A month back I bought an engine and box on E Bay for another, non Bellett, project. I noticed in my Paypal account that the total I'd paid had been broken into payment for the item (to the seller) and payment straight to the shipper (Pitney Bowes)...Efficient, I thought....

Everything seemed fine, until a week later I received a full refund for the engine and box and a full refund from PB.

I E Mailed the seller, and asked 'what was going on?'......and he said everything was fine at his end, he had his money, he hadn't sorted a refund and the engine and box left his premises three days ago.

I phoned E Bay and Paypal and asked what's going on? Neither could explain it, and E Bay said 'just wait'

I had been regularly clicking on the tracking number I had, with no results, until a week later a click resulted in the word "exception"

At least I now had something to work on...so a quick Google search revealed the extraordinary truth.

My seller has always used E Bay's Global Shipping Program Partner...Pitney Bowes. PB have their own rules buried in miles of small print.....basically, if they receive an item they decide is badly packed, poorly addressed, or in my case, over weight......THEY KEEP IT, they allow the seller to keep his money, and as I've said, I get a refund.

No acknowledgment or explanation to the buyer or the seller.
No alternatives or options.

Stunned, I phone E Bay and say I DON'T WANT A REFUND, I WANT MY ITEM.
I am told that PB will "liquidate the item to recover some of their losses" ie it'll probably sold for scrap.
I say 'put me in touch with PB and I'll pay top dollar for my engine and I'll pay for FedEx to ship it to the UK'

I explain that this is a very rare engine and not a pair of 50 buck Levis that can be just bought from another source.

After lots of E mails and phone calls....this is the last correspondence I had from them before they pulled the drawbridge up...I've copied and pasted it, so I don't lose any of the finality of it....or the irony....

"Hello Mark,

Thank you for your reply. I am truly sorry, and I know that you want the engine, but the engine will be liquidated, and your money was returned to you. You can't contact Pitney Bowes to get it back and neither can we. So there is nothing more that can be done on this. I am sorry. Have a great day."

As you might imagine, my day continued to be great.

The lesson here, is if you buy anything large, unusual, or irreplaceable, insist that the seller DOES NOT use E Bay's Global Shipping Program...organise it yourself...it's easy, I've done myself with two LUV engines recently.
Here endeth the lesson.