Posted on 09/28/2016 8:25:25 AM PDT by MNDude
Does anyone here have any experience with selling on Ebay? I just put an ad to sell an iPhone yesterday. I've received several requests to buy it right away and asked for my paypal account.
Some have offered to pay even $150 more than my asking price. I've looked at many of these requests, and most of their accounts were created yesterday, so that makes me very wary of selling something to these guys.
Is anyone familiar with ebay scams? I mean, is it common for someone to get their payment returned from Paypal some how after the item has shipped?
Correction: “but then the BUYER claimed that all he received was a piece of wood”
Sux to be them. Stick to the rules.
I've been selling on eBay for many years. I never run auctions anymore. I use Buy-It-Now only.
Those are scammers. Don’t even respond to them. I know many who have been screwed over by ebay’s buyer protection policy. Example: chotski sold on ebay returned for having a chip. Seller knows the returned piece has been substituted, but eBay doesn’t care. Several sellers of vintage guitars have reported instruments returned with swapped parts. No eBay. Craigslist only. Sell for cash, in person, IN A PUBLIC PLACE.
This happened to friends of mine, selling a car. They didn't ask me about it until AFTER they lost $3,000.
He/she doesn’t seem to have a good grasp of the English language...similar to other scam messages I have seen.
I’m unsure how such a scam could be averted. The post office will vouch that it delivered a package, but can’t vouch for what was in it. Could your friend have insisted on being returned (even at his expense) all the packaging material and the “piece of wood”? Then he could have weighed it and compared it to the Post Office documented shipping weight, and if they were different, could have reported the case to state or (yeah, I know, ludicrously overloaded) Federal authorities.
“I’ve been selling on eBay for many years. I never run auctions anymore. I use Buy-It-Now only. “
Why is that? Safer?
If through is though eBay then you are fine. If it is off the books then beware.
Honestly, I wouldn't sell a phone through Ebay. Have you tried a local Facebook selling page first?
I have buyer and seller experience with ebay going back to 2000. Learned it in the course of learning how to use a computer. By the time I was 12 I knew this: it is like a bad part of town, go there when there’s no other way.
So my advice to you, generally, is to avoid ebay.
But specifically as to newbies offering to “go around” ebay terms, you’re really begging for trouble. You stand to lose the merchandise, get your account frozen by Paypal, and be banned from ebay. Secondary troubles could include Paypal wreaking havoc with your bank account.
And these things can, and do, happen to perfectly innocent sellers as well.
Bonanza.com is still a rational place to do business. They don’t get as much traffic as ebay but neither will you be virtually defenseless against predatory buyers.
You can find a better electronic payment processor than Paypal. Heck you can probably find one better than them in North bleeping Korea.
Don’t take my word for it. Read the agony columns on ebay itself (their “community” boards) or try a site like paypalsucks.com. (Tacky name but the horror stories are enlightening and they have helpful links to alternatives.)
Word.
Shame on me for not following the advice given in the above post regarding a delivery receipt.
The very day after I refunded the scammers money, eBay notified me that my account had been hijacked, and I was out $230.00.
I know many people that have had positive experiences with eBay for years, but I've been batting .500 at best, and have finally stopped doing business with them.
It's just not worth the hassle.
Don’t do it!
About six months ago I sold 4 iPhone 5s on eBay and scammers tried to get me on two separate sales, eBay buyer protection policy also sucks! Here is the details:
1) First auction was bid up beyond a normal price. The winner had a great rating but I thought something was up. Despite having good reviews (eBay no longer allows seller to give buyers bad reviews) the comments told a different story. This guy generates false papal statements indicating he paid hoping you ship the phone.
2) Next auction was won by a foreigner in another country despite my auction stating US sales only. He insisted I ship him the phone, but I canceled and never invoiced. eBay told me to relist and the guy kept bidding again, so eBay told me how to block him.
3) On another phone the winner claimed poor battery life and asked for a $40 refund. He informed me how under eBay’s buyer protection program he can claim a defective product, get his money back and keep the item. I looked into this and there are many stories supporting this claim.
In the end I sold the four phones and was made more then Verizon would have given me. I felt uncomfortable during all the auctions and watched my back constantly. If I choose to do this again I’ll try Amazon, done with eBay as a seller.
That is an item where you will get a lot of bids so let the auction run its course.
A friend of mine used to sell on eBay a lot. He got so tired of stuff like what you mentioned that he simply stopped doing it. At all.
He now sells through product specific hobbyist sites.
I parted out a motorcycle there about 14 years ago. Nowadays, I do all selling locally. I don’t ship anything. It’s all personal. Period.
1. Accounts created yesterday scream scam. Don’t trade with someone who created an account just to get an iPhone from you that they may not pay for, especially if they want your payment info too.
2. If you may have under priced it, increase the price of the listing on eBay and tell them to pay THAT through the eBay site.
3. You get protections by going through the site, but they also take a percentage of the price. Whatever you do, don’t sell it OUTSIDE of eBay without cancelling the current posting first.
For something that costly, I suggest selling through eBay with their shipping label generation.
The benefit of selling through eBay and then using the label printing through eBay is that the tracking number is automatically posted to eBay and you can use that to defend “yes, it shipped, it was here”.
In contrast, saying “I shipped it UPS” may not be good enough.
Even if you use their eBay shipping program, international shipping sometimes loses track of something once it enters a country. But if you go through eBay, you have proof they accept in disputes that:
A. you shipped it
B. it went as far as X
Then you aren’t liable if it disappears at customs or the person receives it and knows that there isn’t tracking to their door.
Note - I sell over a thousand dollars a month of electronics and ham radio antennas on eBay, often internationally. So I am speaking from experience.
Another new scam with PayPal is to get your PayPal information and then create a fake payment screen showing the payment made and credited to your account.
They will email this to you “showing” that the payment has been made, telling you that PayPal will take a little time to show it in your account BUT because of the urgency of the need, try to get you to go ahead and ship. You ship, no payment ever shows up and your merchandise is gone.
You have a popular item, take your time and get cash... in a very public place. A police station parking lot is good.
I’ve been selling on ebay for 17 years. Did you place it at auction or buy it now? I would not respond to anyone asking for your paypal account. If someone goes the buy it now route they will buy it and pay you with their paypal account or cc. If it’s at auction wait til the auction is over and someone buys it and pays. Ebay has buyer (and seler) protection. If people are wanting to do a private deal with you outsode of ebay don’t do it. Popular scam.
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