WARNING E-BAY & PAYPAL USERS

I had posted my experience in a forum, since I'm not allowed to attach links here I decided to copy paste the whole thing so that people who haven't read the story will be aware. If you are an e-bay and paypal users I would suggest that you give at least 5-10 minutes to read the story. You may encounter the same situation in the future atleast you know what to do next.. So here we go.....

Hi all,I just want to share this experience to you. I've been using e-bay for almost 3 years now and I bought few items from them and had no problem. I've been using pay pal to pay the items that I bought in e-bay because according to them Pay Pal is the safer, easier way to pay and get paid online.I bought an item on July 13, 08 and paid it right away thru pay pal the item was describe as brand new, never been used. I paid less than $100 for the item. I got the item on July 26, 08 and was very upset because the item was not brand new at all, you can see dirty finger prints on it, scrape etc. So I contacted the seller right away I told him that I am not happy with the purchase because the item is not as what he describe in his auction. I e-mailed him few times and didn’t hear from him so I decided to file a dispute to pay pal and then waited for few days and escalated the case. He then replied to me in one of my e-mails to him saying " if you don't like the item I'll be happy to refund you." And then e-bay sent me an e-mail that the seller requested for me to send back the item and he will refund me. So I sent the item back to the seller on July 29th and gave both pay pal and seller the tracking number. I had checked the tracking number a week after I sent the package and it says " Status: Arrival at unit, Your item arrived at 7:15 am on July 31,08". I was wondering why it's still in the unit when It's over a week now. I'm guessing what happened was the post man was trying to send it to the seller but then he wasn't home that is why they keep the package in the post office and wait till the guy come and pick up the item. On August 15, 08 pay pal sent me an e-mail saying that they needed more time to investigate the case and I was so surprised because on August 16, 08 pay pal sent me an e-mail again saying " They closed the case because I had given them an invalid tracking number and there is no confirmation of delivery that's why we can't give you a refund." I was furious! I sent them an e-mail telling them that I have the confirmation receipt/tracking number here with me from the USPS and as far as confirmation of delivery is concern the guy didn't want to pick up the item because he know full well that he was lying about his auction. Now, the guy has the money and I bet he's going to pick up the item soon now that the case is closed.And I check his name in Google and I was surprised because the guy has TV program in Florida. Pay pal gave me his phone number and e-mail address. At first I was thinking maybe somebody is using his name but Can’t be because the e-mail add in his sites and e-mail add in pay pal and e-bay is the same so that means it's the same person. I just give you a heads up people, I know e-bay is a nice place to shop but be extra careful specially when it's payment time. I thought I was covered with pay pal so called "buyers protection" but I wasn't, it's too bad.

Please read the update on the next post because this one is getting long....