Receiver reported stolen after 4 months!

[mheckman]

I bought a 211K off eBay in November. Sealed new in box, seller has 100% positive feedback, R and S numbers were cleared by Dish, and it activated fine when I received it.

Fast Forward to today, and it's disabled. Called Dish and they said "It's stolen, you're screwed".

Any chance it was an error on Dish's end (typo putting in the receiver number)? Or is it more likely that it was truly stolen (either by or before the guy I bought it from)?

 

[navychop]

Bummer. I'm sure Dish won't own up to their previous approval. But I'd pursue, perhaps thru the CEO email address. You have nothing to lose.

Of course, you could report it to eBay after contacting the seller. I'm sure eBay will take immediate action. Not.

 

[faster68]

Did you talk to the seller? I'd say there was a mix-up; what would he gain by reporting it stolen? If he is a jerk buy something cheap from the seller and then ream him on the rating.

 

[ebms1]

Did you talk to the seller? I'd say there was a mix-up; what would he gain by reporting it stolen? If he is a jerk buy something cheap from the seller and then ream him on the rating.

the box could have been stolen earlier & was not realized it was missing from inventory till later ... so then was reported missing or stolen ...

 

[mheckman]

I e-mailed the seller, and he's sent a couple of responses already. Seems genuinely puzzled that it would suddenly show up as stolen 4 months after activation. The listing was gone from ebay, but I still had an ebay message from him with the receiver (R00) number, so I was able to document that this was in fact the receiver I bought from him. If he's a scammer, he's a bold one, based both on the response, and the fact that I have his name and address from the shipping box.

I also sent an e-mail to the "ceo" address last night. I've always gotten a response to prior e-mails to them, so I hope to hear back today. Do they keep records of CSR chats with my account? If so, they could probably find the one where they approved it.

There was a prior thread where the guy who runs dishstore.net said that if the price is significantly lower than his, it's likely stolen, as it would be below wholesale cost. I think the price I paid was $30-40 less than his at the time (although not now!), so perhaps this was the case.

Anyway, my current thinking is that if Dish won't change their mind on it, I'll try to just lease a receiver to replace it. Since there's a $7/month fee either way, it's a wash going forward.

If I can get the seller to refund my money, all the better. But if not, I'll be in no worse shape than if my purchased receiver was still working - out the $$ I paid for it, and still paying $7/month in fees. Or am I missing something here?

 

[mheckman]

Just got this from the seller:

I found out what the problem was and am in contact with the guy that is the original owner of the Dish Network equipment. I bought receivers in bulk off of someone and it was stolen equipment and the police is investigating the matter. I will get back to you when I find out more information.

Don't know if this will get me any closer to a refund, but at least the guy seems to be taking it seriously. Seems to me if he was the scammer, he could have just ignored my e-mails.