What’s going on here then (eBay)

BRISTOL86

Listed two guitars on eBay this morning once the £1 fee offer kicked in. Despite saying cash on collection only, and being very clear that I won’t post, the same person buys both guitars and pays in full with PayPal. 

I ask him to call me as I need to tell him that I won’t accept PayPal for collection. He doesn’t call after a few hours so I refund both payments by PayPal and think I’ll give him a few more hours to make contact. He’s clearly a guitar trader and has 100% positive feedback so I think I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and give him chance to contact me. 

12 hours later and still nothing - despite having found time to change his eBay user name since buying my guitars and now, he’s not bothered to call or reply to my eBay messages. 

So something doesn’t smell right, but what’s the scam here if it is one?! The high volume positive feedback doesn’t scream scam to me but the situation is very odd. I’m annoyed at the wasted time and now have to either faff about cancelling and relisting and risk losing what might be completely genuine sales or do nothing and wait it out. 

Weirdly he’s also selling the same guitar as he bought from me for a crazy high price. It crossed my mind that he bought mine just to remove ‘competition’, knowing he’d ultimately get refunded, but when I say that to myself I think I sound like a crazy person! 

I was giving him the benefit of the doubt that he’d just been busy but sorry, if you’ve been on to eBay to change your username then you’ve clearly read my messages and seen your refunded payments and you’re just ignoring me. 

All very odd. Small wonder I try to sell on here and despise going to eBay 

mgaw

sounds out of ordinary so maybe speak to ebay and see what they say,  this will also flag it up to them as a potential scam   which should help you if it turns out to be one...or just tell the bloke to fuck off and cancel

tony99

It's poor that it allows someone to PP pay for an item clearly listed as cash, it shouldn't be an available option in such circumstances.

BRISTOL86

tony99 said:

It's poor that it allows someone to PP pay for an item clearly listed as cash, it shouldn't be an available option in such circumstances.

Completely agree. It forces you to accept PayPal even when you say you won’t offer delivery, yet you have zero seller protection unless you ship it  (?)

I was happy to give him the benefit of the doubt of an honest mistake but the name change thing is proper weird. 

BRISTOL86

Hmmm just done some googling and the guy actually owns a physical guitar store, so maybe it’s all legit after all. But still weird stuff. 

BRISTOL86

Actually that’s not the case, my googling led me to a different store in the same town. No idea what to make of all this 

JezWynd

Weirdly he’s also selling the same guitar as he bought from me for a crazy high price. It crossed my mind that he bought mine just to remove ‘competition’, knowing he’d ultimately get refunded, but when I say that to myself I think I sound like a crazy person! 

Not so crazy. Some of these eBay sellers play pretty dirty. Changing his user name is sus too. I would bar him from your auctions and then relist.

breezytele

Back to basics ; you’ve invited him to make contact after he has ‘bought’ your guitars

and yet he hasn’t... 

That alone is odd.

mbe

Could somebody cash in the PayPal payment and say that the guitars were (not really) collected just this afternoon?

BRISTOL86

mbe said:

Could somebody cash in the PayPal payment and say that the guitars were (not really) collected just this afternoon?

You mean could I as the seller take the cash and say the buyer has collected? Yes in theory but then when the buyer tells PayPal that he hasn’t had the goods, they’ll take the cash back. That’s why you can’t accept PayPal if you do collection, and all the more ridiculous that eBay force you to allow PayPal even on this type of listing. 

mbe

BRISTOL86 said:

mbe said:

Could somebody cash in the PayPal payment and say that the guitars were (not really) collected just this afternoon?

You mean could I as the seller take the cash and say the buyer has collected? Yes in theory but then when the buyer tells PayPal that he hasn’t had the goods, they’ll take the cash back. That’s why you can’t accept PayPal if you do collection, and all the more ridiculous that eBay force you to allow PayPal even on this type of listing. 

I see. So the buyer could pay by PayPal,  collect the goods, deny it happened and reclaim the cash.

What could possibly go wrong?

BRISTOL86

mbe said:

BRISTOL86 said:

mbe said:

Could somebody cash in the PayPal payment and say that the guitars were (not really) collected just this afternoon?

You mean could I as the seller take the cash and say the buyer has collected? Yes in theory but then when the buyer tells PayPal that he hasn’t had the goods, they’ll take the cash back. That’s why you can’t accept PayPal if you do collection, and all the more ridiculous that eBay force you to allow PayPal even on this type of listing. 

I see. So the buyer could pay by PayPal,  collect the goods, deny it happened and reclaim the cash.

What could possibly go wrong?

Indeed, luckily I know better than to take PayPal for a collection. Found the guys mobile number on his listings and shock horror no answer. Think I’ll just cancel it all tomorrow if he hasn’t got back to me. 

Simon_M

See here: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/155879/ebay-scammer-bad-dealer/p1

Theres a chap on eBay who does this sort of thing all the time. Have a look at the buyers previous user names - it’s probably the same bloke.

BRISTOL86

Simon_M said:

See here: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/155879/ebay-scammer-bad-dealer/p1

Theres a chap on eBay who does this sort of thing all the time. Have a look at the buyers previous user names - it’s probably the same bloke.

Thanks for that. Scanned through it and as far as I can tell
neither of his names today are on that list!!

DefaultM

Probably bought it from you, listed it for sale at 3 times the price before he even got it, but didn't realise it was collection only. Now he'll be wondering what to do.

Gassage

Links?

BRISTOL86

Contact made by the guy this morning, and collecting in the week apparently, so seems I was a bit hasty....let’s see how it pans out!

ICBM

BRISTOL86 said:

Contact made by the guy this morning, and collecting in the week apparently, so seems I was a bit hasty....let’s see how it pans out!

But still don't allow him to pay by anything other than cash if he's collecting it.

Philtre

Doesn't PayPal + Collection = no proof of delivery?

Whitecat

Philtre said:

Doesn't PayPal + Collection = no proof of delivery?

Yes, which is why people are saying absolutely don’t do that. 

BRISTOL86

Philtre said:

Doesn't PayPal + Collection = no proof of delivery?

Yeah that’s why I sent his Paypal back! According to him I had ‘require immediate payment’ on the listing - didn’t recall seeing an option to turn that on or off.