Thursday, February 17, 2011

Am I Being Scammed?

I listed a guitar for sale on eBay at the end of January.  I had finally decided it was time to get busy with cleaning out the house of my husband's belongings -- he passed away in June 2010. The guitar was the first item I offered for sale.  My asking price included the option for "Best Offer" and I received, within the first two days of the listing, an offer of a little over half what I'd asked.  Before I had responded to that offer, the item was ended with a "Buy It Now" by another buyer, who agreed to buy it at full asking price.

Immediately upon the sale, the buyer sent me a note requesting I await payment until the following Friday, "payday" as he called it.  I agreed to wait the week and sure enough, on Friday, February 11, I received the promised payment.  I packaged the guitar with care, tuned down the strings as the buyer had requested, and included in the case a photo of my husband, John, as he had indicated he'd like to have that with the guitar.


Monday morning the guitar was delivered to Fedex for shipping.  The package was properly insured and I tracked its progress from my origination to the delivery destination.  It arrived and was signed for on February 16.  I left positive feedback for my buyer and went to bed, happy the guitar had made it there safely.

Today I was out of the house all day.  I took a day off work and drove up to Maryland to see my father, who'd recently suffered a stroke.  It was an emotional day for me. Seven total hours of driving, and a three hour visit with Dad, and I arrived home tired.  I logged onto my computer to discover my buyer had sent me an eBay message indicating that he did not feel the guitar was worth what he paid for it.  I, of course, sent him a return message, agreeing, as is my policy, to take return of the guitar, at which time I will refund his payment.  Then I discovered the buyer had opened an eBay dispute, indicating that the item was not as described.

When I logged into my Paypal account, I was greeted by a negative balance.... it seems that today, Paypal put a hold on the payment the buyer had sent, and which I had already withdrawn.... leaving my Paypal account in a negative balance standing, preventing me from being able to do much of anything.

Of course, I have responded to the dispute, explaining, in 1000 words or less, what transpired.

At this point, I will be happy to get the guitar back.  It is a beautiful instrument.

I will have to await to see whether I am actually being scammed.  I sure hope not.  I hope the buyer is legitimate, returns the instrument and accepts the refund... but I don't think I will be selling any more big ticket items on eBay again.

Here is the link to the item....
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=370480693824


8 comments:

  1. Hi,
    He knows the ropes. Hope you also contacted ' ebay fraud' .. suspected.
    The price is correct. Sooo, this is a wait and see.
    Did you call PP ? That settled a few issues for me in the past. Ebay fraud will do the same. Or would.
    Sorry, this is very unfair.
    Just thought " not worth it" sounds a clear case of buyers remorse. Good luck.

    pen

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  2. Sorry Judy, that's ONE of the reason's I quit selling regular jewelry on ebay. It's too wide, she doesn't like it, blah, blah.

    I think they may have bought it just to check it out or see what the guitar store would sell it for. With free shipping? Why not? When I was going to send a stinky air cleaner back - they were going to take a 15% re-stocking fee and I had to ship w/insurance etc etc, so we just kept the bleep thing. I hope you mentioned a re-stocking fee etc.

    I sure hope you get it back in the condition you sent it and not broken or messed up or parts missing.

    I have been screwed so many times, it makes me not want to trust anyone that I don't know, on ebay anymore - yet, I still look, LOL!

    XXX

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anon,

    It was worth the money he paid for it. I know, because I did the research. But it doesn't matter, since I neither have the guitar, nor the funds in my Paypal account. I will be calling PayPal tomorrow to see what support they can give me. I will also contact Trust and Safety if it doesn't look as if I am getting a fair shake. I really would just like to know this guy is not scamming me, but will have to wait and see.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sharon,
    I have heard the horror stories, but have really never been scammed myself. I have had a (blogger) "buy" something from me JUST for the opportunity to leave me awful feedback. This person, with fictitious contact information never paid for the item and simply left me the negative. Trust and Safety would not help me.... said he responded to their email, so the fact that he had Walmart's phone number and Jackson Hewitt's mailing address and a fictitious name, did not constitute fraud....

    Still, I will try those routes tomorrow to see what real protection I have.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh Judy that stinks! I really hope you are able to resolve this; I just started selling on Ebay again and am hoping the bad apples don't ruin it for us all!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I worry about these things, & have heard the horror stories too. Had to open 2 nonpay disputes in 2 months. I just started selling again on ebay 2 months ago. SIGH. I need to make some sort of income.
    SO sorry this happened to you. this totally sucks.

    ReplyDelete
  7. HI Vicky,
    Honestly, in all these years, have not had a problem of any real amount, but this one definitely scares me. I'm not comfortable with the big ticket items, as they seem to draw the big time scammers!

    Good luck in your return to eBay selling!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hey Judy!

    I've been selling on eBay so long now it seems a natural part of my world. Of course, most of the items I sell are under $25.00 so it is not as scary, should someone decide to take the product and the money too. This guitar, on the other hand, would bother me if it turns out the buyer is scamming me. I hope not. Time will tell.

    ReplyDelete

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About Me

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Welcome to Judy’s Corner. I’m Judy. BACKGROUND: My little corner of the world is in Gloucester, VA. I work full-time to pay the bills and eBay is my pastime. I’m not quite ready to retire yet, but I’m getting there. I love to sing, I play guitar and violin, I do needlework and computer programming. I love to fish and work in the yard. I was active in my community theatre group for years until my work travel schedule started to interfere. Suffice to say, I like to stay busy. Enter eBay! I have met wonderful people through my transactions on eBay. I have even found an old school chum from those years when I lived in England, through a sale to a lady there! I’ve been buying and selling on eBay for over seven years. I appreciate dealing with honest sellers and I treat my customers the way I like to be treated. 100% Customer Satisfaction is not just my goal, it is my guarantee.