I used eBay for years and never had that kind of experience, but I was a seller. I did have a problem of another kind and posted a negative comment. At the time that is the only resource I had. If I were you I would print off his ad, emails and send it to the appropriate dept on ebay's site.

If you get the right employee on ebay, you should be able to return it for a refund. About your only out. Probably should ask refund or dispute payment before returning it, or you might be doubly out.

If you are unable to return it and get your money back, then go out and buy Photoshop yourself and count this as a hard lesson well learned. I've only ever purchased twice on eBay...one was good and the other was not and that was enough for me. Fortunately for me it was only $40 but I'm guessing you spent much more. Was the supposed savings really worth the risk? If you must continue to use eBay...don't spend more than you can afford to lose.

Contact ebay immediately and adobe since it's illegal what the seller is doing.. My friend bought just the very expensive photoshop on ebay once supposedly used only to get it and find out it was a very good copy and when she contacted adobe the cereal numbers did not jive they said and adobe investigated and the seller wad shut down. I saw the disk and the label was a very good forgery. Considering how much photo shop costs brand new I would have questioned that seller about throwing that in for free before I bought. Mary

Oh and I have bought loads on e-bay over the years and not one bit of trouble and have gotten dome great deals on things. What kind of feedback did the seller have? Also you have recourse with paypal but have to file the dispute with in so many days. I would really contact adobe too as they do not take copying their software lightly. Mary

If you used PayPal for payment, you can lodge a complaint with them and they will investigate. I once made a purchase (not on eBay) using PayPal and never received the merchandise. It was almost past the 45 day deadline when I contacted PayPal, but they investigated and got me a refund.
Good to know.

eBay has a resolution center, what did they have to say?

Don't all purchases on e-bay have to go through paypal now? I have used paypal hooked to my cc for ebay buying for years but I know a few years ago payment methods changed on e-bay and other methods were not accepted or maybe it was no more personal checks.

The fact that a seller is gonna include a legit version of photoshop worth $700 sends up red flags to me and I would have heavily questioned that before ordering. Elements is only $99. I have that and you can watch the sales at the office stores to get a deal on it so it seems more reasonable they would include a legit copy of that but even that seems expensive to me included for free.

Go back to the listing and get a screen shot that it says he will include photoshop as proof. You know what they say if it sounds to good to be true. I do hope you report this seller to adobe also so they can investigate. In my friends case the FBI got involved and seller got in big trouble with adobe from what I know. Mary

I did read all the feedback on the seller and there was only one that was not so good; all the rest was glowing. I have purchased from eBay for years and years and this is only the second problem I have had. I have given the guy until 4:00 p.m. to respond to be about lowering the price. I went to the Adobe site and could not find a way to contact them, but will keep looking. Thanks for all of your ideas. I was not aware that I could file through PayPal, too.

Well it could be that people don't care about $700 pirated software so are happy to have it included with the computer and natrually give seller a glowing review. What is the seller's ebay name? You might very well have trouble with the numbers too when trying to register. That is what happened to my friend and how she realized what was going on and called adobe to find out those numbers were not right.

You have to go under help at the top of the page at adobe.com and put in your product. I googled and found this info and if it doesn't work I would go under help for photoshop elements and go to help registering and explain you were given a pirated copy with serial number for a new computer you bought on ebay and hoepfully someone will address it.

Don't forget to take a screen shot of the page, that can be vey helpull to show seller says he is including photoshop free of charge. Well there is no crime including a legit copy free of charge but no seller I know would include a $700 software program for free, even elemets I suspect. The seller needs to be called out on this dirty practice.

"I've had really good service from Adobe and each time have been helped by support reps in India. I think I just used the regular customer service number, 800-833-6687

So some of those slobbering "buyers testimonials" on E bay could actually be real?
Always thought they were mostly just some sort of subscription computer program generating BS that sellers could rent.

I guess you have never bought or sold on e-bay. When you buy something after you get it and all is to your satisfaction you leave the seller feedback. There is no program to make any of that up you enter the feedback after the transaction is over. You don't have to leave feedback but if it was a good transaction it's nice to let other people know it was a great seller to deal with or if you had problems can leave negative or neutral feedback.

The seller can also be curtious and leave feedback about the buyer. I have always dealt with great sellers and have had nothing but great feedback to leave and same for the people that I buy from, they have left me great feedback since they had no problems with the transaction and I paid as soon as I won the auction. Same goes for buying from amazon sellers too. Mary

I don't believe you can leave random feedback on a seller (or buyer), you have to have purchased (or sold) something. Now I suppose I could sell stuff to my friends or create fictitious accounts and write the feedback myself. Of course, you'd be paying eBay a fee for everyone one of those transactions and I have to believe that their security folks might watch for that kind of stuff.

I haven't bought or sold much on eBay but what I have has been a positive experience. A few years back I was doing some Internet work for a used car dealer. A customer had mentioned that they had seen the vehicle on eBay. News to us since we didn't use eBay at the time but sure enough someone had "borrowed" the pictures and description of the vehicle from the dealership's website and actually SOLD the vehicle on eBay. I frantically tried to find a customer service phone number for eBay so that they could contact the buyer before he sent any money. Unfortunately, eBay doesn't seem to have a phone number. I sent off an email and then tried to inquire what had happened but eBay would only tell me that the matter was under investigation.

The interesting part is that the vehicle was reasonably worth about $16,000 but it had sold on eBay for $9,000. When something seems to good to be true...

Wow, that is an interesting/scary story on the car deal Mike.

Person to person sales too frequently involve some degree of misrepresentation, fraud or just plain lies.

I never buy stuff from ebay or Craigslist, it's just not worth the risk and aggravation. Simple things like getting a bookshelf at a garage sale is completely different from buying a PC from a stranger.

I have never bought a PC from e-bay and probably never would, not a brand new one any way. Did buy a set of china once that matched the ones I have and got it for a steal and found the coffee server to match much cheaper than replacements.com. That was the most expensive thing I ever bought, maybe $100 and $20 for the coffee pot.

Last PC I bought I orderd it online from Walmart and paid the little extra to have it shipped to the house other wise you can get free shipping to the store. Had good luck when my son was young getting deals on his video games from e-bay and saved a lot of money. Mostly I just buy craft stuff now like discontinued yarn I am looking for or crochet pattern books that are old and out of print. What I love is I can put an item on my list and get a notice when one comes up for sale so I don't have to check the listings every week.

I recently just tried bonanza since that was the only place I could find a very old crochet magazine I was looking for and had a great experience with a great seller so I would definately use that site again. Mary

Update: I did file a case in the Ebay Resolution Center and tried to filed a case with PayPal. However, PayPal advised that because I had filed a case with eBay, they would not open one. I thought that was interesting.

We are in the negotiating stage now.

Yes it's either one or the other you file with as both are not going to give a refund. Also don't foget to contact adobe about this seller as I am sure they would want to get involved. Mary

Paypal is owned by Ebay. Different operation, same company.

From the company's perspective, for one dispute, there's no need to do something twice when you can do it once.