Think ive been very stupid - Not Technical

[rnsdm001]

I know this is technical forum. This ones off topic.

Think ive been had!

Ive been looking at buying an LCD Screen and have decided to buy the Philips 32pf9976 - still decorating front room so there was no rush.

But then while on ebay I saw one for £735. A bargain!? So I bought it...

...or i thought i had. I now cant get hold of the seller (who has closed his account down), they have cashed the cheque and the phone number ebay did have for this guy is invalid. And they are not responding to any emails.

after a couple of days of no email responces i phoned bank to stop the cheque. The bank told me there was a charge of £7.50. Fine I said, just stop the cheque. He told me this was done, I then look at my account today to find the cheque has been cashed!!!

Phoned the bank to ask what the hell theyve done and they tell me the cheque has now gone and that theres nothing they can do....all they can do is find the guy who was dealing with this and find out why cheque wasnt cancelled and issue him with any training that he may need!

WHAT !!!

 

[richjthorpe]

You might be covered by ebay themselves in situations like this. Not sure whether it's the full amount or a percentage. Contact ebay about this.

Richie.

 

[Flimber]

Banks can 'pull' money back from accounts in fraud cases. My guess is the money will have already been moved elsewhere by now though...

Do you have a proper UK address for this person ?

Mike.

 

[rnsdm001]

ebay cover upto £100....which is nice isnt it!

what about the other 600 quid.

Would have thought they would have covered everything to prove to their customers it is safe to use ebay. £100 says to me they are not very confident with their service

 

[rnsdm001]

flimber

yeah we have an address - which we know was used as this is where the cheque was sent.

another thing ive just noticed today. the cheque i made out was to S Mackenzie. The email address they supplied was in name of Ruth Smith but the address of email was [email protected]

so theres 3 names in use ! S Mackenzie must be the real name as thats who cheque was made out to. Surely we can trace a cheque and find out who cashed it

 

[GrahamC]

Surely if the bank has accepted your instruction and payment then a contract has been initiated with the bank. I'd be pushing this a lot harder. Staff stupidity is nothing to do with you.

 

[rnsdm001]

your damn right graham , however the payment of £7.50 has not come out of my account. Its like theyve taken my instruction but then not done anything about it!

ive phoned them this morning, they say they first have to find out who took my call - they do record eveything.

then this chaps manager has to contact me (between now and tommorow afternoon!)

they listen to the tapes of the conversation between me and him.....

.....I said to the bank that surely this will just prove that I have given an instruction but it hasnt been carried out.

The responce was even if this is the case, because the cheque has now gone all he can do is appologise and repremand / train their chap.......

... how can that be all they can do - if he hasnt carried out an instruction I have given, doesnt that mean the bank is liable?

 

[Typical Janner]

Presumably the cheque hadn't already gone through your account prior to your phoning them to stop it?

If this is a con, I would have expected the 'seller' to have banked the cheque as soon as it was received, and probably to have paid for special clearance to speed things along (and to give you less time to stop the cheque).

Whatever, surely this is now a police matter?

 

[deadred]

A friend of mine got stung like this but for £2500

He was selling a rare guitar and the person sent them a cheque for the amount which he put into the bank. After 5 days he called into the bank to see if the cheque had been cleared to which he was told it had. He sent the guitar then 2 days later gets a call from the bank to come to see the manager, he goes down and is told the cheque he cashed was a fraud and therefore invalid, he explained he'd asked if the cheque had cleared but the Manager said that the girl was only "training" and it was a mistake...............i mistake that the bank were going to nothing about!!!

Sorry if this makes you feel no better, but look on the bright side..................at least it wasn't for 2 and a half grand!!

 

[rnsdm001]

thats crazy isnt it?

because someone is training or they forget to do something. Thats not our (the consumer) fault

no - i called before the cheque was cleared to cancel it - was told no problem just pay the charge. Not the happiest bunny

 

[Flimber]

Bank would be liable, FWICS. You did your bit, they didn't do theirs. End of story. Threaten them with legal action and see if they look at their own behaviour a tad more closely.

Out of interest, whereabouts is the UK address ?

Mike.

P.S. Looking at that ebayers auctions I would have run a mile and kept on going but that's little comfort to you I'll bet

 

[Typical Janner]

no - i called before the cheque was cleared to cancel it - was told no problem just pay the charge. Not the happiest bunny

If correct, then clearly they are liable.

Get them to confirm in writing, and then threaten them with the small claims court. Poor training will be no excuse in the eyes of the law. When they realise that you won't be fobbed off with their BS, I'm sure they will refund your money (after all, it is their mistake, not yours). Then, close your account and take your money elsewhere.

 

[bluemoonmcfc]

Hi m8 sorry to hear about this, but if you get no luck with the bank you have got 2 options left
First 1 is to contact ebay and give them hassle and try and get your money back
Second option is to contact the BBC watchdog heres the LINK
Ebay was on watchdog about 6 months ago for the same thing that has happened to you it's worth a try.

 

[rnsdm001]

postal address is saltburn

the address on their personnel profile is seaham near sunderland!!!

do i wait for the banks responce or do i go to police now before banks responce?

 

[Typical Janner]

Looking at that ebayers auctions I would have run a mile and kept on going but that's little comfort to you I'll bet

Ah yes, sold several chocolate chip recipes for 1p (quick and easy way to get some positive feedback), and then lists seven LCD televisions. Easy to be wise after the fact, but that should really have triggered some alarm bells!

 

[rnsdm001]

right - cheers boys

i just thought ive been incredibly stupid (which i have)

didnt think there was much i could do about it

 

[GrahamC]

A visit here may be of help Financial Ombudsman Service.

 

[deadred]

right - cheers boys

i just thought ive been incredibly stupid (which i have)

didnt think there was much i could do about it

Don't let it get you down mate, your not the first and certainly won't be the last to be ripped off using ebay, crettins like this will always be around i'm afraid

 

[AgentPingu]

just make sure you don't let the b***ard get away with it.

Definitely fight the bank, it's their error.

Worth reporting it to the police, even if they don't follow up the lead, you'll get given a 'Crime No.' and they'll put an event on their system. Will be of help to you in the fight against the bank, if it reaches court they may question why you never reported it and try and pin something on you.......clever buggers these solicators.

Good luck

Pingu

 

[Black Custard]

Hi..

Sorry to hear to have been duped, but it sounds to me as though the bank are at fault for not stopping the cheque when you had requested it. I would think in this case a visit to a solicitor may be in order to check out where you stand legally.

I know its a bit late know, but these are my suggested tips when buying something like that through e-bay

1. Only bid from a highly reputable trader, eg 100s or over 1000 positive feedback and I would check some of the feedback to see the types of item sold.

2. Pay using credit card, that way if there is a problem you are insured.

3. Be careful when using some escrow sites as many of these are specially set up and fraudulant.

I hope that you get this sorted out and you get your money back!!!

 

[rnsdm001]

the person i asked to stop the cheque was on the end of the telephone - you know the 08745 telephone banking number (halifax).

They still havnt contacted me to let me know how its going, anyway I wanted to speak to an actual person so I popped to our local brach in Darlington and told the lady there exactly the same story.....she was much more helpful and went to see about three of her colleagues who all came and had a word with me.....they all said that they thought the same as me that if an instruction had been passed but not carried out then it was their fault not mine.

I got a call from my branch later that day to say because the cheque had only come out of my account that day - she spoke with cheque control (or similar) and theyve been able to stop the cheque (without any charges - as it was their fault)

Now instead of making me worry , why on earth could the telephone banking people not tell me the same thing!

Anyway guys - all im interested in is having the money back - which weve managed to do. Thank the Lord!

 

[Typical Janner]

That's great news

Personally, I would still take the time to report this to the police, as it might go some way towards stopping this guy from doing the same to others (who might not be so fortunate as yourself).

 

[rnsdm001]

fortunate is a good word!

next time i buy from ebay i wont be anywhere near as stupid

 

[Flimber]

You still need to tell the police !!!!

 

[AgentPingu]

Tell the police.......on talking to a friend it seems that when you sign up as a seller to eBay, you bind yourself to Terms & Conditions basically stating that if you screw someone over, then the police will kick ya ass (simpleton terms I know!)

Glad to hear you've got your money back