Ebay and Paypal question.

GSDog

GSDog

GSDog

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I am selling a laptop on Ebay and I am worried that the guy who just clicked "Buy it now" might be a scammer.

I recieved two messages at 2am this morning about the item. They were both written in poor English saying something like "me really want this laptop, pls" and then "will u part exchange for another laptop".
I replied at about 2:30 and said I do not want to part exchange or end the auction early.
The guy who sent these messages is new to ebay with 0 feedback.

Then at 3am (just 30 mins after) someone clicked on Buy it now and bought it! Again, this was a brand new ebay account. I suspect it was the same guy using a different account.

Now the thing that has me worried is that Paypal is saying they are effectively freezing the £650 that this guy has paid me until he has left me good feedback or after 21 days... and if the guy starts a dispute they will most likely send him the money back.
Wtf is all that about?

I don't feel safe at all selling this laptop this way. I didn't want to send the laptop until the money was 100% safe in the bank.

The auction still had about 12 hours left. Is it possible to cancel a buy it now bid?
 
I wouldnt send it, and I put in the auction next time that people under 10 maybe more feedback dont bid/buy.
 
Zildjian said:
If I don't send it he will no doubt start a dispute and leave bad feedback. :(
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Contact ebay.

Is he outside of the UK, and did you put UK ONLY in your auction ? ALso in the selling options you can choose to block anyone from outside the UK from seeing it.

Selling a laptop and mobile on ebay is not recommended.
 
And dont forget Ebay and Paypal will always side with the buyer and screw the seller over always.
 
He is in the UK. His address is in London and it is verified by paypal.

I am going to send ebay a message right now and tell them why I think it is suspicious, etc.

I will send the laptop fully insured with tracking, so he can't claim he never recieved it. I am worrying that he will recieve the laptop and claim it is faulty/broken and open a dispute.

The good thing is the laptop is brand new and I still have the receipt which I bought 31st October.
 
I don't think I am going to send this laptop. I am 95% sure it's a scammer. I know I will get bad feedback and get chased by ebay and paypal, but that's better than losing a £650 laptop.
 
Zildjian said:
I don't think I am going to send this laptop. I am 95% sure it's a scammer. I know I will get bad feedback and get chased by ebay and paypal, but that's better than losing a £650 laptop.
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I wouldnt send it. Ebay have made it these days that the seller losers out against scammers. These days I wouldnt sell anything on ebay for that reason and pay pal seem to love protecting scammers also. So sellers its a lose lose game.
 
Zildjian said:
If I don't send it he will no doubt start a dispute and leave bad feedback. :(
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Well no, wait until the money is sent to you? Then send.

Why can't he send you the money?

Every time I do an auction, I always state "Item will be shipped once funds are transferred"...so then you can't get done over really.
 
unknowndomain said:
Why didn't you take the laptop back to the shop? Its only been 3 days?
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It's a long story. It was an unwanted insurance replacement basically. I had no choice but to buy a laptop that I didn't actually want from a certain store that I didn't want to buy from. It was a voucher too so I couldn't return it for cash.

Delvis said:
Well no, wait until the money is sent to you? Then send.

Why can't he send you the money?

Every time I do an auction, I always state "Item will be shipped once funds are transferred"...so then you can't get done over really.
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He has sent the money via paypal, but paypal has frozen the money as it's a "high risk item" or some nonsense. My money is actually in the hands of paypal... that's why I don't like this...
I stated in the description "This item will be sent to a verified address only once payment has fully cleared."

I didn't know this ridiculous paypal policy existed where they freeze your money on high risk items and only release the money to you when the buyer leaves good feedback.

It's ridiculous, absolutely no protection for sellers.

And now ebay have made it so that sellers cannot leave bad feedback to buyers. What the hell is all that about?
 
Hm odd, email him then, get him to leave positive feedback, then you can send it on your way.

Obviously he won't like that, but hey.
 
I personally think you should send it as the only evidence you have is your believe that poor English means this other guy was a scammer and you don't know if its the same guy plus he is pay pal verified so I would send it to them insured but learn for next time to set your seller preferences to block outside of the UK and <10 feedback customers without your approval.
 
I'm actually thinking about delivering it to him myself. I don't live far from London and wouldn't mind going up there shopping for the day anyway.
I might send him a message and ask him. Surely if he was for real he'd have no problem with that?
 
UPDATE:

After asking for advice on the ebay forums and looking into the buyer a bit more, I decided to refund the buyer and tell him why.
He just sent a message saying "ok thanks anyway" like he isn't bothered at all. I really think he was a scammer, so I am very pleased I didn't send the laptop.
I looked at the paypal shipping address and the guy gave a business address and phone number. I tried phoning the number and nobody answered.
I've seen it a few times where scammers get items delivered to businesses such as internet cafes, etc.

I think I'm going to try and sell the laptop in the local paper or on forums for a week or two before trying on ebay again. It seems too risky on ebay and if the buyer is a scammer they can easily get chargeback on sellers paypal accounts.

P.S) He hasn't left me bad feedback yet (touch wood). He's also bidded on a £300 pair of Gucci mens shoes. :eek:
 
This is why i refuse to use ebay to sell stuff. Its all against the seller now, with the move towards total dominance of paypal its got silly.

Regardless of those who constantly whine on about "if you follow the rules then paypal protects you" just because so far they have been lucky, my advice is steer clear of ebay for selling anything you cant afford to loose.

Paypal+ebay are nothing more than a public face to a multi-million pound con-job, they arent subject to the laws on banking and they do what the hell they want with your cash and there isnt a damn thing you can do about it if you get stung.
 
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heh sorry to all you ebay sellers out there but i just need to clarify my rights to protection through paypal. on 21st october i used buy it now to end an auction and paid immediately for the item. seller stated that goods are normally dispatched via courier fastways or parcelforce within 48 hours of payment being made. i still haven't had it turn up yet, i messaged them on weds asking if they'd dispatched and if so could i have the tracking number and they replied on thurs that they had dispatched but didn't give me the tracking number just said they'd contact the courier and get back to me either friday or monday (today). just checked my messages and i've got nothing from them for today and still no item. i'm going to give them one more message tomorrow but if still no reply would i be within my rights to get my money back through paypal?
 
DanH84 said:
heh sorry to all you ebay sellers out there but i just need to clarify my rights to protection through paypal. on 21st october i used buy it now to end an auction and paid immediately for the item. seller stated that goods are normally dispatched via courier fastways or parcelforce within 48 hours of payment being made. i still haven't had it turn up yet, i messaged them on weds asking if they'd dispatched and if so could i have the tracking number and they replied on thurs that they had dispatched but didn't give me the tracking number just said they'd contact the courier and get back to me either friday or monday (today). just checked my messages and i've got nothing from them for today and still no item. i'm going to give them one more message tomorrow but if still no reply would i be within my rights to get my money back through paypal?
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You should have no problem getting your money back. You should be covered by both ebay and paypal depending on the cost of the item.
 
Hmm, I've only ever sold one thing worth more than £100 on the Bay, and don't think that I will again-it just feels a bit uncomfortable! Still use it for buying things though, and selling relatively cheap stuff!7

There are a few decent precautions you can take; I would expect that most scammers use Buy It Now, for example, so don't use that on your auction. Also, if you do things exactly as Paypal asks (ie use Paypal to print delivery label, get online tracking, send to buyer's Paypal address etc) then you will be more likely to keep your money in case of a scam. Still doesn't seem worth the risk for high value items though.
 
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