I need to vent!!

[nancyschina]

I have been on ebay for over 8 years and have cashed more than 2000 US money orders in that time ... this has never happened to me ....
I sold a figurine to a customer who didn't wait for the invoice (which was sent 1 1/2 hours after the auction ended) and shorted the payment by $7 US. He emailed me to say he sent a money order and figured the shipping cost on his own???? I emailed him to say he should send the $7. I received the initial payment by money order and emailed him to say I would ship the figurine as I was sure the $7 was already in the mail. The day he got the figurine, I had a debit to my US account in the amount of the shorted payment. I tried to call but his number was disconnected so I reported that to ebay and then emailed him. I waited half a day and then I decided to file a dispute. He replied to the dispute by claimiing over and over that "I believe it cleared" ... "to my knowledge it cleared" etc etc. I told him I would email him when I got the money order back in the mail. Today I receive the money order and on the document stating reason for debiting my account it says "Payment Stopped"
I believe that when I initially emailed him to tell him he owed another $7 he decided to cancel the transaction and stopped payment on the money order he had already mailed. BUT HE DID NOT LET ME KNOW THIS!!! So all of his claims that the money order cleared, were lies.
I just emailed him a scan of the money order and accompanying document as well as giving all information in the dispute.
I have my fingers crossed that he will do the right thing but he has been childish up to now so I am probably out over $330 US.

[nancyschina]

I asked at my bank and they said money orders can be stopped ... so I don't think it was my bank ... and the guy has all but admitted that the money oder was stopped ... he is refusing to do anything to pay me.

[katiusciav]

what a loser to say the least. he sounds guilty as h*ll. pursue it. don't let him get away with it.
of course money orders can be stopped. if you buy a money order, hang on to the bottom copy, and lose it, you bet you can file for lost money order and have it stop paid.
i hope this loser gets everything he deserves. if he truly wasn't guilty, he would have been just as surprised that the money order was stopped and would have been asking questions towards his bank, and wouldn't have said 'don't contact me anymore'...he's spewing with guilt

[cgcgraded]

Strange! I didn't know it was that easy to stop payment on a Money Order. I've never bought one but have accepted hundreds over the years.....

Andrew

[nancyschina]

Just an update ....
I finally closed the dispute and got back my FVF's. He now has a "good" phone number listed with ebay which I have called. The first time I left a nice message asking him to return my call. The second time he hung up on me and the third time his wife told me I had the wrong person. Of course we have exchanged negative feeback and I don't mind that because he deserved his negative. But I am still out $334.01 US and that is what burns me. He has the figurine and is still buying on ebay. I guess I just have to kiss the money goodbye and write this off to "my first burn on ebay after 8 years".

[cello10]

Oh boy Nancy that really sucks, so sorry to hear that, I really feel for you. Did you by any chance insure the shipment?

I'm going to block him and hopefully a bunch of fellow ps'ers here will do the same. At least together we can do something against him.

[nancyschina]

The figurine was insured and he has it ... that is no the issue. He stopped payment on the money order BEFORE he even received the figurine. I can't claim on insurance because he received it ... I am the one who has been scr*wed. I did file a complaint with ebay, with the USPS and with the ICC. Hopefully someone will make him actually pay for the figurine.

[cello10]

Oh that's true.

If you have proof that he has received it then the USPS will get at him. It'll take a while, but they are serious when it comes to mail fraud. Best of luck to you, let us know how it works out.