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Scammed on eBay

Chuckster_in_Jax

Chuckster_in_Jax

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2006
Messages
1,362
Location
Jacksonville, Florida
On July 4th I bid and won an auction for a Zenith Z-120 and external 8" Zenith Floppy drive unit(eBay listing #282080860426). The listing showed only $25.25 for shipping from California to Florida. I knew that was way too low so I contacted the buyer and requested an updated quote for actual shipping. I also asked that it be properly packed because it was a heavy unit and I wanted it to make it to Florida in one piece. Also that I was aware shipping costs could be high.He agreed but said he was in a retirement home and didn't have the money to ship the computer.
I agreed to send $175.00 to at least get the unit packed and when he got the actual quote, contact me.

He contacted twice, each time requesting more money. I was under the impression the seller did not have enough money to ship the unit and pay PayPal's fees so I sent a total of $325 via PayPal "Friends and Family". After he received the money, all communication stopped.

I opened a dispute with eBay and was awarded the initial $275 for the auction, but PayPal will not even talk to me about recovering the additional shipping. Money sent via "Friends and Family" is not insured since it should be understood that no goods or services are associated with it.

****The bottom line is I strongly suggest that with any eBay auction, no additional money should ever be sent outside of eBay. An updated invoice including all packing and shipping charges should have been sent through eBay. ****

Also, eBay Customer Service informed me that once you pay for an auction, the seller is bound to ship your goods for the dollar amount listed in the auction.

Tough lesson learned!

Sellers eBay name is 8363michael
Actual name is Thomas Duprey
 
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I am sorry to hear your issue, and the problem you faced.

in a way yes you can blame the seller BUT a major portion of the blame lies squarely on eBay and it selling/buying model. This NEEDS to change. and we can all email eBay and request same.

Many many transactions we make are NOT done with one payment and walk away with the goods. ebay does not appear to have a split payment model available for purchases.

HP or paying a deposit followed by a series of timed payments have been options for decades in general retail shops. Many of us buy major cost household appliances on HP.

I have made numerous purchases on eBay where I saw an item come up, that I really wanted & with a utter stretch allocated funds to buy it, but did not have the shipping amount. In all but 1 of these cases after paying like you did, as friends and family, for the extra quality shipping, my item finally arrived.

One went sour and it took me major effort to get my eBay payment back, lost the shipping cost of about $200.

Problem with that purchase was I bought item a very heavy timber railway signal semaphore box from UK. Shipping was way to expensive by air, so seller found a shipping company whom said they could consolidate it in a sea shipment to Australia.

Instantly 2 Issue here arose, the biggest one is eBay have a time limit to raise a lost / fail to get item, case. This does NOT allow for sea shipment times between Europe and Australia.

Second issue is the shipping cost payment could not be, like you, allocated to the original item; thus was NOT covered by Buyer Protection.
 
Many many transactions we make are NOT done with one payment and walk away with the goods. ebay does not appear to have a split payment model available for purchases.
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never faced this issue, but the biggest thing I have sold since the start of ebay is 500 bucks, back to the op its a good warning tale of paying friends and family who are neither, its always good to be the nice guy, until you get bit
 
inotarobot said:
MMM I just looked at this listing. Interesting seller has only 5 sales all over a year back. One was a B&K Incircuit Semiconductor Tester #530 Appears he had good feedback.
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His account could well have been hijacked. I've seen that happen not infrequently--more than a year goes by with no activity, then the moribund seller suddenly awakens and offers a rare item for sale (using hijacked photos).

I'll sometimes request an additional photo to ensure that the guy isn't selling vacuum.
 
With PayPal, money sent as "friends or family" is money you'll never be able to get back.

If more money is needed, it is possible for the seller to update the total via Ebay (or the buyer can use the "request total" function). In purchases on other webpages, it's most proper for the seller to send an actual invoice through PayPal instead of agreeing that the buyer should just send money right away.
 
I sent a total of $325 via PayPal "Friends and Family".
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WHY DOES EVERYBODY KEEP USING THIS GODDAMN OPTION??

Never under any circumstances should you be using it for online transactions. I don't understand why I keep beating this into the heads of idiots. If you don't like the fees then don't use Paypal.

in a way yes you can blame the seller BUT a major portion of the blame lies squarely on eBay and it selling/buying model.
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Bullshit. He tried to cheat the system and threw legit Buyer Protection away, plus ebay warns you not to do paypal transactions outside of the listing for this exact reason.. As mentioned above eBay provides methods to adjust the total if the shipping fees are incorrect.

He is entirely at fault.
 
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NeXT said:
WHY DOES EVERYBODY KEEP USING THIS GODDAMN OPTION??
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As I said in my original post, the seller said he had no money for shipping and I took a chance since I didn't know how much would be taken out in fees. I had several phone conversations with this guy and he seemed legit. I also found a resume on Indeed.com that referenced where he claimed he previously worked in one of our conversations.

NeXT said:
I don't understand why I keep beating this into the heads of idiots.
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Calling another member an idiot and a thief! You didn't exactly make any friends tonight.

NeXT said:
He is entirely at fault.
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I never said I wasn't at fault. My main reason for posting this was to warn other members.
 
Chuckster_in_Jax said:
the seller said he had no money for shipping and I took a chance since I didn't know how much would be taken out in fees.
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Words cannot explain how baffled I am at this sentence. Ebay literally gives you a place to specify shipping costs. IF the cost is wrong you can either request a new quote or the seller eats it and ships anyways. If the seller is telling you garbage like he can't afford shipping that's a giant red flag because you are literally paying on top of the final item price the money he quoted for the shipping. If it's wrong, read the previous part where I said "IF the cost is wrong you can either request a new quote or the seller eats it and ships anyways."

If you are paying him repeatedly outside of ebay just for shipping, what the hell are you doing?

I never said I wasn't at fault. My main reason for posting this was to warn other members.
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To use common sense, yes. I'm not giving you a hard time because I'm grouchy or something. You literally did something that defied logic and you barely know how you got to this point.
 
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Stone said:
In general aren't vacuum cleaner salesmen regarded as somewhat sleazy or is that another subject all together? :)
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not sure 'sleazy" but certainly 'dusty' in their sales skills. As was once said "a Vacuum cleaner salesman whom is wearing a super clean pressed suit, with tie and polished shoes is a tad like a Used car salesman in a Tuxedo Suit and high heals, that they should be viewed with Caution !!
 
I think ebay has different payment periods depending on your feedback score (or lack of one) and time as a member.

Anyway a seller who states they have no money to ship your item is a major red flag, I would have waited a few days and started the refund process if it was not marked shipped with a valid tracking number. How can you be that broke and try listing items for sale? To be honest I don't care about random ebay sellers sob stories about getting items I paid for shipped.

NEVER want an item so badly that you will do stupid things to get it like giving unrefundable money to sellers.
 
NeXT said:
WHY DOES EVERYBODY KEEP USING THIS GODDAMN OPTION??

Never under any circumstances should you be using it for online transactions. I don't understand why I keep beating this into the heads of idiots. If you don't like the fees then don't use Paypal.

.
Bullshit. He tried to cheat the system and threw legit Buyer Protection away, plus ebay warns you not to do paypal transactions outside of the listing for this exact reason.. As mentioned above eBay provides methods to adjust the total if the shipping fees are incorrect.

He is entirely at fault.
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Please keep the conversation civil. Yelling at (BOLD ALL CAPS) and indirectly calling others "idiots" has no place on this forum.
 
Lesson learned the hard way :/ As a seller, I do sometimes have to eat shipping costs when for some reason I've really screwed up on the price (item ends up going by "dimensional weight," for instance). The thing is, even if the guy has no bad intentions and is just a flake or something, there's no recourse once it's outside of eBay. Cost of doing business, if you operate that way, I suppose.

Chuckster_in_Jax said:
BTW, unless I am misinformed, the seller doesn't get paid until the item ships.
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Not sure if it's because I've had a selling account for a long time, or because I have a PayPal verified account, but the money is available to me as soon as a buyer pays. I've got a PayPal debit card so shipping can some directly out of PayPal. Conversely, eBay will extract money from a seller's PayPal account when they deem it necessary whether there are funds available or not -- for instance, if you've already used some/all of the account balance and a buyer succeeds on a SNAD claim (which is apparently easy), eBay will just draw your PayPal account negative.
 
The seller clearly is substandard. I've been a seller/buyer since 1998. There were a few rocky moments in the early years, some unintentionally by me and some by others. I too have had to eat it on some shipping costs when I miscalculated but it's part of the cost of selling.
Caution should be exercised when dealing with Sellers who have low feedback. When I sell something the money is available on Paypal as soon as the buyer pays.
On some shipping, Ebay just adds the fees to my seller account and it's part of my monthly Ebay bill. What's nice is that there on some nice discounts.
Anyway, not to beat a dead horse. I'm sad for the buyer's loss.
 
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