Some help please!?!?
As you may know from other posts, I have been looking for a diamond and believe I've found the one. Prior to this, however, I had purchased a stone from a vendor (whom I will leave anonymous for now in the hopes that he is being honest) about one month ago and paid for the diamond with a wire transfer. Before he shipped me the diamond, however, I changed my mind and cancelled the transaction. He agreed to refund my money, but for the past month he has been telling me that my wire transfer did not "clear" his bank. He is saying that even though it was a wire transfer, his bank is telling him that it could be reversed in the event of fraud for a period of 60-90 days. He says that he cannot refund my money until this time has passed, which seems completely wrong to me as I thought this was the whole point of using wire transfers (i.e., funds clear immediately). Furthermore, he said that after 60 days he will have to call his bank every day until they tell him it is ok... He said that Blue Nile has a similar policy, but I called them and they asssured me that this only happens with EFT/ACH transactions, which they do not accept and is not how I paid this vendor. I also contacted my bank, which assured me that the wire cleared and absolutely positively could not be reversed for any reason, including fraud. I also contacted his bank, Citibank, which told me that any policy of reversal for fraud was up to my bank and that at worse I could provide proof of the legitimacy to the vendor. The vendor is refusing to do anything at this time and is telling me to simply be patient and wait another 4-8 weeks (perhaps longer) for the money.
Does this sound at all legitimate to anyone? Am I missing something? I am so frustrated and angry, but I want to know if perhaps he is truly in a bind that I don't understand. Are there any of the vendors online who can opine on this situation? Any advice is welcome as I am otherwise stuck waiting up to 2 months for over $20k to be returned to me.
As you may know from other posts, I have been looking for a diamond and believe I've found the one. Prior to this, however, I had purchased a stone from a vendor (whom I will leave anonymous for now in the hopes that he is being honest) about one month ago and paid for the diamond with a wire transfer. Before he shipped me the diamond, however, I changed my mind and cancelled the transaction. He agreed to refund my money, but for the past month he has been telling me that my wire transfer did not "clear" his bank. He is saying that even though it was a wire transfer, his bank is telling him that it could be reversed in the event of fraud for a period of 60-90 days. He says that he cannot refund my money until this time has passed, which seems completely wrong to me as I thought this was the whole point of using wire transfers (i.e., funds clear immediately). Furthermore, he said that after 60 days he will have to call his bank every day until they tell him it is ok... He said that Blue Nile has a similar policy, but I called them and they asssured me that this only happens with EFT/ACH transactions, which they do not accept and is not how I paid this vendor. I also contacted my bank, which assured me that the wire cleared and absolutely positively could not be reversed for any reason, including fraud. I also contacted his bank, Citibank, which told me that any policy of reversal for fraud was up to my bank and that at worse I could provide proof of the legitimacy to the vendor. The vendor is refusing to do anything at this time and is telling me to simply be patient and wait another 4-8 weeks (perhaps longer) for the money.
Does this sound at all legitimate to anyone? Am I missing something? I am so frustrated and angry, but I want to know if perhaps he is truly in a bind that I don't understand. Are there any of the vendors online who can opine on this situation? Any advice is welcome as I am otherwise stuck waiting up to 2 months for over $20k to be returned to me.