I've been using ebay, on and off,  since 2000.  In all those years, I've never once not received an item that I paid for<knock on wood>...there was one incident though... First off, I don't recommend to anybody to do what I did to get my goods.  I've heard ebay horror stories of people getting eviscerated by con artists or upstanding sellers that went bad and ran with the money.  One seller sold ipods and other electronics for years, then went off and sold about 100 items, accepting only cashier's checks and money orders, only to not send a single unit!  The negative feedbacks left were horrendous and went on for about a dozen pages. I hope he got what he deserved...karma's a b!tch. 

We have our own t-shirt company & vintage shop.  So one day we decided to buy a heat press to make some of our own products.  After a few days of watching and bidding, we won an auction.  Yeah, success!  We were excited so we paid right away, sending an email to the seller to give us the tracking # when he ships it out.  No, reply.  Days pass, we send another email...a little bit firmer tone to send us the tracking info yet again.  No, reply!  We're getting a bit nervey at this point.  So, we look into Mr. J's feedback profile and low and behold, he had 5 or so negatives dispersed amongst the ocean of positives that stated the same complaint..."it's been over month and still no shirt...doesn't return emails".  Our item was substantially pricier than a shirt so we immediately filed a claim with PayPal...knowing that if this maniac already withdrew our money, we're pretty much sh!t out of luck.  So, I called the number on file...out of service.  Then I decided to dig a bit deeper.  I contacted his last 5 buyers through their contact info, and got his official mailing address. Don't ask why, I just wanted to know where he lived.  At this point PayPal is working with us try to contact this tool.  Nothing.  My wife and I are nearly retired to the fact that we're out over a hundred dollars and will have to hold off on buying a heat press for another month or two. 

I decide to send the guy a "courtesy" email on the remote chance that he might actually check it.  The following is the actual email that I sent.

"Well you must need the money more than I do. I hope you buy enough drugs with it to support your habit. I've taken your address down and contacted your other legitimate customers on your feedback list to verify this. I swear to God, when I make it down to your neck of the woods, and I do travel alot, I will kick your a$$, f#ck up your car and break every window in your house or trailer. Trust me on this a$$hole. You're laughing nervously now. I know. You will get what's coming to you. And I do have friends in your hood. Make sure you check your breaks everyday b#tch. Go f#ck yourself."

Okay, I might have over reacted...but NOBODY, rips me off...and it seemed like a good idea at the time.  The VERY NEXT morning, after weeks of no replies, PayPal's dispute console contacts us with a tracking # provided by the seller!  Guess what?!  It wasn't a valid tracking number!  At the least, PayPal will now have solid evidence that this guy is a scumbag and will favor on our side when closing the case.  It's little consolation knowing that he probably doesn't have any funds in his account anyway.  A few days pass and I'm still checking this bogus USPS tracking number to see if it got scanned into the system...nope...still invalid with a "no record of this number in our system" reply.  At this point, PayPal says they will give us a decision on the 29th of January. 

On the third day after I sent the threatening email, this is the email I received from Mr. J:

"GOOD NEWS, ITEM SHIPPED.  USPS #### #### #### #### ####. PLEASE FORGIVE ME FOR ANY DELAY OR INCONVENIENCES"

We check the tracking and this time it was valid :)  3 days later we got the press and it works just fine.  Here's our dilemma...he never bothered to change the false tracking number in the PayPal claim and didn't use PayPal's online USPS link to print out the postage label.  So...if we were bad people, we could win the claim, keep his money and the heat press.  FYI,  it's January 31st and PayPal hasn't contacted us to close the case as they previously said they would by the 29th. 

We are not bad people.  We will close the case.  We just want him to sweat a little bit, like he did with us.  This I promise. 

Bottom line...It took nearly one month to get our stuff.  If we didn't do anything, we'd still be waiting for it!  If all else fails and you're on "The Titanic", do whatever it takes to get in a life boat, just make sure you don't do anything you will regret later(women and children first), and the threat of violence never solves anything...except in our case.  It's pretty damn empowering when things work out in the end.  Some people just need a "little nudge" in the right direction.