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Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

I listed a new laptop earlier in the week and it was just purchased by someone who has 0 feedback. I checked their account and it was just created 4 days ago. This is around a $400 purchase and i want to make sure I don't get scammed. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

It's kind of a coin toss there. If you aren't comfortable doing it, don't do it. It's your $400, and you could EASILY lose the $400 and the laptop. But, that's ebay for you. The risks we take.

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

My items cost between $100-200 and I find the newbies pay much fastr on auction and I have BIN pay immediately checked. In the over 2 years I have been selling the only time I got scammed was the time I accidently refunded before I got a return. The guy said he mailed it but forgot to get a tracking number. This was a seller with over 200+FB's too. Just outright lied because EB allowed me to check a box when I didn't mean to. It's always a crappe shoot.

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

I personally don't feel comfortable selling expensive items to 0 feedbackers.

But what I'll do if they win is call them and get a feel for the person on the phone.

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

@km018, also look up where you are mailing it too (or would be mailing if you wish to go through with it) -international is quite the dicey affair

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

The shipping address is confirmed and it is in the USA. If I would decide to cancel the order (not sure yet), do I get refunded my final value fees?

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

To get a FVF refunded you need to send a cancellation request (if they have already paid for it and you refunded it, or you have mutually agreed to cancel the transaction) and they need to accept it, or issue an unpaid item strike if they item has not been paid for. You will then get the FVF refunded.

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

Get the phone number and call him/her up - feel them out - their PP is verified? (Should show under status).

You wont get final fees unless buyer agrees to cancel, confirmed.

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

Whatever you do if you decide to send it make sure to get signature conf and insurance. This will protect you against item not received but not a snad. Next time I think you can say in the listing that buyer must have more than 0 fb - not foolproof but better than nothing.

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

I honestly think there is no real way to protect yourself in these situations. nada, zip, zero. Insurance? If it gets damaged while shipping. If it arrives, they can easily say they got a brick. Or, they send you back their old thing, that they replaced with your new thing. Either don't risk it, or prepare to eat it.

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

I've been selling on eBay for over 12 years and have not had one "0" feedback buyer burn me. Lot's of potential members jump in and join when they happen to find something they can't live without.

This even more-so happens when your selling an RV, car or a boat and similar vehicles. Many old-timers are letting go of their fear of eBay and joining just to buy the vehicle they have been looking for.

I have sold many vehicles on eBay to "0" feedback new members and all of the sales went well. I have sold a few Iphones and Ipads on eBay to "0" feedback ebayr's and they always went well too.

Maybe I have just been lucky but as stated by others, it seems my "0" feedback buyers pay the fastest and also leave feedback quicker (once reminded/asked) than many ebay veterans. Never had one customer do a "charge-back" on me which is the easiest way to get burned before you see it coming.

The only bad experience I have had on eBay is when eBay threw me under the bus after 11 years & 9 months of 100% feedback on more than 10,000 transactions over that time.

They linked me to bad family and they don't care about me and my history.

In the land of eBay when one family member commits a crime the whole family is found guilty and are punished.

Guess you can tell I don't get out much cause I can't stop typing...........

Best of luck to you

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

Thanks all! Is it necessary for me to record myself packing the box? I mean if anything happens, will anyone even look at, or consider, my video?

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

There is no way to 100% protect yourself from being scammed. However, if the transaction is eligible for seller protection, you should be fine AS LONG AS you follow the rules. Specifically, that means using signature confirmation and shipping ONLY to the PayPal confirmed address. I would also insure the package.

Many times, when someone complains they were scammed, it turns out they didn't follow the rules. The most common mistakes are NOT using signature confirmation ("it costs too much") or shipping to a different address than the one provided by PayPal. It always SOUNDS legit - "I got this for my son who is at college, can you send it directly to him?" but it is a good way to get burned.

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

Not to anyone under 30 feedback and their feedback has been checked out.

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

Yes I sell items that cost over 100 bucks and less then 200 bucks to 0 feedback people and do fine.

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

Is it necessary for me to record myself packing the box? I mean if anything happens, will anyone even look at, or consider, my video?

I have heard and read a lot about this taking pictures of the packing and so on.

I have first hand experience with this one.

It's a long story but it proves that taking pictures and buying insurance is a waste of time in some cases. Insurance is most likely only going to pay out if the box disappears in transit.

I listed and sold a beautiful 105 year old Ruby Glass double mantle hanging oil lamp. Went way overboard on packing materials and double boxing and finishing it off by placing all this is another much larger box with more packing material between the final box and the double boxed lamp inside.

This was an extremely high-dollar sale and a high-dollar shipping cost including insurance for $2,000.00.

Shipped it UPS. My buddies. God Bless UPS. OK, only bless the good ones.

A super nice lady in South Carolina had the winning bid and we talked over the phone and were both concerned about a safe trip for this lamp. I took pictures of the whole packing process by layer and more when I left it at my local UPS yard.

At this point let me add that I have sold and purchased some irreplaceable antiques on eBay and when packed appropriately none of them ever had a problem.

Money is money. Money will not ever replace this lamp.

She owns an Antique Store and this was to be her center piece in her front store window.

On day 5 the dreaded eBay message comes from her. The lamp arrived and the glass shade is in a million pieces. :faint:

A signature was required upon delivery so I was happy to hear she saw this box looking like it had fallen at least 10 stories and asked the delivery driver what the hell happened. The driver said it was loaded in this condition and because the box was not blown open, he had to deliver it.

They shook the box hard enough that she could faintly hear the sound of broken glass moving inside. The driver at this point told her well, it must not have been packed correctly but it is insured so contact this number and have UPS send out an inspector that will check it out and either approve or disapprove an insurance claim.

This is when she sends me the news through eBay.

She called them and I called them from my end too. The next day UPS had it picked up and brought to their yard, inspected it and then denied the claim to pay anything towards the dollar loss.

Naturally I got ballistic about this but kept cool and called the UPS yard that had it. I wanted to send pictures of the packing process and challenge their decision to deny my claim.

Here is what pictures get you:

UPS representative tells me that he completely understands where I'm coming from but I need to understand that UPS gets many claims per day on damaged goods. 90% of the time the damaged item is poorly packed and that clearly releases their insurance from paying for damages not caused by UPS. If the damaged box in question is broken open and the item comes out then they would cover that claim because UPS would be responsible for damaging the box. :croc:

He apologized for me being misled about pictures proving damage in this case. He said while he is sure that I am an honest customer and I am telling the truth that it does not change the fact that many customers are not honest and take advantage of their insurance coverage daily and they have to set a guideline to what is covered and what is not and they will not sway away from that line.

I could hardly believe this garbage response but remained calm and said OK, at this point it is crucial to me that this lamp be returned to me ASAP as half the value is the frame, chains, crystals and the double burner oil lamp itself.

I now had to fully reimburse my buyer for all money she paid me for this lamp.

UPS said I could use the same tracking number to follow the progress of the lamps return to me.

After 3 days of no progress of this item traveling back to me I called UPS again and asked what's happening here. After almost ten minutes on hold I get a different guy come on the line and tell me that too much time had lapsed and the package was probably tossed in their dumpster. He said it's broke so they don't want it and they can't find it !!! :faint:

As I started wiggin out on the phone from this response he said give me a minute and let go see if it is in fact in our dumpster.

Another 5 minutes on hold and he comes on and OK I found the box and what looks like a hanging lamp frame and some broken glass. He is going to re-box it in one of their UPS shipping boxes and get it sent out same day.

That evening the tracking number did show it was in transit.

Four days later this box is delivered to me and it is my original double box, the outer box was gone, and it was taped up enough to stay together while you can look through the clear packaging tape an see the lamp frame inside.

I opened the box to find the frame intact, the chains were all there, half of the crystal prisms were missing and the double burner oil lamp was not there. The original 105 year old antique glass chimney (the most fragile of all the lamp itself) was wrapped in news paper and was intact !! No traces of any broken red lamp shade was found. :confused:

FYI:

I went directly to my UPS Center and asked why they sell insurance if it is denied when something gets broke. I told them next time I am bringing the item I'm shipping to them and I'll pay them to package it and insure it and if anything happens in transit, they owe me the full amount of insurance purchased.

He simply said we don't pack anything here, you would have to take it to a UPS STORE and that would remove the risk for me.

I went directly to the UPS STORE just a few miles away. Their estimate to package this lamp based on the pictures I showed them would cost me around $125.00 including safely packing, insuring and shipping.

The manager of this store was very clear in telling me that as fragile as this lamp is that they would not be responsible for breakage if the item gets broke inside the box while being handled normally and no visible damage to the box it was in during shipping. The item is simply too fragile to be shipped via truck. Period. :doh:

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

In response to vetman90's above post, he is right about UPS having lots of issues as well as ways of denying claims.

What UPS offers is not actually insurance, it is called Declared Value Coverage. Basically, you are paying to declare a higher value for your package than what is standard. The only way they pay out on that is if you can prove that UPS was at fault for any damage.

But, even with insurance from USPS or a private insurance company, usually for a damage claim to be paid out, there must be - at a minimum - some damage to the box. If they didn't have these rules, it would be "open season" on them from the scammers.

In my experience, most times when something goes south it is not because of damage, it is because the package was lost. Either that, or it was just left on the doorstep, or lobby or wherever, and someone else picked it up. It happens. When I ship, that is what I am trying to insure against. Most of my packages don't get insured, as the value is on the lower side and it would cost me more to insure them all than to take the occasional loss.

I once had to ship a painting to my cousin. It was left to me by my grandmother when she passed away because she thought I wanted it. I didn't. The painting had an estimated value of $15k - $20k. I used a special service that ships antiques and artwork. They came out, crated it and delivered it to my cousin with no damage or problems at all. It was more expensive than UPS, but worth it in my opinion. So, if shipping these types of items, you might want to find a company that specializes in them.

Again, there is no such thing as 100% protection when dealing with customers on eBay. But following the seller protection rules and insuring the package WILL go a long way toward resolving any issues that come up. If the customer is an experienced scammer, then there is very little you can really do about it. Thankfully, most people don't fall into this category.

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

Assuming it isn't a super fragile item like others have posted above. If you are worried about just making sure it is delivered I would suggest Registered Mail. Registered Mail is how the Gold and Silver Bullion Dealers send all their items. Considering most the purchases are upwards of $1000. I think that would be the way to go if you are using USPS.

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

Various choices:

For the future, set your buyers' limits. ( 0 feedback block)

For this: send fully insured with signature confirmation. Ensure the address is real before despatch.

Allow no stories to send to a different address.

Take down all info that can ID the laptop.

Certain other steps for despatch could be considered too ;)

:mod:

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

vetman90, your story about shipping insurance really brings to light how many times, it's just a cash grab

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

My niche draws lot of "jump in buyers" I guess because I seem to get a lot of low or 0 FB buyers. Have never been burned in anyway by one. It's the 200-400 FB buyers. Everybody here knows that a professional EB seller that makes a living here is not going to leave negative FB pretty much no matter what.

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

I always feel uneasy with selling high dollar items to 0 feeback members. I always sell it to them though. There are things you can do to minimize your risk. First I always have pictures in my listing showing serial number etc. This will help you if they say the item is broken and send it back with a different serial. Also pay a little extra for signature confirmation and insurance. If you are sending it overseas then you must ship with a way to track it. If you use usps first class international then you can be screwed. If that's the case then I would usually tell the person the item was dropped or damaged and cancel the transaction.

Best of luck to you
Dave

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

I agree anything over like $100-150 I would feel uneasy about sending to a low feedback buyer. I would also not sell overseas to an item that high in value. If you go above $300-400 no way I would sell to a zero feedback buyer.

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

just had a guy from India with 0 feedback buy one of my auctions and stiff me on the money. Just $90, but still.

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

Unpaid buyer case - open it asap

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

I don't understand your meaning of "stiffed". You lost the revenue and the item? That's what stiffed means to me. If so how please?

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

I put an item up for auction. Waited 10 days. Was expecting to get money from that item. Waited another 5 days to allow the guy to respond to me. Some people have legitimate reasons, so I try not to piss them off if I don't have to. Then opened up a dispute. Now I have to wait more in case the guy decides to pay last minute, like I've had people do before. All the while, I need to sell this item. I'd say that was stiffed, because stiffed means more then taking money away from someone. If my friend fails to show up for something we had planned, he stiffed me. This guy failed to pay, so he stiffed me.




Stiff.

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

Right...but you never sent out the item - while annoying, this happens ALL the time..buyer's remorse or failure to honour the deal...just open unpaid and strike his/her a$$...move on - oh and BLOCK bidder

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

Pretty frequent on eBay unfortunately. To avoid, use BIN with immediate payment

At least your not down any money or items.

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

I mean, I wasn't really complaining. I replied to a thread about buyers with no feedback, and it had just happened to me.

Honestly, it's been pretty rare for me thus far. Had one other guy, but he ended up paying after awhile, and after I had opened an unpaid item against him. He even bought more stuff later.

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

I agree especially on items that have multiple bids. Other people where trying to purchase the item. Lots of items are more seasonal. It pisses me off as well when people don't pay, no contact nothing. Usually people who win then at least contact me within the first day and a half I will send a cancel transaction request. Anyone who waits longer I always open a NPB case. Even on BIN I hate NPB but Auction NPB adds injury to insult.

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

Bought more stuff later...nice, he must have been quite satisfied with your service - unpaid strike case opening does jostle some buyers...we sellers get few tools so might as well prop them up and just move on

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

I find it is the time waiting for the toe-rags to pay that bothers me most.

5 days and I react.

Time is money.

Money is profit.

:boink:

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

And even more then that, it STILL counts against your selling limits.

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

My services were fine, but it was more that I offered something that almost no one else offered. So, it was either go to me or go to no one. He still never explained why it took almost 2 weeks to pay lol.

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

Hey guys/girls, this may or may not help but it definitely has proved successful for me. This pertains mostly to international buyers and their "item not received" claims. I know probably 95% of these people know the system and are BS'ing. I tell them ok no problem my brother in law works for USPS and can put an advanced tracker on the package for me. Say it's a small fee but you don't mind the incurred cost so long as it resolves the issue. I tell them to contact me if it doesn't arrive tomorrow and ill have him initiate the advanced tracer.

Sometimes that is enough and you will magically receive a positive feedback from them the next day praising your service.

Then you have the stubborn buyers who ask you to initiate the tracer. I tell them that "so far" the trace shows it to be in (whatever country they are in and in possession of whichever carrier their country uses). I then say their office will be in touch with my brother in law later in the day, please notify me if it arrives in the meantime.

If that doesn't work then you have three sub options 1. Believe them 2. Accept defeat 3. Get creative

Hope this helps, please don't abuse it : ) and be sure to block countries that scam!

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

This is how I hate sellers who stated that they won't sell to 0 feedback bidders.
Who the hell where they came from? Do they realize that they also started at NOTHING.
I have some 0 FB buyers but they paid within 24h. Just respect them with a polite payment notice and they will do their job.

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

I think you'll find that the amount of fraud experienced with buyers with zero feedback is about the same as people who have high feedback. IMO, limiting your buyers costs your business money. Besides, if what they buy is worth over 250 dollars, just make a signature required for delivery and paypal will side with you for non delivery.

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

yeah, when I first started at zero, I didn't buy expensive ****. i bought small things here and there.

Re: Do you sell expensive items to members with no/little feedback?
 

Game has changed for the UK a little.

Below thread mentions this

http://www.aspkin.com/forums/uk-ebay...s-ebay-uk.html


:juggle: