I have a gut feeling I’ll be scammed as a seller. This buyer with just 2 months feedback has purchased an £850 item from me. Should I cancel the deal?
I sell to low/no feedback buyers all the time. Sometimes $1,000+ transactions. Ship tracked to protect yourself and I personally wouldn’t be worried unless you are talking about a non GSP international sale. Then I would personally be worried.
Thanks, how hard would it be to get my money back should it be a bogus buyer? And the buyer claims they were sent the wrong item etc or it isn’t in the packaging.
The buyer paid by PayPal. I am planning on sending fully tracked and insured by royal mail (I’m in UK, so it’s buyer).
You mean how hard would it be for you to get your item back if you’re scammed? Very difficult. eBay and Paypal are notorious for serving as free platforms for buyer scams.
Tracking has very little, if anything, to do with protection from scams. It’s literally just confirmation that you shipped something to the buyer. All the buyer has to do is open up a claim and lie very insistently that you shipped him the wrong item or nothing at all, and eBay will jump at the chance to placate him with a refund: all in exchange for him tacitly keeping your item and shipping you a box full of sand instead. It’s so easy, any bored teenager with reasonable access to his mother’s purse could get away with it: which is why I refuse to ship anything worth more than a few hundred dollars to 0 feedback buyers.
You need to decide your own monetary threshold for sustaining losses. Would losing £850 be something you could recover from? If not, then go with your gut and cancel.
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Do a little research on the buyer. See if the address he provided can be found on Google earth. Look up his name for a phone number. Just do what you can to be sure this person exists.
just ship it with tracking. Aslong as its delivered, paypal has ur back!
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don’t think the buyer is a scammer, he already bought stuff from other cards seller that gave him positive feedback.
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Not true. Like it was already mentioned, all the buyer has to say is “he sent me the wrong item” or “item came damaged in the mail” and almost every time the case will favor the buyer, unfortunately.
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Thanks for all the answers and feedback on this issue. I know seller protection is non existent on eBay even with having a good feedback score 500+. Perhaps they should offer greater seller protection to trusted users with 500+ feedback score?
I’ve looked at the purchases this user has made and the user has spent approx. £600 prior to my purchase in the previous 1-2 months.
As a result of the history and despite the user having just 4 feedback I will be sending the item.
I think tamper proof seals and filming me package an item will bullet proof me from any fraudant claims in future.
Saying that civil action/criminal investigation is possible in the UK. So I will always have that to fall upon if need be
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Side question… I just sold a card to someone for 75 bucks and they buyer has ZERO feedback and has been a user for several years. I find having no feedback and an old account to be very suspicious. I sent a message to them and have no heard back yet in 2 days. I feel like I should cancel the sale.
Agree?
Sell to people with little or no feedback regularly I think it’s pretty normal!
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I def have sold to people with low feedback a lot. I sold a 6 grand pizza oven to someone with a fresh account
really up to you though man, people who are really determined to scam can do it, but most people are honest
kind of have to factor in the risk as part of your business
Filming does nothing. Seller protection exists as well. Send tracked and you will be covered. Especially with 500+ feedback.
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This question pops up quite frequently, anyone who sells regularly will tell you that its common for zero feedback buyers to purchase high value items without a problem, sometimes even buying them outright when there’s a best offer option
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I made a similar thread not too long ago
www.elitefourum.com/t/mitigating-zero-feedback-buyer-risk/22032/1
I ended up selling and it was a smooth experience
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There are some risks with selling to low feedback buyers - usually transactions are smooth and everything is fine. On the flip side there are the dodgy buyers who look to scam. I posted a thread a while back explaining my situation with a buyer through GSP.
Although in the end I did get my money back, the steps taken to be able to claim the money back through eBay were trying to say the least.
I hope this helps.
A.
lol despite what switch said , I’ve only had positive experiences. On the only dispute I had to open, Ebay refunded both parties.
The person I mentioned was flagged by eBay and the sale was automatically voided. I was literally about to ship to them too and suddenly I couldn’t find the transaction anymore. ebay totally removed it in order to keep me from shipping. They were concerned the account was fraudulent that bought from me.