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Selling Old iPhone - Scammed on eBay

Z

zacware

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 24, 2002
42
14
Warning to everyone. I ebay'ed my old 3GS for $265. 10 Days after the guy received it, I emailed him asking to leave feedback. Next morning, I get an email saying he's filed a complaint with eBay saying there was no iPhone in the box. (Supposedly everything else was in the box, just not the iPhone, which was in a box inside a box inside a box when I shipped it). eBay immediately sided with him. So now he has my iPhone (or someone else does) and I am out $265 bucks

I did insure it with fedex, but I am still waiting to see if that gives me any relief.

Sellers beware. Apparently, you are at the mercy of the buyer. It was an expensive lesson for me to learn, at a time when I really really needed that money.
 
Bill Gates said:
Do you have the shipping weight? Surely that could be used to help your case.
Click to expand...

If you buy the postage online you can enter any weight you like... eBay's "buyer protection" is ludicrous. They mostly always side with the buyer no matter what. :(
 
I've been a powerseller for years. Ebay always sides with the buyer. Well not always, but A LOT.

Tell me his username so i can block him please.

Is the complaint already closed or is it still open? It's not unusual for them to take the money and hold it in escrow till they decide so he might not actually have it yet.

Unfortunately, this not an uncommon scam. :mad:
 
klamse25 said:
If you buy the postage online you can enter any weight you like... eBay's "buyer protection" is ludicrous. They mostly always side with the buyer no matter what. :(
Click to expand...
Don't forget PayPal. Any service that uses PayPal as the method of payment suffers from the same problem. (Yes I know that eBay owns PayPal.)
 
That was a huge fear that I had when I sold mine. Sorry to hear about that. Really sucks that paypal holds your money untill you get that positive feedback. I will not accept paypal for payment anymore. What I did when I shipped it out is went to the post office with a friend who had his video camera with him. I packed the box right there at the post office. I turned the phone on, flipped through a couple of the pages, showed cydia on the phone (since he had wanted it jailbroken) went to the settings section and showed and read out the serial number, and gb size. I then showed the overall condition of the phone, then packed it up while showing each individual thing that was going with it. We showed the address label with the buyers name on it And where it was going. We then walked it up to the lady at the counter and sent it off. One continuious shot. I then sent him the links to the video, to ease his mind that it wad shipped, and to let him know to not even try coming up with some **** because I got it covered.
 
this is why I never ship until I get the money...cleared from paypal and in my bank...they can put my paypal account in negative if they want but if I'm right they aren't getting anything from me...I'll fight it till death purely on principle alone.

in my many iPhone sales on ebay I document everything including boxing of the item with pictures and in some cases video and send them to the buyer before hand. I also only ship from the actual post office since the package is weighed there by them on their scale.

sucks...fight it and fight hard...hopefully fedex sucks it up at the very least since it was insured.
 
Cynikal.Mindset said:
this is why I never ship until I get the money...cleared from paypal and in my bank...they can put my paypal account in negative if they want but if I'm right they aren't getting anything from me...I'll fight it till death purely on principle alone.

in my many iPhone sales on ebay I document everything including boxing of the item with pictures and in some cases video and send them to the buyer before hand. I also only ship from the actual post office since the package is weighed there by them on their scale.

sucks...fight it and fight hard...hopefully fedex sucks it up at the very least since it was insured.
Click to expand...

The funds are generally frozen until the item arrives, and feedback is left.
 
Goldinboy17 said:
The funds are generally frozen until the item arrives, and feedback is left.
Click to expand...

Usually only for new sellers with low feedback, or on certain items like electronics or sports memorabilia (i.e. high scam items).

But you're right, there's no way around it if you want to sell on Ebay.
 
Cynikal.Mindset said:
this is why I never ship until I get the money...cleared from paypal and in my bank...they can put my paypal account in negative if they want but if I'm right they aren't getting anything from me...I'll fight it till death purely on principle alone.

in my many iPhone sales on ebay I document everything including boxing of the item with pictures and in some cases video and send them to the buyer before hand. I also only ship from the actual post office since the package is weighed there by them on their scale.

sucks...fight it and fight hard...hopefully fedex sucks it up at the very least since it was insured.
Click to expand...

You can't have the money deposited into your account untill the buyer leaves you positive feedback, or has had the item in their possession for 3 days, or you have over 100 positive feedback.
 
Paypal and ebay are really starting to get ridiculous with their buyer protection rules. I recently sold a brand new 2nd gen shuffle 2gb and the buyer received it, opened it and said it didnt work. Paypal immediately took the money and told the buyer to send it back to me and then paypal would give them a refund. Well I got the iPod back and it was a competely different iPod. The buyer took the new ipod and accessories and replaced them with old broken ones. The headphones and dock were really dirty and the ipod didnt turn on and had big gashes. But what really got me was I had 435 feedback 100% and the buyer had 0 and was only a member for 7 days. Ebay should really bring back the option to leave negative feedback for buyers.
 
gan6660 said:
Paypal and ebay are really starting to get ridiculous with their buyer protection rules. I recently sold a brand new 2nd gen shuffle 2gb and the buyer received it, opened it and said it didnt work. Paypal immediately took the money and told the buyer to send it back to me and then paypal would give them a refund. Well I got the iPod back and it was a competely different iPod. The buyer took the new ipod and accessories and replaced them with old broken ones. The headphones and dock were really dirty and the ipod didnt turn on and had big gashes. But what really got me was I had 435 feedback 100% and the buyer had 0 and was only a member for 7 days. Ebay should really bring back the option to leave negative feedback for buyers.
Click to expand...

This is why for high scam items (I.e. anything Apple) you should set a ridiculously high Buy It Now price with an option for buyers to send you their best offer. That way you can screen them and reject them. ;)
 
That is exactly the reason that when I go to sell the iPhone 4 next year I will only be accepting cashiers check or money order as a form of payment. I've sold my Tour and Droid on eBay but I've been lucky to get good Americans as buyers. My items were always 100% described with good photos.
 
Just sold my 3G. Buyer was new to ebay for one day.
Everything went fine. He paid in 10 min and left + feedback withing a few hours of signing for the package. I made sure I took picks of everything and got serials. Also made sure the package was weighed by the postoffice and insured.
But I agree, I hate selling on ebay.
 
SophiaLee said:
This is why for high scam items (I.e. anything Apple) you should set a ridiculously high Buy It Now price with an option for buyers to send you their best offer. That way you can screen them and reject them. ;)
Click to expand...

I did I set the buy it now at $175. Sometimes Im really suprised at how much old Apple items are worth.
 
JoJoCal19 said:
That is exactly the reason that when I go to sell the iPhone 4 next year I will only be accepting cashiers check or money order as a form of payment. I've sold my Tour and Droid on eBay but I've been lucky to get good Americans as buyers. My items were always 100% described with good photos.
Click to expand...

Cashier checks carry even more possible frauds. Paypal is the way to go even if you don't feel safe because you can always get seller protection from them.
 
lesson learned, we've all been there.


when you sell on fleabay, you ship to a confirmed address only and require direct signature confirmation. Paypal will refund your money if you follow all of their steps. I's not rocket science
 
Just called PayPal and had my funds un-frozen. The item arrived about 10 days ago but the buyer hasn't been responding to my emails. No feedback left from him/her either. Not TOO worried though, the buyer has about 24 feedback. Transferring the money into my Bank Account now though.
 
Rooftop voter said:
That was a huge fear that I had when I sold mine. Sorry to hear about that. Really sucks that paypal holds your money untill you get that positive feedback. I will not accept paypal for payment anymore. What I did when I shipped it out is went to the post office with a friend who had his video camera with him. I packed the box right there at the post office. I turned the phone on, flipped through a couple of the pages, showed cydia on the phone (since he had wanted it jailbroken) went to the settings section and showed and read out the serial number, and gb size. I then showed the overall condition of the phone, then packed it up while showing each individual thing that was going with it. We showed the address label with the buyers name on it And where it was going. We then walked it up to the lady at the counter and sent it off. One continuious shot. I then sent him the links to the video, to ease his mind that it wad shipped, and to let him know to not even try coming up with some **** because I got it covered.
Click to expand...

couldn't you have turned off the camera and then asked the lady for your package back? then stolen the phone out of the box and then re-sent it? You could work some tracking number magic too. I mean ebay is so *****
 
I'm really steamed about this but I keep wondering what the possibility is that he is not lying and someone opened up the box and siphoned the iphone while it was in transit. I've heard reports of people having their new iphones arrive only to be an empty box. I am trying to predict how likely it would be that someone would open up a non-descript box looking for an iPhone.

It was only an iPhone so the box weight was a pound so that would probaly be rounded up to a pound even if it was empty.

I insured it via fedex. Does anyone know if they will refund any or all of my money?

Also eBay said they will refund the buyer the money as soon as he returns my phone. But he says he has no phone. So how does that work. If he doesn't have it, how can he return it?
 
zacware said:
Warning to everyone. I ebay'ed my old 3GS for $265. 10 Days after the guy received it, I emailed him asking to leave feedback. Next morning, I get an email saying he's filed a complaint with eBay saying there was no iPhone in the box. (Supposedly everything else was in the box, just not the iPhone, which was in a box inside a box inside a box when I shipped it). eBay immediately sided with him. So now he has my iPhone (or someone else does) and I am out $265 bucks

I did insure it with fedex, but I am still waiting to see if that gives me any relief.

Sellers beware. Apparently, you are at the mercy of the buyer. It was an expensive lesson for me to learn, at a time when I really really needed that money.
Click to expand...


Sucks man,

whats this person's screen name and where is he located????
 
zacware said:
I'm really steamed about this but I keep wondering what the possibility is that he is not lying and someone opened up the box and siphoned the iphone while it was in transit. I've heard reports of people having their new iphones arrive only to be an empty box. I am trying to predict how likely it would be that someone would open up a non-descript box looking for an iPhone.

It was only an iPhone so the box weight was a pound so that would probaly be rounded up to a pound even if it was empty.

I insured it via fedex. Does anyone know if they will refund any or all of my money?

Also eBay said they will refund the buyer the money as soon as he returns my phone. But he says he has no phone. So how does that work. If he doesn't have it, how can he return it?
Click to expand...

99.9% chance he is scamming you. I'd still like his name so I can block him please.

Chances are you are going to get screwed. Best thing to do is call Paypal/Ebay (whichever he filed a complaint with) and bitch up a storm, might not get you anywhere tho.

ETA: Was his address confirmed?
 
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