I don't THINK I'm about to be scammed . . .

Paul_C

I thought I'd explained clearly enough, but I'll try again

Someone in Russia won the bass, seller says no shipping, buyer's friend in the UK rings me as I'm in the same town as the seller to ask if I could put it in a box and ship it to Russia.

I say I'll put it in a box and buyer can arrange the shipping, I'll hand it over and off it goes.

I'm getting paid £20 for putting it in a box and for plugging it in to make sure it works ok before I do so.

PolarityMan

Paul_C said:

I just googled the band name mentioned in his emails and came up with this so it looks like it may well be legit, but weird.

There is nothing legit about the instrument the dude on the left is playing.

ThePrettyDamned

Paul_C said:

I thought I'd explained clearly enough, but I'll try again

Someone in Russia won the bass, seller says no shipping, buyer's friend in the UK rings me as I'm in the same town as the seller to ask if I could put it in a box and ship it to Russia.

I say I'll put it in a box and buyer can arrange the shipping, I'll hand it over and off it goes.

I'm getting paid £20 for putting it in a box and for plugging it in to make sure it works ok before I do so.

Ahh I see. 

Fuck that. I'd try to find a way out of this ASAP - they can call anyone. Why you? 

octatonic

Paul_C said:

I thought I'd explained clearly enough, but I'll try again

Someone in Russia won the bass, seller says no shipping, buyer's friend in the UK rings me as I'm in the same town as the seller to ask if I could put it in a box and ship it to Russia.

I say I'll put it in a box and buyer can arrange the shipping, I'll hand it over and off it goes.

I'm getting paid £20 for putting it in a box and for plugging it in to make sure it works ok before I do so.

Why did he call you?
Is this something you do for people?
How did he know to contact you?

Paul_C

ThePrettyDamned said:

Paul_C said:

I thought I'd explained clearly enough, but I'll try again

Someone in Russia won the bass, seller says no shipping, buyer's friend in the UK rings me as I'm in the same town as the seller to ask if I could put it in a box and ship it to Russia.

I say I'll put it in a box and buyer can arrange the shipping, I'll hand it over and off it goes.

I'm getting paid £20 for putting it in a box and for plugging it in to make sure it works ok before I do so.

Ahh I see. 

Fuck that. I'd try to find a way out of this ASAP - they can call anyone. Why you? 

Because I'm a guitar repairer in Northampton, so I imaging if you google "guitars + Northampton" then I'm on the list

octatonic

That was a necessary piece of information.

SteveRobinson

Maybe the seller has had second thoughts and pulled out of the transaction? 

You could contact them through eBay and ask for their side of the story.

octatonic

Now we have all the information... I can't see how it will be a problem.
I would give it a once over to make sure there are no drugs or things within it to make sure you aren't committing an offence.
Would be weird to ship drugs from the UK to Russia- much more likely to go the other way.

It is probably just poor communication.
I wouldn't be worried, although not sure I would have agreed to do it in the first place.

duotone

Paul_C said:

I thought I'd explained clearly enough, but I'll try again

Someone in Russia won the bass, seller says no shipping, buyer's friend in the UK rings me as I'm in the same town as the seller to ask if I could put it in a box and ship it to Russia.

I say I'll put it in a box and buyer can arrange the shipping, I'll hand it over and off it goes.

I'm getting paid £20 for putting it in a box and for plugging it in to make sure it works ok before I do so.

Why is his friend in the UK not dealing with this?

octatonic

duotone said:

Paul_C said:

I thought I'd explained clearly enough, but I'll try again

Someone in Russia won the bass, seller says no shipping, buyer's friend in the UK rings me as I'm in the same town as the seller to ask if I could put it in a box and ship it to Russia.

I say I'll put it in a box and buyer can arrange the shipping, I'll hand it over and off it goes.

I'm getting paid £20 for putting it in a box and for plugging it in to make sure it works ok before I do so.

Why is his friend in the UK not dealing with this?

Because he isn't close enough to collect it in person, which are the terms of the auction.

TTony

Because of how weird this all sounds, let's *assume* that it's a scam.

How does the scam work?

The buyer will claim non-recipt of bass.  Buyer has arranged shipping, so nobody else can prove whether it's actually been delivered or not.  

Who does buyer pursue for the "loss", and on what grounds?  

Seller has been paid (presumably by PP) but has said "collection only".  Seller needs to prove that bass has actually been collected somehow (maybe a signed receipt from whoever picks it up?).  If no proof, then it's a standard eBay pickup scam wherein the buyer claims his money back from the seller for an unfulfilled transaction.  Buyer can probably prove that he's not actually picked it up himself (as he's in Russia), so tricky situation for the seller.

If seller can prove pickup (by Paul), what right does Russian buyer have to pursue Paul for the (alleged) non-delivery of the bass?  There's an email trail.  There's the £20 payment.  But that's not proof that Paul actually picked it up - and even if there were proof, getting any sort of payment out of Paul is going to be tricky - it's not a simple PP chargeback.



I'd be interested to know what the scam is, and how it works, but not interested enough to allow myself to be put in the situation where I'd be finding out firsthand.

I'd be refunding the £20 and not getting any further involved.

Paul_C

SteveRobinson said:

Maybe the seller has had second thoughts and pulled out of the transaction? 

You could contact them through eBay and ask for their side of the story.

I was thinking of doing that if I don't hear anything soon.

duotone said:

Paul_C said:

I thought I'd explained clearly enough, but I'll try again

Someone in Russia won the bass, seller says no shipping, buyer's friend in the UK rings me as I'm in the same town as the seller to ask if I could put it in a box and ship it to Russia.

I say I'll put it in a box and buyer can arrange the shipping, I'll hand it over and off it goes.

I'm getting paid £20 for putting it in a box and for plugging it in to make sure it works ok before I do so.

Why is his friend in the UK not dealing with this?

Because he's in Scotland, which is quite far away.

octatonic said:

Now we have all the information... I can't see how it will be a problem.
I would give it a once over to make sure there are no drugs or things within it to make sure you aren't committing an offence.
Would be weird to ship drugs from the UK to Russia- much more likely to go the other way.

It is probably just poor communication.
I wouldn't be worried, although not sure I would have agreed to do it in the first place.

Yeah, I wasn't sure myself, which is why I said I didn't want anything to do with the shipping, in case I might get blamed for it failing to arrive or something.

JezWynd

On the (bison) horns of a dilemma.

Paul_C

I'll see what next week brings, the seller was supposed to have called me last week but I didn't hear from him - if he's still quiet by Wednesday I'll refund and walk away.

Strat_a_tat_tat

How much do you need £20?

Simple question that might guide you to a conclusion.

Paul_C

I don't need it at all, just trying to help someone out .

thomasw88

don't see how you're liable for anything tbh.   did he send you the £20 paypal gift?  

jonnyburgo

Why not just box it and give it back to the seller with the Russians contact details to sort out? Then if the seller wants to pull out and refund he can. To be honest the seller should have stressed no overseas bidders if it is collection only. seems like a lot of stress and worry for £20

thermionic

I could be wrong, but the fact that the buyer has "a friend" who is so useless that he has to enlist a random third party to help makes me think something is not right.

stickyfiddle

I don't think there's any way @Paul_c is going to get scammed, but I do think the seller is lined up to get buggered with @paul_c the unknowing middle-man.

Otherwise it's the classic charge-back scam. The buyer receives the bass. Buyer then claims he hasn't received the bass. Seller has no proof that he's sent anything to Russia. If he provides any proof of giving it to you there's no papertrail (because all done by phone), and even if you sign something to say you've received it the buyer will deny all knowledge and there's no reason for the seller to prove otherwise because you aren't the named buyer on the ebay auction.

If nothing else I'd want to sign a receipt (a copy each for you, the seller and one shipped to the buyer with the bass) that includes a print-off of the auction including all the seller's and buyer's details. Both you and the seller should sign every page of that. This gives the seller some comeback in case of the above kicking off, and politely shows the buyer that you have proof of collection and it's all above board.