I am not sure how many people have had bad experiences on Ebay, I hope not too many. I was having a great time on there until some man tried to defraud me out of £170.

I had been buying and selling on Ebay for a number of months without any problems at all. If I ever bought anything that cost over £100, I would offer to meet the seller somewhere, normally just off the motorway and this was working very well. I managed to pick up some real bargains and also managed to offload some of my unwanted items which I either had no interest in anymore or that I had no longer a need for.

Good things apparantly have to come to an end and unfortunately it did with Ebay.

I was looking to purchase a mobile phone and saw an advert for a buy it now phone with the asking price low but not extremely low.

There was a mobile number to phone if I had any questions. I therefore rang him, his name was Tony and asked him the general type questions. He sounded and seemed really nice, however stated that he was unable to meet me as he was unable to drive as he had not past his test.

His house was a long way from where I lived and reluctantly I agreed to pay via a bank transfer. He assured me he would post the phone, that very day via Royal Mail Special Delivery to arrive by 11am the next morning. He seemed very genuine, they always do your thinking and that was that.

Next morning have a guess what arrived, yes nothing at all, nor the next day, nor the next.

I tried e-mailing him, texting and ringing his mobile phone, guess what, there was no reply.

I realised what a fool I had been, however decided to go to the police. They were very helpful and half an hour later I had a crime number however was warned that it was very unlikely I would ever see a phone or recieve a refund of my money which was £170.

Outside the police station I sent Tony a text with the police crime number. To my shock he phoned me straight away swearing at me but eventually agreed to refund me the money, if I stopped the police action against him.

I was very lucky, I am sure many other people as the police stated, never get their money back.

Stephen Hill

Stephen Hill has a couple of websites at http://www.gain-confidence.co.uk and http://www.debt-specialist.co.uk

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