Any Ebayers?

[Speedyd900rr]

I sell on Ebay quite often, well not that much but about 25 to 50 things a year and ive noticed there has been alot more buy & switch ripoffs lately so I just want to hear from some other people to see if they encountered this problem and maybe help out new sellers who dont know about it.

In case you dont know what the buy & switch ripoff is, it works like this. Lets say Bob has a $150.00 pair of Oakley sunglasses but he steps on them and cracks the lens. Bob decideds to get on ebay with a name he just created and he buys the same pair of Oakleys from you.

Well, as soon as Bob get's these Oakleys you just sold him he sends you an email stating that they were broke/missing pieces and he's sending them back for a refund but, in reality he's keeping your glasses and sending you his broken ones to get his money back and a free pair of Oakleys.

This will leave you with 2 options. You can either A. Tell him to fukk off, accept the fact that he will leave you negative feedback and hope paypal will be on your side when he files for a dispute to get his money back or B. pay him and cut your losses.

This has happened to me a few times and each time I refused to refund they're money because I know for a fact nothing was missing and or broken when I packed it. I just tell them that I know everything was there and since they didnt buy insurance there's nothing I can do about it.

Im pretty irate right now because someone just tried to pull this on me so I have to vent and warn others what to watch for.

[Mr. T]

One of the biggest problems of selling on ebay and using paypal is that ebay has turned the whole thing into a nightmare. All you have to do is say it wasn't as described and they will have paypal automaticly return your money.

My brother inlaw got burned pretty bad on that about a year ago. He was a power seller, he told me that in one month more than half of the items he sold, he had to return the money while 90% of them never returned the items.

I never list paypal as method of payment anymore. Cash or Certified check only. I still have the bogus international bank draft that someone tried to use to purchase a jeep I sold on there a year ago.

[calfoxwc]

I've been so tempted, but I avoided it. Thanks for the heads up, most of us could

have gotten scammed by not knowing this crap was going on.

[Speedyd900rr]

Trying to sell anything over the internet is becoming a pain in the ass anymore. I only use craigslist for cars and motorcycles but even then all I get are people that try to trade me a tv or something stupid for a car/bike. Even the ones that offer cash still try to get it for half price. I can understand trying to talk me down from $2000 to $1700 or $1800 when you come to look at it but when someones offers me $800 for something they havnt even seen and im asking $2000, I just want to smack them.

I even had some kid try to talk me into trading me his $90.00 wal-mart bicycle for a $2500 sport bike. It's when they do stuff like that I actually get a kick out of leading them on sometimes.

Here's a short story about a guy that wasted my whole day once. I got a kick out of it and figured everyone else might to. I had a motorcycle on Craigslist about 2 years ago and this guy said he had cash and wanted to come check it out. Well 2 hours go by and he never showed up. I called him and he said sorry but im running late. Another 2 hours later and nothing. I tried to call him back 5 times and he never answered his phone. I was pretty pissed off at this point so I listed a different bike really cheap and sure enough the same guy that just wasted 6 hours of my life sends me an email 10 minutes after I list the other bike and says he wants to come look at it.

Now keep in mind he has no idea that he's talking to the same guy he just dicked around for 6 hours. Since I couldnt give him my number to call I told him my phone was broke and I could only talk through e-mail so I gave him the address to an empty apartment next to my friends house an hour away from him and sure enough he showed up and my buddy watched him beat on the door.

Once he realized nobody was home he sent me a messege from his phone asking me where im at. I wrote him back and said sorry, I just moved and gave you my old address. It was then I decided to keep it going and gave him the address to a resturaunt about 35 minutes away and he put it in his GPS and drove all the way there. Once he realized what was going on he was pretty pissed off and sent me an email sayin im an asshole for wasting all his time and gas money and that he was going to kick my ass.

Well I didn't want to tell him who I really was or why I did it since I gave him my address 8 hours before all of this and I wasn't sure if he still had it so I forgot all about it and moved on. About 4 months later we decided to move so I wrote him back and told him I sent him all around town because of what he did to me and told him how I set him up so he can feel what it's like to have his time wasted and sure enough he wrote me back saying he still had my address and was going to come screw with my stuff. I told him I moved and that was the end of it. Im pretty sure he learned his lesson though lol.

I know it was a dick move on my part but if you know your not going to show up atleast have the decency to tell the person and not lead them on so they sit at home waiting around for nothing. I feel he actually deserved to have his time and money wasted so I dont feel bad.

I have so many stories I can tell about people ive met, dealt with, and some who tried to screw me over on Craigslist it's unreal.

Back to the subject though.....

I think im going to do what Mr. T does and stop accepting Paypal. Both Ebay and Paypal or so corrupt it's not even funny anymore. Ive lost out on a laptop, crash cage for a motorycle, and now a set of gauges for a motorcycle. The sad part is everyone selling the same gauges wants $150.00 and I let mine go for 35 bucks but he still wants to rip me off.

[Mr. T]

I would of sent the guy on a wild goose chase also. Good story Speedy.