Had The Winning Bid, did you? (c)janes-place You arrive at an online auction and are eager to start bidding. You start looking at
descriptions and pictures of items you are interested in. Then bidding starts.............
Wow! The excitement! You are now bidding on item that you really *must* have. When bidding ends, you are notified that you have winning bid! My, how excited you are! You send your payment through Paypal or by mail. You can't wait to receive item! After all, it is a *must* have item!
You wait anxiously for mailman to deliver your package. You can't wait everyday until he delivers mail. You run to mailbox as soon as he leaves. This goes on for weeks! Now it's been months. It *never* arrives.
Don't feel that you are only one that has experienced this. In 1999, consumers lost more than $3 billion to Internet fraud [National Consumer League]. People never received what they purchased or merchandise they did receive wasn't what seller had described.
What do you do now?
First, contact person selling merchandise. Mistakes *do* happpen. Be sure to keep a copy of correspondance [mail or email], between you and seller.
Didn't get anywhere with that approach?
**Complain to on-line auction site. Be sure you can give them proof of your payment and have copies of any correspondance between you and seller.
**Check to see if site offers a dispute resolution service. This service works for you, buyer.
**Most online auction sites have some type of insurance program. Ex- eBay will cover up to $200, minus a $25 deductible if you don't receive your item or receive items that don't live up to their description.
