con or not

[ayrshireman]

hi guy's need some advice. selling my chipper at the moment,had an e-mail from a guy saying he's a marine engineer,willing to pay full amount without seeing the machine or any trying to haggle about price. he's asking for my pay-pal details and his agent will cover the shipping charges and pick it up. he didn't say where he is.

[Ian C]

Be v warey, i had this a few months back with a log splitter, sold it on ebay with a buy it now, then a few days later gets ba call from a polish guy. "His mates are coming to pick it up" he says, sure enough they turn up 3 days late with a trailer, wont pay me before they have "tried" it on the trailer to see if it fits so i say no, then they say the trailer is too small and they will call back with a bigger one! there was 3 well built guys and my guess was that there were going to get it loaded then leg it without paying. i sold it again and had no problem.

 

Mine woulnt pay by pay pal though so if he will then let him, you still have the goods so its not to bad but be careful.

[TreeTomass]

What does a marine engineer want with a chipper?!

If it sounds dodgy then it probably is to be honest. Just say you want cash, his 'agent' could give you cash when they come and get it:thumbup:

[ayrshireman]

thanks guy's, what could he do with my paypal details,what got me was no looking at the machine, maybe there's a branch of underwater tree workers!

[woodmark3]

Be very careful mate, I had this recently with craigslist. A "priest" in Canada said I could have his flat in the centre of London, if I paid 2 months upfront then the 3rd would be free.I was over the moon until my girlfriend said "it sounds too good to be true"

 

check his level of English (no xenophobia inteneded here it can just serve as an indication) and ask to speak to someone on the phone and or a contact they have in the UK, this is where I scuppered my guy and instead of sending him Western Union details (one of which is almost definitely a sign of a con) I sent him a message saying he can come to the UK and kiss my a4se first if he wants the cash...didn't hear from him after that funnily enough

[Danny Boy]

sounds a bit funny to me. from what i remember paypal seems quite buyer biased (used to be anyway) & there was a problem where someone (a vagabond of some sort) would buy something say it was crap or some other malark & file a dispute thru paypal who would then refund the money to the buyer before (or independent of) the item being returned to the seller.

 

it could be legit, maybe he wants it for parts etc.

 

but generally a chipper is a fairly specialised & expensive bit of kit & you gotta wonder why someone just wants to buy it blind.

 

go on the paypal website & look thru for any advice & maybe a customer service tel no & see what they say.

[gensetsteve]

A rule I live by is never sell anything for more than a tenner unless you can afford to loose it on paypal. If he buys it with paypal he has 2 months to decide the clours wrong and claim a refund. He may even send you an empty envilope to sighn for. It will cost 5% of your sale and paypal will probably hang onto the money for 2-3 weeks anyway. Always get them to view and pay cash and take away no exceptions. Then they are sold as seen

[gensetsteve]

sorry about the spelling got a throat virus and my head is screwed.

[clueless]

thats ok steve if your spelling was questionable AND you were asking for money over western union then it may have been different!

 

get some icecream down you and a whisky....

[ayrshireman]

looking at his e-mail again he even types in broken english. i'ts a shame these days that there are so many vultures out there ready to pounce, it's usually advertising rip off merchants.