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Possibly getting screwed by a member, deal done on fb though

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KaPH33n

KaPH33n

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I am not going to flat out say I've been had yet, but it sure seems that way. I want to give the member a chance to respond here, since they're not responding on Facebook anymore. Even though it shows me he has read the messages. As well as seek advice on how to proceed and not get screwed over.

The seller originally posted some dead CPS2 boards for sale on facebook. I contacted him on facebook messenger and told him I wanted to purchase. This was AUG 22, 2019. I am in the US and Seller is international. He asked me to pay via western union, which was my first red flag. I told him I wanted to pay through facebook messenger since that's where the deal was started. I instructed him how to hook up the messenger app to his bank account so that I could send him money that way. I don't know why but he then attached his paypal to the messenger account and not his bank. I was able to see his paypal id, so I suggested I just pay through paypal.

8/23/19. We agreed on a price and I sent paypal goods and services payment for the requested amount + 4% to cover fees.
This is when the runaround started happening. He said that he would ship the boards after a holiday on Monday.

8/26 supposed to ship originally
8/28 I messaged him asking if the boards had shipped and he said he needed to transfer the money from his paypal to his bank account... ok? he claimed he didn't have money to ship the boards until the payment cleared to his bank. He says it's going to take 7 days to transfer, another red flag.

Meanwhile he's trying to get me to commit to buying more and more and more stuff. Every conversation is him sending me pictures of things he has for sale.

9/4 Wednesday, he tells me the money is cleared to his bank account and he will ship the next day. This is the last correspondence I have had from him.
9/6 Friday I messaged him asking if the boards had shipped, no response.
9/7 Saturday I messaged him again asking about the boards, no response.
9/8 Sunday, today, I messaged him saying he has to respond or else something feels suspicious. Nothing.

Not sure what exactly to do at this point other than give him a few more hours to respond in some way or else I need to ask paypal to get my money back. There was never any tracking number attached to the paypal transaction, so I have that plus a copy of our communication.
 
For some banks it does take 4-7 days for transfers to clear from PayPal. For my old credit union it always took a week if not longer. So that's not necessarily a red flag.

But everything after that sure looks bad. And it's a super similar of a pattern to a user I've dealt with on here several times with mixed success (always through email though)...

Good thing is though it's only been twelve days. You're protected for 180 through PayPal.

Personally I'd give it a week. He can't ship on Sunday in most countries anyway, and some people work post office hours. But hey, you're covered whether you do it today or in a month, so aside from your time you won't be out anything at least.
 
Yeah, give him some time to get these out to you, Ive always seen plenty of international sellers always take up to like a week to ship stuff out, but the guy should at least respond. When I sell something I usally try to ship out at in 1-3 days, but does not always happens, sometime a week or longer because I often have to go get stuff from my storage unit, etc..or find the right packing box. You are protected through paypal so I would say not worry about it.
 
Thanks for the advice guys. I will wait until sometime this next week to start any kind of paypal claim. You’re right soonest he can ship is Monday. It’s just infuriating that he hasn’t responded at all.
 
KaPH33n said:
It’s just infuriating that he hasn’t responded at all.
Click to expand...
Absolutely understand that.

I'd recently bought a few PCB's from a European member via email. Kept emailing for tracking, never got a reply. Filed a claim with PayPal, and a week later got tracking info through PayPal. Showed up a few days later, post-marked the day after I paid. Never got a reply from the seller until two weeks after receipt. Whole thing ran maybe 7-8 weeks. Real weird.
 
Seller responded to me, basically said my payment was still pending and that he won't ship because the payment is pending. But the payment wouldn't be pending anymore if he would just add a tracking number. He said that other people paid (I'm guessing via gift payment) and that he already shipped their stuff. Maybe this is all true, maybe he's giving me the run around? I don't know... the fact is he is a very bad seller. He had horrible communications and then in the end told me to cancel the transaction through PayPal. So not only did he severely waste my time, I'm not even getting what I paid for. He also did other questionable things like sending me pictures of other people's names and addresses. I hope he didn't send my information to other strangers on the internet.

I started the refund process through paypal which begins with a message. I can then escalate it to a claim depending on how it goes. He's cooperating with the refund process which is good, but I told him I don't want a refund, I wanted the boards for the price we agreed upon earlier. He then refused to sell to me because I "don't trust him."

Debating whether to reveal the name so that people can avoid wasting their time... or just let it ride and ignore this person from now on.
 
That's... Wow. Well, this is why we throw in the 4%. Because now and again it saves us. It sounds like they realized they wouldn't be able to scam you and cut their losses by refunding now. Not one part of that sounds like a genuine transaction :/.

If you don't decide to name publicly I'd at least appreciate a PM. I've no interest in dealing with someone who sells like that to begin with, but giving away personal info puts them on my avoid at all costs list.

I'm glad you got things sorted now though than having another couple weeks wasted. :/
 
In a way, you can't entirely blame the seller for no longer wanting to finalise the transaction.

Communication should have been better, but a lack of communication doesn't always equal something underhanded taking place. PayPal do screw people over with international transactions, people have limited opportunities to post items out etc.

I'd say grab your refund and move on.

Your choice whether to name or not, but I can't see it being necessary. Doesn't appear to be a crime to report other than poor communication.

There's always three sides to every story (buyer / seller / fact) and personally I won't form an opinion until all sides of the story are known.
 
I mean, sure. There's a chance that other than abysmal communication everything was on the up and up. But sending other people's addresses is... Not normal. Not normal at all.
 
He was trying to prove that he was not a scammer and that he was sending people here on a-p their purchases. If he wants to come forward here and share his side of the story I welcome it. But from my perspective, it was nothing but him wasting my time.
 
True.

I've been on both side of the coin though so have empathy all around.

I once sold $800 worth of console gear. Payment made on a Sunday, items posted Monday and tracking forwarded to buyer. As soon as I messaged the tracking details the buyer performed a PayPal reversal and I lost all my money. I ended up getting my money back when I proved to PayPal (via tracking) that the goods had been delivered but it was still a nightmare to go through. The buyer also stalked any public 'for sale' post I had made citing I was a scammer and so forth.
 
Already send some Stuff in Other members here without the PayPal hassle.

But Means you're the first guy that have a deal to international costumer/buyer ,some process don't do as can be good for the both of us.

You initiate first that i scammed you, how can you be scammed even the PayPal still holds your payment for me.

Other members here already bought some stuff and already paid and then ready to shipped.

Well sorry if you're strict in trusting people,but other people make a very good cooperation sending their payment.

Sorry that's i can say , i sell stuff even the shipping killed me the fees just to give the people their stuff and i don't complain getting negatives in the shipping cost .

Hopefully for some people that saying good or bad things or trust to the seller or buyer sometimes way too out of hand.
 
KaPH33n said:
I am not going to flat out say I've been had yet, but it sure seems that way. I want to give the member a chance to respond here, since they're not responding on Facebook anymore. Even though it shows me he has read the messages. As well as seek advice on how to proceed and not get screwed over.

The seller originally posted some dead CPS2 boards for sale on facebook. I contacted him on facebook messenger and told him I wanted to purchase. This was AUG 22, 2019. I am in the US and Seller is international. He asked me to pay via western union, which was my first red flag. I told him I wanted to pay through facebook messenger since that's where the deal was started. I instructed him how to hook up the messenger app to his bank account so that I could send him money that way. I don't know why but he then attached his paypal to the messenger account and not his bank. I was able to see his paypal id, so I suggested I just pay through paypal.

8/23/19. We agreed on a price and I sent paypal goods and services payment for the requested amount + 4% to cover fees.
This is when the runaround started happening. He said that he would ship the boards after a holiday on Monday.

8/26 supposed to ship originally
8/28 I messaged him asking if the boards had shipped and he said he needed to transfer the money from his paypal to his bank account... ok? he claimed he didn't have money to ship the boards until the payment cleared to his bank. He says it's going to take 7 days to transfer, another red flag.

Meanwhile he's trying to get me to commit to buying more and more and more stuff. Every conversation is him sending me pictures of things he has for sale.

9/4 Wednesday, he tells me the money is cleared to his bank account and he will ship the next day. This is the last correspondence I have had from him.
9/6 Friday I messaged him asking if the boards had shipped, no response.
9/7 Saturday I messaged him again asking about the boards, no response.
9/8 Sunday, today, I messaged him saying he has to respond or else something feels suspicious. Nothing.

Not sure what exactly to do at this point other than give him a few more hours to respond in some way or else I need to ask paypal to get my money back. There was never any tracking number attached to the paypal transaction, so I have that plus a copy of our communication.
Click to expand...
what i show some of my stuff i had it all on-hand

That's all i can say to you Sir
 
lol, that is some double speak right there. i didn't "cooperate" because i sent a goods and services payment? Whatever man... Like I told you on facebook, don't sell stuff you can't ship.
 
rewrite said:
I mean, sure. There's a chance that other than abysmal communication everything was on the up and up. But sending other people's addresses is... Not normal. Not normal at all.
Click to expand...
sir here in the Philippines " proof of selling /receipts " or vouching is common ,even revealing the buyers name for integrity.

All i can say is this is my First transaction/selling here at AP , and having problems first hand.

Sorry
 
KaPH33n said:
lol, that is some double speak right there. i didn't "cooperate" because i sent a goods and services payment? Whatever man... Like I told you on facebook, don't sell stuff you can't ship.
Click to expand...
ok , now Happy?
 
ArcSys101 said:
rewrite said:
I mean, sure. There's a chance that other than abysmal communication everything was on the up and up. But sending other people's addresses is... Not normal. Not normal at all.
Click to expand...
sir here in the Philippines " proof of selling /receipts " or vouching is common ,even revealing the buyers name for integrity.
All i can say is this is my First transaction/selling here at AP , and having problems first hand.

Sorry
Click to expand...
I don't know what's common in the Philippines for sure, but most everywhere else I've dealt with buyers vouching for sellers is common, and sellers giving out buyers' personal information without their consent is very shady.
 
@KaPH33n Brother, get your refund and be done. Concentrate on getting the stuff you wanted elsewhere, cause it just looks like it’s not going to happen, thankfully you are protected through PayPal. Maybe post on here what you are looking for and you can possibly get what you want at the price you want.

@ArcSys101 looks like you were honestly having issues with not getting a cleared payment through PayPal for whatever reason, but it should not have taken longer than 7-10 days. You should have also had a bit clearer communication with the buyer. Also, If you felt you were losing money in the deal because of maybe shipping was much more expensive than you thought/quoted, you could have explained that to the buyer and try to work it out. If not, quickly decline to complete the transaction/issue a refund and move on. Sure the buyer will be upset, but you were upfront with it, no harm done other than time wasted. I have personally taken a loss a few times with offering free shipping, specially on larger items. Shipping is getting very expensive, specially internationally.

Sometimes these international transactions can be a process. Communications, cultural differences, logistics, expectations all play a role on how smooth or not a transaction goes.

My personal way/thoughts on selling:
For me, as a seller, PayPal fees added is sometimes fine depending on the amount or item being sold. But I’m almost always asking for payment as PayPal gift from members here on AP, simply because I don’t want to deal with people claiming that the item does not work or was not as described,etc... almost 6 months later after getting it simply because now they are done playing/using it and determine they no longer want it. It has happened to me a few times. And of course PayPal has sided with the buyer and I have had to give a refund and accept the item back. I choose to finish the transaction and not deal with the person again and just block them altogether.

Now I almost strictly sell stuff via PayPal gift, or don’t sell it. If the person says they will cover fees, I explain to them why I don’t accept it. And most often than not they agree to do PayPal gift, simply because my reputation is very important in this community as a whole and specially here on AP. If an item does not work as advertised I have had zero issues giving a full refund once I received the actual item I sent back, in the condition I sent it in. Now, I have had a couple people try to do the switcheroo on me and try to pass off a defective item they had over the one I sent them. I keep detailed pics of everything I send out to try and avoid these type of little scam.

I have been on on both sides, have had bad transactions as seller/buyer. This is a small community, and word spreads quickly for both the good and specially the bad. Be civil, legit and responsible in what you guys do, don’t try to fuck over anyone on purpose. Don’t let a bad transaction trip you up. Just learn from it for the next time so you know how to handle things. In the end It’s all about enjoying the games and having fun.

Apologies for the long post that you guys probably don’t give a fuck about, and maybe doesn’t help you in any way :P I just felt like sharing my fucking 2 cents :D
 
It was actually some dead boards (which I already have). I was doing it more for the games than myself. He listed them as dead CPS2 boards for sale, and I asked for pictures of the insides of the b boards and the roms. Which he did kindly provide for me. I was going to buy them to resurrect them and then let friends get them for a good price.

MVC and 19XX

Yeah, I'm over it. I'm moving onto other things, just waiting for my claim to process. It says it's currently waiting on the other party to respond? Not sure what that's all about. I hope this doesn't drag out the maximum amount of time like 2-3 weeks.

I'm receiving some CPS3 carts in the mail tomorrow and I need to do battery swaps on them before they die... I'm doing that for a friend too, but really more for the games. I don't want them to die if I can help it.
 
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