I've just been scammed on eBay - albeit for a low amount (£13).
I've been helping an older friend who is not at all tech-savvy. She has a brick phone that's 2G only, and she was informed by O2 that she needs to move to a 4G phone by the end of the year, as 2G phones will no longer work with them after then.
She wanted another brick phone, but obviously a 4G one. I looked on eBay and found one for her - all seemed to check out - but it's now arrived and it's a 2G phone. The photos of the box in the listing clearly said 4G, but seeing the slightly different box that has arrived, the '4G' was clearly photoshopped in. It looked the same to me, but my eagle-eyed geeky DS looked and said that the font for the '4G' was very slightly different from the rest of the line that said 'Nokia 105'.
Moreover, I now see that the later updated version of the Nokia model - the one that IS 4G - looks quite different from the older iteration in the listing and, indeed, the one that has just arrived. I haven't opened the sealed box, but it's obviously deliberately not as described - presumably to shift old stock that will very soon be obsolete. There's no way this was an honest mistake.
Do I bother approaching the seller first? Do I have to do that under eBay rules - to see what lie the scammer comes up with? Obviously I would do that for an honest mistake, but when it's a clear scam? I just want my friend's money back under eBay's guarantee. We also paid a little over £3 for postage, which is fine for the correct item, but infuriating for one that's obviously fake/incorrect/soon useless. I'm guessing their 100% positive feedback was fake too.
Does anybody have any ideas or suggestions? Thanks in advance.