Fraudulent German Ebay Vendor

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menuhin

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 21, 2014
642
3
Hi forum members,
I believe I might have fall victim of eBay fraud in pipe auctions.

There are two cases, both are from Germany, eBay.DE and German sellers, and instead of using PayPal or Credit Card, both sellers demanded direct bank transfer which is a commonly practice in here.
I waited for over 3 weeks and the pipes never arrived, while shipment within Germany should arrive within 3 days normally. Their declared way of shipment should have a tracking number but they never provided any. What mystified me was that the photos of the same identical pipe (not only the model) appeared on another auction by another account when I was waiting for mine to arrive. They both stopped replying my message after I opened the formal enquiry on eBay.
What also mystified me was that one of these two seller accounts have 250+ 100% positive reviews? How can such a seller received so many positive reviews? And it seems that he changed his username too at some point as demanded by him to eBay.DE.
What can I do further? And what will eBay do to these bank-transfer based transactions?

 

menuhin

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 21, 2014
642
3
Many sellers in Germany they do not trust PayPal and I quite often pay through bank transfer as requested; many sellers in Germany even list out statements in the item descriptions that they will never return an item once paid and shipped. However, it is my first time to encounter such problems.
What I feel is unjust because I traced the sold item history of the seller and some other buyers also did not receive their items (pipes) or just some totally different no name pipes. I wonder if eBay will do anything to disable the account of this seller because obviously he is still listing some other pipes, or if German law on this aspect has flaws that can be so strict and rigid that can actually protect some well-studied criminals.

 

seacaptain

Lifer
Apr 24, 2015
1,829
7
Ebay might rule in your favor but since you didn't use paypal, they have no way to recover your funds.
I think you're going to be out of luck on this one.

 

drwatson

Lifer
Aug 3, 2010
1,721
5
toledo
Never pay w/o paypal...and be careful of oversees sellers/bidders. There are some fantastic people over there but do your homework first.

 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,621
44,831
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
Really sorry to hear about this. eBay makes a point of telling buyers not to pay sellers directly, and this is why. Chances are that you are out the money. eBay has no financial obligation to you since you did not use their payment system. Hopefully eBay will terminate the sellers' accounts, but don't hold your breath. Even if they take such actions, the perps will simply set up another account.

Some of the biggest snakes that I've encountered on eBay have 100% approval ratings. There are a couple of reasons for this. People are stupid. Some sellers stage sales to run up their numbers and the "buyers" are fictitious. I take little stock in the ratings on eBay. eBay is such a vast enterprise that there is really no way for them to adequately police their marketplace. All the more reason to stick with eBay's approved payment process and let them go after the fraudsters.

 

menuhin

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 21, 2014
642
3
Thanks SSJones.
Here I am posting the eBay original auction as well as the other auction (in Austria) that mysteriously displayed the identical pipe (the grain pattern, and dings, and model number, etc).
The seller concerned is pipekerl777 and his previous username was tuenn7

http://www.ebay.de/usr/pipekerl777

http://myworld.ebay.de/tuenn7
The auction was this one (151669343065):

http://r.ebay.com/Gafibj

And in my opinion (quite obviously) should be the identical pipe of this other auction (131513104115):

http://r.ebay.com/RXO1qH
I contacted the other seller from this other auction who specializes in overseas auctions and he just said it should be another pipe (which I believe total not true) and my money will be gone if not using PayPal. Well, who knows what happens between these two seemingly different account.
There is another case that has much fewer positive ratings. I respected the really misery characters of many Germans who hold on to cash only and their unwillingly to pay any extra, but next time I shall be much more careful.

 

menuhin

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 21, 2014
642
3
It's good that this seller probably won't be able trap the much broader range of English speaking buyers. Most German sellers have those "no return, no exchange" statements (in German) at the end of their listings mentioning the term 'private auction', I always wonder if there is any legitimacy to it. And of course, they demand bank transfer, saying that universally accepted miserly reason because PayPal costs them extra.

 

woodsroad

Lifer
Oct 10, 2013
11,568
15,208
SE PA USA
I hope you get this sorted out.
Can you file charges with the police? Here in the US, we have something called Small Claims Court, a branch of the court system, that handles this sort of thing.

 

menuhin

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 21, 2014
642
3
Fortunately it was not some super expensive items, but I was delighted to have won these good looking exemplars in a reasonable price - but ended up it was not.
Now while my request is still open this same seller is listing new items this afternoon - how does this eBay system works? All extra effort and time spent will be sunk cost but I just hope to get rid of these frauds from eBay so that further victims can be reduced.

 

kcghost

Lifer
May 6, 2011
13,140
21,407
77
Olathe, Kansas
When a seller tells you they don't like eBay because they don't trust PayPal or don't want to pay the fees you have to ask yourself why would you give up all your buyer protections just to humor this seller? When you make bad decisions as a consumer don't be surprised if bad things happen.
I trust you did give this seller a negative rating.

 

7ach

Can't Leave
Sep 10, 2013
461
27
I would give it another week or wait until your eBay case is complete, then leave apropreate feedback.

 

cigrmaster

Lifer
May 26, 2012
20,249
57,280
66
Sarasota Florida
I have never nor will I ever not use paypal for my ebay transactions. I also make it a rule to never bid on an auction that says no returns accepted. If someone is not willing to accept a return that says to me they are dishonest. Pipestud clearly states 100% money back gaurantee, that is what an honest business person does.
I also never buy from anyone not from the US.

 

menuhin

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 21, 2014
642
3
Lesson learnt, but some quick stats:

In the 20 most newly listed auctions in eBay.DE in the collecting items - briar pipes categories, 100% mentioned "no return accepted, and no guarantee", and for 50% of 20 bank transfer is the only accepted payment method.
We cannot always compare all eBay auctions to the auctions of our PipeStud - those are selected collector items, be that tobaccos or pipes or other related items. Most others, especially sellers from Germany, are listing on eBay just to get rid of the dirty used tobacco pipes (in their eyes), and there is not much of a concept of customer satisfaction in those transactions.

 
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