How to deal with ebay scammers

[Oops_my_bad]

Gotta take me hat off to this guy

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WELCOME-TO-THE-HUNT-FOR-SEE-YOU-SOON-foxecho33_W0QQitemZ220156327059QQihZ012QQcategoryZ131536QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem :axe:

[localzuk]

brilliant, the scammer will get his just desserts now

[CESIL]

Just two words...caveat emptor

 

This is why I would never buy large items like cars from ebay

[PEO]

the last guy that stole from me i broke some of his fingers with a rolling pin

[Joedetic]

The last guy that stole from me got a letter sent to him requesting the money for the item he paid for and then paypal, in their infinate wisdom, reversed.

 

He didnt respond so i sent one to his parents (me knowing that he's only 16/17). They didn't respond either. Shows a lot about the character of the family and what the parents are teaching their kids!

[tech_guy]

the last guy that stole from me i broke some of his fingers with a rolling pin

 

Great one. Shouldn't condone violence I know but sometimes it's necessary - the git who tried to mug me in Coventry last year ended up with one of my size eight steel-toecapped doc martins in his dangly bits.

[Joedetic]

Would have been worse had you had size 12s like me

[stephenleak]

I had a "paid, but no item" problem with one seller earlier this year. I got my money back from eBay (less their administration fee). However, I still have a question ...

 

Would eBay have gotten the full amount from the seller or would they have just refunded the balance from their own pocket?

 

PS. I did ask eBay - they didn't reply.

[FN-GM]

I just got to say well done to the guy, i wonder what happened?

[Friez]

This reminds me of the P-P-P-Powerbook!

[plexer]

Come on buying a car off someone at 11pm and just handing over a big wad of cash, you're just askign to be ripped off.

 

Ben

[tech_guy]

Come on buying a car off someone at 11pm and just handing over a big wad of cash, you're just askign to be ripped off.

 

Ben

 

Yeah, I agree - bit naïve or what?! Still, I hope the scammer gets what he deserves. Nice one publishing his address on eBay. Hope he gets lots of hate mail!

[StewartKnight]

I only got the money back off Paypal once the loser who'd tried to con me paid up.

 

You still lose though, as you have to pay their "admin" fee.

 

 

I hate ebay!

[rhyds]

Ebay car buying is like buying at any other auction, you don't do it unless you know what to look for and know the weaknesses of your chosen make/model.

[tech_guy]

I hate ebay!

 

Yeah, me too.

[laserblazer]

That's unfair. Ebay is great as long as you take care (which this guy didn't seem to do!) When we had our house extended, the builder quoted £250 to dismantle and remove the conservatory. I sold it for £900 on Ebay. The patio doors went for £80 to a guy who had his trashed by burglars and the insurance would have been £500.

[tech_guy]

Let me clarify - I hate eBay because i wish I'd thought of it ;-)

[StewartKnight]

Ebay isn't great. It's a car boot/charity shop online.

 

In the early days it was ok, but now, too many people are using it as exentions to their businesses. A lot of the stuff is therefore overpriced. Example being, I got the wife a Prada phone the other week. Ebay prices over £200, yet carphone warehouse sells them for £200.

 

Why pay over the odds for second hand goods.

 

Then we have the scammers. One of the people I was looking at on ebay was selling the phone at a price near to the £200, but not quite £200. I didn't buy from them in the end. Just as well. Their feedback (previously good) suddenly had hundreds of people complaining that they'd paid £100's for phones that never came. The seller was banned, but what about the people who lost their money.... ebay doesn't care, and Paypal only returns the money when they get it from the seller.

 

The feedback is bordering on useless now. It's easy to build up "good" feedback buying 1p items. Ebayers often don't leave feedback, even if you have left it for them. If you dare to lodge a legitimate complaint, you get back feedback, which isn't deserved, and ebay "mods" are ineffective!

 

Paypal.... surely the monopolies commision needs to investigate this!

 

Ebay fees. getting more and more expensive all the time (plus Paypal like to add their charges too).

 

So, in summary.... I hate ebay because:

(1) Too many people wanting to rip you off

(2) Too many scammers

(3) Paypal is as big a scam as some of the scammers!

(4) Too expensive

(5) The feedback is abused

(5) It deprives charity shops of valuable merchandise

 

And thats just for starters!!!

[Pottsey]

“easy to build up "good" feedback buying 1p items.”

That’s not possible any more. I used to sell tons of horse stuff starting at 50p only last month I found out that was below the minimum new auction amount.

 

Paypal is a pain unless you respend the money on Ebay. The fees to transfer money back to your bank are too high. Saying that overall I like ebay managed to get some semi rare stuff I wouldn’t have found otherwise.

[FN-GM]

I sent the guy an E-mail asking about it this is what he replied with.

 

Hi there

The add will be re-listed again this week there is more than 1 scammer involved ther are 3 of them alll selling dodgey cars to the e-bay community there has been a lot of contact and support about it and i feel everyone needs to know about these people as i am in belfast northern ireland nothing has happened as yet as i will bide my time before i return to the mainland a sort these scammers out they are well aware that i am on top of them as i received a message from automaina claiming that the person i was looking for no longer works there which is a load of cobbelers as he sold yet another car under a different user name its a good scam they got going i would say so ill lift the lid on it this week they are even using eachother to bid the cars up to a higher selling price automaina even sent me a message claiming that their business has been taken over and to stop putting bad ads on as its not good for them which i would say that itself is a good thing watch out for the new add which i plan to advertise tomorrow in the meantime i thank you for your support and i can assure you i will be in mainland in the very near future to sort this situation out with the people involved

Regards Tom

[tech_guy]

I sent the guy an E-mail asking about it this is what he replied with.

 

Hi there

The add will be re-listed again this week there is more than 1 scammer involved ther are 3 of them alll selling dodgey cars to the e-bay community there has been a lot of contact and support about it and i feel everyone needs to know about these people as i am in belfast northern ireland nothing has happened as yet as i will bide my time before i return to the mainland a sort these scammers out they are well aware that i am on top of them as i received a message from automaina claiming that the person i was looking for no longer works there which is a load of cobbelers as he sold yet another car under a different user name its a good scam they got going i would say so ill lift the lid on it this week they are even using eachother to bid the cars up to a higher selling price automaina even sent me a message claiming that their business has been taken over and to stop putting bad ads on as its not good for them which i would say that itself is a good thing watch out for the new add which i plan to advertise tomorrow in the meantime i thank you for your support and i can assure you i will be in mainland in the very near future to sort this situation out with the people involved

Regards Tom

 

Email him and tell him to report it to Watchdog - they're looking for stories like this at the moment and if there are enough cases they will research it and run it on the show. I know because a friend of mine works on the program :-)

[OutToLunch]

The worst thing is, someone broke in while he was out stuck in the car and stole his shift and punctuation keys...

 

I've been sold some lemons in my time but I'm sorry, what are you thinking if you buy a car at 11PM at night and hand over cash?! You at least need to be able to check it over in daylight etc. It's as bad as sending £5k off to Nigeria to collect your winnings. I know there's a lot of ebay scammers out there but it seems everyone's cheering the guy on without really thinking about how he got 'scammed'.

[FN-GM]

I think he was wanting to get home that night or early hours, he's from Ireland its a bit of a treck.

[enjay]

@StewartKnight - are you sure that PayPal only refund once the seller coughs up? I bought something once and got my money back through the Dispute Resolution Centre thing - even after I got the money back, the seller was still sending me emails saying he'd never received the defective item back from me. I can't see he'd be paying up to PayPal under those circumstances.

 

I am a little worried about a recent purchase actually - the seller is no longer registered following what he describes in an email to me as "a misunderstanding" with ebay. That said, he has provided me with a shipping number for my item, so I can track it on the courier's web site - assuming the number actually does relate to my item, of course! If this all does go wrong, what come back do I have with a seller who is no longer registered?

[OutToLunch]

I am a little worried about a recent purchase actually - the buyer is no longer registered following what he describes in an email to me as "a misunderstanding" with ebay. That said, he has provided me with a shipping number for my item, so I can track it on the courier's web site - assuming the number actually does relate to my item, of course! If this all does go wrong, what come back do I have with a seller who is no longer registered?

 

If you paid via Paypal, you should still be able to use their dispute resolution/refunds rather than Ebay's AFAIK.