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Fraud and rip-off caution

post #1 of 22
1/6/04 at 12:05am
Thread Starter 
I was reading through some of the threads regarding private sales and rip-offs. Here are a few recent threads:

http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showt...threadid=55319

http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showt...threadid=54122

http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showt...threadid=51823

http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showt...threadid=48652

http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showt...threadid=50833

Quote:
Originally posted by Jeff Guidry from this thread: http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showt...threadid=46059
I personally think Ebay in general is a big scam. A whole site populated with people looking to get something for nothing. You're bound to get ripped off eventually, that's the heart of any scam, the basic greed of the person being scammed.
-snip-
I just bought new Grado RS-1 oustside of eBay from a seller with the following rating:
Feedback rating: 18
Positive feedback: 100%
Registered Dec-07-01

However they never came. It is nice to save a buck to buy from individuals through the internet such as on eBay or the forsale forum but is ALWAYS A RISK and it may not be worth taking. By chance, I read some of the above threads before I sent the money. I got the sellers address and phone number, which was just a tiny bit of protection. I really should have done more to protect myself. Fortunately for me I was lucky enough to get my money back since I was able to call him back and deal with the situation. I am just preaching to be very careful about whom you are buying from and to use an escrow service when in doubt. I think that I will buy less privately and more often from reputable stores such as BestBuy, Amazon, Todd The Vinyl Junkie etc… as paying store prices will probably save me more money and headache in the end.

In 2004 resolve to BE CAREFUL!
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post #2 of 22
1/6/04 at 1:07am
I bought something recently on ebay. They seller had 4000+ feedback and he ripped me off by never resending my items (it was sent back to him due to address label error). Ebay, BBB, USPS and IFCCFBI didn't do sh*t even when I provided them tracking numbers proving my point. It's rather easy ripping people off on ebay and getting away with it. Screw ebay.
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post #3 of 22
1/6/04 at 1:13pm
Hey!!! I was suprised to see myself as the 1st thread!

Everything worked out great!

I was asking advice as I had never bought used/private before.
The preamp is in great condition, sounds great too. I actually feel a little guilty that I put a more advanced date on the check than was necessary. He can't cash it till Saturday the 10th.
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post #4 of 22
1/6/04 at 1:44pm
I had an Ebay transaction that I thought was going to go like the one dokebi described. The guy sent the stuff out, I never got it, he said he got it back, and would resend it. I never got it, he said he would check into it. I nver got anything, he said he was looking into it. Finally he sent a different copy of the same item, with a tracking number and I got that one. It only took 2 months to finally get what I paid for. This was almost as bad as dealing with TimeLife music.

Glad yours worked out fine there eyteeth.
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post #5 of 22
1/6/04 at 2:04pm
Glad to hear your incident went well mr pd. However, this particular jackass states he never received it back from usps even when it plainly states it was. No refund or effort. He had the nerve to tell me to look into it after a 3 month wait, during which I thought he was sorting things out. I have so much proof with emails and tracking numbers yet these idiots in ifccfbi, usps, bbb and ebay do nothing.
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post #6 of 22
1/7/04 at 5:51am
Thanks for the thread! I had no idea that there was a some sort of scandal here until I saw your link.

I log in daily here butbut it seems im least informed when it comes to this stuff. I should hang out in the Member's Lounge more.
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post #7 of 22
1/7/04 at 6:09am
I bought a Creek headphone from a guy on ebay, and he took 6 weeks to send it to me. For 5 weeks he never replied to any e-mails I send to him, then the 6th week, he sent me an e-mail saying he had just shipped the unit out (without any mention about the e-mails I had sent him). 3 days later it arrived.

I concider myself to be very lucky. Hopefully, you are dealing with a lazy seller, and not a ripoff artist.
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post #8 of 22
2/15/04 at 9:08pm
Do you guys give negative feedback to sellers who take forever sending stuff? It's worth doing, as long as they have first given you positive feedback...
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post #9 of 22
2/15/04 at 9:22pm
I have been fortunate enough to never have been ripped off in a private transaction. I am quite weary of Ebay and avoid buying from there. If I want to buy something via a private transaction I prefer to do it here on Head-Fi, as the risk here seems to be much lower than that of Ebay although there is still some risk. I also have bought some CDs from Half.com, but have sold more stuff on Ebay than I have bought there. Ideally I'd do all my transactions in person locally, but that's hardly practical most of the time.
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post #10 of 22
2/15/04 at 9:30pm
I've been involved in about 200 transactions on eBay, about 50 here, and probably a couple hundred other miscellaneous ones, and as of yet I have *never* had a package go lost. So anytime someone tries to say "oh, i must have gone lost in the mail" understand that there is an extremely small chance of this happening.

I had one person say that they never received a video game I had sold them through eBay - Chrono Trigger for the SNES, which at the time was very rare and expensive in the condition I was selling it. The item sold for $105, and the person had it sent to him with $100 insurance. He claimed it never arrived. I told him I still had the insurance slip and that I would file a claim with USPS if I could just get his full address again (which I had since lost). He balked and said "nevermind, don't go through the trouble."

Do you think he got the game? ^_^

I'm still pissed off at the one jackass who gave me a neutral feedback because the item I sold was "overpriced."
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post #11 of 22
2/15/04 at 9:52pm
Quote:
Originally posted by strohmie
I'm still pissed off at the one jackass who gave me a neutral feedback because the item I sold was "overpriced."
Since there isn't a set-price in an auction, it can't possibly be "overpriced", you should contact eBay about it if you're really pissed off.
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post #12 of 22
2/15/04 at 10:16pm
Quote:
Originally posted by strohmie
I'm still pissed off at the one jackass who gave me a neutral feedback because the item I sold was "overpriced."
I sold a guy a DVD. He left me neutral feedback after receiving the DVD because he thought it took "too long" for it to arrive. What pissed me off was that I left him positive feedback, even though it took over a week for his money order to arrive. I chewed him out via e-mail. He was willing to 'change' his feedback for me to positive, but I explained that he couldn't do that. It didn't hurt my feedback rating, but it did piss me off.

As far as something being 'overpriced'., it's like this: If you bid 'too much' money, it's your fault. That the way it works. I know for a fact that when I paid $270 for a vintage tube amp, I paid $75 dollars too much. The fact is, I made the decision to bid for the item. You win some, you lose some, but I'm not gonna blame the seller for my 'bad' decision.
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post #13 of 22
2/15/04 at 10:37pm
even though this happen a year ago, and not through ebay, i guess it's best for people to know. i ordered a meta42 from head-fi and headwize member jasong, through an ad he posted at headwize http://headwize2.powerpill.org/ubb/s...=20&srch=meta;
after trading emails regarding what to built, he told i would get it at jan 25, 2003. the date pass and i never heard from him again. lost me $350.
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post #14 of 22
2/15/04 at 10:53pm
Quote:
Originally posted by itza2mer
What pissed me off was that I left him positive feedback, even though it took over a week for his money order to arrive.
Don't leave feedback before the other person leaves you feedback. If you really want to be malicious... eBay gives you what, 90 days to leave feedback? Wait until the last minute of the 90th day, then leave your feedback. Hardly any chance for the other person to give you another bad one back.
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post #15 of 22
2/15/04 at 11:21pm
I got ripped off twice but I think that it's worth it when you weigh in how much you save and all the rare stuff you got. Whne I buy stuff, I usually go for a person that has 2000+ feedback and make sure that the thing I'm getting isn't too good to be true.
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