Well, it was bound to happen, sooner or later. The more I trusted 98.8% feedbacks, the more at ease I would be dealing with a potential jack wod. I bought 3rd row seats for my ML430. The ebayer promised me the mounting brackets AND seatbelts in an April 21st. e-mail. 45 days later, no seats and I've been charged $899.00, so I filed a complaint with PayPal, my last day to do so. PayPal contacts him on Thurday, May 11 and he says he shipped seats. Friday p.m. is when he actually shipped them. I confirmed the following Monday they had been sent. I received them Thursday, May 18 and guess what? NO BRACKETS. He knows the seats are unusable without them. He now ignores all e-mails and my attempts to carry this dispute have been met with NOTHING. PayPal says dispute has been settled, so I have no recourse. I still have the disputed charge with VISA but I don't know how that's gonna go. I'll keep everyone posted.

If anyone else has had a rip-off experience, post it here and let us all know!

PayPal e-mailed me today asking that I remove the hold on my credit card for the unusable seats. I am NOT removing it until he sends the parts he promised, PERIOD! I may end up having to pay for this crap but I'll guarantee you one thing, He'll not get it without a fight. VISA says I will need to provide proof that I didn't receive items as described/promised. No problem since I have every e-mail him and I sent including the last one that he's ignoring. He should know by now that his account might be charged back for the amount. All I want is the parts, pure and simple. If he provides, I'll pay. If not, I'll send the worthless seats back to him at my expense (and I will pack them the same way he did!).

Either way, I'm a whole lot more wary of anything ebay has to offer and I've sworn that if the seller does not have an on-line company that I can order from, I simply will not buy.

I won. VISA said to retain them for one callander year in case a civil suit was brought up by the seller. After that the statute runs out and toss them.  That ran out last year.  That seller is no longer registered on Ebay.

How can anyone prove a negative, anyway? 

How can you prove you didn't receive something?? 

This is where a hardcopy of the original auction comes in. Quality photos of what you recieve can show misrepresentation, something that is covered under VISA's  protection from online fraud.....and if you did not actually recieve the item then the seller should provided a tracking number to show proof item was shipped and where it went. Personally if I sold items on Ebay I would only ship with full tracking records to cover my own butt. And since the tracking records are independent of the sellers manipulation they are proof of a non-delivery.

I faxed VISA 7 pages of correspondence with the crook on the seats on July 3rd. I talked to a dispute resolution rep at VISA today and he says it appears I have won the dispute since I was able to provide proof he promised the hardware and didn't send. The notation said: 'Customer provided positive proof that the dispute for $899.00 is valid and I recommend the removal of this charge from his account and chargeback to the merchant'. It was dated by the investigator on July 10, 2006. I am awaiting the actual written version but the rep says it 'appears' I won. i will receive it in writing within 10 days.

The rep also said that while he doesn't make it a practice to give bad press to vendors, he did say that he would never buy anything on ebay and we all need to be wary of ebay because he sees this all the time at his job. He also indicated that most disputes that make it to VISA are UPHELD if you have the documentation to back it up! Ebay is a den of thieves and even if they have 100% positive feedback, it doesn't mean anything because if something happens after the time frame for you to leave feedback, you CAN'T leave a negative! That means a person with even a 100% can and probably has screwed a few people.

I will end this update by saying that I know there are legitimate vendors on ebay that treat people fairly. But this has burnt me and i'll be a little more careful. 

What I found out is that 100% positive don't mean shit. The guys who swindled the buyers last Christmas out of 1000 X-Boxes had 100% positive feedback and a score of over 100 transactions. Plus, you have a time limit of only 30 days to leave a negative. I tried to leave a negative on this dude and they wouldn't let me! If a seller stalls a buyer long enough, they can keep a 100% positive feedback even though they screwed you and others. I will keep any purchases I make on ebay to an absolute minimum and they will be low ticket items when I do. The people at VISA says ebay is a den of thieves and agressive steps must be taken to stop them. They say they see this all the time!

Bad vendors make it hard on the good ones. 

You did right by him, you provided product and evidence you shipped. In my case, the prig didn't provide all items as promised. The seats were useless without the mounting hardware and he knew it. He agreed to send it and didn't. I'm sure he's not out anything but he will be unable to sell on ebay unless he changes his user name and account. Furthermore, VISA has advised me NOT to send him the seats at my expense. They said he screwed up, not me. They told me to wait on a RMA for pick-up. I have to store these worthless items for a year before I can do whatever with them.