UPDATED 5/16: BEWARE PAYPAL CHARGEBACKS! If you sell on eBay, read this...

[Mark17]

If you talk to a lawyer, you might want to ask him about this potential scenario: Suppose the guy sends you back the card. In order for him to be able to prove he did return it, you would have to sign for it. But here's the danger... Suppose you get a heavily insured package from the guy, sign for it, walk out of the post office, get home, open the package, and inside is a recent, common card. He has all the documentation he needs to "prove" he returned it. You have no proof to the contrary.

So... if you do get a package from the guy, what to do? Open it at the post office with the postal workers as witness, and take pictures of you opening it, what's inside, with the witnesses, and so on? Or take the unopened package to your attorney and open it there, under his observation?

It would be good to know what an attorney would recommend in this scenario.

[Lorewalker]

Originally Posted by Mark17

It would be good to know what an attorney would recommend in this scenario.

There are a lot of lawyers on this board. Maybe none who specifically practice in this area but it would be interesting to get their pov.

[robw1959]

True. Maybe Peter could weigh in.

Anyhow, I would recommend filing a report with your local police department. If this is deemed to be a civil case, they won't get involved except to possibly refer you to small claims court. However, if it's deemed to be a criminal case of fraud, they should then contact the corresponding police department in the culprit's city, and fill them in on the situation. That department should then do their due diligence, and put the squeeze on him until he either returns your card or your money. Oftentimes, the wheels of justice can move rather slowly, but they do move.

[Yastrzemski Sports]

I have never had a problem like this with PayPal. They are usually pretty good about resolving these issues. I’m wondering if they are giving up. The writing is on the wall - in a couple of years eBay will be pulling all of their business. What happens to PayPal after that? Maybe they are in last ditch mode - grab all you can, cut every corner and screw the customer. This is the worst case scenario of eBay and PayPal now being separate companies and neither wants to deal with the others problems. It has me thinking harder about moving over to the new payment system because eBay would help to get it resolved if it was all under one roof.
Thanks for posting. Sorry for your headaches in this nightmare.