Timepiece Direct - Europa Timepieces - Hewett International
Ebay seller doesn't ship, tries to get tricky when faced with paypal dispute

I attempted to purchase a watch from these folks on October 15, 16 days ago. Immediately after the auction ended, I paid through paypal and sent an email asking when the item would ship, as I intended to use the item as an anniversary gift. The response I got was vague and clearly a stock response. I sent several additional emails asking for updates on the shipping, and received the same stock response each time.

More than 2 weeks after the auction end, I finally received an email stating that there were 'problems in manufacture' and that my item would ship soon. At that time, I requested a refund instead of accepting their shipment, as I had already procured an alternate gift. I sent 6 emails with no response, and after 48 hours, left negative feedback and filed a dispute through paypal.

The paypal dispute process allows sellers to respond to disputes, and the folks did so quickly, offering me an apology and an alternate email address to resolve the problem. I immediately sent an email to this alternate address, explaining that I simply wanted a refund because of the long delay. However, I immediately received an automatic response informing me that the person (Amanda Berryman) was on leave. I posted my email to the paypal dispute board and continued to be frustrated.

Several hours later, I received an email from yet another email address stating that they'd be happy to issue me a refund, but that the funds were "frozen" by my filing a paypal dispute and that if I closed the dispute, I would receive the refund. However, this is patently false - paypal disputes are automatically closed by sellers issuing refunds. Once a dispute is closed, it cannot be re-opened and a buyer is left without recourse.

This seller has had my funds for over 2 weeks, has been shady as all-get-out and impossible to contact, and blatantly tried to trick me out of my available remedy through paypal. If that's not fraudulent behavior, I don't know what is. I will continue to hope that this will be resolved with my money ending up back in my pocket, and if it is I will update this report, but thought consumers should be made aware of this company's failure to communicate properly with purchasers and attempts at trickery. It's my sincere hope that no one is tricked by thisn ploy and left without recourse.

This seller has a large amount of positive feedback, so is clearly serving some customers properly, but my experience with them has been beyond the pale. I had hoped that this was a simple breakdown at some point in their process - after all, that can happen to anyone, but their attempt to fraudulently induce me to close my paypal dispute leads me to believe that there's something more sinister afoot. Caveat emptor.

Company: Timepiece Direct - Europa Timepieces - Hewett International
Country: United Kingdom
Region: United Kingdom

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