Wolfgang from Hell! - Guitars101

**Freeze** · 02-12-2005, 08:26 PM

Man, there's gotta be something with this guitar. I'm talking about the red flametop wolfgang i have for sale (listed here on Buy and Sell)
First Ebay buyer was a non payer.
I relisted it, and the next buyer looks very suspecious.
If you care to read, here's the story:

Some lady purchased it with "Buy it now". She paid with paypal, but then i noticed that she lives in Germany, and wants the guitar shipped to some Mrs Francis French in England. So i called paypal, and they told me not to take paypal as payment and ask for international money order, so i refunded the money and asked her to pay with a money order.

Here is the example paypal gave me how international fraud goes down:

Seller: I sell the guitar on Ebay for $1100 and accept Paypal.
Buyer: Pays with paypal, lives in Germany, and asks guitar to be shipped to England.
Seller: Ships guitar, and transfers $1000 from paypal to bank account.
Buyer: Calls credit card (or bank) and states someone made an unauthorized purchase with their card (or bank account) through paypal. And item was shipped to someone else in a different country. the credit card (or bank) notifies paypal, and they give the money back to the buyer.
Seller: I receive a notice from paypal that a fraudulant trasaction was credited to my account, and they give me a -$1100 credit on my paypal account. I now have 4 months to pay back the money to paypal before paypal starts legal procedings agains me.
So i pay paypal back, and now i'm left with $0 and no guitar.

so i told the lady she had to send me an international money order.
She did not like it, and told me she would get Ebay dispute involved.
I feel bad for her, but i'm not going to risk loosing $1100.

I'm not saying the lady is going to stiff me, but i have no way to verify that it is in fact her buying, and not some asshole con artist that hijacked her account. With all the fraudulent emails i've received asking to verify Paypal and Ebay passords or my account will be cancelled type of thing, and with all the account hijacking that goes on, one cannot be too careful.

Am i being a little too paranoid? What would you have done?

Anyhow, this must be the guitar from hell. I just can't sell the darn thing! Perharps it's destined to stay with me.

ibanezlover · 02-12-2005, 10:07 PM

You were right to ask for a money order freeze. I know of a few people who got screwed over with paypal.

**VHF** · 02-12-2005, 10:27 PM

You are doing the right thing...I almost never hsip out of the US and only to verified account addresses. I have done over 100 transactions and never been screwed....knock on wood.

Guitaristic · 02-13-2005, 05:36 AM

can't they find the person who hacked her by the address you sent it to?

**Freeze** · 02-13-2005, 05:52 AM

I'm sure they can, but who is going to do that? Paypal told me they will not get involved. They will just ask me to pay the money back. Paypal policy is that you are not covered as a seller if you ship outside the US. That is why they advised for her to pay with a money order (same as cash).

It will be impossible for me to ask the German or English police to investigate.
I wish i would of known that paypal did not protect sellers for selling outside the us before i listed it. I would of just listed it to sell in the US.
Well, now i know!

POD GOD · 02-13-2005, 06:36 AM

You did the right thing. My wife sells on eBay full time and has to deal with this sort of thing all the time. This is a popular scam and it happens every day. I almost got burned the same way selling a laptop when a guy in the US wanted me to send it to France for his sons birthday. I suspected something was up so I refused the transaction. That's the problem with eBay and PayPal...there's too much protection for the buyers and not enough for the sellers. There are so many different scams out there to screw eBay sellers it's rediculous. Only ship to a confirmed PayPay address, which means it's the same address as on the credit card. Use a tracking number and delivery confirmation when selling high end items. Personally, I wouldn't ship anything of high value overseas, the risk is too much.

djicestorm24 · 02-17-2005, 09:33 PM

Freeze I think made a good choice bro. I would hate to sell and get stiffed It would hurt.