ebay question

[newtohobby]

Hi , I had recently had an higher priced item for sale. A member had join that same day with zero feedback had bid a high price on my item. I had contacted them asking a few questions about intentions of paying, confirmed address and paypal.

They response I got was quick and they seemed like they knew what they were doing.

they said that they have a confirmed address, paypal etc. they have every intention of paying. Although they said that they have been searching ebay for a while and bought a few things. To me, usually new members have a learning curved about things, papypa, bidding. So I asked them if they had bought stuff on ebay before, why they have zero feedback and why they had just joined on that exact day. I didn't get a response.

I was wondering if anybody see anything wrong with this bidder/buyer? I didn't really trust them and I was gonna cancel their bids, am I wrong here?

 

[Edifice]

Another thing I have heard on ebay is once a buyer sends payment to you through Paypal, they can do a 'chargeback'. Therefore, they wait until you ship the item and then take their money back. They file a claim with Paypal saying the item you shipped was not in the condition that you claimed it to be and Paypal sides with the buyer and refunds them.

WTF?

 

[JEFF247]

If you are going to sell anything of value (maybe $100 & up) use the "Buy it now" option and ship with signature required. This assures fast payment and signature receipt gets you your money much faster from Paypal.

The Community Discussion board is very active at ebay, you might pose your question there too. Good luck.

 

[tnt ladies]

Another thing I have heard on ebay is once a buyer sends payment to you through Paypal, they can do a 'chargeback'. Therefore, they wait until you ship the item and then take their money back. They file a claim with Paypal saying the item you shipped was not in the condition that you claimed it to be and Paypal sides with the buyer and refunds them.

WTF?

that is true but they require that you ship the item back to the seller and provide a tracking number.

 

[tboy]

that is true but they require that you ship the item back to the seller and provide a tracking number.

Not necessarily. There have been stories here, and elsewhere, about buyers putting in a claim to have "never received" the goods and with ebay putting the screws to sellers they give the buyer his money back. So now the seller is out the money as well as the item.

I would never EVER sell to a first time buyer or someone with no feedback. Let someone else take the risk on them to build up their feedback.

 

[phail]

Hi , I had recently had an higher priced item for sale. A member had join that same day with zero feedback had bid a high price on my item. I had contacted them asking a few questions about intentions of paying, confirmed address and paypal.

They response I got was quick and they seemed like they knew what they were doing.

they said that they have a confirmed address, paypal etc. they have every intention of paying. Although they said that they have been searching ebay for a while and bought a few things. To me, usually new members have a learning curved about things, papypa, bidding. So I asked them if they had bought stuff on ebay before, why they have zero feedback and why they had just joined on that exact day. I didn't get a response.

I was wondering if anybody see anything wrong with this bidder/buyer? I didn't really trust them and I was gonna cancel their bids, am I wrong here?

trust your instinct on this one. i would not sell to him/her either.

 

[newtohobby]

now I contacted them a few more times, they told me that they have another username, they gave it to me. I looked it up, its a user in france that hasn't bought anything in 2 years with 2 feedbacks.

I contacted ebay and asked them if they were the same users, and the confirmed they are the same users and said it should be safe to sell to them if the address is confirmed with paypal.

 

[Robinto]

You don't have to go the paypal route. Or the check route either. Check fraud can be every bit as fraught as paypal, although if your seller is American, and he mails the check, he is compounding his risks with a federal beef for using the mails to defraud. I think a money order is a fairly safe alternative, however.

Explain to the guy, that until you have the cash in hand, you don't ship. He has to lump it, until he builds feedback and seller confidence, just like every body else did.

From my personal experience, getting a complaint resolved through ebay is brutal! It's more productive, and far more satisfying to go outdoors and yell at a tree. I got skinned again, and only recently. Three times total, over maybe 1000+ trades - and a total feedback score of 370. I just let it go. And no bad feedback for the thief either, to protect my 100% status.

 

[tboy]

Money Orders aren't 100% safe either. I took a payment for work done in the US and went to deposit it thinking it was as good as cash, nope, the bank held the funds for 28 days until the money order cleared.

I asked the bank manager why and he informed me that money orders can be forged......

Another route is western union money transfer or if he's in Canada, interact money transfers.

 

[Robinto]

Money Orders aren't 100% safe either. I took a payment for work done in the US and went to deposit it thinking it was as good as cash, nope, the bank held the funds for 28 days until the money order cleared.

28 days? Really? I don't think I've ever had a money order come up from the states. Well, if that's the norm, then the seller would have to stipulate a four-week wait till the order clears. That's tough for the buyer, but at least it's cash in hand for the seller.

The dangerous thing about check fraud that I heard about only recently, (was it someplace here on Terb...?) was that the writer has up to three years to claim that the check wasn't authorized. A misspelling by one letter of a company name, or an illegible scrawl of a signature that turns out not to be that of the issuing authority, and the check writer can apply to his bank to have the charge revoked, and now its up to you to sort it out.

Hard to do from afar, and probably not worth the effort.