Strange ebay situation, need advice?

Honestly flabbergasted. This is so clearly a scam and I would be running a mile.

Unless you can afford to just take a lighter to £1500 for a laugh of course
 
"0 feedback and is from Bulgaria"

Got as far as that and was surprised as others you even considered this a viable option. I might take a punt on a £10 item with that history but not £1500!

Doesn't matter where they come from a soon as someone makes any excuse for any discrepancy in a deal or compliance in an online auction I immediately write them off. Plus add them to your block list too to stop any further shenanigans :)
 
AMDPower said:
HI all

Just wanted to get some advice regarding a ebay situation. I wanted to purchase a laptop from ebay and the user has 0 feedback and is from Bulgaria. Now normally zero feedback does not bother me as i am covered by ebay and paypal protection and have done this few times without much fuss. We agreed on a price and he closed the listing early and sold to highest bidder.

So i bought a item for £1500, i went to pay for the item inside ebay using they pay now button and few minutes later got a text from paypal saying suspicious activity on your account give us a call. I phone them and they tell me that users email address i made a payment to using ebay "pay now" button is not linked to a paypal account so seller cant receive payment.
Their advice was to tell the user to cancel the listing and relist it. The user told me because he has a new account he cant relist the item till next month because he has a limit on how much he can sell as a new user per month, £650 he quoted me.

He told me, his paypal email address was different from that of his ebay account and not sure why it was not linked because when he went to list the item it gave him the option to use a valid paypal email which he provided. For some reason it has not linked. He said that he can send me a invoice through paypal and he would put down the ebay item number and description ect ect and I pay like that. This would mean purchasing outside ebay and I am not comfortable with that.

I phone paypal for advice, but to my surprise they have said if I get sent a invoice for "goods and services" and it has all details of item i am buying then i would be covered in case things go sour and i get sent rocks.

My gut feeling says not to trust what paypal are saying to me, i have never dealt with item like this outside ebay even though they tell me i am covered. I dont fancy loosing £1500

what should i do in this situation?

Thanks all
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I've highlighted all the suspect parts which would make me back out of this in RED.......

Walk away from the purchase as you with either end up paying £1500 then spend weeks getting it back when nothing turns up or you will get X weight in rubbish through the post when the seller mails you something of equal weight to get a receipt for the postage and you may end up £1500 down and no laptop

If you have to ask if something is questionable..... 100% walk away from it as you've answered your own question
 
What have you got to lose?

Oh yeah, £1500......

Absolutely no to your question and a message saying **** off in Bulgarian to the scammer.
 
I'm curious what laptop it is as well. Seems quite a bit of money to just take a gamble on, we're not talking of a £100 laptop here.
 
Probably him getting around the eBay and PayPal hold system to new buyers. When you PayPal him the correct way eBay will hold the money until you have recieved the item and left feedback or reported as delivered.

My bet he will withdraw the funds and send you nothing.
 
The dynamic of scams and people "falling" for them seems to have changed. Once upon a time we'd get posts where, at a quick glance, something could be legit.
This isn't the first time I've seen a post which is more or less saying "I know it's a scam - should I go for it anyway"?
I honestly wonder how some people function in life.
 
I don't know what the problem is.

If I was looking to purchase an expensive laptop, then buying an unwarranted one from Bulgaria with a zero rated seller on EBay, with a chance of receiving said laptop at the same level as his rating, would be the first place I'd go!
 
NoobCannon said:
Lol another how too life thread. Honestly it it smells like a bad deal its a bad ***** deal.

Does no one know how to use common sense now days?
Click to expand...


I tend to be on the more dense end of the scale myself but some of the things people ask are genuinely alarming. These people are out there. They drive your buses, they feed your kids, they operate on your loved ones.
 
Megahurtz400 said:
Honestly flabbergasted. This is so clearly a scam and I would be running a mile.

Unless you can afford to just take a lighter to £1500 for a laugh of course
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This.

The lack of common sense of some people and their stupidity always amazes me.

OP you should not be allowed on the internet if you even had to ask. Seriously.
 
I appreciate all the feed back everyone

For those asking it was a microsoft laptop i was after and i did not purchase it in the end as my gut feeling told me not to and everyones comment. But what tempted me was paypals advice, nothing else. They told me i was covered regardless and just thought to ask and see what peoples advice was. You see, I have bought many things from people on ebay with 0 or low feedback and most times its been fine. For example, i bought a laptop few years ago from a guy in france with 6 feedback and it was fine, i bought a Sony tablet from a guy with 2 feedback once and it was ok. just 2 months ago i bought a gtx 1080TI for my brother from ebay from a guy with 0 feedback. No problem with any of them

I bought a ryzen cpu from a guy in china that turned out to be dead, i knew anyway it was scam. I bought a playstaion of a person with 300+ feedback and it never arrived. But regardless of the eventually of outcome paypal and ebay alwasy have sided with me and I have gotten my money back. I phones ebay and told me that its fine to go ahead with the purchase as long as its through ebay, which i alwasy wanted it to be but have decided not to purchase the item either way.

overall, if ebay are willing to cover me for the risk, then why should i care if the person has zero feedback. Yeah money is out of my card for few weeks at best but as long as the risk is mostly on ebays shoulders then why not. We all started with zero feedback one day. Granted the situation in my OP is slightly different scenario.
 
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Haven't you considered buying from reputable retailers as opposed to randoms in foreign countries? Seriously, how much did you stand to save from this sale?

AMDPower said:
I bought a ryzen cpu from a guy in china that turned out to be dead
Click to expand...

If sellers are messaging you to claim they are dead, then you've really got to start asking yourself if you're maybe coming across as a bit gullible.
 
String said:
Haven't you considered buying from reputable retailers as opposed to randoms in foreign countries? Seriously, how much did you stand to save from this sale?



If sellers are messaging you to claim they are dead, then you've really got to start asking yourself if you're maybe coming across as a bit gullible.
Click to expand...

I assume the CPU was dead, not the seller?

Anyway I don't see why you would even consider buying a £1500 laptop from an eBay user in Bulgaria
 
AMDPower said:
HI all

Just wanted to get some advice regarding a ebay situation. I wanted to purchase a laptop from ebay and the user has 0 feedback and is from Bulgaria. Now normally zero feedback does not bother me as i am covered by ebay and paypal protection and have done this few times without much fuss. We agreed on a price and he closed the listing early and sold to highest bidder.

So i bought a item for £1500, i went to pay for the item inside ebay using they pay now button and few minutes later got a text from paypal saying suspicious activity on your account give us a call. I phone them and they tell me that users email address i made a payment to using ebay "pay now" button is not linked to a paypal account so seller cant receive payment.
Their advice was to tell the user to cancel the listing and relist it. The user told me because he has a new account he cant relist the item till next month because he has a limit on how much he can sell as a new user per month, £650 he quoted me.

He told me, his paypal email address was different from that of his ebay account and not sure why it was not linked because when he went to list the item it gave him the option to use a valid paypal email which he provided. For some reason it has not linked. He said that he can send me a invoice through paypal and he would put down the ebay item number and description ect ect and I pay like that. This would mean purchasing outside ebay and I am not comfortable with that.

I phone paypal for advice, but to my surprise they have said if I get sent a invoice for "goods and services" and it has all details of item i am buying then i would be covered in case things go sour and i get sent rocks.

My gut feeling says not to trust what paypal are saying to me, i have never dealt with item like this outside ebay even though they tell me i am covered. I dont fancy loosing £1500

what should i do in this situation?

Thanks all
Click to expand...

Hi you can have seprate email addresses for ebay and paypal mine uses same one but different passwords but most things buy outside ebay go via my email which is different to paypal so stops them bashing it as if someone keeps hitting the email address paypal put a stop onit and if have an issue on a sold item can stop you dealing with it before they get an auto refund.
They should be linked but often if new needs setting up.
If the sale is still going via paypal is covered by them but better if going via ebay also but can contact ebay if there not ok will cancel it!
 
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