Bad Purchase

How do you know it was a "she"??

I'm always suspicious when I see a FS from someone I've never seen on the board before. Sorry you were scammed.

Just a little warning of a scam that happened to us this week. A couple of charges came through our bank account--on first look you wouldn't notice them since they were both less than $11, but I keep a tight watch and I didn't recognize them. But look out for these charges: to DGEN for 8.99 and to MV Web Templates for around $10.65 (sometimes it's $12.99).

Total scam and there's no way to tell how they got my CC number. Big hassle getting a new card. They've hit thousands of people, just judging from the number of posts on a few 800# message boards There is no common thread. I personally think it's a leak in paypal, but I would love to be corrected.

So, be careful out there!

Karen

She had posted on here several times. I read her posts and it seemed okay. She had also sold once before on TE. Unless her first name was an alias, it was a she. Glad you caught those charges right away! I always check my accounts too.

So why can't you out her? I see nothing wrong with posting the identity. I will add that while it is a shame when this happens, this is the WWW so we can't restrict who visits here. I have bought and sold on TE, but as others have said, only to folks I feel I have gotten to know, or in one case it was a new poster so I asked her to email me her ebay user ID so I could check her feedback and I did the same. But, we all must know that it is riskier to buy out of paypal. I also make a point of publicly thanking someone that I bought from on TE, or giving the names of others I have sold to on TE, if the purchaser wants to check up on me.

I offer Trek up as collateral when I buy off TE. I'm sure she doesn't mind... :D ;)

I wonder if there is any good solution to this issue? I mean a kind, gentle, TE kind of solution. Outing people seems so cold, and yet, how else can people know if there is a problem? Personally, I've been meaning to list a Butterfly TI saddle here one of these days, but I'm relatively new, with relatively few posts, and I wouldn't say I really "know" anybody (or, more specifically, that anybody here really "knows" me). So why trust me? And, after reading a couple of the threads, how can I feel safe as a seller? I'd be pretty upset if I bought something and got ripped off by somebody who had done the same to somebody else, and was a known problem. I suppose the seller is in the safer position.

One thing I am thinking is that a person isn't necessarily evil just because they haven't been here long, or posted many times. Personally, I lurk here far more than I log in, and don't post all that frequently. Frankly, I have a lot of other things I should be doing, too, and I'm not always checking the threads (although my DH seems to think I am :rolleyes: ). Although, I do agree that I wouldn't buy from (or sell to) anyone I've never seen here before.

I think Ebay's feedback system is a great thing - we've never been scammed yet, but it is probably complicated to implement. The thought of a separate thread where people could post names of people who they've had a bad experience with seems way icky. And would drive people away. And isn't kind OR gentle. By the way, having a buyer/seller post their Ebay ID is a good idea, but how do you know they won't just pick somebody else's ID, with a nice, clean record? If I were a scammer (and I SWEAR I am not!) I wouldn't think twice about doing something like that.

Just my 2 cents (and, I apologize, not 2 cents that will add to the fun total). :(

Yes, I think a feedback system for here is bad idea, and is a departure from what this forum is really for. Lots of forums like this one don't allow any kind of buying and selling, and TE is really giving us a gift to be able to access a market so specialized as this one. I wouldn't want further development of that function of the forum to take away from all the good stuff that goes on here.

I think caveat emptor is the best policy, and it should be up to each involved party to decide how to proceed when something goes wrong. There's nothing that says the person doing the selling can't come to this thread and defend herself. That happened on a similar thread--I'm happy that the two people involved did not let it escalate to forum destruction! Those kinds of things can be so touchy, and I have seen entire forums imploded over personal vendettas that started with simple differences of opinion.

I just want to say thanks to Susan and TE for hosting the forum in the first place. It literally has changed my life.

Karen

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Originally Posted by KnottedYet

I offer Trek up as collateral when I buy off TE. I'm sure she doesn't mind... :D ;)

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Uhm, dear, you what? :eek: :rolleyes: :cool: :p

So far for me what has worked is to ask the seller for their ebay seller ID. I give them mine, and then we both only use the paypal accounts and confirmed addresses linked to that ebay seller ID. I also offer names of folks on TE that I have sold to. I also don't sell big ticket items here. You do get what you pay for. We sell to each other off ebay, knowing there is a risk. Another way to go is to list the item on ebay, and post the link here. That works too, but then we need to pay the ebay seller fees.

I got a bike off here from Kitsune...so if anyone wants to buy off of her in the future I give it a big thumbs up! :) I just wanted to give my experience here.

Something like this happened on another forum that I frequent only it was a much more expensive item, a complete bike. The seller had all the usual excuses, much like yours. Well, some local posters took matters into their own hands and paid her a visit. They retrieved the bike and shipped it to it's new and rightful owner, at their own cost.

Ahhhh....the power of the internet!

anyhow, I hope you get your item.

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Originally Posted by TriMom217

Something like this happened on another forum that I frequent only it was a much more expensive item, a complete bike. The seller had all the usual excuses, much like yours. Well, some local posters took matters into their own hands and paid her a visit. They retrieved the bike and shipped it to it's new and rightful owner, at their own cost.

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While I certainly appreciate the poetic justice of this approach :p , it also strikes me as vigilante justice and as such a little beyond the pale :D .

All the same, it really sucks that someone would do something like this. It's always hard to accept that others are dishonest.

Sorry it happened.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TriMom217

Something like this happened on another forum that I frequent only it was a much more expensive item, a complete bike. The seller had all the usual excuses, much like yours. Well, some local posters took matters into their own hands and paid her a visit. They retrieved the bike and shipped it to it's new and rightful owner, at their own cost.

Ahhhh....the power of the internet!

anyhow, I hope you get your item.

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Wait one minute, was she on top of a mountain? with gravel roads down? :eek:

[QUOTE=TriMom217;269275]Something like this happened on another forum that I frequent only it was a much more expensive item, a complete bike. The seller had all the usual excuses, much like yours. Well, some local posters took matters into their own hands and paid her a visit. They retrieved the bike and shipped it to it's new and rightful owner, at their own cost.


I like that! Good for them- that person will maybe think twice before scamming someone again. However, knowing how those people work sometimes, it's lucky the bike even existed.

vickie

Who's up for a TE vacation/knicker recovery trip to New Mexico?

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Originally Posted by sandra

Wait one minute, was she on top of a mountain? with gravel roads down? :eek:

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And I bet it wasn't locked in the trunk of her car either. And she probably wasn't a prisoner of the person lending her a computer. (For email ONLY)
Maybe it should be a rescue trip????