Buying online - have you ever been duped?

[Invincible 2,090]

Like the title says. Had an... unpleasant experience last week when a package i ordered arrived... without what i ordered inside of it! Luckily, i took precautions and filmed the unpacking of the parcel, so i had proof and evidence and got a full refund. I'm just bummed about all the time wasted waiting.

[Troblems 5,610]

I bought a hair thing on Ebay for my wedding. It never showed up, but I also never bothered to look into it further because it was 5 bucks, and I found one I liked much better from Etsy. 

 

I generally try to stay away from Ebay, because that place is almost pure sketch.

[ReverseFaller 2,483]

Only once, and I buy tons of stuff online. I tried to buy a Mikasa Ackerman figure off of ebay for about 40 bucks from ebay. I did my homework, and the seller seemed legit. A few hundred positive reviews, and they'd be on ebay for years. A month after I bought Mikasa their account goes dark, so I couldn't contact them when my figure never arrived. Oh well. It sucks, but I very rarely get duped via internet purchases, so it's not too bad if it happens to me once.

[The Crimson Cross 7,532]

I don't think I've ever been duped, but I certainly do know people that have been, not so much with the commercial stores, particularly things on Ebay as the poster above me said, even when it's claimed to have good reputation.

You most certainly never know what you're going to get half the time, and then when it comes to the thing you've purchased arriving in the mail a couple of days or weeks later, it doesn't even look like it does in the picture! 

[yeet 2,026]

Does it count if it was my brother? And it was someone who used his card after he bought something?

[Simon 4,556]

OH too many times.  My favorite story is from a couple years ago when I was buying a plush on eBay.

 

So I collect Chipmunk stuff and there was this plush I wanted from the 80's.  It wasn't anything super rare or valuable, but it was kind of hard to find one in really good condition just because it was 30 years old, so I got really excited when one popped up that was new with the tags.  So I throw on a bid, and much to my shock, I ended up winning it for the $1.00 starting bid, paid for the item, and figured that was the end of it.

 

Well no, it wasn't.  So first the guy cancels my transaction and refunds my money without explanation.  That wasn't about to happen so I gave him his six bucks back and send an email telling him I wanted my item.  Then he refunds it again, claiming that the item wasn't supposed to be put up for sale and apologizing.  Yeah right.

 

Five minutes later he lists it again for $50, so I email him again informing him that cancelling a sale like he did is breach of contract and I am entitled to the item.  So he takes down the new listing and claims posting it again was an accident but it's still not for sale.

 

So this time the seller says he'll send me an invoice to pay... I get the invoice and there are $40 in extra charges shoved on it... so I reported him to eBay.  I then got an invoice for -get this- $1000... 

 

So to make this situation even worse... the guy apparently has a side business where he's developed a program to send people constant text messages to harass them, so this guy goes on sites and advertises that he'll help you get back at your ex and stuff like that... well he decides to send me an email threatening me with it attached to another ridiculous invoice.

 

So now we're into extortion and I again report this to eBay and file a BBB and Attorney General's office complaint on his business which is attached to a physical store as well.

 

So that got their attention... I then receive a note apparently from the seller's swearing at me and telling me what an asshole I am for reporting their business and telling me how he'd rather throw the plush into the trash than let me have it. 

 

So I ignore him and get another email from someone claiming to be the seller's dad who also insults me and calls me immature, but in a more tactful way.  He then wants me to call him to see if we can work something out...

 

Well of course I'm not stupid enough to call him when I've already been threatened with a device to spam me with text messages, so I refuse and say we can settle it over the email.  More harrassing emails followed of course, as did more reports to eBay.

 

Finally I eventually just gave up on ever getting help with my problem, and since it wasn't cost effective to sue him decided to let it go.  

 

But since that would be too easy, the guy decided that since he never got my cell phone number to spam, he'd use my email.  He entered my email into some program and I ended up waking up to 100,000 emails in my inbox.... took me two days to sort the problem out and get my email back and I still get spam emails constantly now.  

 

And that is my long sorted story of lies, deceit, fraud, extortion, and hate all in the name of a dollar plush of a cartoon character.

[SkyDream 315]

Oh a few years ago I ordered a mail-order Russian bride, and when it came in the mail via UPS, I found out she was from Ukraine, not Russia.  I was really mad. 

[Bronychan1214 150]

everything that I have bought online has gotten to me all good . But my brother has had bad stuff happen to him like 4 times. 3 of the times they never showed up. And 1 that said it on ebay that it was brand new and it was a game and he received it snapped in half. And since we are younger mostly everything we bought were games. And everything we have bought was from ebay.

[Celtore 2,769]

Certainly! I buy much of my electronic goods from China because nobody sells the stuff I need here at a fair enough price. (Case in point, HDMI cables...)

 

But yes, I was trying to fix my old GBA SP before I bought the AGS-101 model. The site I ordered from claimed it was the original screen so I bought it for twenty bucks. When it arrived, I noticed something wrong immediately. The front light was a tiny LED they stuck to the bottom corner! When in the case, it didn't even light anything!

 

I emailed the owner and requested a refund. I guess seeing as I was a loyal customer, they thankfully refunded me in full. (If not, it wouldn't be that big of a deal either... $20 won't put me out of business...)

[Dream Wishes 3 21]

Me and my cousin buy a stuff online on occasion, me more than him. Well, he likes to collect like replica weapons and such. He found some special (but not rare) gloves he wanted from one particular site. So I ordered them for him (he didn't have a debit card at the time, long story). At first, we got an email saying that they were waiting on a shipment to come in.

 

Week went by, no news. Emailed for status update. They tell us it's now being held up in customs for an indefinite period of time and asked if we wanted to keep waiting or get a refund. Well, that seemed annoying, but understandable enough. We requested a refund of our product.

 

Never heard back from them. Repeated attempts were ignored and the money was never refunded. I believe I logged a BBB complaint against them (this was years ago), but it was only about $20 and wasn't worth trying to fight over. Honestly the only time I've ever been ripped off online.

[The Coffee Pony 1,390]

Buying refurbished systems (a PSP and a 360) from EB games. Neither worked and they wouldn't let me return the systems unless I payed full price for a new system or replaced them with another refurbished system (that also most likely won't work). Needless to say I'm never EVER buying any refurbished systems from EB ever again. I would stop shopping there entirely but unfortunately they're the only store that has the best prices when it comes to buying games on the cheap and I really don't like having to shop online often.

[Jeric 46,837]

I have a few horror stories selling and buying on eBay. I refuse to even browse there anymore. I was a huge Star Wars collector at one point. I ran across a listing for a rare foreign Revenge of the Jedi carded figure, bid and won. What came was some comic books. The goober mixed up the shipment. I got comics and some guy got my freaking figure. Seller wouldn't refund the money when he could get the guy to return the figure to him or me.

 

Long story short ... I did end up getting my money back from pay pal after a bit of hassle.

[SparklingSwirls 21,271]

I don't buy things online that often, but I do remember that I bought a computer game once and it never came. :/

[Sir Hugsalot 8,649]

I got owned one time by some random guy who was selling Heroes IV: Winds of War on polish auction website. I bought it, all happy back then, then I got the CD. Yay! 

 

Suddenly...

 

... *processing*

 

...*realization!*

 

IT IS BLANK, THAT *BEEP BEEP BEEP* FOOLED ME! 

 

 

... that was just so shameless way to fool someone... still my friend once bought a phone and got a potato in iPhone box, nothing will beat that, lol. 

[Mlpfan185 1,763]

Something was here. Something was here. Something was here. Something was here. 

Edited October 10, 2018 by NONAME

[Sir Hugsalot 8,649]

I wouldn't even chalk the phone one up to a loss, that is just to funny.

For us maybe, for him it was not, because phone was supposed to be "brand new" and expensive... xD Overall he had bad luck with iPhone. After that he bought it from another guy and got "aPhone" - chinese shameless copy that was barely even working. 

[Mlpfan185 1,763]

Something was here.Something was here.Something was here.

Edited October 9, 2018 by NONAME

[The Crimson Cross 7,532]

... that was just so shameless way to fool someone... still my friend once bought a phone and got a potato in iPhone box, nothing will beat that, lol. 

 

Oh my, that's just awful! 

That reminds me of the time when our family went to Thailand and next to the hotel we were staying at was a man who was selling USB's and so well of course we went to buy one, and when they got back it wasn't working properly, so we took it apart to see what was wrong with it, and it was filled with sand... 

[Due Diligence 26]

Built a custom guitar a few years ago and mailed it to a paint shop for a professional poly paint job.. and they professionally took off with my guitar and I haven't heard from them since. Of course I paid up front and didn't realize it was weird until the eight weeks had passed that they quoted so I couldn't dispute it with Paypal.

 

Deal local, save yourself the headache.

[Dovashy 1,734]

No, I haven't been duped, although I have only ever bought a few things online. I hope I never have to experience what it feels like. 

[Envy 6,028]

No, but I've never ordered from eBay. I find it funny because I have friends that have bought entire instruments off of eBay and never had any negative experiences. One of my friends from early college actually bought a bassoon - very same type as mine - for very cheap off of eBay and it came in perfect condition. o.O

 

Nevertheless, I'm still not ordering off of eBay. lol

[Azure Envy 1,092]

Once, received an item that differed from the product description, but it was through a marketplace seller on Amazon and I ended up getting a refund and keeping the item.

 

Amazon <3

[silvadel 1,393]

Ebay will practically always find in favor of the buyer in a dispute, and regardless just bringing one adds to the seller's seller defect rate.  Bad sellers do not stay long these days, and a lot of good sellers get thrown under the bus even.  In essence you have nothing to fear on ebay these days.

[Klopp 2,050]

I've never had a problem ordering anything online. That's because I either buy from the retailers site directly, or I buy it from Amazon. I've never even had anything arrive late from Amazon, in fact thing typically arrive before they are scheduled to. Occasionally I've bought some more hard to find items off Ebay, but I don't usually deal with anyone that has less than 10,000 positive feedback.

[Nit Pick 247]

There has been times where I was duped, but there was one particular moment recently where I was almost duped.  Mike Chang's Six Pack Shortcuts.  It SOUNDED like it was a discounted almost $500 package deal for only less than $100.  I was about to finalize the order but I noticed a "I Agree to the Terms and Conditions" thing and read the fine print.  It says that after 14 days we will create a re-occurring subscription price of $61 for 5 months.

 

Basically it was still the same price, just spread out to make it look like it was discounted.  I don't think I was lied to or duped but I was mad that he never mentioned it in his long, unbearable, repetitive presentation.   I would have politely declined if he did mention monthly payments but no, he didn't.