Looking for an opinion ...

[dyanni]

All is not well in LaLa land.

So Far - I have filed claims through SquarTrade, Ebay, and Paypal.

SquareTrade contacted the seller. He told them he already paid me back. They dropped the case.

Ebay contacted me asking for email evidence of the claim - which I provided. Seller re-listed tires on Ebay. Ebay contacted the seller asking for proof of refund. Seller did not respond. Ebay dropped seller. Oddly, in early/mid November - the seller initiated a partial refund to my account through paypal - then cancelled it a few minutes later. Even though I did not catch that opportunity for closure - it does show that he knows he did not pay me back yet.

PayPal contacted seller asking for proof of 1) Shipment 2) past refund 3) Proof of new refund. Seller responded he already paid, offered no proof. PayPal froze his account and attempted to collect my money from his paypal account. He had already emptied it. PayPal dropped the case. If he ever put money back in paypal - it is supposedly going to be routed to my account.


Ebay sent me an Email reccommending that I file a case with the Internet Fraud Center and law enforcement. They consider this mail fraud. So do I.

After the last of them closed the case - I got emails indicating they found the seller at fault, but could do no more than they had. I wrote the selelr again, letting him know I would continue to pursue this unless he provided a full refund by Dec 1 2002. That deadline came and went without a response.

I have considered several options.

Forgiving the debt. I thought long and hard about this one. He is a young guy - with a kid on the way - obviously has problems in his life - wouldn't want to cause his new family any more grief than they already have . . . . But then - I re-read his caustic emails and realize he has not done one redeeming thing in this whole exchange. I was contacted by another guy on Ebay who said he sold the seller a mountain bike ( the one you saw on top of the VX he had for sale ) for 800.00 but never got paid. After he went though the whole Ebay investigation process - he is still out his money. He said it's difficult to motivate the guy in IA when he is in NJ - but he asked me for his phone number so he can pick up again. He is looking for payback. Which leads me to my second option. Which I wont explore here. It does involve me meeting up with the biker dude and going to meet the seller in lovely downtown Ceder Rapids. That has been a popular suggestion by those of you who have emailed me privately - some I met in person My final option is the course I plan to follow. I have to be in Texas again next week, Austin this round - which leaves precious little time before Christmas to make any addt'l travel plans - So I may end up doing this just after the new year. But - I will visit the appropriate law enforcement agency in his home town and seek to file charges. At this point, if I end up paying even more in the process - I am still looking to do the right thing. Maybe if the seller learns a lesson from this, he won't pass the bad behaviour along to Seller jr.


Thanks for the interest - and support.