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Buyer opened dispute ... advice, please
 

So I sold a pair of tickets for a show about a month ago via Craigslist. The show was last night and all of a sudden, very conveniently, the buyer states he never received the tickets. He said he was out of town and didn't get a chance to let me know earlier, blah blah blah.

Unfortunately I shipped regular mail with no tracking. I know, stupid on my part, but since it was outside eBay I guess I didn't think too much of it. (Again, stupid on my part.)

Do I have any recourse here? Can I contact the venue to see if the tickets were used? I sold them for $250 and am thinking of filing a police report, especially if there is a way to determine if the tickets were indeed used.

Any help would be appreciated ... thanks so much.

You are out of luck. A police report wont show that the tickets were used and even if they could it would be almost impossible to say who used them.

Yeah I pretty much assumed this. Dammit. I guess I was just hoping for a miracle at this point ...

Would the police investigate the buyer though? That's my only hope. That the fear of being investigated may have him cancel the dispute.

I can just about guarantee you that nothing further than a report would be made, IF they would even do that. You can play the scare tactic but they obviously knew what they were doing and would not be scared.

One other question and thank you for your replies.

What about surveillance tape from the venue? Is it nuts to think that the police could find out when and what time that the tickets were scanned, and then pull the tape from the surveillance cameras to see if it matches my buyer?

Ugh ... I just can't believe people do this sh.it.

If you do nothing you will have to refund .
I would take a chance .
worst case you will have to refund anyway .
Now you need to sound convincing at this point ...
You have checked with the venue and the tickets had been used .
So if not by them then someone gained possesion of them.
You will have to investigate further and maybe inform the local police as something is not quite right.

This then leaves 2 options from the buyer they may come back and say your full of sh1t or you will never hear from them again ..
Worth a chance either way as it will cost you nothing.

Come on now. You think scotland yard is going to investigate the matter for you? You could have paid $5 for tracked shipping with signature confirmation. As some say here you are beating a dead horse

Buyers are wise to this now .
If you ship ANYTHING with no signature you are effectively giving it away for nothing .
Look at it from a theiving scum bag buyers point of view !! why pay when you can get it for nothing as no one signed for it .. and in the fairy land of paypal a signature is everything.
But i would still ( as im a chancer) try to blag you know more about it than they do .

Only in people's day dreams the police investigate every single police report that comes to their desks.

For $250, they will just file it and do nothing with it, they have better things to do than to worry about a case that's only worth $250.

Next time, send the extra $2.10 for signature confirmation, you are about to lose the case. Paypal rules, anything over $250 has to be signed for.

As said bluffing them is your best bet at this point. Tell them you know that they were used at the concert last night and that the police are currently investigating it. If they are a novice thief, then this may scare them into leaving it alone. If they are frequent scammers, this may work in your favor too. If there is multiple reports of these people doing the same thing, the police may actually investigate it. You have to consider the possibility that these people are career scammers and do this for financial gain.

Look I hear you and believe me I am kicking myself ...

I just thought this situation *may* be a bit different since we're talking about tickets which (unlike tangible goods) can be verified for use. But I'm sure I'm screwed.

This is why you don't ever accept Paypal payments for craigslist users, you always meet up with them instead and get cash.

It sucks but surveillance tape from the venue is unlikely to be done for only $250 :(