awesome.  I wanted to figure out what the process was to report this and re-list my phone, so I logged on to their live chat to talk with a rep.  I'm attaching a transcript to the bottom of this message (warning: that much stupidity might give you a headache, but go ahead and read if you want), but here's the gist...

The rep told me to give the buyer a call and ask them to pay up.  I went along with this, and followed his instructions to get the (most assuredly false) contact info for this guy (FOLLOW UP: I googled the phone number that came up from eBay, and it belongs to some dude in NY, but his name sure isn't Ray Courtney like eBay said it was).  What the rep DIDN'T TELL ME was that, by doing this, MY (really real) contact information would be sent to the other guy.  So, now a guy who tried to scam me has my contact information!

Once I pointed this out, the customer service rep got confused (this probably wasn't on his script), and just totally quit responding once I asked to be transferred to a supervisor.  I'm kinda pissed about this whole thing, but have no idea who to talk to.  There's no way to get in touch with anyone other than through the live chat (and we just saw how great that is).  Anyone have John Donahoe's email address or something?

Session ID:22414358

 

2:45:10 PM  jasondbarr08

Initial Question/Comment: Listing Your Item

2:45:15 PM  System

Thank you for contacting eBay Live Help!

2:45:15 PM  System

You are successfully connected to eBay Live Help. Please hold for the next available Live Help Agent.

2:45:25 PM  System

Robert J.V has joined this session!

2:45:25 PM  System

Connected with Robert J.V

2:45:37 PM  Robert J.V

Hello, thanks for waiting and welcome to eBay Live Help! My name is Robert. If you're a registered member, may I please start by having you confirm your User ID and name?

2:45:56 PM  jasondbarr08

My user ID is jasondbarr08 and my name is Jason Barr

2:45:59 PM  jasondbarr08

Hi, I think I'm a victim of an attempted fraud

2:46:13 PM  jasondbarr08

on listing 230455518627.

2:46:23 PM  Robert J.V

I'm sorry to hear that. Please tell me more..

2:46:53 PM  jasondbarr08

Do I just ignore the guy who used my "Buy it now" option and relist it, or do I need to go through a process to report this, etc?

2:47:19 PM  jasondbarr08

I received a falsified PayPal email to my email address.

2:47:39 PM  jasondbarr08

I logged in to my PayPal account to look for a pending transaction, but there wasn't anything.

2:47:59 PM  jasondbarr08

The guy said he paid me $50 to ship it next day Fed Ex, so I was kind of suspicious.

2:49:40 PM  System

Your agent has been disconnected from the system, you are now being transferred to your original queue. Please stand by...

2:49:40 PM  System

Robert J.V has left this session!

2:49:50 PM  System

Nate L. has joined this session!

2:49:50 PM  System

Connected with Nate L.

2:49:56 PM  Nate L.

Hello, welcome to eBay Support. My name is, Nate. Please give me a moment to review your previous chat before we proceed or if you'd like, you could summarize it briefly for me..

2:50:07 PM  jasondbarr08

Hi, Nate. feel free to take the time you need...

2:51:00 PM  Nate L.

Thanks for waiting!

2:51:20 PM  Nate L.

I understand your situation and I'm sorry that you've had such difficulty with this transaction.

2:51:50 PM  Nate L.

I understand that it is disappointing when your high bidder fails to complete the sale. I will surely help you in resolving this issue.

2:53:05 PM  Nate L.

I’ll be glad to provide you the steps that you can take to ensure that you're fairly compensated for the item and that the bidder is held accountable for his or her actions.

2:53:20 PM  Nate L.

I will help you in providing the steps to get the Final Value Fee for this listing.

2:53:30 PM  Nate L.

Also, with our Free Relisting feature you can relist your item and get your insertion fee (Listing fee) back if the item sells second time.

2:53:50 PM  Nate L.

In this situation, you need to file Unpaid Item dispute through "Resolution Center" to receive your Final value fee.

2:54:22 PM  jasondbarr08

I only sold the item yesterday. Do I need to wait 4 days, or is there some kind of special process?

2:55:06 PM  Nate L.

Yes you will need to wait 4 days to file unpaid item case.

2:55:44 PM  jasondbarr08

Okay, then what? I've never had to deal with this before. :)

2:55:44 PM  Nate L.

what you can do now is try calling up the winning bidder directly by phone and remind the winning bidder to pay for the item.

2:56:05 PM  Nate L.

I can guide you through the steps if you need me to.

2:56:42 PM  jasondbarr08

That would be great, although I don't think he'll answer, being as he's trying to phish me. :)

2:56:49 PM  jasondbarr08

Please, let me know the steps.

2:57:50 PM  Nate L.

To get buyer's phone number, please follow these steps:
1. Open a new browser and type www.ebay.com.
2. Click the "Advanced Search" link at the top of eBay.com pages.

2:58:12 PM  jasondbarr08

okay. I'm there.

2:58:25 PM  Nate L.

3. Click "Find Contact Information" link under the "Members" heading on the left side of the page.
4. Enter the buyer's User ID and the (12 digit #) Item number.
5. Click the "Search" button.

2:58:45 PM  Nate L.

Or you may click on this link below directly:

2:58:51 PM  Nate L.

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQtZvbQQsofindtypeZ9

2:59:26 PM  Nate L.

Once you have done these steps, please check your email, eBay will send you an email containing the seller's contact information, including phone number.

3:00:52 PM  jasondbarr08

It said it's providing my contact detail to this other member, as well! I don't want this person to have my contact info!

3:01:10 PM  jasondbarr08

Why in the world would it do that?

3:01:51 PM  Nate L.

Then wait for a 3 more days and file unpaid item case from the resolution center.

3:02:06 PM  Nate L.

And you may go ahead and relist after you have file the case.

3:02:53 PM  jasondbarr08

No! I made the request you told me to, but there was NO mention of the fact that now my information has been sent to this person! Why would I want to send my information to a person who I believe is trying to defraud me?

3:04:01 PM  Nate L.

It is important for our valued sellers like you to go through the Unpaid Item Process to allow eBay to track bidders that repeatedly back out of listings.

3:06:09 PM  jasondbarr08

That's not what I'm talking about. I'm happy to go through the process. what I don't like is the fact that the process you told me to go through to get this guys' contact information sent MY CONTACT INFORMATION to him! Now a person who tried to defraud me has my phone number!

3:06:29 PM  jasondbarr08

I need to speak with a supervisor. Can you connect me to your boss?