You've made an eBay purchase and not received the item. The seller is now NARU. You've pulled the contact details and tried to contact the seller only to find the details are incorrect.
You have asked eBay for help and they respond with:
At this time, appropriate action in accordance with eBay policies has been taken against the seller. Unfortunately, I cannot discuss the account details of another member for privacy reasons. However, on this occasion I can inform you that the seller you reported is not a registered eBay user.
eBay will be of no further help to you! In fact they will make it even more difficult once the seller is NARU because all the item listing details will be removed from the site.
Please ensure you make hard copies of the listing, emails, any other correspondence and keep a record of dates and times of all phone calls to your seller.
If all details of your transaction have already been removed, you may be able to access details of the seller from previous listing's feedback to find an email address or website. Look closely as some try to hide them to avoid eBay's links policy. Also, check their Me Page or storefront if it's still up.
If you have paid via PayPal or Creditcard you can file a claim for refund or chargeback, if you are within the time limits. (Some refunds have been approved outside of the timeframes so make a claim anyway. For a creditcard chargeback, go to your bank in person with all of your evidence.)
If you have been denied a refund or paid by internet banking then your only option is to lodge a complaint with the Office of Fair Trading/Consumer Affairs in your state and lodge a complaint with the Police.
The first thing you need to do is ensure you have correct names and contact details.
Check your eBay Invoice and seller emails for contact details
eBay ID, store ID, Contact Name, Phone, Website, Address
Check via the seller's feedback to see if they have had any previous IDs
Once you have these, start googling!It is amazing how much information is publicly available on the web.
BSB search - this may give you the seller's home suburbhttp://www.bsbnumbers.com/ASIC business name searchhttp://www.search.asic.gov.au/gns001.htmlAustralian Business Register - abn lookuphttp://www.abr.business.gov.au/(1mkz3255fw0it0550usdyi55)/main.aspxDomain search Whois (.com.au)http://whois.ausregistry.com.au/whois/whois_local.jsp?Yellow/White Pages searchhttp://www.yellowpages.com.auhttp://www.whitepages.com.au/wp/Social networking siteseg. facebook, myspace, twitter
Don't give up! I found our dodgy seller's other ebay ID (now NARU), his online store (now closed), his family, even his current email address at that time. He rang us to ask how we found him and promised a refund, but of course we are still waiting. The matter is still under investigation by the police.
