UGH! Need to Vent!

[MACForME]

Wow- The nerve of SOME people these day!

To give you some background, i have an older,ok, really old iPod thats dying.. My hubby decided that for my birthday, he'd get me a new one.. He went to the Apple store and lost his patience waiting for someone to help.. He decided to scour ebay to see what was available. He managed to find a nice 60g classic, that was advertised as "new, Apple Warranty" etc.. I think you see where this is going.. Checked out his feedback BEFORE we purchased it, and it was 100% as a seller! Checked out his feedback BEFORE we purchased it, and it was 100% as a seller!

He does the "buy it now".. a week later, it arrives. Works perfectly. But there were 2 accessories that were missing. Contacted the seller, who gave a little attitude, but then realized, whoops, and sent us the stuff..

And then, it all went down hill..We started having some problems with it.. but nothing out of the ordinary, per the iPod websites we've found. Then, one day, nothing. zero. wouldn't turn on.. dead. Period. We contacted the seller to find out whats up with this! Its supposed to be new! he doesn't answer us for 3 days. I want a refund, he wants us to return it.. Apple doesn't have any info on the serial number of this item. Now, I'm panicking. Go and try to file a complaint with Ebay, they say its PASSED the 45 day limit.. Um? I haven't had it for 45 days! WTF! Whats worse, is they said we had to file by X date.. which happened to be the date it died.. the seller didn't get back to us for 3 days after! Paypal wouldn't help us either!

We shipped it back to the seller, registered, insured etc.. He received it back on June 3rd. We've heard NOTHING from him. ZERO. We've emailed, called, everything. He's got our $250.00 and we have nothing. We also found out that this guy sold someone else a bad iPod and won't do anything for him either..

I'm angry. This guy put up a fraudulent auction and no one will help us out.. We also did some digging and found out that he bought a TON of iPod parts! So it does "seem" like he's buying ipod "parts" and manufacturing iPods! Everything from cases, to hard drives, screens, you name it!

GRR!!

 

[k.a.t]

Oh no! wow I am so sorry that this happened to you, I would be fuming

I don't know what can be done in this type of situation besides what you've tried but I hope you find a way to get your money back!
I hope he gets what's coming

 

[MACForME]

Thanks K.A.T., I appreciate that.. Right now, I'm just so mad.. I have been using eBay since 1999 and never had a problem before! I just don't know what to do from this point on.. its maddening, to say the least.

 

[angi]

Did you pay for it via credit card/ debit card funding? Is there a way to report it to your bank/ credit card company and get them to recoup the money?

 

[claralikesguts]

wow, people these days are so inconsiderate and just overall STUPID. it makes me so mad to hear stories like yours

i'm so sorry, i hope you're able to resolve this soon.

 

[MACForME]

Thanks guys. I knew I could come here, vent and not get snippy or snotty little comments..

I dn't know what we are going to do right now. K is trying to reach the guy and we paid via credit card thru paypal. Its crazy either way. I'm totally shocked that neither ebay nor paypal are willing to help us out. they both said '45 days".. but, i learned the hard way that they cound 45 days from date of PAYMENT, NOT from when you get it, which, by the way, i still didn't HAVE it 45 days when this happened! How much no-sense does that make!

So they are counting an unknown amount of time that I don't even have the item in possesion! Their rules (if i read them right) is a seller can take up to 30 days to ship!.. So hows this example.. as a buyer, i can sit and wait for 30+ days. Because if the seller ships on day 30.. it could be day 37 before it even arrives! if i have to sign for it, I could miss the post and it could be 40 days before i get to the post office to sign for the item! and if the item dies in 6 days..i'm screwed. Thats pretty much what I'm learning.

 

[MACATTAK]

I'd definitely dispute this with your credit card company. I'm sure Paypal is not the end all.

 

[gildedangel]

Yes, try to get ahold of the credit card company, and make sure to report bad feedback on the ebay account. You may be able to report that you returned the item but never recieved a refund. I am sorry that this happened to you and I hope that it will all work out for you.

 

[Lapis]

As you found out it's 45 days but your credit card has a much longer filing time, so call them, they will pull the funds and paypal will have to eat the lost or go after the seller.

 

[MACForME]

Really? I didn't know that! OMG! Good idea!
Well, since you girls have all been SO nice and supportive.. here's the LATEST on this..
We sent the item back, as you know, and the recipient signed for it on June 3rd. We heard NOTHING from him.. So we got his contact number from Ebay.. My hubby called this guy on thursday night. THe guy acted all stupid and confused, they blurted out that he has a bunch of people working for him and also answering his emails, so he doesn't know whats going on, doesn't know who told us to send it back.. all very cloak.. Well, he was "out of town" until last night. he told us to call him back tonite. Which we are going to do.. he better give us our money back.. because he now has BOTH!

I swear.. I do not understand dishonesty..

 

[ForgetRegret]

So how'd it go..? Did you get hold of him?

 

[Orchid_28]

WOW $250! that really blows. That's the only reason why I don't like ebay is because I'm afraid to deal with those kind of people. My mom sold a louis vuitton handbag on ebay and we thought it was real so we sold it for a lot and to find out it was a fake so we gave the money back to the person. We were really upset and figured that the person who sold us that bag lied! I hope this guy that owes you guys the money gets kicked off of ebay or at least gives you your money back.

 

[MACForME]

Wow- this went from bad to worse.. seriously.

We called the guy on Monday, as per his instructions. Ken started talking to the him, the guy, had an attitude on from the word "go". I could hear Ken tell the guy, who's name is Victor, by the way, the whole deal. Apparently, when Ken got into the whole Apple Serial number thing, he handed me the phone, as I was the one that dealt with Apple. Right off the bat, attitude! He's yelling at me, saying that the serial number wasn't "activated" because the iPod was a "demo" model. Hmm, demo? thats not "new" now is it! So we go at it, back and forth. When i got to the auction's ad that says APPLE WARRANTY (if anyone wants to see it, here is the item #: 260387640995), he says that the warranty is that we can exchange it for 30 days. That is NOT an apple warrany. Basically, I got NOWHERE with this guy. He started calling me "irresponsible" and that ipods are very fragile. How he is NOT going to pay for my "mistakes". it was just a plain out and out disaster. I asked him why he is screaming at me. Needless to say, that didn't make any difference. He hung up on me, we immediately called the bank and on Tuesday, we called Paypal and filed a formal complaint. An email was sent to Apple's Counterfeit/Fraud department along with an email to the Federal Governments Internet Fraud deparment. We've printed EVERYTHING out included the purchase history of this guy, who's buying everything from ipod earphones to cases, screens, clickwheels etc. PayPal said they sent him an email telling him either REPLACE or REFUND. Lets see what happens.

 

[MACForME]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orchid_28 WOW $250! that really blows. That's the only reason why I don't like ebay is because I'm afraid to deal with those kind of people. My mom sold a louis vuitton handbag on ebay and we thought it was real so we sold it for a lot and to find out it was a fake so we gave the money back to the person. We were really upset and figured that the person who sold us that bag lied! I hope this guy that owes you guys the money gets kicked off of ebay or at least gives you your money back.

WOW! Now thats really REALLY a bad situation! How embarassing!! eBay used to be so nice..

 

[ForgetRegret]

Girl, go get his ass! I've got a friend who works for Apple, let me see what I can do to ask him about this counterfeit iPod business. I'm glad PayPal finally came to their senses about it...now let's just hope he listens...jackass.

 

[MACForME]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ForgetRegret Girl, go get his ass! I've got a friend who works for Apple, let me see what I can do to ask him about this counterfeit iPod business. I'm glad PayPal finally came to their senses about it...now let's just hope he listens...jackass.

OMG- would you?
I would so owe you the biggest FAVOR EVER!!!! Yes, we truly do belive, that this guy is manufacturing iPods. We checked ALL his Ipod sales and they all say "display model".. how many display models can there be! But if you check his BUYING history, he's buying MASS LOTS of ipod parts.. Kinda obvious to me.. Sure,i could be wrong, but when you buy 10 each of motherboards, cases, screens, clickwheels and earphones, then mysteriously he's got 10 iPod for sale. What bothered me most, we recently found he purchased 30 harddrives. In the auction it stated that most of these harddrives were defective. Scarey, no?

I also pulled a major favor. One of our per diem employees works for a governmental agency.. Lets just say that this agency, goes by 3 letters.. and starts with an F.
He is a supv of the computer/internet fraud department..

Should prove interesting.

 

[ForgetRegret]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MACForME OMG- would you? I would so owe you the biggest FAVOR EVER!!!! Yes, we truly do belive, that this guy is manufacturing iPods. We checked ALL his Ipod sales and they all say "display model".. how many display models can there be! But if you check his BUYING history, he's buying MASS LOTS of ipod parts.. Kinda obvious to me.. Sure,i could be wrong, but when you buy 10 each of motherboards, cases, screens, clickwheels and earphones, then mysteriously he's got 10 iPod for sale. What bothered me most, we recently found he purchased 30 harddrives. In the auction it stated that most of these harddrives were defective. Scarey, no? I also pulled a major favor. One of our per diem employees works for a governmental agency.. Lets just say that this agency, goes by 3 letters.. and starts with an F. He is a supv of the computer/internet fraud department.. Should prove interesting.

Absolutely, I'll shoot him an e-mail and see if there's anything he can do, or anyone he can get me in contact with at Apple about this guy. Ugh...I highly doubt Apple will take kindly to someone privately making iPods and then selling them as if they were factory made...that gives Apple a bad name too. I'll let you know waht I come up with.

I love 3 letter agencies...I've got some friends in almost all of those, too...I hope your friends' buddy can do something to help. I'd die laughing if he got federally prosecuted. Hahahahahaha Talk about karma.

 

[MACForME]

Seriously! Talk about Karma!! I love 3 letter agencies too.. I sent a long email, with lots and lots of details to Agent X..

now, its a matter of waiting for a response.

 

[ForgetRegret]

Woohoo! You'll have to let us know how that pans out...cuz I'm fairly certain it IS a federal crime to do what he's doing...and I'm sure Apple would be happy to sue him as well as prosecute him...muahahahahaha

 

[MACForME]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ForgetRegret Woohoo! You'll have to let us know how that pans out...cuz I'm fairly certain it IS a federal crime to do what he's doing...and I'm sure Apple would be happy to sue him as well as prosecute him...muahahahahaha

I so will! I'll PM you my email address if you'd like, so you can let me know what if anything, your Apple contact says.

yes, I'm fairly certain that manufacturing Ipods is probably a bad idea..

and just because i can, if anyone wants to see this guy, he's on eBay and his username is VERBA2005

Have a look at what he's buying AND selling.