Well if a situation like this arises, inform ebay immediately. You don't personally know the seller so you have no reason to trust them. Waiting for a replacement to come wasn't a very smart decision.
Personally I have not experienced scammers but the good thing with eBay is that they will hold the funds until the goods are actually delivered and the buyer is satisfied by their condition. I think PayPal is always on the side of the buyer because they know the risk of being scammed is very high on eBay.
eBay is one place that has a lot of scammers that is why I always look for the top rated seller badge because that one they can not fake it. Other than that you need to read reviews about the seller first before buying from them. For buyers it can be hard to know if they are for real or just also scammers.
I have never been scammed on Ebay, however I don't buy anything from them. At least not for years and years now. However last year I did decide to sell something collectible bears that I did not want. I got excellent ratings and people telling me they just loved them when they got them. There were a few however that did say they were broken, so I refunded them the full price plus shipping, however I did make more money than loose it. The only really iffy sale I had was for a Nativity Set, over night the bidding went from $10 to almost $200! I was so excited and happy! I wrapped everything up as best I could, mailed it that same day and added insurance. Then a hold was put on the money, the person said she never ordered it. I told her if she didn't order it just return it to me ( I never got it back). I went to look at that buyer and she ordered hundreds of Nativity Sets in a 24 hour period! It was so strange! Eventually Ebay and Paypal said I did what I was supposed to do ( thank goodness I had tracking numbers and insurance and proved that I did) so I did get to keep the money. I felt bad though, either this poor women really got scammed, maybe someone hacked into her account or, well she was openning her own store on Nativity Sets. I don't know, but as a seller, I think I was getting scammed.
I am also sorry to hear about your loss. That ebay policy seems to be quite a bother, I don't think that they should put a day limit on purchases. If the seller constantly says that they'll ship it again, it can take a much longer time that 45 days and you can't be held responsible for this, what happened to "the customer is always right"? Thus far, I haven't had a bad experience with ebay, I'm currently waiting patiently for an SD card that I ordered, the buyer said that it would take between 10 and 22 days, it's been about 2 weeks now, so it shouldn't be too long now.
The only time I had felt like I was kind of scammed was when I purchased a bottle of cologne on there. The ad listing had a picture of the full size bottle, but the fine print mentioned it was the miniature size bottle, like those 1/2 OZ ones you get at drug stores. So I thought I was getting a full size bottle, but I only got the small one when it arrived. I didn't pursue a refund though on eBay, I just gave the seller a low rating - what I paid for it was about what I would have paid for a small bottle like that at the store anyhow, I just didn't get a deal on it. Something else you need to watch out for are people who are drop shipping products from Amazon. You should always check to see if that same product isn't on Amazon for a better price. What some people are doing, which technically isn't really a *scam* per se, but it's a bit misleading, is finding really cheap products on Amazon, and re-selling them on eBay at a slightly higher price. When you buy the product on eBay, they just go over to Amazon and order the product then have it shipped to your address. Again, not really a scam, but you could have saved some money had you just bought it from Amazon yourself. Plus if you need to return it, it can be a hassle trying to get the eBay seller to cooperate with you after the fact.
He DID contact eBay, but Buyer Protection is only good for 60 days. It sounds like the seller lied about sending a replacement just to stall OP for over 45 days so that it would be too late for OP to open an Item Not Received case. If the seller refused to refund their money at first, that should have been a warning. I would have said no to the replacement right from the jump and filed an Item Not Received case. Oh well. Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.
Did you open a case against the seller? Or did you take his word, and wait for the replacement product? If you did not open a case with eBay. Then this is your fought. This is why eBay has buyer protection. If you failed to report the buyer you cannot blame eBay. It is your fault. If you would have opened a case against the buyer. You would have gotten your money back guaranteed. You might have to chalk this up as a lesson learned.
I've been dealing with eBay for quite some time now. I have had a few bad experiences but I realized early on that eBay, 99% of the time, sides with the buyer and has no problem issuing or forcing refunds. This is some times for the better and some times for the worse. There is little consequence for a buyer who doesn't buy but many consequences for the seller who fails to complete the transaction. If ever this occurs again begin a correspondence with eBay alerting them to the information that passes between you and the seller. If you were to include them in the matter the grace period can be extended because of the extent of lies the seller told you in order to wait on that period to pass.
I've never been scammed on Ebay, but there are a lot of people trying to scam me, as a seller! I once sold a gift card, and after the buyer received it, he made a charge back claim against me and immediately received a refund (with PayPal nor eBay making sure the claim was legit), taken right out of my pocket! And to add insult to injury, I got charged an extra 40 for "settlement fees". Ugh.
