I think I got scammed

A few days ago, I bought an uncommon Japanese computer game off an eBay store. Not long after the purchase, the seller acted surprised that the item "sold so quickly," and decided they would ship the item the following weekend. Going through the user feedback, I discovered that this person had "sold" the same item in an auction with the exact same photos a few months earlier with no shipping costs. The buyer appears to be a regular customer and leaves the same comment in their feedback with each purchase. Not sure how much this matters, but the seller also seems to have some connections with hit-japan, who in recent years has become notorious for scamming unsuspecting buyers out of their money. So is it possible that I just lost $79 to some nasty reseller?

 

I dont see how, if the item doesnt arrive ebay will just refund you?

 

I haven't ordered many items from eBay, but I think the seller is the one who handles your money. Several years back I tried buying a copy of EarthBound from someone else on the site, and they later revealed that they didn't have the game and would refund my purchase. I then noticed that other people had been using the same image for similar listings, so clearly that photo had been circulating the web for some time.

 

Paypal can refund your money when you dispute it doesnt arrive. Sellers can optionally start this process straight away.

Sellers do not directly handle the money, paypal do.

 

Ah, okay.

 

Dusty, PayPal is pretty secure and ALWAYS side with the buyer. if they try to scam they will get fu**ed in the end. oddly enough im trying to buy an IFU-30 from hit japan, never got screwed by them, and have gotten great volume discounts from them before.

 

I never had a problem with hit Japan..always been great to buy from so far.

 

What I would do if I were in your situation: Wait an appropriate amount of time for either a shipping update or for the item to arrive. If neither happen, contact the seller directly. If the seller gives you some round about communication or does not reply at all after a few days, escalate it with eBay or PayPal. I know if you do it with either service they will give the seller 2 or 3 days to communicate with you. If they do not communicate they will block communications between you two and handle it themselves, most likely siding with you as a buyer.

 

Obviously, that this is all assuming that you used PayPal. If you instead paid e.g. by bank transfer for some reason, eBay would probably still take your side and give the seller a slap on the wrist (iirc, one strike (out of three) against his account), but would not be able to do much about actually returning your money. Just sayin'; odds are you used PP anyways.

 

I didnt think you even offer anything other than paypal anymore.

 

Never heard about hit japan seller doing such things too. Many sellers relist the exactly same auction to sell the same item several times even when the auctions says "last one" lol
What really is wrong? They can say, "hey, a new one just arrived tuesday and stuff..."
Many years ago some nice sellers would contact by email telling about new stuff that arrived too. Today is rare.

 

I've also never had a problem with Hit-Japan. Bought many items from them with no trouble.

 

I've only bought twice from Hit-Japan. Descriptions are hit and miss but never scammed. However there's a first time for everything.

It's not uncommon for large eBay sellers to recycles photos for their auctions.

 

Yikes! Good old Hit! I'll vouch for them, they managed to get me a Sophia for AU$300 shipped, not bad given the thing is freaking huge! Although they did block my ID from bidding for some reason... messages them and they reversed it. Weird!

Keep us posted on your progress!

 

Just so you know, you have up to 60 days from estimated date of delivery and 180 days for Paypal to open claim if the seller does not ship. If it's small and light like games, they usually arrive in USA in under 2 weeks air mail, take a few more days to go through customs, then a week at the most to get to your address. Big and heavy stuff may get shipped by boat which can take 6-8 weeks.

Just be mindful of what day is the last day you can open claim. If the stuff arrives before then, you're fine. If the stuff doesn't show up after some weeks, you're also fine.

It's rare that you find a scammer in Japan. Usually it's China and Hong Kong that screws up by sending shit that doesn't work, wrong shit, or never sent shit.

 

I would consider myself lucky in that case.

 

Country doesn't matter, a fuck is a fuckup. Of course China gets things wrong often because they're major suppliers and DOA happens with the volume of shit that's produced. However many Chinese sellers are very good with refunding or fixing those issues.

 

The seller just put up another listing for the game. This time they want $60, no shipping costs. The description is slightly different though, noting some slight damage. Strange that they've been able to find 3 copies in the span of only a few months.

 

So what game are we talking about anyway? It would help in trying to measure how uncommon or rare it would be to find multiple copies.

 

Paradise Rescue for Windows 3.1. No copies on Yahoo Auctions, Amazon, Surugaya, etc, no real information about it online. I just found out that the copy I ordered is the same one the seller just posted. He refunded my purchase because it didn't arrive in the condition he'd described and canceled my order.