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Scammed on eBay.....

kdoug

kdoug

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 2, 2010
1,025
195
Iowa City, IA USA
I should have known better. 64GB WiFi 3G for $500 buy it now. Only 1 picture, less than 5 feedback, location Flint Michigan.
I knew I was in trouble when the seller responded to a question I had about the picture and shipping. Here you go........

"yes it is the 3g. yes that is the acuial picture and i do not expidite shipping. sorry. but i can assure you i will ship it out either today or tomorrow morning."

It didn't ship and this person is no longer a registered member. Surprise!
 
kdoug said:
I should have known better. 64GB WiFi 3G for $500 buy it now. Only 1 picture, less than 5 feedback, location Flint Michigan.
I knew I was in trouble when the seller responded to a question I had about the picture and shipping. Here you go........

"yes it is the 3g. yes that is the acuial picture and i do not expidite shipping. sorry. but i can assure you i will ship it out either today or tomorrow morning."

It didn't ship and this person is no longer a registered member. Surprise!
Click to expand...

If you followed eBay rules you are protected! :p

If not you are screwed!:(
 
I don't actually see much wrong with his reply to you... I myself have told buyers I'll have something shipped "today or tomorrow morning" and have gotten that reply from sellers as well.

The real thing that went wrong is... him going off the radar and not being a registered user anymore.

If you were only going off his reply, I'd say you should calm down and relax a bit.
 
drock said:
I don't actually see much wrong with his reply to you... I myself have told buyers I'll have something shipped "today or tomorrow morning" and have gotten that reply from sellers as well.

The real thing that went wrong is... him going off the radar and not being a registered user anymore.

If you were only going off his reply, I'd say you should calm down and relax a bit.
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It had more to do with how they spelled "actual" and "expedited". I felt nobody this ignorant had any business owning an ipad. I was right.
 
kdoug said:
It had more to do with how they spelled "actual" and "expedited". I felt nobody this ignorant had any business owning an ipad. I was right.
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You've clearly haven't been in this forums that much... :p
 
I'm a long-time Ebay buyer and NEVER buy from anybody with a feedback score less than 100, and less than a 95 percetnt positive rating, no matter how cheap the item.

I realize I may be missing some opportunities by being so cautious but I am not assuming excessive risk either.
 
Built said:
I'm a long-time Ebay buyer and NEVER buy from anybody with a feedback score less than 100, and less than a 95 percetnt positive rating, no matter how cheap the item.

I realize I may be missing some opportunities by being so cautious but I am not assuming excessive risk either.
Click to expand...

Things can go wrong with users with 1000+ feedback too! Once someone has found a way into another's account, anything is possible. Not too long ago I bought a DSLR camera on eBay for a good price from a 'Power seller', the guy had used the same selling template and kept all other auctions the actual seller had created. Once I had purchased, 3-4 hours later he was un-registered. Luckily I was fully comp. by PayPal's Buyer Protection programme.

Always pay via PayPal!
 
super! said:
Things can go wrong with users with 1000+ feedback too! Once someone has found a way into another's account, anything is possible. Not too long ago I bought a DSLR camera on eBay for a good price from a 'Power seller', the guy had used the same selling template and kept all other auctions the actual seller had created. Once I had purchased, 3-4 hours later he was un-registered. Luckily I was fully comp. by PayPal's Buyer Protection programme.

Always pay via PayPal!
Click to expand...


Sounds like you have some bad luck.
 
You see, the problem with paypal is that they are too narrow minded, and can't think outside their guidelines in case of eventualities.

I once bought a cordless phone from a power seller. The phone arrived and it was clearly faulty. You could hear A LOT of interference from the headsets. Plus the box was damaged, it looked like it was opened then sealed again (I supposedly bought a 100% new item).

Paypal asked me to return, on my charge, the item to the seller with a courier that supported tracking. I did, spent 30 euro in returning the item to the US (I'm in Spain).

You know what the guy did? He didn't pick it up until the paypal deadline was over!! So paypal CLOSED my case, the seller recovered his faulty item, kept ALL my money, and then I lost some more due to the delivery charges.

I kept trying to make Paypal understand that this guy was scamming paypal themselves as well as me.. but no way.. they would not stop to think.. all they said was "you haven't proved that you returned the item to the seller and therefore your case is closed".

I was WELL pissed after losing 250+ euro.
 
The fact that he had misspellings/typos is no indication of how good or bad a seller he is or wether or not you were scammed.

The fact that he is NARU does!


EDIT: For over 10 years I have sold on Ebay, I only began to accept PAYPAL this past year because Ebay FORCES you to

Prior year I ONLY accepted United States Postal Money Orders. I got your Money Order, took it to the US Post Office. They would cash it and hand me the CASH and I would ship the item.

NEVER, NOT ONCE was I sent a phony Money Order ..... and my feedback rating was, is, and always will be 100% because I stopped selling on Ebay due to too many reports of BUYERS scamming Sellers and Paypal backing up the buyers more than the sellers.

Yeah, you better believe there are some serious buyers out there scamming people.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, I'm sorry OP. That is the reason I will never spend more than $100 on eBay. I have only bought a few items on eBay and it makes me nervous every time.

For something like an iPad, laptop etc, I would much rather just buy from the original source. When you are spending $500 or more on an item, I think it is worth it to pay the little extra for added piece of mind. That's just my opinion.

Good luck, I hope everything works out for you, but most of all I hope they catch the ****** who screwed you over!
 
The funny thing is that I would usually agree with you on how someone spells so many things wrong, but when I sold my 3GS over the summer the guy I sold it to was from Haiti and was living in Maryland. He couldn't type english to save his life and I had dealt with scams before so I was watching this guy. But he actually paid really quickly and it worked out. For you of course it was a scam and I'm sorry to see that happen to someone. I've had to dodge so many of them I know what it's like to be annoyed like that.

Best of luck with the refund.
 
IamHermann0069 said:
Yeah, I'm sorry OP. That is the reason I will never spend more than $100 on eBay. I have only bought a few items on eBay and it makes me nervous every time.

For something like an iPad, laptop etc, I would much rather just buy from the original source. When you are spending $500 or more on an item, I think it is worth it to pay the little extra for added piece of mind. That's just my opinion.

Good luck, I hope everything works out for you, but most of all I hope they catch the ****** who screwed you over!
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No doubt. I usually do the 20-30 dollar max on eBay. Stuff you can't find anywhere else. If it's in a store, I go online with said store.
 
ebay gets worse and worse depending what your buying. Ive noticed a huge spike in certain mainstream electronics where its really bad. you get like 2-3 scammers fighting over your item. I dont use ebay anymore for that reason. I do use paypal though unfortunatly just because many times its just expected. I also no longer deal outside of the us.
 
I have bought and sold almost a thousand items on eBay. From one cent to 3 grand. I have been scammed on 1 item....a 32gb flash card that was supposed to be class 10 and was really class 4. There have been numerous attempts....recently sold a 16gb wifi ipad to a guy that attempted a chargeback. But I had followed paypal's policies to the letter and my money was returned.

Just be cautious when buying. This ipad would have thrown up big red flags for me and I would have moved on.
 
Built said:
I'm a long-time Ebay buyer and NEVER buy from anybody with a feedback score less than 100, and less than a 95 percetnt positive rating, no matter how cheap the item.

I realize I may be missing some opportunities by being so cautious but I am not assuming excessive risk either.
Click to expand...

You're right to do so. It is always better to be safe than sorry.
 
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