Want an item on gumtree that seller has agreed to send by post. Should be ok?

GervisLooper

I know gumtree is no protection. Caveat emptor and all but I have boycotted ebay on principle that they heavily weight in favour of buyers even if they are scammers. So as protest I stopped using them having been scammed as a seller.

Now to stay consistent to my principles I should be willing to buy with no protection. I was intrigued to read that gumtree offers no buyer or seller protection. I feel this is fair and an even playing field.

I wouldn't spend loads doing this, the item is £30 and that is about the limit I would chance with no recourse.

The seller is listing a load of bric a brac other items unrelated to the computer part I want, as well as many other computer related items.

They didn't offer to sell by post. I am the one who asked if they would to which they agreed.

These details both indicate a genuine seller no?

caprikid1

"These details both indicate a genuine seller no?"

It is less risky but not without risk, buying S/H computer parts is always relatively high risk without protection of Ebay etc.

I would want the saving to be large to be worth the risk or it to be obsolete and therefore S/H was the only option.

If the item new was less than £100 I would not mess around on Gum Tree. 

GervisLooper

caprikid1 said:

"These details both indicate a genuine seller no?"

It is less risky but not without risk, buying S/H computer parts is always relatively high risk without protection of Ebay etc.

I would want the saving to be large to be worth the risk or it to be obsolete and therefore S/H was the only option.

If the item new was less than £100 I would not mess around on Gum Tree. 

Both these cases are true. It is discontinued, or rather only the older model suits my purposes as a firmware upgrade changed functionality considerably. I already bought new and had to be disappointed due to very little information on this change until I specifically searched the problem once I had it. Had to return the one.

Had been researching for days and not been able to find any seller of the old firmware but found this one 2nd hand seller.

Also will be half the price of new.

GadgetGuru

I would pay via PayPal if you can - cover the fee's if you need to - in order to give you some protection. Otherwise there's not much you can do, but go with the risk.

Ive sold various items via Gumtree and Facebook in the past where I wanted cash on collection - some items are £900+. I generally insist on the buyer calling me for an informal chat, we exchange personal details like address (even as the seller), phone numbers, etc - have a chat about the item, answer any questions, and so on. And I do this all as the seller.
Some buyers just want to pay and have item without bothering for anything else, but I like to do the above to reassure both the buyer, as well as myself. 

You could always ask to do this to reassure yourself, but with a £30 item I'd be tempted to go for it. Genuine scammers generally want to make a lot more for the trouble!

GervisLooper

GadgetGuru said:

I would pay via PayPal if you can - cover the fee's if you need to - in order to give you some protection. Otherwise there's not much you can do, but go with the risk.

Ive sold various items via Gumtree and Facebook in the past where I wanted cash on collection - some items are £900+. I generally insist on the buyer calling me for an informal chat, we exchange personal details like address (even as the seller), phone numbers, etc - have a chat about the item, answer any questions, and so on. And I do this all as the seller.
Some buyers just want to pay and have item without bothering for anything else, but I like to do the above to reassure both the buyer, as well as myself. 

You could always ask to do this to reassure yourself, but with a £30 item I'd be tempted to go for it. Genuine scammers generally want to make a lot more for the trouble!

Yes this is nice info. I was turned off selling onine altogether due to the horrible treatment of sellers by ebay and reading most other online marketplaces use the same "the buyer is always right" policy. They ride roughshod over seller's rights knowing they will still come no matter how bad they are treated since it keeps buyers happy and buyers bring sellers.

Having no protection, removing the unfair bias, means you can go back to good old time honoured traditions of using one's social acumen and common sense. I may try selling on gumtree with this in mind.

soolin

Personally I don’t think eBay favour buyers particularly, it’s just that buyers have rights and on eBay they are enforced, they are rarely enforced elsewhere particularly on places like FB marketplace and Gumtree. 

A good scammer portrays themselves as someone trustworthy, makes all the right noises, it’s bad scammers, the ones who we all shot instantly that tend to get mentioned.

Your only protection will be your choice of payment methods, only PayPal goods and services will cover you , paying bank transfers or PayPal friends and family will be the same as giving cash to a bloke in the pub who promises to deliver something to you ‘later’. 

GervisLooper

soolin said:

Personally I don’t think eBay favour buyers particularly, it’s just that buyers have rights and on eBay they are enforced, they are rarely enforced elsewhere particularly on places like FB marketplace and Gumtree. 

A good scammer portrays themselves as someone trustworthy, makes all the right noises, it’s bad scammers, the ones who we all shot instantly that tend to get mentioned.

Your only protection will be your choice of payment methods, only PayPal goods and services will cover you , paying bank transfers or PayPal friends and family will be the same as giving cash to a bloke in the pub who promises to deliver something to you ‘later’. 

Then you have rose tinted glasses. There are thousands of videos on youtube about how nefarious buyers will take item, break it, return it, demand refund then ebay always sides with the buyer and just automatically refund them full amount. INAD, item not as described, is abbreviated for a reason, because it is abused so much.

I am not saying it happens the majority of the time but when it does it stinks and there is a small cohort who do it professionally. I know it rolls off some sellers backs and they just attribute it to the cost of doing business but it ain't right I tells ye.

Yes indeed, I am actually suggesting to use bank transfer. This chap in the pub seems nice .

soolin

We all have our own experiences, I certainly wouldn’t send  a bank transfer to a complete stranger but if you are happy then that’s all that matters.

As for scammers, yes I’m not pretending they don’t exist but with probably heading up to 100,000 sales on various online sites the amount of out and out scammers I’ve met are a minuscule percentage. 

Vectis

GervisLooper said:

soolin said:

Personally I don’t think eBay favour buyers particularly, it’s just that buyers have rights and on eBay they are enforced, they are rarely enforced elsewhere particularly on places like FB marketplace and Gumtree. 

A good scammer portrays themselves as someone trustworthy, makes all the right noises, it’s bad scammers, the ones who we all shot instantly that tend to get mentioned.

Your only protection will be your choice of payment methods, only PayPal goods and services will cover you , paying bank transfers or PayPal friends and family will be the same as giving cash to a bloke in the pub who promises to deliver something to you ‘later’. 

Then you have rose tinted glasses. There are thousands of videos on youtube about how nefarious buyers will take item, break it, return it, demand refund then ebay always sides with the buyer and just automatically refund them full amount. INAD, item not as described, is abbreviated for a reason, because it is abused so much.

I am not saying it happens the majority of the time but when it does it stinks and there is a small cohort who do it professionally. I know it rolls off some sellers backs and they just attribute it to the cost of doing business but it ain't right I tells ye.

Yes indeed, I am actually suggesting to use bank transfer. This chap in the pub seems nice .

So, why are you even coming on here asking the question?

You’ve been given an opinion from a very experienced person, and you've basically mocked it.

There was no point in even posting the initial question as your minds already firmly made up.

BlueonBlue

Alot of answers on here dont come from long term and current gumtree sellers  that just declutter .
On here you get alot of money making ebay or other platform sellers which comes with risk because of the high volume of sales 

Some gumtree buyers after chatting on the phone just send the money by bank transfer while still on the phone to the seller who confirms payment received.
Then the seller sends photos of proof of postage from RM using whatever postal service the buyer wants .

Not everyone is dishonest .
I once had to send the bank transfer payment back to the buyers bank by bank transfer as I found the item was damaged .
Although bank transfer payments are not as common as years ago... so long as the partys do comms and use common sense, bank transfer is fine .

Otherwise use paypal but often with low value items people dont want the extra costs so do it as above personally after a chat over the phone .

GadgetGuru

GervisLooper said:

There are thousands of videos on youtube about how nefarious buyers will take item, break it, return it, demand refund then ebay always sides with the buyer and just automatically refund them full amount. INAD, item not as described, is abbreviated for a reason, because it is abused so much.

I am not saying it happens the majority of the time but when it does it stinks and there is a small cohort who do it professionally. I know it rolls off some sellers backs and they just attribute it to the cost of doing business but it ain't right I tells ye.

Yes indeed, I am actually suggesting to use bank transfer. This chap in the pub seems nice .

As someone who occasionally sells the odd [sometimes expensive] tech items via eBay as a private seller, I have been subject to this exact issue. Not a whole lot to be fair, but it has happened to me once or twice in the past. 
Sometimes items are broken on purpose just so the buyer gets a free return. 
Sometimes there is absolutely nothing wrong with the item whatsoever - it comes back to me completely untouched, yet the buyer states reason as INAD. On one occasion I received an item back with the box completely ripped apart so I couldn't resell it again at the same value.  They get an instant refund, and I'm out postage both ways, even though I've attempted to call and explain it to eBay. 

It's wayyyyy too easy for any buyer to do this - no returns on eBay means absolutely nothing, as the buyer has a clear way to return any item, completely free of charge, and the seller can do nothing about it. 

On the flip side, I've had eBay refund a buyer and let me keep the sale too (the ripped box affecting value scenario) - they suffer the cost of the item, which is evidence of them helping a seller - but these cases are few and far between.....