Watch out for eBay scammer buyer from Hong Kong

wlister · Post by **wlister** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 5:15 am

Hi All,

I have been away for awhile, since my last set of auctions anyway, I just wanted to give you a heads up about a buyer that scammed me out of $275.00 USD for some of the auctions I had. Package shipped via surface mail on Dec. 10 to Hong Kong from Canada. The buyer started complaining it hadn't arrived within 9 days and as soon as he could he started the whole Paypal process. Even before it could have reasonably expected to be there!!

I had my shipping receipt from Canada Post with my address, the buyers address what was in the package and the approximate value as well as a date stamp from the post office. Paypal did not even allow me to submit the receipt to them as evidence.

Long story short, they found for the buyer and I am out all that money as well as the almost 100 figs he bought from me. I know it likely arrived as the post office did a trace and it was good from their end. I have applied for the $100.00 CAD insurance that is automatic with the type of shipping I used, but it still burns that this guy could do this.

The guy is allbestparts on eBay. If you are a seller, make sure you have a tracking number if you ship to him!!!

For Canadian sellers on Bricklink/eBay etc... anywhere you accept payments with Paypal, don't ship without a tracking number. Paypal will always side with the buyer. It doesn't matter how much proof you have from Canada Post. No tracking number and you are hooped.

Just fair warning.

In the future I will no longer be able to ship outside of the US and Canada as a Parcel at 750g to have a tracking number from Canada to Hong Kong would have been $57.40 CAD. 500g is $50.15 CAD Most of Europe and Asia are all this costly. How can any seller justify that kind of cost to their buyers? I know I can't. I'll just have to say sorry guys to international shipping. Sucks I know,

Will

Lamanda2 · Post by **Lamanda2** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 5:25 am

Ah, sorry to hear about this, Will.
But thank you for letting us know about this jerk, I'll be sure to watch out when selling next time.

I hate it when you run into problems on eBay like this. Luckily I havn't actually lost money yet, though I have had some non paying buyers on a couple higher-priced figs which was quite a downer..

~Amanda

Lord Felix · Post by **Lord Felix** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 5:31 am

Wow... What a downer. Sorry. At least you were able to warn us against this...

I must say it again...

wunztwice · Post by **wunztwice** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 6:49 am

Aww, sorry to hear about this Will, but thanks fo rthe heads up anyways.

It was also nice to hear from you again!

Post by **JoshWedin** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 12:29 pm

Ouch! I'm sorry to hear about that, Will. Dang, some people. I appreciate the heads up, but its too bad we had to hear about this guy because of your bad experience.

Take care,
Josh

ottoatm · Post by **ottoatm** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 4:26 pm

Horrible... When I see a story like this, I just wish there was something I could do to get revenge... "all best parts" indeed.

I can completely understand your decision not to ship internationally after this experience, and I can also say this is probally the right decision. Although I knew from experience that they were bad at moderating disuputes, I had no idea it was this terrible. I had no idea that a conf. # was extra when shipping to other parts of the world, so I should thank you for that, at least.

smcginnis · Post by **smcginnis** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 6:18 pm

Oh, sorry this happened to you. But you should keep all the records of the process, at least for a while, in case he puts them back up for sale on eBay.

~smcginnis

Post by **rogue27** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 7:40 pm

smcginnis wrote:Oh, sorry this happened to you. But you should keep all the records of the process, at least for a while, in case he puts them back up for sale on eBay.

~smcginnis

I usually don't post without reading the thread first.

Regarding your experience, I've heard of many similar problems with PayPal. That's a lot of money to lose, you were basically robbed. Stories like that make me hesitant to list auctions. Sorry to hear about your experience. Thanks for the heads up.

smcginnis · Post by **smcginnis** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 7:53 pm

rogue27 wrote:
smcginnis wrote:Oh, sorry this happened to you. But you should keep all the records of the process, at least for a while, in case he puts them back up for sale on eBay.

~smcginnis
I usually don't post without reading the thread first.

Excuse me. I did read the whole thread. I always read the entire thread. I know he still has those receipts, and I know that Paypal didn't let him show them. But if the scammer puts the figures back on eBay, wlister will have the receipts to prove that he originally sold them, and hopefully he will be able to get his money back somehow. Because even if Paypal still won't let him show the receipts then, he will have proof that the buyer received the items.

~smcginnis

P.S. If you want to respond, please do it via PM. I'm only posting this in this thread in case wlister didn't understand my first post, because apparently you didn't either. I don't want to start a flame war, but your comment just made me very angry.

wlister · Post by **wlister** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 11:06 pm

The guy is a seller on eBay with a really great feedback rating. I was shocked that he would do this. He doesn't sell LEGO though, he sells electronics and parts for electronics. He is not the seller allthebestparts who sells a ton of used stuff. Just thought I would clarify.

Thanks for the support guys!

Will

LORD DOOM · Post by **LORD DOOM** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 12:27 am

Such a sad story. I'm sorry to hear of your misfortune. He'll get what's coming to him though. I don't mean the minifigs either.

Sir Kohran · Post by **Sir Kohran** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 1:59 am

In the future I will no longer be able to ship outside of the US and Canada as a Parcel at 750g to have a tracking number from Canada to Hong Kong would have been $57.40 CAD. 500g is $50.15 CAD Most of Europe and Asia are all this costly. How can any seller justify that kind of cost to their buyers? I know I can't. I'll just have to say sorry guys to international shipping. Sucks I know,

I see what you mean - it's for this reason that I never really buy or sell anywhere beyond Europe; the prices for shipping and insurance to other continents are just too great.

You have my sympathy, and I hope you get your money back ASAP. At least we all know who not to buy from now.

- Matt

shoggoth666 · Post by **shoggoth666** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 2:14 am

Thanks for the heads up. I only ship global express internationally, they have to sign for the package.

I ship a great deal to Europe and Asia and my buyers prefer usps global express because to them its worth the extra money to have it in 3 to 5 business days and they know the express mail gets special handling and is tracked continuosly. If a buyer insists on surface that raises a red flag. I just tell them " oh well".

Hope you recoupe some of your loss.That kinda stuff burns me up! I can't sleep when someone steals one of my auction photos! :evil:

The Blue Knight · Post by **The Blue Knight** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 8:54 pm

Hey Will,

Good to hear from you, though I would certainly perfer to have done it through other events! I'm sorry this happened to you my friend.

If you guys could indulge my PayPal ignorance a moment; I haven't sold a great deal lately, but I just did about 6 transactions on BL for a BrickFest MOC, and I used PayPal. As a seller, my understanding was that once you received confirmation, that was as good as cash, done, in your account. Sounds like I had it wrong. For clarification Will, this creep (I'll explain that in a moment) filed a grievence with PayPal alleging you did not send the goods, is that right? PayPal found for him in the case, and reversed the transaction?If that's so, then it's a huge flaw in PayPal! What would stop like-minded creeps from just doing that with every big transaction? That does suck.

I say creep because it sounds like he did not contact you first to try to resolve. And once he got the goods, he did not fess up to it. Creep. He dealt in bad faith.

I suppose it's a risk of such auctions, but that grinds me, and I didn't lose anything! I wonder what his eBay feedback looks like? Do you have any recourse vias eBay Will?

Good luck, and take care my friend,
Richard

smcginnis · Post by **smcginnis** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 9:42 pm

The Blue Knight wrote:If you guys could indulge my PayPal ignorance a moment; I haven't sold a great deal lately, but I just did about 6 transactions on BL for a BrickFest MOC, and I used PayPal. As a seller, my understanding was that once you received confirmation, that was as good as cash, done, in your account. Sounds like I had it wrong. For clarification Will, this creep (I'll explain that in a moment) filed a grievence with PayPal alleging you did not send the goods, is that right? PayPal found for him in the case, and reversed the transaction?If that's so, then it's a huge flaw in PayPal! What would stop like-minded creeps from just doing that with every big transaction? That does suck.

I was actually thinking about this a long time ago, and I came up with something that would (I think) be a better system. Here it is:

1. Item is listed somewhere, people bid on it, somebody wins.

2. Winner deposits money into a PayPal account. Now, until the buyer confirms receiving the package, neither the buyer nor the seller can withdraw the money. Alternatively, both the buyer and the seller can agree to not go through with the transaction, and the money will be returned to the buyer.

I know this wouldn't solve all problems, but then there wouldn't be any reason to pretend that the item didn't arrive. Anyway, this may be a bit off-topic, but I won't continue it. Anyone who wants to discuss it can PM me.

Again, sorry to wlister for your loss, hopefully it won't happen again; and who knows, there just might be a way to get it back.

~smcginnis