To ask what to do since I've been a fool...

[cantbelieveivebeensostupid]

I've name changed because frankly I'm sitting here wondering why I've been so fucking stupid!

Our combi boiler broke two weeks ago... we couldn't afford a new one (oil combi so around £3500) so looked on Ebay, found a couple that where being sold by a business seller. Rang him and he spent an hour chatting to me about my boiler helping me to try and fix it, really went above and beyond and sounded like an old school genuine guy. I got outbid on the boiler but rang him and he said he was having another coming in the next couple of days.

We were desperate since we have no hot water or heating and I agreed to buy the boiler from him. I sent the money (£900) to his bank and we agreed he would send the boiler this week. I've been calling him since Monday and his phone is going straight to voicemail and despite leaving tons of messages he's not returning my calls.

Now If I were reading this I would be screaming at the poster telling them how stupid they were to send the money. I've been had haven't I. I don't have money to buy another one and don't know what the hell I'm going to do.

Any advise very welcome but please avoid telling me how much of an idiot I am. If you knew me you would never believe I could have been so bloody stupid. I am sat here sobbing because I genuinely don't know what I'm going to do.

Took two seconds With the town name, boiler and reviews and yell gave an address for a company beginning with o. Really hope its the right one op and he is on holiday, responds and installs the boiler. Please dont beat yourself up by this. Xxx

He is advertising on preloved.com too. I'm not a member so can't check out all the details.

I feel very bad for you op. Scum like this prey on the desperate and vulnerable. What a complete shit

seems to be a few businesses at the same address, five a day and bubbles media - they may be nothing to do with the oil man though...

The address he has listed on his ebay account is actually for a guest house with a different landline number so not looking good, sorry :(

his address and number on ebay are different to the ones listed on yell.

The cottage address in Kirkcudbright is a business registration address. That's why there's so many registered there - six, at least, all completely unrelated. None of them will actually be there, but will be using that as a legal address to direct people to.

I've rung the number on Yell and it goes to voice mail. It's his voice.

To these people there will always be idiots like me who get duped.

I honestly feel such a failure...

You are not a failure! The people who do these things are the scummy failures on the planet! Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but these people seem very plausible when you are desperate and worn out.

Surely, surely there has to be someone on Mumsnet who is getting rid of a boiler that is either working or simply in need of a cheap repair (I'm thinking of situations where people swap round their central heating and install larger boilers due to house extensions etc.)

Have you tried posting on the Property forum for help and directing people to this thread?

Im not on EBay - is the EBay registered address in the same area?

Also, OP did he give the business name, his 'name' or no name for the bank transfer.

It's not looking good is it

You are not a failure. You have been duped. This happened to me once when I was a lone parent on benefits, my cooker broke and I couldn't afford a new on so got one from an ad and it was faulty and dangerous. The guy I bought it from just vanished and I was left with no cooker for 4 months and 2 young dc's some people are scum.

He is registered as a business seller on Ebay. The name on the bank account was his personal name...

Hi OP....so sorry this has happened to you.

This is really similar to something that happened to a friend of mine, although he was the one who got a solicitor's letter from an angry lady.

Have you checked the eBay ID history of your seller to see if it has been changed fairly recently?

My friend couldn't remember listing anything for months and logged into his eBay account. The penny dropped when he couldn't do it; his eBay account had been hacked. The scammer somehow got his password, logged in and changed his email address and username. His postal address details hadn't been altered.

The scammer had listed over 50 LCD TV's after the 'black Friday' sales last year using pictures from legitimate websites. The police reckon he/she got away with over £5000. My friend was mortified for everyone who was conned and cross for himself - he had to get his solicitor to write back to everyone who contacted him to say that he wasn't involved.

There are some second-hand oil boilers going on eBay for £150 buy-it-now and the sellers (I'm not linked to any of them) appear to have very good feedback. They are fairly aged, but could get you through this winter.
Would your fitter be prepared to take their fee in instalments so you could use some of your remaining funds to buy one? If you go through eBay/PayPal/your credit card company then you'll have buyer protection.

I truly sympathize - my gas boiler broke down at the end of spring (lukewarm water only, no heating) and it took me a few months to save for a new one.

I hope it works out for you

Any mileage in contacting the local Kirkudbright newspaper? They might be interested in doing an exposé of a rogue trader.
Horrible for you, OP.

cant - such a shame you can't use a gas boiler as we have literally just replaced ours and I would happily have given you the other one. I know it's a long shot but is there any point advertising on freecycle?

I've been thinking about this today and how you could access some free legal advice if you need it. Quite a lot of universities have free legal advice clinics. Might be worth googling any local universities to check. They may be able to help you by phone/email in the first instance if you're a bit away.

The guy may well have nothing to do with Kirkcudbridge. If the account was set up to scam then he could be based anywhere. The only tiny glimmer of hope was that the OP spoke to him and that he was knowledgable about boilers. Did he accent suggest he might be from Kirkcudbridge?

If you want you can PM me his name? I wouldn't post it on here if I were you.

You also might want to post on the EBay forum on being scammed. They might be a bit, um, forthright it they might give you some advice that we haven't thought of.

Legally all we can do is pursue via the small claims court in Scotland, which will cost £79, the one in England only deals with England and Wales. The Action Fraud team may investigate since I'm probably not the first he's done it too.

Sadly oil combi boilers are not as commonly sold as gas ones so are more expensive to buy second hand. I'm looking at all the sites where we may find one.

I've raided the house for things to sell in between phone calls today to try and raise some extra fund and we don't have any family to borrow from and are very reluctant to try and borrow money that we can't pay back. I'm watching a couple on Ebay and we might be lucky and get one for a bargain, even if it only lasts the winter. Our local boiler engineer might take pity and take his fitting fee in installments.

Small claims will be no use if it's a fictional person/address/eBay account etc.

What address did you send the letter before action to? The Torr address?

Have you spoken to Energy saving trust? They won't cover the cost/give you a grant for an oil boiler but they may like to encourage you to have a greener alternative - thinking wood pellet boilers specifically.
In Scotland they were offering interest free loans of up to £10K to fit green energy ...and your RHI payments should cover the repayments ...might be worth having a word with them?

Yes sent the letter to the Torr address, its the only one I have.

I appreciate it could be a fictional person but I have to try and this is the advice I've been given by Action Fraud and Citizens advice.

As the day has progressed I know my chances of getting my money back are virtually zero...

Oh OP that's awful news,I was really hoping that it was just a misunderstanding on his part.

Have you thought about contacting one of the newspapers or tv channels that go after people like this?They usually seem to have great success and it wouldn't cost you a penny,plus with the bad publicity it could stop the arse from being able to do the same to someone else.

You'll be okay as long as they allow you to serve papers there. He doesn't have to show up for a ruling to be made.

Don't lose heart.

He should be fully traceable through the bank details, Action Fraud are likely to either send your report to your local police, or (preferably) the force covering the suspects area which can be gleaned from the bank sort code.
Likely to take sometime but don't lose hope OP, you're unlikely to be his only victim