Long story short: I got screwed by "associated1" on ebay. Don't let it happen to you.
Here's the full story. I contacted him about buying an Iota power supply like many he lists on ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...&category=4671
He did not have the particular power supply listed that I wanted. Here's his words:
> Due to Ebay's policy we have to beat around the bush, because, there is not
> enough need by consumers and small businesses for all these different
> voltages to be listed separately.
>
> We have a factory built 36 volt model @ 20 amps and ( 4 ) of these can be
> paralleled to produce 80 amps. These are net to the trade at $ 260.00
> each.
So, I replied to this email and purchased the 36V, 20A PS for $290.00 with shipping/handling. I sent a USPS money order via Priority mail and made sure to include delivery confirmation. He received the money order on April 2, 2003. It is now April 21, 2003 and I have not received the power supply, nor have I heard from him in the past 2 weeks, even after repeated emails asking for a status.
I'm extremely pissed off, mainly because of this statement:
> Please e-mail when payment is sent AND include a FED-EX acceptable
address,
> so we can pre-address your package for same day shipping when payment
> arrives.
>
> Dave / associated1
Yes, he promised same day shipping when the payment arrived! Soooooo, assuming he really shipped it FedEx, I'm a maximum of 5 days from any place in the US. And let's add a couple more days in there for good measure. That'd be about 7 days, right? So by that measure, I should have received the package by 4-11-03 at the latest, even accounting for the weekends.
How in the world this guy got over 400 positive feedbacks on Ebay is beyond me. All I know is that today I'm filing mail fraud paperwork with the Post Office and contacting my lawyer. I'm going after this guy. Where do people get off thinking that they can do business like this? I know the legal fees will cost more than the power supply, but what can one do? Continue to let people like this screw whoever they want out of money?