eBay problems, resolutions, shenanigans, questions and info (not bike finds)

Happy to forward at cost, if you need.

chris king wheelset

Thank you. Will remember that.

Seller just responded with fair shipping price. and promised to refund exess if postage turns out cheaper. seems cool!
I was probably just beeing too nervous.
Let's see what shows up.

probably fake... :)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/182234716093?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Send them via my address, I'll test them for you and then have them get lost in transit .....

So tempted. very generous of you.

Just sold bike on eBay, for collection only. The buyer paid by Paypal, and wants to collect today. His Paypal shows only a business address which is a rented office space "Business Centre".

According to this there's literally nothing I can do as a buyer to stop a chargeback scam for non-delivery of collected goods when Paypal is the method of payment.

I've refunded the Paypal and sent this:

Hi xxx,

I've been alerted to a problem with Paypal combined with collection in person, and I am somewhat concerned with the possibility of a chargeback of Paypal payments: https://conversation.which.co.uk/shopping/ebay-seller-buyer-paypal-problems-seller-protection-fraud/

In light of these issues, I am going to have to insist on cash on collection rather than a Paypal payment.

I have refunded your Paypal payment and am still happy to meet tomorrow, but as said above, will need to have cash as the method of payment. Let me know if you are still OK to meet. Apologies for the messing around, and not making this clear on mny advert, but this has only just been brought to my attention as a potential problem.

I understand if this is a problem for you, but given the lack of protection that eBay offers for sellers for collected items, this is the only way I can see to cover myself.

Let me know if this is an issue and we can cancel the sale if necessary

Does this seem reasonable?

Yep.

As a legit buyer I'd be OK with that. Maybe a bit annoyed if the price was over my daily withdrawal limit from a cashpoint tho as it would mean I'd have to go to the bank, which thinking about it might not be open today what with it being a bank holiday...

If they're determined to PayPal, maybe ask them to bring some photo ID for you to take a picture of and snap them collecting the bike too.

Does this seem reasonable?

Yes.

The only hitch is that if you refund a payment, it can take a few days for the money to clear and so they might not have the funds available until then.

I did consider offering bank transfer, but even those can be reversed, apparently.

Thankfully he's agreed to cash on collection and has sent me his proper address and will be bringing ID. As a quid pro quo, he's asked for original purchse receipt, which I do have because I'm a hoarder.

Edit: All sorted now. Turned out to be a nice bloke and completely understood about the need for cash.

Hoping for some clarity. I'm sure we've all seen the Craigslist ad featuring the Cinelli Laser, or the Futura Colnago for eye-rollingly low prices. My question is: what's the scam? It's not clear to me how posting a bike you don't own to Craigslist is of benefit. Thanks for lending insight.

Dear SpokesMane,

Im writing you that you like are into my lovely reising baik. I use it in velodrome ride the track and good feel it is. I am happy to take off another 20 dorrah so you no wait time to check if good. Because my wife very ill and I have no time to show to you how good it is. I send you box packed very well frame and parts inside. If you no happy you can back it to me. And I refund you no problem. You can transfer funds by western union or shadyinternationaltransfers.com and my bank will send you confirmation when its good to release so i will post it.

God bless you,

Jamal

Well-played. So the scam is in the (lack of) posting. I suppose my confusion is that Craigslist isn't widely known as a forum for purchasing items that will be posted. It must work--they appear to put plenty of time into managing the adverts. I appreciate the creative insight.

Like @Noice said. It's a game of numbers, for every 99 people who know its a scam you hopefully get one that falls for it, same as all those email scams.

And for every 99 scams there's one person who really has an ill wife and will actually post you a Laser for $fiddy...

In the UK the general rule is that if it's on Craigslist it's a scam as no one here has ever used Craigslist to genuinely sell anything ever. It's for 'mericans.

True, I agree. In fact, a good friend used Craigslist to rent an apartment here in London three odd years ago. Went over to look at it, seemed legit, paid the bond and got the keys. As they were moving their stuff in another couple rock up with the same idea. They call the cops, then find out that the woman who really owns the place went missing a while before. Didn't have any family and was quite well off from working in the Middle East for a while. Friend gets called into the identify the guy who he met to lease the place, who befriended her on a dating site, killed her in the bath tub of the apartment and put her body in a lock up garage down south, while he and two others siphoned a couple hundred grand from her savings. Ended up getting caught after coming back from a holiday in Europe with his ex-wife, paid for by the victims money.

Moral of the story... don't by cheap Lasers of Craigslist!

Bloody heck. All I wanted was a cheap biek.

No need to scavange for a cheap ones. Just get that prince who's father found a treasure on the line!!! He will help you out for a small favour.

Question about my options here:

I bought an Ultra-Torque crankset a few weeks ago, arrived and turned out to be far from as advertised.

Bearings were not just gritty, they couldn't be physically turned at all. I said as much and the seller agreed to a return being that there was no mention of any issues in the advert - infact they said they simply hadn't inspected the crank at all.

The return occurred, and the user has now refunded me the original cost. But not the cost of the return shipment. So now I'm out a small but annoying all the same amount of money.

Any ideas where ebay/paypal side if I raise a stink here? I don't feel I should be paying here for someone else's fuck up.

Doesn't the returns policy on the listing state who should pay for returns?

Listing stated no returns at all however given the state he accepted it.

Ah. It's a weird one that, I don't know why eBay even has the 'no returns' option because if something's faulty then the seller has to accept it back. Is the seller refusing to refund you the money? I'd take it up with eBay, they tend to side with the buyer. If they won't do it then leave negative feedback and move on I guess. Often the threat of negative feedback is enough for most sellers, I know what I'd do in the seller's position.