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eBay Help: Sold MacBook Air and Buyer Wants Shipment to Africa

J

jason.siegel

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 15, 2011
448
48
Hi all. I am a first-time eBay seller, and a buyer just "purchased" my used MacBook Air. He then texted me to work out payment. While we were discussing PayPal, he said that he wants me to send the computer to his brother in Africa. Although I understand that PayPal has seller protection, I'm unsure how this may work with international shipping -- especially to a place that has poor infrastructure in many countries. I believe my listing also said shipping to the US only. Does anyone have any experience with this, and can you provide advice about what to do? Is it a scam?

Update: The brother is supposedly celebrating his birthday in just 4 days.
 
Scam

Your only protected if you send to the confirmed PayPal address. That is a technical term PayPal uses. Also only communicate through eBay messages.

I would refuse service as he is asking you to violate eBay policies potentially.

Did you limit the places it could be purchased from? Only US?
 
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This is a common scam. Since you stated in your listing that you would only ship to the US, remind your buyer of that through the eBay contact method, so both you and they have a record of any conversations. If he doesn't give you a legit US address, inform eBay.

I'd ask eBay for permission to relist. If this guy does have a PayPal address, chances are he's jacked somebody else's account that's tied to their credit card. Ripoff all around.
 
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I agree with everyone above. Message buyer via ebay and remind them that the listed said US shipping only. Insist on shipping only to Confirmed Address (this means that PayPal verified this address against the buyer's credit card billing address). If not, offer to cancel the auction and relist.

Next time you list, ensure that that the auction settings do indeed specifically limit shipping to just the US. No worldwide option or anything. (However I usually also add Canada as an option, to increase potential market). I also set it to now allow bids from anyone with recent strikes.
 
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request to cancel the eBay transaction and tell the buyer they you don't send items outside the USA. Whatever you do, don't relist your MBA again until this issue has been resolved. Put in a request to cancel this transaction, the buyer should accept it, if not, file a dispute with eBay, and they will notify the buyer that he has a set amount of time to respond to the request. If the buyer doesn't respond, the transaction will be cancelled and you won't get dinged with the eBay seller fee which is roughly 10%.

More info can be found on eBay's seller forum.

It's happened to me before. But now I make sure to only list my items to sell within the lower 48 states, and exclude any foreign countries. It's more convenient for me.
 
I used to sell to other countries, mostly Canada, but not any more. I was never scammed, but there are extra hassles involved like having to fill out the customs form or not being able to use electronic postage, forcing me to go to the post office during business hours.

Then after all that, the buyer complains that I didn't disclose the terrible duties/tariffs that their country imposes in customs, as if that's somehow my fault what their country does, or as if I'm supposed to pay the duty because I'm the one who shipped it.

Even worse are the buyers who do know about their expensive import duties, and after they win the auction they insist that I commit fraud on the customs form by indicating that the contents are a gift of little to no value (or they won't pay). In fact I saw certain members on this board do this exact thing--complaining about MacVidCards (a former vendor here) being unwilling to lie on the customs form for shipments to their country.

There's a certain irony in expecting a seller to be straightforward and honest with you, and yet also expecting the seller to be willing to commit fraud on your behalf.
 
Has the buyer paid yet?

If he/she has paid you, simply refund the payment and relist the item. Also block their ebay ID so he won't be able to bid on your items in the future.

If he hasn't paid yet, start a cancel transaction stating that you don't ship outside US.
 
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