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Online shopping is a familiar part of all our lives. When we're not grabbing our credit cards and hitting online stores, we're scanning auction sites for last-minute bargains. The Office of Fair Trading estimates that web users spend more than £30 billion a year online. At any one moment, two million items are listed on eBay in the UK.

Most of these transactions go smoothly, but for a significant minority a purchase or auction bid can turn into an expensive nightmare. Goods that never arrive, phishing scams and outright fraud are just a few of the dangers of buying online. When it all goes wrong, many of us haven't a clue what to do. Even the computer-savvy can find themselves out of pocket.

I know this from personal experience. For the past six months I've been engaged in a frustrating, often bewildering battle to secure a refund after winning an eBay auction and never receiving the item. I'm not alone. Which? estimates that an average of 200 fraudulent transactions take place on eBay.co.uk every day.

The good news, as my experience shows, is that if an unscrupulous seller catches you out, there's lots you can do to get your money back, and to make sure it never happens again.

Excuses, excuses

In July, I bid on a MacBook computer from a private seller with a small amount of positive feedback. The item description was well written and thorough. The seller had answered several technical questions from other potential bidders. It seemed like a legitimate auction. The only slight concern was that the seller

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had used a stock image of a MacBook rather than a photo of his own machine. You should insist on seeing a photo of the item for sale from private sellers who aren't dealing with hundreds of units of the same hardware.

Several days later I won the auction and settled up to the tune of £480 using PayPal. Most of the payment came from funds in my PayPal account, but it probably would have been more sensible to pay the entire balance by credit card, thereby involving my card issuer in the debacle. Purchases made through a payment system such as PayPal are not covered by the Consumer Credit Act of 1974, so you can't claim the money back from the card company. However, if you used a credit card to credit your PayPal account, the issuer may be willing to instigate a 'chargeback', in which the disputed funds are removed from the merchant's bank account and refunded to the buyer. You'll need to contact your card issuer directly about this.

A fortnight after my payment, the computer hadn't shown up. The seller emailed with a string of excuses - he was busy, he was in London, he was having a family crisis. In one email a few weeks after the auction had ended he claimed that his neighbour was at the post office with the MacBook to arrange next-day delivery. Somehow his friend never made it to the counter - the computer didn't arrive. The seller was either chronically disorganised, an inveterate liar or a small-scale conman seeking to make a quick £500. Either way, I'd been had.

From despair to dispute

When an eBay transaction goes bad and the other party is ignoring your emails or phone calls, the first step is to open an 'item not received or significantly not as described' dispute in eBay's Safety Centre. This is an online mediation process, designed to encourage constructive communication between the buyer and seller. If the five-step procedure fails and your transaction is deemed eligible, you can fill in a Standard Purchase Protection Programme claim form to seek reimbursement from eBay. You may need to submit a proof of payment and other forms of authentication.The maximum amount you can receive is £105.