ebay blues

We (Tammy especially) have taken to shopping ebay a lot lately. After moving into the new house, we found that we were needing (or wanting) a few new things to put in the house. So we've been doing some bargain shopping and have bought quite a few nice things for cheap on ebay (and some other auction sites).

Unfortunately, the one thing that we really wanted (and was really rather expensive) has turned out to be a disaster. It's an armoire we were buying to put in the living room to hide the TV. Shipping included it was coming in around $400 (still much cheaper than we could buy a decent one locally). We paid the money (PayPal) and expected the shipment to arrive in a couple of weeks. Well, a couple of weeks went by and we never heard anything from the seller. Finally, 14 days after we had sent our $400, we got an email from the seller saying that the item was "out of stock" and asking if we wanted a refund or if we wanted to wait "indefinitely". We, of course, responded that we wanted the refund and they confirmed they would issue it "ASAP".

That was the last we ever heard from the seller. No refund. No emails. No response to our series of emails. It's been a month now since we sent the money. Apparently "ASAP" hasn't arrived yet. Before we bought, we had checked on the seller's profile. 50 or 60 sales with nothing but positive remarks, so we thought we were safe. Finally, yesterday, we filed a claim with PayPal hoping we can get our money back. We also went in to leave negative feedback on the seller's profile and found that at least 3 other buyers are going through the very same thing we are right now with the same seller.

So, we're hoping PayPal will bail us out and help us get our money back ... stay tuned ...