Please bear with me. This is a long post...but any advice would be greatly appreciated. I wanted to buy my boyfriend and my sister iPods (sister's bday is in august and my anniv w/ my bf is in july). I looked under the classifieds and found a post there by SJELECTRO3 for a 60gb iPod Photo for $300 on May 13. So I emailed him and here is the reply I got from him:

From: S.J.
<michelle.i.valdez@gmail.com>
Date: May 16, 2005 3:28 AM
Subject: Re: ipod 60gb
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Hello,

Here is the price list with the iPods that I can offer you:

Apple iPod Mini 4Gb (1000 Songs) - 71 USD
Apple iPod Mini 6Gb (1500 Songs) - 115 USD
Apple iPod 20GB (5000 Songs) - 149 USD
Apple iPod 40GB (10 000 Songs) - 179 USD
Apple iPod Photo 30Gb (7500 Songs) - 195 USD
Apple iPod Photo 40GB (10 000 Songs) - 205 USD
Apple iPod Photo 60GB (15 000 Songs) - 285 USD
Apple iPod U2 20GB Special Edition 189 USD
Apple iPod Shuffle 512Mb (120 Songs) - 49 USD
Apple iPod Shuffle 1Gb (240 Songs) - 73 USD

The units are brand new,have complete warranty and come sealed in their original box.
They come with all accesories and are the latest generation (work on MAC and also PC).

For the Ipod Mini the available colours are: blue, green, silver and pink.
The minimum order ammount is 500 USD.
Items can be paid in EURO, at the current exchange rate.

Right now I am in Rome, Italy, but this won't be a problem because I can ship you the items using a shipping service like UPS, FedEx or DHL... it's your choice. I usually ship my packages outside Italy using "UPS Worldwide Express" service from UPS. The items will be delivered at your door in maximum 3- 4 woking days and I will also provide you the tracking number so you can follow the shipment on-line.

The shipping taxes & inssurance are under my expense.

We can arrange a deal so you can see and inspect the items before I get payed.
The deal will be made via Square Trade. Please visit SquareTrade.com for more info.

If you agree, please confirm me your shipping address & exact order and we can start the deal.

Awaiting your reply.

Regards,
Steven Jensen

I also got an email from SquareTrade that same day:

From: Square Trade
To: Michelle Valdez
Date: May 16, 2005 8:05 PM
Subject: File ID:533863
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Verified Seal Member Profile



ID: sjelectro3


A SquareTrade Seal Member in good standing
since 05-06-2004.


Identity and/or Contact Information Verified.

Continues to meet strict Seal Membership Criteria.

Committed to Dispute Resolution and Mediation.

Items sold by sjelectro3 are backed by SquareTrade's
Buyer Protection Policy - up to 5000 USD.

The criteria for SquareTrade Membership.


The SquareTrade Seal, along with other factors, can substantially lower the risks of buying online. The Seal is a guarantee of a successful transaction or of a Seller's performance.


Contact the Seller at sjelectro3@yahoo.com






You can apply to become a SquareTrade Seal Member. It is eBay's largest community of trusted sellers - with 1.5 million listings every day proudly displaying the Seal.

Buyers will feel comfortable buying from you knowing that you are a verified seller and that you will resolve disputes.


What happens if the seller does not respond after the payment is completed?

SquareTrade repeatedly tries to encourage the other party to respond to a case, but we cannot guarantee participation, since the process is completely voluntary. If the respondent does not reply within one week from when the case was initially filed, it is unlikely that you will receive a response and we will close the case. If we hear from the other party after the case closes, we will reopen the case and notify you.

Currently, the seller has a 5000 USD deposit in a SquareTrade managed purchase protection account. Transactions with this seller are covered by purchase protection against fraud and description errors.

The insurer of this transaction is Square Trade Inc.
The account is managed by SquareTrade center.
This transaction is supervised by Square Trade team.

For buyers or sellers safety, if the owner of this account wants to withdraw the
funds, he will have to wait at least 15 days from that day before the funds are
released and the purchase protection account is closed.

Should you need a refund for this transaction?

The insured amount of the transaction will be taken from the seller's purchase protection account and refunded to you. The refund is sent to your bank account, or by check or money order. The way you are refunded is at your discretion.You have 15 days from the above verification date to request the refund. Refund requests are processed within 3 days.

SquareTrade Buyer Protection Policy


This policy was last modified on June 4, 2004.

You should feel confident purchasing from a SquareTrade Seal Member. Seal Member 'sjelectro3' has been verified by SquareTrade and is committed to customer satisfaction and resolving disputes via mediation.Seal Member 'sjelectro3' uses Western Union Service for the payment due to the fact that he is not able to use PayPal,Escrow, Credit Card or Cashiers Check as a method of payment.


sjelectro3's Selling Standards

Disclose pricing, shipping and return policies in a clear and accurate manner

Disclose contact information, if requested to do so by a buyer

Respond to disputes filed and participate in mediation, if buyer requests

Commits to meeting SquareTrade Standards.




Sincerely,
SquareTrade Customer Support

If you have other questions, please contact us.

I know that SquareTrade deals with disputes on ebay because I've used them before, so I thought that this was pretty legit. I also got an invoice from SquareTrade instructing me to make the payment via Western Union and provided Steven Jensen's information. The email also said to reply with the receipt number once the payment is made and they will inform the seller and have them ship out the product. So I made the payment on Wed May 18 for $477 and emailed SquareTrade. I received a response saying that they have received confirmation and that "We have notified the other party (sjelectro3 - Steven Jensen) to proceed with the shipping". I also emailed Steven saying that payment has been made. He replied and said that he would ship out the iPods on Thursday and would email me with the shipping information. I didn't get any emails on Thursday so I emailed him. He replied:

From: S.J.
To: Michelle Valdez
Date: May 19, 2005 6:44 PM
Subject: Re: apple ipod orders
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Hello,

Sorry for the late reply.
I had some unexpected business problem to solve today.
The shipping will be done tommorow.

Sorry for the delay.

Regards,
Steven

After that, I didn't get any other emails from him. I emailed him on Friday and still no response until now. So I got suspicious did what I should have done in the beginning - went on SquareTrade and looked him up. IT SAID USER NOT FOUND. I'm so screwed. I don't know what to do. Is there any way that I can file a fraud complaint against him? This guy is from Italy and I made the payment through Western Union, so I don't know if anything can be done. Please help...I feel so stupid for falling for this. I was just so excited because I know that the iPods would have made them happy. Ugh. I'm so disgusted. Thanks so much for reading this loooong post.