please help....

devilgirls1

hi every one....

on saturday i won an auction for a sony laptop and the seller only accepts cheque and postal order not paypal which i prefer. before the auction ended i asked if i could collect as it was only 45 mins away but received no reply but my boyfriend went ahead and won it for £590.

we emailed him straight away and asked if we could collect and pay him at the same time. got a reply back today saying send the cheque to a differant address and not the one on ebay and stated clearly that he will only accept a cheque and will post the item out.

this is his answer..

'If you send a cheque via recorderd delievery you will be covered - you can always stop the cheque if I say it hasn?t been received'.

he is willing to consider bank transfer but only if i email him at an alternative address.

please advise, i am extremely uncertain about sending the cheque especially to a differant address and email.

angelcake

You are right to be wary, it is against ebay policy to send a payment to a different address (they won't help you!). why don't you pull the contact details and ring him? esp if you live quite close and can pick up! you can say you will pay cash!

BTW there is a laptop for £499 in either woolworths or argos sale brochure (sorry can't remember which!) but if this sale doesn't go through this may be useful to know!!

soolin

This might be a genuine seller but frankly I wouldn't risk it.

Selling laptops and requiring a cheque for payment, and then asking for the cheque to be sent to a different address, it just worries me. If it does all go wrong you have no comeback, you can't recall the cheque if it has already gone through the clearing system and an ebay complaint will only net you £105 of your money back even assuming ebay find in your favour. A bank transfer is also no good as a buyer as you get absolutely no protection.

If your account is good and can take an NPB strike and a neg then walk away or else push for a face to face meeting. Obviously you cannot report the seller for anything though as he is perfectly entitled to refuse a face to face option, and he is also able to NPB you for refusing to adhere to his auction terms.

If you decide to go ahead then as has been suggested get his contact phone number and give him a call. Also double check his feedback, does he usually sell laptops as that might be encouraging, if fhowever he has feedback only as a buyer or for selling small items then he might be a scammer.

In future though, the time to be concerned about an auction is before you bid, not afterwards. If this is a genuine seller then he will rightly be very cross at being messed around by a buyer who tries to dictate terms after winning the item.

Soo

soolin

devilgirls1 wrote:

.

he is willing to consider bank transfer but only if i email him at an alternative address.

.

This is the most worrying bit about the sale, laptop, cheque payment to a different address only and a different email address are all hallmarks of a scam or a hijacked account.

Soo

bleugh

dont do it,

your gut instinct is telling you something isn't right, follow your instinct.

if the guy's genuine, he'll let you pay, in cash when you're picking it up.

he'll also let you power up the laptop and give a quick test

DONT send to an address other than the one on ebay. if he wants it to a different one, get him to change his ebay address

either way, when it does screw up, ebay won't want to know and you'll have to fork out a tenner to stop the cheque :-(

Hintza

I agree with angel....I wouldn't pay by anyother means than PayPal unless I was going to collect. As Angel says call him up and see if you can come to some arrangement.


The only trouble is by bidding and winning you have accepted his conditions so he will be justified in leaving you an NPB but maybe better taht than £600 down the drain.

One thing though check his feedback and previous auctions and see whether he uses PayPal in them. It could be an account that has been hijacked (not that likely though). Be careful!!

springtime_2

Having looked at the item you bought I would be careful as I just read his last feedback which is a negative and this.
"Not all items arrived. He promised to post but never did. I waited 7 weeks."

motorguy

i'd run a mile. there is far too much risk here. I'd run with the line that 'sorry but ebay states that payment must be sent to the registered ebay address and that you are happy to pay him cash on collection otherwise you will have to cancel the sale' better risking a neg than over £500 of your hard earned dosh!

Have you tried https://www.dell.co.uk/outlet? Check there regularly and you will be surprised what that sort of money will pick you up. Lots of ebayers buy there and sell on ebay.

If you really must buy from ebay, find a seller who specialises in laptops, and who's terms suit you. Also ask them about warranty - for example Dell require that any sold on laptops must have the new owners details registered with them. Lots of ebay sellers don't bother doing that and thus you could be buying a warrantyless laptop...

IcemaidenUK

have pm'd u hun. we got caught out too.

buggu

springtime wrote:

Having looked at the item you bought I would be careful as I just read his last feedback which is a negative and this.
"Not all items arrived. He promised to post but never did. I waited 7 weeks."

That should tell you his trying to conn you. If he is not happy with accepting cash or even a postal order during a collection in person (at a time to suit him) then walk away from the deal.

HairyHatMan

If, when you pull his contact details from eBay, you can't get through to him on the phone, you can report him for incorrect contact details which might get his account suspended which will also remove any neg feedback he might leave you.