crap, crap, crap, have I been conned?

[DangerousMouse]

I posted in chat, but thought to post here as well.

I saw the exact car seat I wanted on ebay, so offered a 'buy it now' sale to the seller, he accepted and when I paypal'd him the money he removed the listing.

He sent it on friday, and should have been here by now. I emailed him earlier asking for a tracking number from the courier company but have not received a response.

Do you think he has conned me? Shit, it was nearly £200!

Ok first things first. Did you check his seller rating? If it was good you will be find some are just crap communicators.
Second you,payed via PayPal you can recall the payment but you need to contact PayPal now as they should not yet have released the money to him to transfer to his account. They will ask why you want to do this and will notify the seller of the problem.
Lastly £200 for a car seat? Any car seat with a kite mark is safe, the bog standard are no different from the huge expensive ones, really no need to spend that sort of cash, unless of course you want to so fair enough!

Good luck x

Did you do the sale actually on ebay or privately? if privately did you send the money as a gift via paypal?

His seller rating was perfect but only 25 odd transactions. Should I contact paypal now or give him day or 2 to resond? Yep £200 nearly, its an ERF car seat, my choice, happy to pay (so long as I get it!)

The sale was done privately, not through ebay. I think I clicked on 'goods' when I sent him the money via paypal.

just go to paypal and log in and file a dispute there for item not received, then you need to escalate it - and don't sign for any empty envelopes in the meantime.

You can also report the seller to eBay for an off eBay sale - he should not end the item and sell off eBay, you as a buyer won't have any buyer protection, but luckily you can do a not received via Paypal.

Thank you for the good advise, I've just emailed him again, and I'll give him till tomorrow, then I will open the dispute.