OT: Ebay advice

[Jim K..]

Have you ever done that?

[RJH]

I've just put a smart watch on ebay, and had a strong offer - £20 above the going rate (£140). The German buyer has 2 positive feedbacks, over a year old. No transactions at all for 12 months or more.

If they're paying with Paypal, is there a higher than usual risk here?

[GB]

Good chance of the account being hacked.

[Nick Odell]

There are lots of different scams and there's no certainty that you won't get stung whatever you do.

You say the German buyer is offering over the odds but is it over the odds in Germany? Maybe twenty quid over the odds here is a bargain over there?

There are national differences: last night I almost won a camera from ebay USA. It finally sold for about 60% of the typical ebay UK price because that's what it goes for over there. Muggins here only offered

50% which is why I lost it.

Nick

[spuorgelgoog]

I don't think so, provided you use a *fully tracked* postage service which Paypal can verify delivery with - and which will accept a watch and cover it with insurance.

Owain

[ss]

+1 .........making sure it is signature required at the other end.

[Fredxx]

That provides evidence it was delivered, but it's easy to change eBay and PayPal addresses online. The PayPal transaction can still be reversed if fraud has taken place.

I might be tempted to ask PayPal if they could verify the account details and indemnify the transaction.

[Fredxx]

Only as a buyer. They said I was covered by their guarantee.

My experience of PayPal is they are manned with sensible people. If I was in the OPs position I would ask for their advice, knowing that I would be recording the conversation. If they said there was a risk I would tell the buyer this and decline.

[RJH]

If it gets that far . . . I've accepted the offer, but they're not wanting to go the 'make offer' route, and want to pay separately to my Paypal account. I've told them it has to be linked to the transaction.

FWIW, I've found ebay customer support, at least by email, to be useless. I actually wrote to them asking them to bill me for a transaction that went a bit weird and ended up a sale anyway - just not logged by them. They sent me a non-applicable automated response. Oh well.

[Fredxx]

I agree, though at one time PayPal was equally useless, such that if a transaction went pear-shaped I would make a claim with PayPal first. They would then say go through eBay.

I would expect the eBay conversation to go stale and so go back to PayPal. PayPal would then have the cheek to say that since I claimed through eBay I could no longer claim through PayPal. Of course I could then say I did claim through PayPal and was simply following instructions. Some years ago one transaction resulted in a letter before action. PayPal have a UK address which makes this much easier.

I feel PayPal are now far more amenable and in recent years all issues have been sorted efficiently.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Paypal never side with the seller.

Even when there is clear evidence of fraud by the buyer

[Dave Plowman (News]

Total bollocks.

I've only ever had one dispute as a seller. Sold a rare Matchbox toy mint and boxed. Buyer claimed it arrived damaged. Told him to return it (I'd pay the postage) and I'd do a full refund. What he was trying for was a partial refund. I even asked for a pic of the damage, which was too much trouble.

He lost the dispute. Ebay do look at correspondence between the parties.

[Robin]

"Danger, Will Robinson!"

Given there are only /seller/ fees on eBay, ask yourself "why would a /buyer/ want to pay outside eBay if they still want to use PayPal?"

[Peter Parry]

Selling or buying small expensive items on Ebay are both high risk occupations. Watches and Mobile phones in particular. A buyer wanting to pay/buy outside of the eBay platform and pay a bit over the odds and you are talking of disinfecting and barge poles.

It is worth remembering that in any transaction dispute Ebay and Paypal tend to favour the buyer over the seller.

Possible scenario (as reported regularly by others) Overseas Buyer buys watch paying by Paypal. Seller sends it and buyer receives watch signing as having done so.

Two days late buyer contacts seller to say watch is not working and arranges return with seller. So far so good.

Buyer sends package and even gives seller return tracking number. Seller receives and signs for package. Shortly afterwards Seller opens package and finds it contains a bit of scrap plastic to make up to correct postage weight for watch but no watch.

Seller contacts buyer who says they sent the watch and seller is trying to scam them.

Buyer demands money back and contacts Paypal. Seller says buyer sent rubbish back. Buyer wails to Paypal. Paypal find package returned by tracked method to right address and signed for. Paypal support Buyer who has proof of delivery and remove money from Sellers account and return to Buyer who now has both the watch and the money.

Ebay accounts which have been silent for some time are often targeted by thieves who use them to defraud others.

Paypals seller protection page, there are other scams to watch out for.

[RJH]

Their reason:

[spuorgelgoog]

I did genuinely have that problem for a short while but it usually resolved itself after about 12 hours when Ebay and Paypal started talking to each other again.

Usual advice of 'clear cookies and try another browser' may also apply.

Either lacking in clue, or intent on malfeasance.

Owain

[Robert]

Based on the buyers problems with paying via eBay I would NOT accept any other payment route. Start a "Payment NOT received report" on the sale asap - 48 hours after offer accepted. This is quicker than cancelling the sale.

Just one thought when you listed the Smart Watch did you allow overseas buyers i.e. provided postage option for non-UK buyers ? If you didnt this may be causing issues.

I find eBay CHAT support very good.

[Vir Campestris]

Well, two little stories.

I tore up my account years ago when Paypal changed their Ts&Cs. But recently I had a couple of things to sell, so I opened one.

First went through no problem.

Second one - listed "Buyer collects". So he says "How much is postage"? Being a kind soul, I found out. "I'm not paying that much. You're trying to rip me off".

I still have the "shed in a box", used 6 months. Which is redundant as I have a new proper man-cave :)

A colleague of mine bought a box load of collector cards many years ago. The packs have a chance of having something really valuable in them. Sold unopened. Buyer gets it, opens it, finds nothing useful, then reports that the pack has been opened.

He won't use eBay again either.

Andy

[RJH]

Thanks for that, sounds similar to my situation. Update from ebay: