UK Members, HELP! Been ripped off...

leepark · June 8, 2006

I've been ripped off by someone in the UK. I need your help!

Here are the details (short version) of the events -

April 13 - I agreed to purchase a Tour Cameron and Galvin Green shirt (listed on Ebay) for US$1000 from a guy named Ali Wilson. Paypal to [email protected] was sent immediately.

April 19 - He tells me he shipped it (the first time) without a tracking number.

During the long wait, I filed a complaint with Paypal because too many things seemed "not right" including this seller having 3 Ebay accounts (all new accounts), too many excuses/delays, etc.

May 3 - After weeks of waiting, no package. After numerous inquires he tells me that the package was returned to him because "some customs forms" were not completed at the time of shipping.

May 9 - He ships it again. But again no tracking number despite the promise to provide it.

After patiently waiting some more, I ask where the package is. He gives me more excuses and says we need to wait until the end of May to file a investigation with Royal Mail. May 30th comes and goes, and now he won't even reply to any of my emails.

I have since been able to recover (through Paypal) $340.46 of the $1000 but am still short $659.54.

The seller's info is as follows:

Ali Wilson

8 Pleasant Place, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS11 9NX

0776-1899908

0113 2443990

Can anyone suggest how to proceed? Can anyone in the UK help?

Thanks.

dannypharvey · June 9, 2006

which delivery company did he use? if it is royal mail or parcelforce then get a number for their nearest depot to where he lives. Leeds should have a depot if not it will be in the Greater Manchester or Bradford region. phone them up and ask if they have had any parcels shipped to your address. i'm not sure however if they can give that information out over the phone but it's worth a try, also ask them what the procedure is for airmail because i find it hard to believe that he can ship something over the atlantic and not have some sort of tracking number. what i am sure of though, is that when you post a parcel over here they will give you a receipt when you pay the delivery fee. ask to see that, just tell him to scan it and then e-mail it or fax it if possible.

phone his home number (the bottom one of the two shown above) and ask him where it is and say you are considering taking legal action (he doesn't have to know whether you are or not, just convince him that you are and if he says go ahead and do so then phone his local police station and see if there is anything they can do. you should be able to get the number for police stations in Leeds from the internet).

our police may be able to help because if the delivery company has no record of him shipping the item then i suppose it is fraud.

also, if you phone his home number you will need to put 0033 before the 0113 244 3990 because that is Britain's code.

if you have any other questions about the matter or you are puzzeled by the way something works on this side of the pond then just post it on here.

Dan.

Ty_Webb · June 9, 2006

0044 is the UK code and you need to drop the 0 on the front of 0113, so dial 00441132443990 to ring him.

Good luck with it.

arkstorm · June 9, 2006

I've had problems with this guy before...

I was selling a 905R. As with all my auctions on eBay I insist that international bidders contact me prior to bidding for a shipping quote. pro_golfer73 contacted me to quote him a price to ship to UK. When I sent the shipping price he entered a bid on my item becoming the high bidder.

He then asked me to end the auction early if I would accept the Buy-it-Now price (which was no longer available after his bid) and if I would ship it to him for free. I told him I couldn't do that.

Next, he asks me if I would cancel his bid because he said he bid by accident. I called BS on him, and told him I wouldn't cancel his bid.

Not five minutes later another UK bidder (with horrible feedback) who did not contact me about shipping, enters one bid, outbidding pro_golfer73 to the penny, but at about $50 more than I expected to sell the driver for.

It was quite clear to me that this new bid was an alter-ego account of pro_golfer73 and that he would never pay me, so I cancelled that bid.

Five minutes later the same cancelled bidder re-bid. This time I cancelled and blocked him from bidding.

At this point, with 6 hrs. left in the auction, I decided to cancel pro-golfer73's bid as well b/c I knew what he bid due to him outbidding himself with his other account, I knew he would not be outbid because he bid $50 more than anyone else was paying, and I knew this guy would never pay and be nothing but a headache.

I reported him to eBay, but it goes to show how much they do to get rid of people like this.

He is a total scammer, he cost me probably about $20 by messing with my auction hours before it ended. Word is out, he should be avoided.

dannypharvey · June 9, 2006

0044 is the UK code and you need to drop the 0 on the front of 0113, so dial 00441132443990 to ring him.

good point, dunno where i was thinking of with 0033! isn't that france or spain? :crazy:

dannypharvey · June 9, 2006

one other thing, what EXACTLY did you order off of him? i could try and contact him saying i seen the item up for auction but then i went away and didn't see whether it sold or not and do you stil have it for sale. if he says yes he is pulling your leg about the whole thing. if he says he sold it then he might genuinely have sent it but messed up the postage.