A couple of years ago, I bought a gilded spelter figurine of a Roman centurion on an onyx base from a UK Seller on eBay UK.  I had a small collection of such figures and this was a sligthly different model.  His listing description stated that this item was a "one off single item" and had "belonged to his father".

I won the item for £9.99, plus a further £4.99 for Postage & Packign within the UK and, as I always do, paid immediately using Paypal.

After 7 days had passed with no sign of the item and no messages from the Seller, I emailed him through eBay.  He replied that he had posted it 3 days previously.  After waiting a further 7 days, I emailed the Seller again and, after several emails to and fro and a further 22 days had passed, I accepted his statement that it had been lost in the post.

I am a very nice, honest and trusting guy so, as the Seller appeared genuine and honest I agreed to "put it down to experience" and accepted a refund of only 50% of the total I had paid out, thus losing approx £7.50.  I, perhaps even more foolishly, gave the Seller good Positive Feedback!

The shock came when, a month after Feedback had been exchanged, the Seller emailed me and stated he "had found another identical Roman centurion figurine and I could buy it for £9.99 + £4.99 Postage"!!!. He sent me a photo of the "new" item and I established from that photo that it was indeed the same figurine that had been "lost in the post"! I declined politely and told him I had managed to find one somewhere else.

HERE IS THE BIG LESSONS I LEARNED:

1. I am 100% certain the item was never posted to me by the Seller.

2. I failed to ask the Seller for a copy of his "Proof of Posting" receipt or to ask him to send the item by Recorded Delivery (70p extra).

3. When the item failed to arrive I foolishly agreed to only a 50% refund, when I should have insisted on a full 100% refund, as I had done nothing wrong.

4. I should have Reported the item as an "Item Not Received" to eBay and also reported the non-receipt to Paypal and put in a claim through Paypal for a 100% refund.

5. By the time the Seller had offered me the same item again, it was too late for me to do anything, as I had already given Positive Feedback and, at that time, there were no separate Star Ratings systems on eBay.

SO, PLEASE, IF THIS HAPPENS TO YOU - REPORT AN ITEM NOT RECEIVED TO EBAY AND MAKE A CLAIM THROUGH PAYPAL - IT'S TIME TO FIGHT BACK!