Do I have to pay for something I bought through BidPay but never received?
Bidpay is not like paypal. Paypal is part of the transaction, Bidpay is outside of it, that’s why many sellers only accept bidpay – it is safer for them from fraudulent buyers, which unfortunately means that fraudulent sellers are safer from honest buyers. I would think you may well be in the wrong – the agreement you make with bidpay when you use their service is that when you purchase the money [order] from them, they will send the money exactly where you tell them to, and their obligation ends there. In other words, what you do with that money – who you allow to cash it and why, is your private business and your own responsibility, and nothing to do with them. They do not oversee your transaction and/or assess risk. They are a courierboy. From their point of view, you paid them the money and told them where to send it, they gave that money to the person you told them to, fulfilling their side of the contract, then, after the money was delivered and their obligations met, you chargeb
BidPay doesn’t seem to have their own policy for sellers who don’t pay–they say go through the auction site; I’ll get them on phone and see what they say. Thanks for the help so far. LunaticFringe: At the time of the auction he actually had almost perfect feedback (I think he had 96 positive responses) from selling similar items. His score dropped and he unregistered after the auction went south. It’s pretty annoying that this was the auction that did it, but such is life sometimes.
You should definitely let BidPay know that you retracted payment because the Seller did not fulfil their side of the contract (ie giving you the product that you purchased). They may not know that the Seller is a scammer and are just thinking that you are trying to get a product for free. Phone them and set things straight.
I just looked at the auction page and have to say that I have been shopping on ebay for a number of years and would never buy from anyone with less than a 95% approval rating. This seller isn’t even a registered user. I would still try to get BidPay to drop the collection process but I would also pay more attention to the seller’s ratings and feedback if you decide to shopon ebay again. Even though ebay promises to assist in rectifying any problems, you still have to pick your sellers carefully. Caveat emptor. You may have to pay and just chalk this one up to a life lesson learned.
Is it too late to take the seller to small claims court? BidPay shouldn’t call a collection agency if you send them copies of the charges against him. Even if they do, if you fax them to the collection agency they should suspend the claim pending the outcome of the trial (IANAL, but I’m pretty sure that’s the law). Depending on what NY law says, you may be allowed to have one of the other plaintiffs be your agent and argue in court for you. Since they’re already in court and mad as hell at the guy, seems you wouldn’t have a tough time convincing just ONE person to help you out to cause this scammer more pain.
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- Do I have to pay for something I bought through BidPay but never received?
