Ebay Advice

[Eazi]

Hi all, I have just sold my HTC Desire on Ebay. Problem is the winning buyer is from the Russian Federation. Should I accept Paypal and send my phone to Russia?

[Northernbloke]

Did you specify UK bidders only? if not I don't think you've got much choice but to send it

[Eazi]

Nope did not specify UK bidders.

However I already have the option to offer second chance to the second place bidder.

Not sure what to do

[Northernbloke]

I don't see how you can refuse the first guy simply on the basis of where he's from and offer it to the second highest bidder instead - but thats just from a moral perspective - I'm not clued up all all the regulations and loopholes and suchlike onfleabay - sure some of the more experienced sellers will be along shortly to give more constructive advice.

I certainly wouldn't be letting go of it till I was sure the funds were secure and shipping was well insured

[Eazi]

You do have the right to refuse any bid. Though you should do this before the auction ends. My problem there was you don't get the buyers address until after the auction ends.

As we all know, international post is fraut with risk. And Paypal does allow buyers to reverse payments. All of which leaves me at a high risk.

I'm all for morals, I'm also, all for not being £280 out of pocket.

EDIT: I checked the auction and I did state that I would only ship to UK. Drama over, I have refunded the Russian buyer and offered a second chance to the UK buyer in 2nd place.

[TwoPlAnKs]

I have a real moral issue with banning all or certain countries too, but at the end of the day if you are outside the UK you lose some protection and outside the EU you lose almost all protection. That is a real risk to take when you have a similar price bid inside the UK.

In saying that, if a fraudster is in the UK and not an idiot it doesn't take much for them to circumvent any protection and the police usually aren't interested if it's just one case and there's not much you can do without genuine contact details. In many ways, you aren't protected that much more than you are with sending it to Russia.

It must be a right pain in the arse living somewhere like Malaysia or Nigeria, I've seen countless auctions say they wont ship to those countries specifically. Really unfair on the good people who don't choose to live in a place where scamming British people happens to be common.

[Eazi]

I agree that it is difficult for these people but I need to protect myself. The guy has actually now sent nasty emails and left negative feedback.

My advert clearly said that I would deliver to UK only and so have emailed Ebay to have the feedback removed.

[russbeer]

shows you made the right decision then if he's retorted in that way.

[Mystical_2K]

i had a message yesterdat from someone in russia asking if i would send a 360 that i have put on ebay, said no in the end (especially as that country wasnt in my postage list as it would cost too much too send)

[JonEp]

I have in the past sold a number of at the time high value smart phones on ebay.

One sold to Italy and when I went to the post office they refused to send it insured so I had to sent it with a stamp and a pray. It was £180 worth at the time .

Another to Poland and several to Spain and Portugal.

The only problem I've ever had was sending one 3.7 miles from my front door who claimed he had never receive it even though it had been signed for RD. He was after me refunding him and getting it back from Royal Mail.

I did a little digging and discovered he was a social landlord with a number of other houses one of which he had applied for planing permission for to turn it into separate flats. I obtained a copy of the plaining application which was hand written from the Local Authority Website and the signature on both the RD and the Royal Mail Web Site and the Planning Application were exactly the same.

Then I when round to his house @ 7am Sunday morning. He quickly remembered all about it once he had seen what trouble I'd taken ... Said it was a mistake and he had bought another phone at the same time and that had not turned up.

[matthewburton79]

I sold an iPhone in January some time and got an email late May from paypal saying that the phone never arrived and they had taken back the £485 on hold untill the matter was dealt with. Happens quite alot now apparently, who's going to have kept the proof of purchase that long???? Hahahahahah ME!!! scanned it and sent to paypal then case closed!

[russbeer]

Great stuff that, JonEp. He didn't know he was fucking with an information bloodhound did he!!

[TwoPlAnKs]

In my town there's two streets with the same name

That sounds like an almost overwhelming oversight on the part of the people in charge of naming streets in your town.

[matthewburton79]

Nice one Jon. Love it when they fuck with the wrong one. In my town there's two streets with the same name and my wife's phone was delivered to the wrong one and signed for. Unfortunately the only thing on the other street is a taxi rank and conveniently no one had a clue there, but I mithered them for fucking ages, they were sick of the sight of me.

@ Matthew, good for you. Paypal did that 4 months on? They really do make up their own rules. That's incredible.

Yeah mate, upto 6 month from a bank card payment and 10 months with a credit card payment.