possible ebay rip off? does anybody know Van Lain in chicago Illinois?

not sure whats going on here, but heres the situation. won a 394 olds crank off ebay from him. we needed some other parts as well, such as the rod & cam bearings, & 1 394 olds rod. he seemed genuine enough on the phone, & actually sent the rod & bearings out to us (a little late but at least they got here!) all the parts were paid for back in october, & we've still yet to recieve the crank. i guess we should of taken action a little sooner, but in that amount of time there were 2 major storms, & the holidays, figured the shipping would be slowed down. been playing phone tag with the dude for months now, & every now & then we get him on the phone and he says he'll have the tracking info tommorrow, call back next day and nobody answers. thinking we got screwed here. hoping a hamber knows him or has dealt with him before & theres some genuine reason why the crank hasnt shown up. anyone?

thanks for any info.

 

thinking you got screwed...YOU GOT SCREWED !!!! id say just write that money off..i hope it turns out alright but i wouldnt hold my breath. sorry

 

ebay does have some things you can do to get his attention- such as non delivery of paid for goods. You can put in a claim and they will send him a strongly worded email. [sic] See what you can do on ebay itself...might help.

 

Contact the local district attorneys office. Sometimes they will simply call them and threaten-you'll get that crank "next day air". I did it once in South Bend Ind, and the lady secretary called for me as I was getting ripped out of a $300 boat motor. The person delivered the check directly to the lady, and she sent it to me. I then sent pizza to their office the next day for lunch. You may not be so lucky but see what you can do.

 

Nice gesture!

 

If the usps (post Office) was used It might be mail fruad?
Check with your post master.

 

probably too long for ebay to help. I think their max is 45 or 60 days. Good luck man. Post the sellers name & number, maybe someone in the area knows them.

 

When I buy on E-Bay I always pay with an American Express credit card.
You have a problem you call American Express, they yank the money back from PayPal in a nano second.
They take care of everything,and it gets results right away, no screwing with the seller, E-Bay or PayPal.

 

I ran into some trouble with Kevin Simmons aka Global Automotive, 15220 SW 141 Court, Miami, FL. The ******* got away with it because ebay and paypal wouldn't help becaus it was past their time line.

 

Only problem there is if they empty the Paypal account often(like many do) then there is nothing to yank back. Yeah sure the paypal account is closed, but you're still out your dough.
Shane T.

 

Ricky, what town is he in? Chicago proper or a suburb?

 

Count me in for a "road trip". I have some unresolved anger management issues that I need to work through.

 

yeah this ****s. worse part is it put the whole project on hold. we were gonna try and do the round up this year, but its not looking like it will happen since were so far behind schedule.
chad, his return address just says chicago, il so i'm not sure.

 

I waited for a few months for parts from a guy to find out that he had took sick and died.

 

How did you pay him? PayPal? Check? Money Order (keep the stub?)? You may be able to track him that way... and get a complete address. Check with ebay, even if you think it's too late, AND your bank or however you paid for it? If you can find his real address, and he's not too far, I'll be happy to pick it up for you and mail it since he obviously can't do it.

 

Yes, it's 45 days.

 

Is his phone number a home phone or cell? Do a reverse lookup on WhitePages.com and you'll get his home address if its listed. If its a cell phone you can usually get his info if you pay a fee. A lot of sites will give you everything there is to know about him for a fee-such as criminal record (on parole?), civil court and judgement records, past address history, family members, etc. Try a Google search first, then try a person/address search and find out everything you can. If you mailed him a check/money order, get in contact with the Postal Inspector for your area and give all your info to him. Be persistent and you might get results, if not make him sweat for a while.

 

Did you pay by PayPal, if so, notify them. I only use PayPal or USPS money orders just for that case.

 

There ya go, same thing I was thinking. Let him wake up with you on his doorstep.

 

You can't leave negative feedback with ebay bafter 60 days but you can still file a complaint.
All of this was done through ebay ,right?
If it was a side deal you don't have much recourse.

 

I'm just hoping nothing tragic happened to the seller that his mind just completely got thrown off of this deal. It has happened here before. Weshould probably consider this before we crucify the guy.

 

ebay doesn't give a ****, and paypal only cares about paypal.

I hope you paid via paypal with a credit card. paypal gives 45 days to file a claim through them... so you are past due on that one. if you paid via your credit card do a credit card chargeback for non receipt of your items. call your credit card directly.

if you did not pay by credit card you are screwed. I would look into filing mail fraud charges, though since they did not ship anything I'm not sure how that works... did they offer shipping via the post office in the listing? did they ship the other items through the post office?? that may be enough.

it may be too late for you but for anyone else here's a few tips for not getting screwed on ebay. if they accept paypal, pay with a credit card only. that gives you 2 ways to get a refund should the deal fall through.

never let anything go more than 3 weeks without filing a report with someone, I don't care what the seller says... if paypal refunds and then the item shows up you can pay them back.

CHECK PEOPLES FEEDBACK BEFORE YOU BID.. there are a lot of ****ed up sellers out there. don't just look at the %. look at how many negs they have. go to www.toolhaus.com and you will see only the negs and neutrals they have recieved, along with any that were withdrawn. if they have a history of being an *** there is no reason to think they won't be an *** with you as well.

another thing... if you are only a buyer your feedback % doesn't matter... if someone is a **** give them a negative so other people know... if they neg you back who cares? when your ID gets full of negs from jerk sellers you just get a new one and start over.

 

you have at least 90 days to leave feedback. sometimes more. it's just a matter of when they purge the system.

 

i hate this kinda' stuff... good luck.
n

 

"go to www.toolhaus.com and you will see only the negs and neutrals they have recieved, along with any that were withdrawn."

What ???? How do you check feedback at www.toolhaus.com ???????

 

damn... that toolhaus is wrong. maybe it's .net....www.toolhaus.net or .org.

I think it's.org since my work computer is blocked from going to .org and .com is a tool site.

 

It is toolhaus.org !

 

it was paid by money order, i have his number i think its some kind of shop number, also have the address to the shop.... called there this morning, supposedly van was at ups trying to find out whats going on and dude said to call back in 4 hours. we'll see what happens. isnt the first time we got this story.

 

I went through a similar thing, except the RC helicopter was in "flying condition" um ya right, I should of videoed it flopping around on the ground. I was promised a partial refund (never recieved) offered another heli as refund (never recieved) and the date went beyond the refund by paypal . Only thing that got my money back is that I used PayPal Credit... Ebay droped it, Pay Pal Droped it, the company that runs PayPal credit had it reopened it and got my money back. I got to keep the heli, but I had to replace 75% of the parts on it.

 

I sell to tons of shops in the Chicago area. We have delivery trucks out daily all over the city.

If it is anything to do with parts chances are I might be able to help.

If you dont want to divulge the name here shoot me a pm or call 800 424 8741 x159 ask for mike