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Cobra

Cobra

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A couple of weeks ago, I sold a large item for a few hundred quid.
"Item located in the UK, winning bidder to collect and pay cash on collection"
Seems simple enough?

I was only when I contacted the winning bidder I discovered that they were in Barbados ..
Seriously? WTF!

Sensing a scam,I applied to ebay to have the bid cancelled, on the grounds that it wasn't a UK bidder, which the bidder agreed to within a few hours.
Shortly after I offered a second chance offer,to the next highest bidder, the deadline came and went, to which there was no response.
(Fortunately I managed to sell the item locally)

A couple of things, the Barbados buyer contacted me about 10 days later complaining about the fact that I never gave him the chance to pay,
claiming that he had a cousin in London who would do the deal for him.
And adding "lets see what eBay has to say about this!"
Well you blew it sunshine, by agreeing to cancel your bid!

A couple of things spring to mind here,
He agreed to cancel hoping to get the item cheaper .. maybe?
It was an out and out scam, and he was still trying it on, I'll never know as I never replied to him.
 
Not sure how it'd be a scam. Mind you I always think that even if people are going to pay in cash in person that they'd turn up armed and just rob me. So I stopped selling high ticket items on fleabay.
 
Probably a scam, brother collects locally (bonus points he'll try and knock the price down) and then some time later Mr Barbados puts in a claim saying you never sent it and you don't have any proof to say otherwise. The odds are stacked against a seller with eBay.

Or it was legit and it doesn't matter anyway as you sold locally :)
 
Advertised as cash on collection though.
Well known scam for people to pay using paypal collect item and then tell paypal they have not received the item.

I usually state UK only but still get buyers from all over the place, if not high value item and their FB is ok usually send it trackable so got a good chance of refund hopefully.
 
Sharky said:
The odds are stacked against a seller with eBay.
Click to expand...
exactly!
And to be happy to cancel the bid to start with, and then 10 days later "kick off" It smells a bit, TBH, even if it is in hind sight.
It just wasn't worth the risk IMO.
 
neil_g said:
You can specify somewhere in the account seller settings to block non UK bidders.
Click to expand...
I didn't know that, I rarely sell on there. Lesson learned for me though ;)
 
I don't mind buying on the bay but of the few items I sold many moons ago, most were positive apart from one who griped about a piece of jewellery of the wifes.
It was pristine and not expensive, I just told them that if they wanted to take it further to contact my lawyer who had been passed their vitriolic correspondence along with photos, proof of posting etc...
That was along time ago though, the sales aren't even registered on my account, it says I haven't sold anything according to my rating.

So no selling on there by me.
 
neil_g said:
You can specify somewhere in the account seller settings to block non UK bidders.
Click to expand...

Yeah have used before will have to look at it properly next time I sell. To be fair though-tempting fate- all been good so far.
 
I had a hamster cage and a load of hamster toys that finished at £17 , 2 big boxes , tubes, wheels , balls , collection only

I check the buyers address and , Puerto Rico FFS so I just cancelled the sale

I get a neg feedback with him moaning about me canceling the sale , I probably should have given him the opportunity to pay but thought it unlikely due to the postage being £120 on a hamster cage
 
wack61 said:
I had a hamster cage and a load of hamster toys that finished at £17 , 2 big boxes , tubes, wheels , balls , collection only

I check the buyers address and , Puerto Rico FFS so I just cancelled the sale

I get a neg feedback with him moaning about me canceling the sale , I probably should have given him the opportunity to pay but thought it unlikely due to the postage being £120 on a hamster cage
Click to expand...
Easy peasy sign up for e.global you send your item to a u.k depot via signed for del ,e.bay send you a receipt of delivery they then send it on at buyers cost signed for delivery world wide .as the item is checked and re.packaged by e.bay the resposibility is there's
 
Happened a few times with me.

I always list UK only but have resorted to stating this clearly in the description also.

It always the heavy things the overseas people bid on, the stuff which would cost more the post than they paid for it.
 
10 years ago I sold a load of cine film on ebay , 20+ rolls unopened, winning bidder was in mexico but it made a lot more than I thought it would so insured post was a lot, £30 IIRC

he received it , less than 24 hours later he said he wanted to return it, I should have said do one but accepted the return on the condition I wouldn't be refunding any postage which he agreed to

2 days later a DHL parcel turns up , he'd paid $70 to send it back, problem was he'd declared the value as $300 plus the post and DHL wanted the duty and VAT

it took 6 months of emails and phone calls before they dropped it because they were my goods , at one point I even got threatened with bailiffs

Just when I thought I'd got through to somebody I didn't owe them anything another letter would arrive demanding money
 
I sold a TLR on ebay (MPP Microcord).

Despite the UK only sale condition the buyer was Chinese, I declined to complete the sale but he paid and said a relation in London would accept delivery. Some weeks later I got a query as to the whereabouts of the camera asking for it to be delivered.

Just by chance the PO returned the camera two days later as undeliverable. I told the buyer this and refunded this purchase fee less postage as it was his fault. He was quite upset, still wanted the camera and supplied a different address and accepted a revised invoice including the new postage (so he paid postage twice). He put it down to language problems and mistyping his cousin's address.

I posted it again and he eventually received it and was quite happy.

Genuine misunderstandings do occur but I wouldn't post again to a different address. Far to much hassle even with a genuine buyer as mine was.
 
I will only post to an ebay registered address.:police:
 
I sold a rather expensive guitar on eBay a while ago with a strict 'UK bidders only' thing in the listing. It got sniped at the last minute by someone in Hong Kong.

Actually turned out fine in the end, as the bloke was flying over for business the weekend and picked it up on the way through from the airport, but had me worried for a few hours. :D
 
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