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**shad0w4life** · August 30, 2012, 02:44 AM

Well you COULD say you will ship only after payment has cleared etc. Also depends how you listed it "AS IS" etc and you could take video of it functioning. Possibly work it out with paypal how to protect yourself from a backcharge etc.

That is rather alarming without any feedback and recently joined though. I would ask ebay/paypal how you are protected.

**james2** · August 30, 2012, 02:51 AM

i wouldn't sell it...same happened to me with a cell phone i was selling. the guy bid well over what anybody in their right mind would bid...i called ebay and let them know that i thought it was fishy and THEY recommended against shipping

**kenneth** · August 30, 2012, 02:52 AM

Based on my research, the worry is with PayPal. The buyer could conceivably 1) pay for the item with fraudulent account information, or 2) pay legitimately and then after receiving the item claim that it was broken and/or not in the box at all. Evidently PayPal resolves almost all disputes in favor of the buyer, soo....

**mixto** · August 30, 2012, 02:58 AM

New buyer, 0 feedback is recipe for disaster. Don't go with it. When creating your auction, there is a setting to restrict the type of bidders you want (i.e. like no 0 feedback bidder, only located in the US, etc)

**runners n jeans** · August 30, 2012, 03:38 AM

<blockquote>

Moreover, they are situated in the United Kingdom when I specifically said that I will only ship to continental United States.</blockquote>

Don't you love that? Just say no.

**kenneth** · August 30, 2012, 03:43 AM

Thanks for the help guys, I contacted eBay and they advised that I cancel it. So I did, here's the fun part. Copied from their form:

949859jj has 7 days to respond to the request. We will notify you when 949859jj responds.

If the buyer agrees to cancel the transaction, this case will be automatically closed and you will receive a Final Value Fee credit.

If the buyer declines to cancel the transaction, this case will be automatically closed and you will not receive a Final Value Fee credit.

If the buyer does not respond to the request, you can close this case after 7 days to receive a Final Value Fee credit.

...So if they decline to cancel, I don't get my fee back!? At the $1000 buy it now price, the Final Value Fee is almost $100!

**bruschetta** · August 30, 2012, 03:55 AM

Kenneth, eBay will side with the buyer no matter what. The buyer can safely take your computer, leave negative feedback for you, and chargeback his card. eBay is completely unsafe for a seller. That in mind, will you ship $1000 to a stranger in a foreign country with no history of reliability?

For future reference, you can limit your auctions so that they're only visible in the US. You can also limit the shipping to the US, and limit the type of buyer by setting a minimum level of feedback.

I have a horror story of my own that left a strongly negative impression of the eBay and Paypal systems.

Refund their money via Paypal ASAP. The buyer can choose not to cancel the transaction and leave you negative feedback. There is NOTHING you can do about it at this point -- expect negative feedback. They may open a dispute. If they do that, contact eBay support to say that you've fully refunded the buyer and you'd like them to side with you in the dispute.

Good luck.

**kenneth** · August 30, 2012, 03:57 AM

Luckily they had only requested the final invoice, no money changed hands. (also, note that bogus username "949859jj")

Yeah, I'm not getting a great taste in my mouth for my first ever eBay sale.

**zerostyle** · August 30, 2012, 04:08 AM

For heavy items like that, why not just sell on craiglist? Much better suited and no fees.

**Bulldoggery** · August 30, 2012, 04:53 AM

Man, that's ridiculous.

I guess I've been lucky: I've bought and sold a fair number of things on eBay, and only once have I had a bad experience as a seller.

That was when I sold a pair of tickets to a significant bowl game. The auction ended about ten days before the game, and the winning bidder made contact three days later to tell me that he'd found tickets elsewhere. Naturally, I took it up with eBay, but there was no recourse at that point -- by the time all this was said and done, the game was two or three days away, and the ticket market had all but dried up.

The would-be buyer left me negative feedback, I opened a dispute with eBay, and the guy never responded to eBay's "request for mediation." Hence, the negative feedback was removed from my feedback rating, but the idiot's bullshit comment on the transaction ("Guy ran a scam to drive up the price of his auction" -- an utterly false accusation) is still there if you look through my feedback history.

**n0rm** · August 30, 2012, 05:33 AM

@Kenneth: if they take take the Final Value Fee from you, call their help line, explain your side, be ready with documentation, more often than not they will give that fee back to you. Speaking from experience, this has happened about 3 - 4 times in the past month and they've reversed the fees back to me every time.

If and when you call and you get the call center in Manila, ask to speak to a supervisor right away. Regular CSR's will be unable to help you.

**pensotroppo** · August 30, 2012, 06:51 AM

You could always send him a P-P-P-POWERBOOK!

http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/

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