posted on November 8, 2000 07:50:16 AM new
I hope someone out there can help. I have two seperate problems. One of which is not yet a problem, but which I don't understand. Approx. 3 days ago we bid upon and won an item costing a substantial amount of money. Well since 2 days ago we have been receiving warnings from someone about this seller. We checked on the person that sent the warnings and they have good feedback, not alot, but still good. Right now we are just waiting to see if we get the item or not. We have been burned once before on Ebay, but, I guess like idiots stepped out on faith once more. Is sending warnings like this with large purchases common?
The other question is about an auction of which we are the seller. We keep sending email to the buyer, but the email comes back, not as refused, but like an attachment, but with no message. Has anyone ever experienced this before? What does it mean? This buyer has not contacted us, but of course it has only been 4 days. We are just concerned that maybe they are not receiving the email and some how it is just being bounced (couldn't resist!) back!! I don't know if that is possible. HELP!!
posted on November 8, 2000 08:30:20 AM new
As to the first "almost" problem, you have checked on the person sending you the warnings but did you check to see if they are a competitor of the seller? Or if they've ever bid on anything from this seller?
I would be suspect of their warnings until I knew more about them. What is the seller's feedback like?
As to the second problem, send them a message saying exactly what their email is doing. If that doesn't work, go to ebay & use the "send this email to a friend" to try & contact them. Or, search & see if they've won other items & see if those sellers have been able to get in contact w/them.
Lately, I've noticed the number of times I've had to contact (or been contacted by) other sellers is increasing.
posted on November 8, 2000 08:47:46 AM new
eventer:
Thank you for your reply. Didn't think to check if the emailer was a competitor of the seller. The seller, unfortunately, is new and only has one feedback (just call me stupid!!!) We were so excited about acquiring this particular item, that we steped out on faith.
As for the email to the buyer, I will try your suggestions. We really do appreciate your help!!
posted on November 8, 2000 09:04:59 AM new
Well, we ALL started out with shades & zero feedback. I would also run a check on the seller including their closed auctions. See if they had anything else up for sale & check w/any other buyers if you are nervous.
If you are REALLY nervous, you might try to politely suggest escrow or if you don't feel real comfortable doing that, can you use a charge card to pay? Atleast if something goes amiss, you might have some recourse.
BTW, if it DOES turn out the "warner" is a competitor, I'd seriously consider forwarding the warnings to SafeHarbor w/all the header information.
posted on November 8, 2000 09:15:15 AM new
I don't know if this is going help you, but since your question ties directly to what is happening to me, here are a few other things to check out with your first problem.
First, see if the person issuing the warning about the seller has sold any items to this seller in the past. Check the feedback forum. If he has, then your seller, particularly if he is selling camera equipment, may be a problem
Let me explain.
About three months ago (August) my business PO Box started recieving strange items. I figured out that eBay sellers were sending me these things because the buyer had used my husbands credit card to set up his purchases on CCNOW. This person got NARU'd, but he started up again in September. This time he used PayPal and this company has behaved like a pile of poop to me. I finally e-mailed the individual and asked him to leave us alone as we are very poor and there is nothing he can charge that we won't catch right away. Almost all the items purchased were for under a dollar, so I didn't really worry too much. The items he bought were sent back to the sellers and I contacted the sellers and let them know what happened.
So, Paypal did nothing, but I figured he was some kid and my e-mail made him go away.
Not true, last night I checked out his feedback and much to my surprise this person is now selling high end camera equipment. The shilling is obvious on some of the items. I am not even sure if real transactions are taking place, or if he is still building up feedback.
It may be that one of the sellers that I contacted in September has picked up the ball that I dropped and he is warning you about this person for a good reason.
I'll be contacting SafeHarbor and other authorities today. I don't think I can give you the name of this user in this forum without getting into trouble, but if you contact me I'll get more specific. I can be contacted at [email protected]
Moderator - Please tell me how much more information I can give out in this forum.
[ edited by tootstreas on Nov 8, 2000 09:29 AM ]
posted on November 8, 2000 12:24:25 PM new
Return of K-r?
About a year ago, a seller named K-r was selling on ebay and yahoo. Since he accepted credit cards directly, people thought he was legit. What he did was take his buyer's CC and use it to purchase the item at a web site. Since it was being shipped to the same address as the cardholder, the web site went right ahead and shipped it. Buyer received the item and gave good feedback. More people started buying.
Eventually the details of the scam became known. If someone paid by money order, they received nothing. Even those who paid by CC were scammed because they thought they were getting it at a bargain price but in the end they paid much more. But that wasn't the end. Once K-r had set up the account at the web site, he then started ordering stuff shipped to his own PO Box. Since the account had been validated by the first purchase, it wasn't flagged and these items were shipped. Some of the cardholders tried charging it back and were told that though they are protected against theft of their credit card or unauthorized use, they are not protected if they willingly gave out the number to someone else who they didnt know.
As a merchant, I am very surprised at the number of folks who email me their CC info, even though I ask them not to. Don't assume that you are protected with a $50 limit if you do this. And a good crook can pull off an identify fraud that can ruin your credit for YEARS.
posted on November 8, 2000 12:56:11 PM new
I would like to thank everyone for their feedback. We did follow up on most all of the suggestions. (we have already paid for the item) We did find, in the case of the email warnings, that the one emailing us is a former customer of our seller. However, there has been no negs posted by the same emailer to the seller. As for the email that continues to return, we did finally get ahold of the buyer. He refused to pay for the item claiming that he does not know how to type and typed the wrong amount in for the bid. We also found out that he is from out of the country. We specifically state in our auctions that we do not accept bids from out of the country and just assumed that our bidders new that. I guess the old saying of "you know what assume means - ass-u-me" applies to us. Now I guess we have to wait the ten days before we can request a refund from Ebay. So I guess for both problems, we just begin a waiting game.
We have not been selling very long, but it just seems that we are beginning to face more and more problems. Do these things just come in waves, or is this happening to everyone more frequently? I guess at this point we are totally gun shy of buying anything on Ebay: AND WE ARE SELLERS TOO!! Any comments or insights?
posted on November 8, 2000 01:12:53 PM new
The famous article everyone quotes about Internet fraud states that the FBI gets over 40,000 reports of fraud a year. However, the part most folks leave out is that a quick review shows that less than 1,000 of these can even be considered fraud. More than 39,000 of them turn out to be buyers who didnt read the description or didnt understand what they were doing. But these scare articles have people worried and as a result, bidding has gone way down.
I wrote a guide to auctions which is available free on my web site www.ygoodman.com/auctgide.html. It discusses how auctions work or should work), both buyer and seller responsibility and how to avoid being scammed. I urge all my bidders to read it. You are invited to link to it to show it to your customers. I would also like others to comment on it or submit information that could be included. I will give credit and a link to your website.
posted on November 8, 2000 01:41:26 PM new
Low good feedback doesn't mean the guy that Emailed you isn't a nut. Almost all of my difficult customers have good feedback. Generally they scare me so much I'm afraid to leave bad feedback, I just right it off. And I suspect others did the same. So the guy that Emailed you is most likely a hothead trying to get revenge on the seller beacuse he didn't read the description of the item.
If you really want it then Pay the Extra $5 for iescrow service.
posted on November 8, 2000 02:07:54 PM new
unknown: Thank you for participating on this thread. I did finally receive email from the other buyer. He gave me a lengthy explanation of what happened to him and research that he had done on this seller. Boy, I've got to say that it all sounds too convincing. He even figured that the seller does not even reside in the USA, based on his research and information from another buyer. I think we really blew this one. I just don't know what to do at this point. Like I said, we already paid for the item using PayPal. And no, like the idiots that we are, the seller is not verified so PayPal will not do anything now or in the future. We really do feel like the world's biggest fools!! But what we would really like to know, is this happening more frequently, or is it just us? Do we have "stupid" stamped on us that all these schisters can see?
posted on November 8, 2000 04:43:51 PM newNow I guess we have to wait the ten days before we can request a refund from Ebay. So I guess for both problems, we just begin a waiting game
No you don't. You can use the "buyer/seller have agreed not to continue" option on the NPB & it will pretty much free you up right away. I think you have to wait the 7 days after EOA to file the NPB, but using this, you can get a credit w/o having to go further.
As for your seller, why not pull the contact information & see what is there. You might give a call & voice your concerns. If you can't get to them, time to notify SafeHarbor about fraudulent contact info.
Nah, we all get caught up in something like this from time to time. Don't forget about Lloyds if this goes south.
posted on November 9, 2000 08:38:41 AM new
eventer: Thank you once more!! I will see if I can find that place on the NPB to go ahead and file right a way. As for the seller problem, we have decided to just wait. We already pulled their information. Thanx again, it just seems that we are getting a tidal wave of these type of situations. It is very discouraging, to say the least!! However, we would like to say one thing. This board has been a God send. At least someone answers questions. We have posted on other boards and have never gotten a reply. We are so glad that we have come over to AW.
posted on November 9, 2000 09:09:27 AM new
tootstreas,
From the Community Guidelines:
You will be considered in breach of these Guidelines if you do any of the following:
Post the identities and/or auction numbers, or any other material identifying persons involved in a situation that may be of interest to the AuctionWatch.com community, unless the following steps are taken: The invitation procedure follows this paragraph.
Here is a link to the CG's if you wish to read the requirements.
(couldn't resist!) back!! I don't know if that is possible. HELP!!
