Issue with Gift Card Purchase on ebay

Finance
1

Need advice on how to handle the situation here.
Recently purchased a $200 gift card from a seller with 175 feedback (100% positive).
got the gift card with USPS signature required post today. when i checked the balance, the card only has $76 left. the csr confirmed it was used for a $174 purchase yesterday.
Still waiting for the seller response. Just trying to prepare myself what claims should I raise with ebay?
i did use my credit card for this purchase. disputing going through the credit card will be my last option.
want to check if anybody has experience dealing with this type of situation.

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3

If they don’t help you out file a claim for–“Item not as described.” Tell the seller you’d be more than happy to return the card (with the seller paying return shipping).

4

thanks. will raise the claim as “Item not as described.”

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Please let us know how this turns out. It will be encouraging if the seller and/or eBay stands behind this.

6

As a warning to others reading this thread, eBay invalidates their “purchase protection guarantee” on several types of purchases, and gift cards may be included. The purpose is to deter scammers who buy a gift card, spend the money, and pretend it wasn’t loaded and initiate a claim. Of course, this is a zero sum game and it just shifts the burden away from the seller and onto the buyer, which allows for sellers to become the scammer.

I found this out because I purchased some digital goods on eBay that didn’t work. Initiated a claim and eBay stated it wasn’t qualified under the price protection guarantee and that only auctions with that logo will qualify. 99% of auctions have it, so I didn’t realize it was something to look out for.

EDIT: Just checke and it’s called eBay Money Back Guarantee. It’s a prominent logo on the top description of the auction. If you don’t see it, it’s not covered. If it’s in one of these categories, it is NOT covered:

Vehicles (see eBay Vehicle Protection), Real Estate, Websites & Business for Sale, Classified Ads, services, Digital Content, Intangible Goods, and some Business Equipment categories (see eBay Business Equipment Purchase Protection).

My item I bought was under “digital content” and thus not covered. Of course, when you buy something, there’s no large warning that says “NO GUARANTEE”, there’s only the “Yes, Guarantee” logo when it’s covered. You only realize it’s not covered if you go to make a claim like I did. Unless you’ve read this post. 9 out of 10 people won’t have the courage to re-tweet/share/like this post.

https://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/money-back-guarantee.html#conditions1

3 Likes
8

E-bay has not been a safe place to buy gift cards for some time now. It doesn’t matter how good a deal it is, I wont buy or sell gift cards on the E-bay market.

1 Like
9

so I was able to get details of purchase made on the card on 6th March. It was used in the store in west coast while the card was still in transit to the east coast. looks like the gift card was cloned.
the seller accepted the problem and offered a full refund. but apparently, the seller himself was scammed. he bought from some source and guess he got a counterfeit gift card.
Lesson learned:

  1. Avoid high-value gift card on ebay unless it is sold like Paypal digital or svmcard
  2. buy only lower value card max $50 from a seller who personally owns the card
3 Likes
10

There are very good deals to be had with direct sellers like Paypal Digital Gifts on ebay, not all GC sales are unsafe. Regular sales like $10 off a $50 GC for example.

1 Like
11

I’ve never been worried about buying. Just dispute with credit card if it doesn’t work. It’s selling where you end up losing money.

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12

I was under the impression that PayPal would then come after you for the money that you did a chargeback on. Since unless PayPal agrees that you were scammed, then you owe them the money.

And they have enormous data reserves to include your SSN and can ding your credit report for nonpayment and/or attempt to lien against your property.

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I doubt this.

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I’ve never been worried about the first thing. It could be stupid not to consider this, but the minute chance of this happening and the relative ease to get it resolved makes it not worth worrying about to me.

As to the lien, I don’t know anything about this, but wouldn’t they have to get some judgment before they put a lien on your property? I also don’t have any property they could put a lien on so that helps also ;).