Western Union payment from fishy bidder?

sprintstar

I've just sold a relatively high value item, and despite stating in the auction description that I could only accept paypal payments from overseas bidders, the high bidder is from France and has e-mailed me to say he can't pay by paypal. It would have saved so much trouble if he'd just asked if I could accept payments other than paypal. I would have said no, and that would be that, but now I'm not sure what to do. His e-mail to me seems genuine enough, but it's a bit strange how he just said "I can't pay by paypal" without explaining why.

His feedback is private and he's received 3 negs in the past month, so already alarm bells are ringing. He says he can pay by bank transfer (no thanks! not giving out my bank details to a fishy buyer no matter how safe it might be), or by Western Union. Has anyone had any experience with Western Union? I've checked their site and it seems to involve picking up a cash payment from a local branch, but how safe is it, are there any problems with it? If it is safe why are Nigerian scammers loving it so much?

Should I say to the buyer ok, and then wait to see if payment arrives? Or just file a second chance offer to the next highest bidder before he loses interest (who is from the UK and genuine). I'm just quite keen to avoid the hassle of a relist because I did some external promotion for this item, and I'm moving quite soon so bit short on time. I would never ship anything until I had the money in my hands, but what would you do in my shoes?

skap7309

Western Union is seriously frowned upon by ebay officials so there must be something seriously wrong with it (taking buisness away from paypal maybe?!) but just to be on the safe side i would declare a big no and state the auction rules clearly.

It always worries me why buyers/sellers need to put their feedback private so i can see why alarm bells are ringing.

I got so fed up with scammers, fraudsters and cheats that i tick all the following boxes on EVERY auction and have not had a hint of trouble since;

Block buyers who:
Have a feedback score of -1 or lower
Have received 2 Unpaid Item strikes in the last 30 days
Don't have a PayPal account

Dont do it.

soolin

A bank transfer should be fine, wait until money hits your account and then ship 1 full working day later.

Western Union is the scammers friend, so don't even go there.

However, if you stated clearly paypal only, then you are completely within your rights to refuse any other payment method.

Soo

bleugh

western union is just fine, BUT

make sure you actually go to a western union branch and get the cash in your hand, only then ship the goods.

I've had a fair few people use western union of late as a lower cost alternative to paypal


there are two reasons why ebay 'bans' it

1 - they don't get any fees from it
2 - they cant make money from it

oh, there's a slight amount of 'its slightly complicateded, and confuses people a bit so that they're more easily scammed'

Bossyboots

I don't understand this slating of Western Union. Seems to me to be ideal. They pay the money in where they are and send you the password. You go to a local western union and collect the money. Then you send the goods. It seems to be to be safer than paypal as the payment cannot be recalled for any reason at all. The only downside is you have to go and collect the money but that surely has to be preferable to a later chargeback for "lost in the post" or anything else the buyer comes up with to get the item for free.

martindow

Surely Western Union is fine if you are the seller. You receive cash and then send the goods. It is no different to accepting a bank transfer apart from having to go to an office to collect the money.

If you are the buyer it is very risky - you have paid and then have to trust the seller who now has cash in his hand to post the item you have bought.

Hintza

martindow wrote:

Surely Western Union is fine if you are the seller. You receive cash and then send the goods. It is no different to accepting a bank transfer apart from having to go to an office to collect the money.

If you are the buyer it is very risky - you have paid and then have to trust the seller who now has cash in his hand to post the item you have bought.

Exactly, western unionis used throughout the world to transfer cash and there is no problem with it as a means of receiving money. It is the buyer at risk.

Bank transfer is fine too.

You have to remember that PayPal is not as commonly used on the continent. I would accept any method as long as I had the cash in my hand before posting.

sprintstar

Thanks for your replies, I will give it a try and will let you know how I get on! How long does it usually take for Western Union payments to arrive after the buyer initiates payment?

nomoneytoday

WU payments are almost instananeous.

Just don't send the goods until you have the cash in your hands. A number of scammers can send fake WU emails to make you think the cash is available.

If it is a "normal" ebayer you may find he is just trying to get payment to you the best way they can..

syanide

for a bank transfer all u need is the IBAN number.. i get money transfered all the time internationaly from places like holland.. dont let some french scammer do you over

sprintstar

I e-mail the buyer to say that I could accept Western Union, and he said he'd send payment straight away, I checked on their site and it said payment had been sent, so I went to collect the payment from my local currency changer, and it all processed smoothly, and I now have the cash in my hands.

Based on this experience of Western Union, I would have to say...I thoroughly recommended it! Slight pain having to collect your payment, but it's totally safe if you're not careless, because of the ability to track it online. Saved about £5 in paypal fees too, plus I don't have to wait for the funds to clear from paypal to my account, result all round I'd say!

Thanks again to those who suggested Western Union was safe, I don't think I would have ever tried it out otherwise.