I am not a great fan of eBay but over the last couple of years I have both bought and sold a small handful of items, always with success and always with satisfaction to both parties. Until now.

Early in December I found an item that would make a perfect gift on which I decided to bid and subsequently won. Only it never arrived. I contacted the seller after a week and had an email back apologising for the delay and promising immediate posting. And still it didn’t arrive.

To cut a long story short, I ended up filing a complaint through the approved eBay and PayPal procedure and was very quickly re-imbursed. Well – almost.

Cost of goods – £65.85 including £3.85 postage. PayPal ‘recovered funds on my behalf’ – £50.85 – so I am actually down £15 and neither eBay nor PayPal are willing to talk to me about it. No communication. So – does PayPal have my £15 or does the seller?

As it happens I didn’t want the money back – I wanted the item. And following eBay rules, I was under the impression that this was a binding contract. Yet they make no mention that they have tried, firstly, to secure the item for me. And they wont tell me. They also wont give me an address for the seller so I can’t send the boys round with baseball bats or take action in the small claims court.

They also wont tell me if this was just a scam and the item didn’t exist in the first place which could also be covered by legal action.

And I am still down £15. And if the seller is sitting with my £15 I don’t see why he should be whether it was a scam or not. So – am I angry? You bet. Angry with the seller but even more angry with eBay.

I emailed the seller to ask, off the record, if this was a scam or not or had he just changed his mind. As expected, I had no reply. And if it was a scam, then there is no reason to believe his name and email address are permanent. For all I know he is back on eBay offering the same item under a different ID. Although I have kept an eye out for it. But, of course, the name I have may just be correct. So…

If anyone reading this knows of a Mr. Lennox Johnson residing in Nottingham – perhaps they would be good enough to ask him for me and relay his reply back to me through comments to this post or email.