E-bay thief: Hugo Stevenson / ape.city

This guy Hugo Stevenson (who sells under the name ape.city) sold us a Disney Shag mug but never sent it, and never responded to e-mails. We finally filed a claim with e-bay, and he left negative feedback for us saying we never mailed a check.

Does anybody know this a-hole? Check his feedback, he also reneged on other Shag-Disney items and didn't respond to e-mail. NEVER NEVER NEVER buy from this guy "APE.CITY"

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=ape.city&item=6543564944&iid=6543564944&frm=1883&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:SFS

Hey Hey Kids!

[ Edited by: Krustiki 2005-08-05 21:59 ]

This might be more checking acct info than you would want on the worldwide web.

Man, that sucks. It looks like other people got their mug. What a jerk. How does eBay cover cashed checks? I've never encountered this, just curious if your S.O.O.L., if eBay can reimburse you, or if they just suspend offenders.Hope this ends well for you.

[ Edited by: tikichic 2005-10-06 06:56 ]

That really does suck, Krustiki.

If you haven't gone ahead and bought the Shag mug from someone else, I just put one up on http://www.Ooga-Mooga.com to trade.

Kate

Thanks Tiki-Kate! We do still want the mug. I'll send you a PM.

This was one of those guys that was pre-selling the mugs before they were even available to the public, right?

Since you actually did pay for the item, and actually have the cancelled check to prove it, can't you have him remove the negative feedback through some type of complaint through eBay and/or some type of arbitration process? It's a shame to have that negative feedback on your account, especially when you are in the right. I've heard that for wrongful or erroneous feedback, eBay is actually pretty good about getting the seller to retract the negative feedback - there are rules and regulations on posting negative feedback, make sure you read those thoroughly. However, you will be the one who has to go through the effort to prove your case, but this one looks like it would be fairly easy.

I had a problem with some nut-head seller who at first actually managed to get my account shut down - the guy claimed that he accepted Paypal on his auctions, but he couldn't because his Paypal account had been suspended due to various terms of service violations. When I declined to pay any other way than through Paypal, which was listed as his preferred method of payment, he put a voodoo hex on me, and somehow managed to get my account suspended! At first it sucked for me, to have my account shut down, especially when the guy was threatening me with feedback extortion, and acting like a loon in general. But I followed all of the steps that eBay layed out, and I was found in the right and he was in the wrong. My account was re-activated, much apologies from eBay, etc, severe warnings and reprimands from eBay to that seller to leave me alone. If I could go through all that and come out on top, you most definitely can have that negative feedback removed.

Check into the rules for feedback on eBay. If you look up "feedback extortion", you will find a lot of info on the ways you are allowed and not allowed to give feedback. Good luck!

We filed a claim with E-bay for "Item not received". The seller had 10 days to respond, but he never did. Now E-bay is supposed to send us a form that we submit with the cancelled check, and they will re-imburse us for our payment, minus a $25.00 processing fee.

We contacted another buyer who was burned by ape.city. In his case, the seller told him the check wasn't received so he sent another. The seller then cashed BOTH checks but didn't send the item. Unfortunately the buyer didn't file a claim within the 30-day limit to get reimbursed.

I'm curious to see if E-bay imposes any sanctions on the ape.city. I'm sure they don't like having to payout these claims.

For an additional $35.00 we could file a report with Safe Harbor and get the negative feedback removed. Just on general principles we choose not to do that. Our feedback rating is still 99% so I guess we can live with that.

The lesson from this is use PAYPAL only - you have much more protection with them.

(Mrs. Krustiki)

A happy ending! After a month of frustration, e-mails, negative feedback, and e-bay claims, the mug actually showed up! It was postmarked yesterday so it hasn't been floating around at the post office.

We're not sure what finally got his attention. Our e-mails to him were filled with threats to report him to the police, FBI, and the post office. It was probably the fear of having his e-bay acount terminated that motivated him.

We can petition to have the negative feedback removed because the phone number provided by the seller was bogus. We can do this without paying the $35 mediation fee to Safe Harbor.

I want to thank everyone who offered sympathy and suggestions. I especially want to thank Tiki-Kate who offered a very generous deal on her mug.

TikiCentral Rocks! E-bay scumbags suck!

On 2005-08-05 21:57, ookoo lady wrote:
We can petition to have the negative feedback removed because the phone number provided by the seller was bogus. We can do this without paying the $35 mediation fee to Safe Harbor.

Not only that, you can now have his eBay account suspended and/or terminated because that is a serious violation of eBay's terms of service. All you have to do is notify eBay's Safe Harbor Dept that this seller has a bogus contact phone number, especially with all of the headaches he has put you through plus the bogus negative feedback (make sure you include that stuff, plus forward all e-mails you have sent to him with full headers showing), and they will take care of the rest. That is, if you want to take that route. :D

Congrats on getting the mug, and overcoming a bad eBay seller to boot!

Just my two cents. I had such bad experiences with Paypal ("See if your credit card company will cover you") and Safe Harbor ("lost" notarized documents then "lost" replacement notarized documents) , I use neither. At least sending a check through the mail let's you qualify for mail fraud when they jack you. I learned quickly nobody cares about you but you. (and my Notary, he's the best)

I had one incident where I reported an item not received. Ebay said "we see you paid by PayPal, they can do better than us" or something to that effect (even though they own PayPal). I filed with PayPal and after about three weeks they found in my favor and removed the funds from the seller's account and refunded my account. No sweat.