Evil Bay

[Brian]

They dont call them evil bay for nothing. I thought I would pass on what recently happened to me with e-bay and paypal just as a warning to everybody else.

A bit over a month ago I changed my e-mail address (new provider), anyway I changed my address in both e-bay and paypal and deleted my old address. Over the last month I have bought a few items and recieved the usual amount of junk mail type stuff from both e-bay and paypal.

A week ago I decided to sell a few unwanted bits on e-bay (four items). I listed them and recieved a few enquiries about postage costs etc all perfectly normal. The items sold so I sent each buyer a e-bay generated invoice. This is where it all started going wrong, unbeknown to me the e-bay generated invoices had my old e-maill address on them. The buyers paid with the invoices to what is now a non existing address and the payments have dissapeared into oblivion.

I tried contacting both e-bay and paypal which is almost impossible as you can not actually talk to anyone at either organisation, you can only get computer generated replies to any enquiry. E-bay reckon it is not their responsibility to ensure the payments are sent to the correct address (they blame paypal). Paypal will not let me reinstate the old address to claim the payments as it no longer exists, they will not transfer the payments to the new address. Paypal say I have to wait until the payments have been deemed unclaimed (months) and returned to the purchasers and then I have to contact the buyers and ask them to repay the amounts.

I have sent the items to the buyers as it is not their fault this has happened, I just have to wear the loss. So if any of you change your details on either e-bay or paypal be very carefull with any transactions to ensure this doesnt happen to you. I guess all this is a result of one organisation having a worldwide monopoly on online auctions.

[Richard]

They say sh(one)t happens but that is poor, if you changed it with ebay and paypal both would have sent you messages confirming the change, this is what happened to me when I changed my provider and also registered the change of email address.
So if you can find those messages and then contact paypal and submit the proof that they lodged the change then you should be protected from the loss according to their saftey policy jargon, ebay and paypal are one and the same arn't they?
Good luck
Richard

[LJ.]

There is a lot to be said for having ones own domain name like I have... It will never change. It is not expensive, only costing me £10 for two years and I can change my internet service providers as much as I like without letting everyone know of a changed address. I only have to make one diversion change at where my domain name is registered and that is that. Thanks for highlighting that problem Brian... I've had one or two large expensive sales in the last couple of months and I'd have been in a real mess.

[muskrat]

G'day Brian, exactly the same for me. I got no joy from either ebay or paypal till I got an Ozzie on the phone at paypal.au. he sorted it out in minutes. Ring your local paypal office not the one in India. Keep trying Good luck.
Cheers.

[Brian]

Its just as well they are only contactable by e-mail or phone, if they had a office I would have gone in there and rung someones neck !

Hey Muskrat is Lake Conjola the one that Cudmirrah is on ? I have friends there that I stayed with a couple of years ago. Rode my Guzzi over through the snowies and down Clyde Mountain and then up to Cudmirrah.

[A10Boy]

Brian, Did the money actually leave your purchasers accounts?

[muskrat]

G'day Brian, Cudmirra is on Sussex Inlet about 30 K's north of me. Ah the Clyde, my favourite race track I mean road.
Cheers

[Brian]

Andy, yes the money was debited from the buyers accounts and shows up as payment pending but because the payment was sent to the old e-mail address I cant claim the payment. They have told me I have to wait until the money is deemed "unclaimed" and returned to the buyer. I have given up and will just put it down to experience. I will be carefull with the mongrels in the future.

[muskrat]

Brian, don't give up. As I said I was in the same boat but persisted and finally won. One of our forum members was a buyer but couldn't do anything from his end. The Ozzie I finally got on to cleared it up in minutes. Keep ringing till you hear a local accent. It's your money, chase it.
Cheers