Are phone scams on eBay really that bad?

Its not only the seller who can be at risk. When I was working for Vodafone I used to get calls all the time from people who bought a phone from ebay. Was the same story every time.

1. Person buys phone from ebay
2. Phone arrives and works fine for a few days
3. Phone suddenly stops working and rejects any sim put into it.
4. Person phones network to find out whats going on. IMEI is checked and found to be on the blacklist. person wants it unbarred, but of course network cant do that as they dont have the original proof of purchase.

Basically the seller reports the phone as stolen after selling it and gets a new handset through their insurance. The person who bought the phone is then left to try and chase the seller up to get their money back.
 
Well it's sold via AV forums thank god, and lucky enough the deal can be done in person. I was dreading having to put it on eBay.
 
Diagro said:
How do i know?

Simple Paypal told me it was a fraud payment... as soon as that happens i send a fake parcel and give them tracking...
Click to expand...

And Paypal are stupid enough to allow you to keep the money even though you posted AFTER they let you know it was fraudulent and your receipt shows that?
:confused:
 
I ended up selling my phone through Gumtree, ended up meeting the guy in a coffee shop where I knew the owner and getting cash in hand for it.

I tried selling it on The Bay but ended up getting scam messages similar to these Nigerian scam messages where they claim to give you 5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 English Pounds Sterlin inherited from their dead father.
 
Spit said:
The other time I sold a Sony Ericsson P900 and I sent it too soon and got a chargeback.

I stick to the following rules now...

Never sell to 0 feedback.
Only despatch after at least 3 days from payment.
Send Special Delivery to the confirmed Paypal address with no exception.
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I understand the 0 feedback and the special / tracked delivery, but not the 3-day rule. I thought that most sellers state on their auctions that they'll dispatch the goods within 1-2 days of payment received, so how come it can be too early to dispatch after payment, given your P910i example?
 
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