Are fruitcakes running rampant on eBay lately? Selling, buying, listing, feedback, etc...

[Darth_Raichu]

It is sad to see the first few responses to this missing package were automatic scam alerts.  The seller had 1600 fedbacks at 100%. That took time and work to build.  At least take time and ask the seller first before coming into this conclusion.

Geez no wonder it is harder and harder to sell stuffs on eBay.

[feed]

Non English speaker, leaving positive feedback, but not quite spelling “nicely wrapped" correctly.

The w and second p, make all the difference. 
 
 

Edited May 27, 2017 by feed

[Phil B]

36 minutes ago, feed said:

Non English speaker, leaving positive feedback, but not quite spelling “nicely wrapped" correctly.

The w and second p, make all the difference. 
 
 

Be glad they didn't write "nicely warped"....

[Val-E]

51 minutes ago, feed said:

Non English speaker, leaving positive feedback, but not quite spelling “nicely wrapped" correctly.

The w and second p, make all the difference. 
 
 

A Cosby show box set?

[feed]

9 minutes ago, Val-E said:

A Cosby show box set?

I shouldn’t, because my Italian, well..  But what else can I do with this.  

 

[Val-E]

12 minutes ago, feed said:

I shouldn’t, because my Italian, well..  But what else can I do with this.  

 

You could leave "smooth and painless transaction" as your own feedback.

Edited May 27, 2017 by Val-E

[California92563]

13 minutes ago, feed said:

I shouldn’t, because my Italian, well..  But what else can I do with this.  

 

You must of wined and dined him first. 

[Huskers1236]

14 hours ago, Darth_Raichu said:

It is sad to see the first few responses to this missing package were automatic scam alerts.  The seller had 1600 fedbacks at 100%. That took time and work to build.  At least take time and ask the seller first before coming into this conclusion.

Geez no wonder it is harder and harder to sell stuffs on eBay.

I see no reason not to have this cross your mind.  We have all seen stories on both sides and many here have been affected by scams.  Better to be wary than to be aloof to the situation at hand.  Feedback means squat too.  Sellers with good, yet dated feedback have been hacked and scammers have used their accounts to seem as a trustworthy seller.  If this situation happened to me I would immediately worry I had been scammed but also try to find other solutions as well.  What is sad is that we have to think this way nowadays because of those guilty of the fraud.  Blame them, not those on high alert because of it.

[jaisonline]

one of my best ebay message exchanges ever. we can't even make this stuff up.  total fruitcake.

happened 3 months ago.   i was the buyer for a diagon alley set.

• - Sent by me at 7:47pm. "Hi. I just paid and did read your auction summary,  A couple of missing pieces is fine. I take it that all minifigures are included? I also assume the lego retail box will mailed inside a shipping box for protection. Please let me know me know before mailing this set.  Thanks,"
• - seller's reply 11:34pm - "Dip those on some oil the shlt will get you faint"
• - my follow-up 12:24am- "What?"
• - seller's reply 6:07am - "I am so sorry for that message I was under the influence last night and I confused my eBay messages with my text messages. I would like to apologize for saying those words to you"
• - seller's reply 6:09am - "Yes it's all in the box and it will packaged as well"

 

ha ha

[CrabslayerT]

3 minutes ago, jaisonline said:

one of my best ebay message exchanges ever. we can't even make this stuff up.  total fruitcake.

happened 3 months ago.   i was the buyer for a diagon alley set.

• - Sent by me at 7:47pm. "Hi. I just paid and did read your auction summary,  A couple of missing pieces is fine. I take it that all minifigures are included? I also assume the lego retail box will mailed inside a shipping box for protection. Please let me know me know before mailing this set.  Thanks,"
• - seller's reply 11:34pm - "Dip those on some oil the shlt will get you faint"
• - my follow-up 12:24am- "What?"
• - seller's reply 6:07am - "I am so sorry for that message I was under the influence last night and I confused my eBay messages with my text messages. I would like to apologize for saying those words to you"
• - seller's reply 6:09am - "Yes it's all in the box and it will packaged as well"

 

ha ha

I can empathize with him tbh........

[Darth_Raichu]

37 minutes ago, Huskers1236 said:

I see no reason not to have this cross your mind.  We have all seen stories on both sides and many here have been affected by scams.  Better to be wary than to be aloof to the situation at hand.  Feedback means squat too.  Sellers with good, yet dated feedback have been hacked and scammers have used their accounts to seem as a trustworthy seller.  If this situation happened to me I would immediately worry I had been scammed but also try to find other solutions as well.  What is sad is that we have to think this way nowadays because of those guilty of the fraud.  Blame them, not those on high alert because of it.

There is a difference between considering scam as possiblity and deciding seller was a scammer before giving them any chance to respond.

600 feedbacks in the last year should buy the seller some benefit of doubt. 

[KShine]

7 minutes ago, Darth_Raichu said:

There is a difference between considering scam as possiblity and deciding seller was a scammer before giving them any chance to respond.

600 feedbacks in the last year should buy the seller some benefit of doubt. 

Unless you live by Tabby's Law - "Whatever can be a scam, will be a scam".

[Val-E]

51 minutes ago, Darth_Raichu said:

There is a difference between considering scam as possiblity and deciding seller was a scammer before giving them any chance to respond.

600 feedbacks in the last year should buy the seller some benefit of doubt. 

To be fair, I did actually suggest checking buyer feedback/past transactions and check with the shipping company in my answer (the first) before taking things further.

[CrabslayerT]

SO I have been seeing loads more of this type of listing on eBay:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LEGO-DC-Comics-Super-Heroes-The-Tumbler-76023-Brand-New-amp-amp-w-/302325139981?hash=item4663fb8a0d:g:dJsAAOSwCQZZI4D-

All from China, all have zero feedback, all have only one listing, all have large sets priced around £20/30. So Whats the deal???????

[Poppy2612]

SO I have been seeing loads more of this type of listing on eBay:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LEGO-DC-Comics-Super-Heroes-The-Tumbler-76023-Brand-New-amp-amp-w-/302325139981?hash=item4663fb8a0d:g:dJsAAOSwCQZZI4D-
All from China, all have zero feedback, all have only one listing, all have large sets priced around £20/30. So Whats the deal???????

A scam perhaps?

[CrabslayerT]

1 hour ago, Poppy2612 said:

A scam perhaps?

A definite scam but how the hell does this one work? 

[John82]

35 minutes ago, CrabslayerT said:

A definite scam but how the hell does this one work? 

I wondered this too, I've been told scammers are getting the buyers contact details and applying for credit in their name??

[Poppy2612]

A definite scam but how the hell does this one work? 

I've noticed they often have a long delivery date. I guess this gives them time to withdraw the funds from PayPal account, then from the associated bank account. Buyers are protected and will get a refund but once the moneys been cashed out there's no way for ebay /PayPal to get it back. I'm sure its not only Lego that is being listed at bargain basement prices by these con artists and if they get enough transactions in and withdrawn over a short period it would be well worth the effort. That's my theory anyway

[LegoWalker4]

I received this message with an order on BrickLink.  If this is the wrong thread, please feel free to move it:

"Hello

I have orderer this to buy this morning. It is my first time buying here and also my English is not very good. 
I added some money to my Paypal account to make the payment but this delays about 5-7 days to have the money on my Paypal account.

Could you help me and explain to me how can I pay the delivery when I have the money on my Paypal account please?

Thanks in advice"

The buyer lives in Madrid, Spain.  I have dealt with foreign buyers before with no issues.  

Are there any red flags with this order, such as a scam?  Using Paypal can be a learning experience I guess.  I welcome your thoughts and advice, and know I am not responsible for any customs fees, etc.

[Val-E]

Maybe what they mean is it takes that long for paypal to approve the first linkage of paypal to bank account or credit card.

Suggest telling them you will reserve the item for them till they are able to pay (max 7 days) and ask them to contact you then to go through the payment procedure. A scammer will not be that patient, unless the value is really high. You could alwasyas ask for payment by friends and family, then you are in the clear whatever happens.

[Guest TabbyBoy]

I see that some of you mention taping boxes together - BAD MOVE !!!

Several couriers in the UK (eg. Collect+) either won't collect boxes that are taped together or refuse a claim if anything is lost or damaged. Taping boxes together is simply lazy and unprofessional IMHO. Using the correct size box for all items has paid huge dividends for me and is really worth the extra small outlay.

I also no longer use eBay for tangible items unless there's something that I really need to shift where it goes on as an auction with 1p start. Even if the price ends up being low (which is 99% of the time), I don't care when I just want it gone ;-)

As for selling Bitcoins, eBay is fantastic as there's so many stupid buyers wanting to get on the bandwagon who are prepared to pay over double the current value for 0.01 BTC (£40 instead of £19).

Call me a snob, but I won't look at any eBay seller with less than 99.9% feedback.

[gregpj]

1 hour ago, LegoWalker4 said:

I received this message with an order on BrickLink.  If this is the wrong thread, please feel free to move it:

"Hello

I have orderer this to buy this morning. It is my first time buying here and also my English is not very good. 
I added some money to my Paypal account to make the payment but this delays about 5-7 days to have the money on my Paypal account.

Could you help me and explain to me how can I pay the delivery when I have the money on my Paypal account please?

Thanks in advice"

The buyer lives in Madrid, Spain.  I have dealt with foreign buyers before with no issues.  

Are there any red flags with this order, such as a scam?  Using Paypal can be a learning experience I guess.  I welcome your thoughts and advice, and know I am not responsible for any customs fees, etc.

It sounds like someone who just doesn't understand PayPal... I can either pay instantly with PayPal grabbing funds from my credit card or bank account or paypal balance. Maybe they're thinking they must pay with the paypal balance in which case they transferred funds from their bank account to paypal. That can take 5-7 days to transfer money in either direction especially if its the first time as Val-E suggested.

Since they didn't ask you to ship it before the payment was made, I think the scam alert is low here.

[Fenix_2k1]

Anyone else on eBay UK find themselves spending a lot of time reporting fraudulent 10% of real price BIN UCS sets from 0 rated sellers in China?

You would have thought it would be easy for eBay to recognize the pattern and stop the items being listed at all.

Always see UCS Sandcrawlers being advertised for £26 BIN surely something so far below average price as a BIN from a new seller should be automatically flagged and checked.

[donbee]

I once reported this in another thread, relevant to recent discussion.

 

I ordered two office chairs from Kmart once. Only one arrived in a torn up box. I believe it was UPS, but may have been Fedex. I'm certain it wasn't USPS because I had to go to the far out distribution place to search for my missing office chair. Turns out, Kmart taped the two chair boxes together and sent it out under one tracking code. Which is against UPS's policy. So when the delivery guy noticed it at my front door, he literally ripped them apart and left me one and sent the other back to Kmart.

What was super annoying was The delivery service claimed that I refused the delivery. It was a long hassle talking to Kmart trying to get that chair back because it was a super deal, SYW points and stuff.

Ended up only getting refunded and lost all the potential points.

 

Moral of the story. Check the terms with the delivery service if they allow packages to be taped together as one.

 

[gregpj]

14 minutes ago, donbee said:

 

Moral of the story. Check the terms with the delivery service if they allow packages to be taped together as one.

 

Taping two complete boxes together is tacky but the posters were talking about taking two undersized boxes, cutting them and then taping together to make a single larger box. There is nothing wrong with doing this, but most delivery services will not honor any claims for damage if you make your own box like this. You've compromised box strength.

(Kmart probably has a flat fee for delivery which is perhaps why taping two boxes together would also be a big no-no... for most people it would be silly because it could push you into dimensional weight and that can really drive up the cost of delivery.)