[Closed] A warning for buyers using Ebay/Paypal

I thought I'd share my experience as a word of warning to everyone buying via Paypal, under the false impression they have protection. I feel a bit foolish, but hopefully by me sharing this it will help protect folk on the lead up to Christmas when you may be tempted to buy presents from Ebay.

[b]If you dispute a transaction in any way shape or form open a dispute straight away - no matter how nice this person comes across, and no matter how good their feedbcak is - [u]DO NOT[/u] give anyone the benefit of the doubt - This is the only way you will have paypal's much vaunted protection. If you do not, you stand to lose your money.[/b]

You have just 45 days from the moment of payment (not receipt of goods) to file a complaint. Do it straight away.

I bought a Nintendo DSi from an Ebay seller with 100% good feedback. It wasn't extraordinarly cheap, it just came with some free games that made it slightly more attractive than Amazon. I used paypal for their buyer protection (Ha..!!!)

On receipt of the item it was clearly fake. I went on Ebay, reported it as counterfeit goods and followed their advice regarding contacting seller etc.

The seller - Wenye2009 - was very conciliatory and immediately offered a refund. he denied the Dsi was fake, but offered the refund including postage anyway.

I posted it back to China (I know, I know...), where it has arrived safe and well. However, something I didn't know was that parcels to China are only tracked to the sorting office.

Anyway, despite me using Ebay messaging to communicate with this person, and to keep an information trail, Ebay/paypal have refused to open a dispute because they have a 45 day time limit from the point of payment. So by following their advice I have lost over £100 without any claim on the seller. I find this amazing that they can access all my communication with the seller, including the timeline of events, and will still not budge from their 45 day time limit.

Where I went wrong was trusting the sellers good natured style of communication couple with me being rushed off my feet and not attending to it on a daily basis. The clearly knows about the time limit and has dragged his heels throughout.

So my advice not only stand for Ebay but ANY transaction using paypal -

[b]If you dispute a transaction in any way shape or form open a dispute straight away - [u]DO NOT[/u] give anyone the benefit of the doubt - This is the only way you will have paypal's much vaunted protection. If you do not, you stand to lose your money.[/b]