More Ebay weirdness - odd user name and late change of address

goldtop

Hmmm... sold an £800 synth and printed off the address in Kent, before the buyer (who has a very British-sounding name) paid.

The buyer has a weird username, "dobob.pt.9bxwhpc" (I changed some characters, so no doxxing), and when I saw he'd paid I saw the shipping was higher because now ... he's in Portugal. The PayPal address matches the new address. I query this and "he forgot to update it after the last purchase".

That last purchase is one of only 9 feedback, all but one rather old. I can't see what other stuff he buys/sells. The same synth had an attempt by someone with another similarly weird username to buy off Ebay. I ignored that one.

My spidey-senses are tingling. Not sure that - even if 'seller protection' worked - I want the hassle of a claim.

Thoughts?

King85

If in doubt play it safe or risk losing £800, easy choice to me

RobDavies

Run away quickly!

Cirrus

You'd be a fool to carry on with this sale.

Also, what? They've just arbitrarily given you some extra for shipping to Portugal? How do they know how much extra it'd cost you to use the courier of your choosing with the level of cover, tracking etc that you're comfortable with? If nothing else (and it's obviously a scam) that's really rude and presumptive.

A real buyer would have contacted you first asking how much postage to Portugal would be.

goldtop

@Cirrus - no, he didn't add extra £££s arbitrarily. EU shipping had been an option on my auction, but when he bought it, Ebay thought he was in Kent, so only added UK shipping. That's what I saw and printed last night.

He must have then updated his address and Ebay recalculated the shipping and he paid the new total.

In other news, finding help on Ebay for 'possible buyer fraud' gets no matches.

ICBM

Why are you even asking this question?



Did you actually list international shipping as an option? How would you feel about pursuing a legal case in Portugal?

brooom

When in doubt...

goldtop

@ICBM - yes, that's the only way that the buyer could have paid any more than for the UK shipping. (It's a 2U module, in demand and easy to ship.)

@brooom - ask on tFB!

victorludorum

If international shipping was an option then I think you have to wear it, as long as he pays the cost of it.

King85

victorludorum said:

If international shipping was an option then I think you have to wear it, as long as he pays the cost of it.

Of course you don't, you can decide to cancel the sale should you want to.

jonnyburgo

i had a weird one a while ago, I was selling a guitar with a BIN of £500, no shipping option, Collection only, also stated in description very clearly no overseas bidders, got an offer of £450 with a message "Hi I'm in Belarus can you send Thanks!" I immediately rejected the offer and messaged him saying no overseas bids as stated.

15 minutes later PING! you have sold your item full price £500 to the same fucking guy! No extra for postage - which wasn't offered anyway!

Cancelled the sale, left him a message, no response and after 10 days ebay accepted the cancellation. 

Pain in the arse as Id listed it with the £1 final sale offer and to relist would have been full 10%
 

WiresDreamDisasters

Yeah, avoid I'd say. Best be safe. Or get him to prove his story some way.

goldtop

I spoke to someone at Ebay (yes, you can find the number if you dig deep enough!) and without him saying anything specific about the buyer, he advised to cancel and choose "problem with buyer's address" as the reason - all in order not to get marks against my account. All done, refunded, etc.

Curiously, after I explained this to the buyer, he's been very understanding. So an honest mistake or a failed scam? (shrug)

If it is a scam, it must exploit the cracks of the Ebay tracking/returns system.

Thanks all.

PolarityMan

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Yeah, avoid I'd say. Best be safe. Or get him to prove his story some way.

Like by adding more details? My nan said that's a good way to make sure that everyone knows you;re telling the truth. 

WiresDreamDisasters

PolarityMan said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Yeah, avoid I'd say. Best be safe. Or get him to prove his story some way.

Like by adding more details? My nan said that's a good way to make sure that everyone knows you;re telling the truth. 

No, by getting them to send a photo of themselves holding a fish with today's newspaper.

DefaultM

The username sounds like one ebay assigns you if you don't choose your own. My wife's is equally shit.

goldtop

DefaultM said:

The username sounds like one ebay assigns you if you don't choose your own. My wife's is equally shit.

I did wonder about that - the first bits are like his name with '.pt.' added for Portugal. Maybe he's just a very unusual Ebay buyer and he really did move from the UK to Portugal?