another eBay scam

Caveat Emptor!

I was the highest bidder of item “COLUMBIA 201 Wind Up Gramophone working ! - Item 2206528547â€Â.
But the seller was acting suspiciously and was very rude and abusive when contacted at the address they gave me in Scotland (not London as indicated in the auction page). So eBay was alerted. Below are extracts from the reply from eBay: -

Hello,

My name is Demetri, thank you for writing to us today and I would like to assist you with your concern.

I have reason to believe the seller's account has been taken over and used fraudulently to list items. The seller is asking you to send your payment to an address, which is not the one registered to his eBay address. When I looked into the seller's account I noticed that the password was changed twice last week so very likely this is the case of account takeover.

I urge you not to send payment while our investigations team is looking at this matter.
I understand any frustration you may feel, and apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you for using eBay.

Best wishes,

Demetri Coles
eBay Trust and Safety
______________________________
eBay
Your Personal Trading Community (tm)

If anyone like to see the original, message me and I will forward it to you.

 

All these scams are becoming rather worrying. It is getting to the point where I don't like buying anything from ebay now.

 

Yup! Paying with a Credit Card might offer some protection. The seller mentioned above does not accept PayPal or credit cards. Even asked us to send uncrossed postal orders for fast delivery!!

 

I always pay using paypal if I am buying things. I don't have a credit card though I pay using my VISA debit card.

 

PayPal claim to offer some buyer protection. But be careful with the debit card though. They are not covered by the Consumer Credit Act. Only Credit Cards are.

 

I do wonder about the ebay admin people - there seem to be a lot of scammers about doing their stuff but sometimes it would appear that innocent sellers get stitched up.

Just over a week ago I won an auction for a brand new pedal car on ebay - closing price was a good £40 less than it costs to buy the car from a normal shop. Seller had good feedback.

Paid via paypal and then the very next day I got an e-mail from ebay saying the seller's account had been suspended pending investigation and suggesting that I don't send payment or cancel the cheque, speak to credit card co etc.

Of course, this was the one time I had decided to pay by SWITCH so no reversing that. That could be £200 down the drain I thought.

Sent the seller an e-mail to find out what was going on - he came back promptly saying that he'd no idea why ebay had done this and was pretty annoyed as they'd cancellled 40 odd auctions in the run up to Xmas. He seemed genuine and, having already paid by switch I'd no other option but to trust him really.

Anyway, he kept me up to date with the state of the order and the car turned up, as promised, yesterday morning - very nice and in perfect condition.

I've still no idea why they suspended the blokes account (and I can't give feedback because of this). I do feel a bit sorry for him as he appears to have been stiched up whilst there are some real crooks on there still doing business.

Matt.

 

The protection via paypal is rather limited isn't it? I can't remember now as I haven't looked at it for a while, but isn't there an upper claim limit value which is going to be below that for a lot of HiFi stuff?

I deliberately only ever buy by personal cheque, because that ensures I know where the seller lives.

 

Upper limit is £120.00, although this is subject to a £15.00 admin fee in the event of a claim, so, according to ebay policy the most you'd get would be £105.00.

If I found myself in this unfortunate situation, though, I would definitely argue the toss about the £15.00 fee as this is, effectively, reducing the upper limit to £105.00, so ebay are deliberately misleading. You wouldn't get away with that on an insurance policy so I don't see why ebay should either.

 

Paying by personal cheque only tells you where you sent the cheque not where the seller lives.

I have made it my personal rule to collect anything over 50 quid in person.

Obviously if it's too far I don't bother bidding. Parting with a few hundred pounds on the basis of a Jpeg and a promise seems madness to me.

Having said that I shipped my speakers to Perth in Oz and the guy wired me about 800 quid, good thing I can be trusted...

 

eBay and PayPal, both can often be misleading or tend to be 'economical with the truth'.

Just for fun I thought I will sell off some duplicate CDs that I have for just £1 each. When I opened a personal PayPal account I was given the impression that receiving payments are also free.
Some one who bought some of my £1 CDs paid using his credit card. From what PayPal informs me now, if I want to accept that payment I have to pay 20p plus 3.9% ie. 24p on a £1 sale !!
Not only that I must now convert my PayPal account to 'Premium'.
That means all future payments from my buyers will be subject to fees!

Is this the American Way of getting one over the barrel?

 

True I guess, but it tells you an address where the seller can at least be contacted. If it wasn't a normal sounding residential address I'd be reticent.

Collecting in person is obviously safest, but I must say I've bought lots of stuff via eBay and only once had a problem (which was eventually resolved). Anything expensive I always try to chat to the seller a bit via e-mail before bidding. Previous seller feedback and what sort of things they've written in their description influence me too. A two sentance description from a seller with zero feedback is a definite no no in my book. I've bought things from Scotland and Austria, neither of which were particularly easy for me to get to.

 

I put a superb condition Rotel 920ax on E-bay,some girl from Italy wins it for a measley £16,I inform her that it will cost 28€ to send it to Italy, along with my bank details as she doesn't do paypal,but i think she is in shock that the postage is going to cost her more than the amp,as i've sent her my bank details 3 times,and she takes 2 days to reply,then replies with,"can you give me your bank code'"geeeez!! some people,now she says she going on holiday for a week,I think she hasn't got the money and is buying time,so how long would i be intitilled to hold the goods for her?

 

10 days, then leave -ve feedback and give the next lowest bidder a 2nd chance.

 

If anyone's wondering what sort of pedal car you can buy for £200:

 

Is that how it works? 10 days? I mean ,"i'm going on holiday for a week, sounds like total BS to me,I mean pay first before you go.

I'd rather resell it on the spanish E-bay as i got no intrest on the uk one,being based in spain,some people though are total timewasters.

 

I have been selling a few bits & pieces on Epay recently. Someone e-mailed about about an expensive (£250 I was asking) item, saying he would 'buy it now' if I would open a Paypal acccount, so he could pay immediately by credit card. I've looked into it before, and it costs, so I had decided no. I looked again. Unless I am misunderstanding, as a seller, you are offered no protection against fraudulent use of a credit card. He says he'll buy it now, I open a Paypal account, payment received, I send the goods....... (maybe) a few days later I get the chargeback from Paypal & I am down my goods, the ebay fee & the paypal fee & chargeback fee...
The e-mail was from 'webmaster@his website', but his website also has absolutely no contact details, which is why I said no thanks!
Be careful out there!! Cash is king. Cheques are usually OK. Personally, I would rather drive for a couple of hours & pay COC if I am parting with more than a few quid.

 

Its a good idea to immediately transfer paypal funds to your bank account, once you're into 3 figures. Once its in your account, paypal can't get it.

10 days from the auction end is how I work things. I've only had one guy mess me around, nobody will deal with him now, his feedback rating is -1

 

.......and so will hers be,I mean you win something then bugger off on holiday

 

Well I am in dispute with someone now.

I was sold a pair of speakers that have a defective tweeter. They were described as VGC. Which they are externally.

Said seller also sold some stands which were not the models I thought I was getting. He maintained they were until I got proof from the maker they were the cheaper ones. He later said I would not have got the dearer ones for that price anyway, so I suspect he knew all along. The fact the company has changed hands I think he relied on that it was difficult to check. He only acquiesed (agreed) when this was prooved to him.

So wrong stands, speakers defective..data is miffed and his lawyer is informed..case continues

I am now beginning to appreciate the value of buying new at a good dealers. Pity I am not that rich.

 

Didn't you see a picture of the stands? I would never buy anything without a picture to see what it is,and condition model number etc,I always send jpeg,and if i think they are a fussy person i send the serial number also.

Is it more than a lose wire on the tweeter then? I guess so.