Conned on ebay. I quit!

[kelpie]

I need to vent.

You all probably know I am (was) a big fan of ebay. Well I'm quitting it. I was scammed. In fact I am 95% sure the person who scammed me was a well-liked pricescope member who actively posted up to a year ago (which is why I had the warm fuzzies purchasing from her in the first place). Same PS username as her paypal account, profile of gem enthusiast turned GG turned dabbler in the trade and location is the same as a location she had on a page she linked to her profile here once upon a time (not her actual location BTW).

Not only was the stone not what was stated and confirmed by a lab as such (at my expense) the lab returned the stone to her and now she has the stone and my money! She played me along giving me 110% customer service so I was completely confident my refund would be processed smoothly until it was too late to open an ebay case or leave feedback. I even confirmed with her before my purchase that I would send it to a lab and expected to return it with the report if it was not as stated. Her reply was something like, "I stand by my merchandise 150%...I always encourage my customers to get independent verification". Now she has dropped off the face of the earth after confirming receipt of the stone and telling me I'll get my refund within 7 days.

How can I make her pay for being such a horrible scumbag? Dispute is in process with my credit card but I'll still be out $150 for shipping, the lab, and my partial payment with Ebay Bucks. I've been trying to call ebay but can't find a way to do it from Johannesburg...by the time I get home I think it will be over 60 days and ebay will not have a record of the purchase.

**removed by moderator. unnecessary to the thread and not abiding by PS policies**

I will not state which member of the forum I believe scammed me since I can't be 100% sure and I have no intention of slandering an innocent party but I will reveal her ebay ID:

http://myworld.ebay.com/gemsrock2010/?_trksid=p4340.l2559

ETA- Please avoid buying from Kate Klein of Grand Forks, ND ebay ID Gemsrock2010

 

[Kismet]

Ugh, that sucks Kelpie! I hope her conscience gets the better of her and she refunds your money. *puts 2 and 2 together to come up with a name*

 

[T L]

Kelpie,
I'm sorry for your troubles. The listing (not on ebay, but on facebook) shows that the stone came with an AIGS report. Did you ever get that report? What did your report state, that it was synthetic, treatment, and I'm curious, if you did get the AIGS with it, how did it differ from the AIGS.

 

[kelpie]

TL, what she sold me was a tourmaline she described as paraiba from Brazil (though I really just cared that it was copper bearing). I requested a prestige origin report which AGL declined to proceed with after the initial negative copper test. I paid and they issued a tourmaline gem brief and returned the stone to her.

 

[T L]

Thanks for explaining Kelpie. So sorry this happened to you. I hope she responds to you.

 

[minmin001]

I'm so sorry to hear what happened. This just makes me worry about ebay buy now since she has a 100% feedback as well and that's what people trust on.

 

[y2kitty]

The weird thing is if you find an old post by her and click on it its like her profile doesn't exist but it completely shows the email address she registered for PS under. A few days ago I went to respond to someone and I got some weird stuff at the top of my screen which showed another user's email. Very odd.

Very sorry this happened to your kelpie.

 

[minmin001]

can you not contact ebay by e-mail or online chat?

 

[kelpie]

can you not contact ebay by e-mail or online chat?

I've been looking, the only option they are giving me is to call. They always make it as difficult as possible to find their contact info. Do you know how, Minmin?

 

[ForteKitty]

She recently sold another paraiba tourmaline ring... was that the same ring as yours?

 

[kenny]

If karma works she’ll fall down a manhole and die from sewer rats gnawing on her.

EWWW!

Kelpie, I'm so sorry this happened to you!

 

[kelpie]

She recently sold another paraiba tourmaline ring... was that the same ring as yours?

Mine was a 1.17 loose cushion. She had more from the same lot. When I informed her AGL said it was not coppper bearing she was all, "I'm so sorry, I'm shocked and will change the description on the others ASAP. Must contact my dealer, ect...."

 

[y2kitty]

I checked what I thought was her ebay username and it says the user cannot be found. Do I just have the wrong name?

 

[kelpie]

I checked what I thought was her ebay username and it says the user cannot be found. Do I just have the wrong name?

Did you follow the user link I posted?

 

[Lisa Loves Shiny]

That does totally suck. I hope you get your refund in the seven days like she has promised. I don't know if this will make you feel better but you are not the only buyer who has been scammed by sellers with 100% feedback. I don't know how they get away with it. I'm waiting to leave feedback from that type of seller who sold me a synthetic stone. Waiting until he tries to sell a higher priced stone. Then Whammy!!! Good luck!

 

[kelpie]

That does totally suck. I hope you get your refund in the seven days like she has promised. I don't know if this will make you feel better but you are not the only buyer who has been scammed by sellers with 100% feedback. I don't know how they get away with it. I'm waiting to leave feedback from that type of seller who sold me a synthetic stone. Waiting until he tries to sell a higher priced stone. Then Whammy!!! Good luck!

Please don't wait too long to file a case or leave negative feedback!

That's just the thing, I've been lucky up to this point but if you can't trust someone from the same online community you frequent, who answers all your questions and offers returns, a GG, with 100% feedback, who can you trust to not sell you crap? And it's been 10 days since she confirmed receipt of the stone, and 2 emails ignored whereas all my others she responded in literally minutes. Should she refund me, I'll request the mods remove this thread.

 

[JewelFreak]

Kelpie, what a bummer. Who can you trust if not somebody like that? I'm so sorry you have to deal with this headache (wallet ache!). Hope you can resolve it soon -- preferably get your money back, and if not, at least manage to get neg feedback up there. Let us know what happens, ok? Plenty of dust!!

--- Laurie

 

[SB621]

oh keplie i'm so sorry that happened to you. Keep trying to contact ebay. I heard they are really good to deal with and very understanding once you do get in touch with them. If not they I would definitely dispute it with your credit card. And of course leave negative feedback on the seller.

 

[Pandora II]

So sorry about that - very upsetting.

Could I just ask a couple of things...

Was the stone described as a Paraiba Tourmaline, or as paraiba-like, or as a copper-bearing tourmaline (or combo of those)? I'm just intrigued due to the whole debacle over the Paraiba nomenclature that has been going on for years - you can have stones from all over the place that look like a ParaibaTM but don't contain copper, copper-bearing tourmalines from Paraiba itself that don't look like ParaibaTM and copper-bearing tourmalines that are purple for example.

Should a stone sold as a Paraiba Tourmaline (with no other qualifiers) be assumed to be copper-bearing from the Brazilian location or just to be a windex-blue coloured tourmaline?

I do hope that the situation sorts itself out.

ETA: IIRC, she wasn't actually a GG but had started taking classes.

(oh, forgot to say... by ParaibaTM, I mean THE windex-blue copper-bearing tourmalines from Paraiba itself)

 

[kelpie]

So sorry about that - very upsetting.

Could I just ask a couple of things...

Was the stone described as a Paraiba Tourmaline, or as paraiba-like, or as a copper-bearing tourmaline (or combo of those)? I'm just intrigued due to the whole debacle over the Paraiba nomenclature that has been going on for years - you can have stones from all over the place that look like a ParaibaTM but don't contain copper, copper-bearing tourmalines from Paraiba itself that don't look like ParaibaTM and copper-bearing tourmalines that are purple for example.

Should a stone sold as a Paraiba Tourmaline (with no other qualifiers) be assumed to be copper-bearing from the Brazilian location or just to be a windex-blue coloured tourmaline?

I do hope that the situation sorts itself out.

ETA: IIRC, she wasn't actually a GG but had started taking classes.

(oh, forgot to say... by ParaibaTM, I mean THE windex-blue copper-bearing tourmalines from Paraiba itself)

This WAS windex blue, but it was quite indistinguishable from my very fine Afghan from Gene in person (though no where near as nice a cut). No glow, though it certainly looked like it had it in the pics. She described it as a paraiba tourmaline origin Brazil.

 

[LD]

Kelpie

Did you use Paypal? If you did you can action a case against Rockhugger with them. Typically they find in favour of the buyer - especially if something is not what it's sold as. Paypal have more "teeth" than Ebay because they can get money back and suspend somebody if they've acted fraudulently.

The other thing to mention is that if you made the sale conditional upon getting a lab report then you should include that in the Paypal dispute together with copies of the emails and the lab report. That way they may refund the lab report as well.

I've had to do this a couple of times (not asking for the lab report money back) but getting my money back and although it's tedious, I won on every occasion.

I'm not surprised by what's happened (the stone not being what she's sold it as) because I doubt she gets lab reports herself and either buys with them or trusts her vendor. That's a very very very risky strategy if you're going to sell on and it's only when knowledgeable people like yourself have something checked out that the truth is found out. Good for you for being thorough.

 

[D&T]

Uggg Kelpie! So sorry for your trouble!

here is their number, but you should be able to get to that same number from your ebay page:

Login, then go to top right hand corner to Customer Support > then underneath the "WELCOME TO CUSTOMER SUPPORT" there is another tab to Contact Ebay > go to SELLING > EBAY Protection Question, and the Call us button appears, click on that and should give you their phone number and a pin related to your ebay member id: but in case that all doesn't work here it is:

1-866-877-3229

Good luck!

 

[kelpie]

Uggg Kelpie! So sorry for your trouble!

here is their number, but you should be able to get to that same number from your ebay page:

Login, then go to top right hand corner to Customer Support > then underneath the "WELCOME TO CUSTOMER SUPPORT" there is another tab to Contact Ebay > go to SELLING > EBAY Protection Question, and the Call us button appears, click on that and should give you their phone number and a pin related to your ebay member id: but in case that all doesn't work here it is:

1-866-877-3229

Good luck!

Thank you so much, D&T! I got to that page I just don't have a way to call them. I'm staying in a hotel in South Africa with spotty internet and a cell phone that can't find a signal!

 

[kelpie]

Kelpie

Did you use Paypal? If you did you can action a case against Rockhugger with them. Typically they find in favour of the buyer - especially if something is not what it's sold as. Paypal have more "teeth" than Ebay because they can get money back and suspend somebody if they've acted fraudulently.

The other thing to mention is that if you made the sale conditional upon getting a lab report then you should include that in the Paypal dispute together with copies of the emails and the lab report. That way they may refund the lab report as well.
quote]

Thank you LD. Unfortunately Paypal no longer has a record on the July 24 transaction. That is why I'm on Plan C with the credit card company. The problem with getting stones verified by a lab is all the time that ticks away, especially if you don't live in the same country as the seller like I do.

 

[D&T]

oh shoot Kelpie! I hope you get this resolved soon with the CC dispute. Do come back and update us.

What a shame Rockhugger or whatever her name is a scammer, Hope she reads all of this! man seriously can't trust people now adays and I will gladly stay away. THanks for the heads up.

 

[LD]

Kelpie - when did you actually receive it because if you bought it on 24 July but then it wasn't posted until much later, I wonder if they would allow a late complaint?

So sorry to hear this. I wonder if the credit card people would allow you to reclaim for the report also?

 

[SB621]

so it was rockhugger? I saw the ebay seller name and I didn't recongize it so I just assumed it wasn't her. I'm guessing she had 2 names on PS then. Regardless it is still a shame. Keep us updated.

I would still try contacting paypal even though the window is over.

 

[Pandora II]

So sorry about that - very upsetting.

Could I just ask a couple of things...

Was the stone described as a Paraiba Tourmaline, or as paraiba-like, or as a copper-bearing tourmaline (or combo of those)? I'm just intrigued due to the whole debacle over the Paraiba nomenclature that has been going on for years - you can have stones from all over the place that look like a ParaibaTM but don't contain copper, copper-bearing tourmalines from Paraiba itself that don't look like ParaibaTM and copper-bearing tourmalines that are purple for example.

Should a stone sold as a Paraiba Tourmaline (with no other qualifiers) be assumed to be copper-bearing from the Brazilian location or just to be a windex-blue coloured tourmaline?

I do hope that the situation sorts itself out.

ETA: IIRC, she wasn't actually a GG but had started taking classes.

(oh, forgot to say... by ParaibaTM, I mean THE windex-blue copper-bearing tourmalines from Paraiba itself)

This WAS windex blue, but it was quite indistinguishable from my very fine Afghan from Gene in person (though no where near as nice a cut). No glow, though it certainly looked like it had it in the pics. She described it as a paraiba tourmaline origin Brazil.

Did she say it was copper-bearing or a cuprian tourmaline?

 

[kelpie]

Pandora, I don't think she did but I hardly think AGL would be willing to designate a non-cuprian as "paraiba". Item description included windex blue paraiba from brazil.

 

[LD]

Do you have the original link to the auction (or the Facebook one)?