eBay help?

[DoorKnobHandle]

Hey,

I just bought a new effects pedal for my guitar for 160â,¬. The seller (99% positive rating, power-seller) only accepts paypal or credit card. I want to pay through credit card and wrote him an email and he wants me to pay through allpay.eu - is that safe and normal?

Sorry, I'm not really a frequent eBayer and I'm a little bit unsure at the moment. Any clear-ups would be highly appreciated.

[Mr Flibble]

It smacks of "fake escrow" to me. Googling seems to turn up connections with "mamboassistance.com", whatever that may be.

http://www.allpay.eu/index.php?show=11&newlang=en

Also popped up.

[DoorKnobHandle]

Hmm... This really doesn't seem very trusty. Problem is the eBay-site says I already bought it. Can I still not buy it?

EDIT: And there are other problems. The eBay page said the items were in Munich, Germany, but that seller only speaks english. His emails were full of typos as well.

Can I just send him an email telling him I don't want to buy? Argh, help!

Thanks for your post, Flibble.

[nulluser]

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[BOYD1981]

how the hell will that help? you probably just want to email the seller and swear at him...
but anyway, you could contact ebay and ask them for advice, or if he will accept PayPal you can always just setup an account using your credit card.

[DoorKnobHandle]

I just contacted eBay and asked whether I could still NOT buy, although chances aren't exactly great after reading their guidelines.

I don't want to give the address away, sorry. But if you give me a good reason why I should, I might reconsider.

He does accept PayPal, is that more safe? Will that help me?

I really appreciate your help so far, thanks a lot!

[nulluser]

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[BOYD1981]

He does accept PayPal, is that more safe? Will that help me?

PayPal is perfectly safe (but unfortunately it's no gaurantee that you'll get your itemÃ,  )

[DoorKnobHandle]

Hmm... Allright, I'll see what I can do with PayPal. But before that, I'm waiting for the response from eBay.

But isn't it normal that he just gives me his account number and I give him the money?

[nulluser]

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[Darth Mandarb]

I'd be interested in seeing the auction page (url) to see what the "fine print" says.Ã, 

When shit like this happens you have to be certain sure it doesn't say somewhere in the auction about the eskrow company.Ã, 

Did you read his feedback or just look at his rating?Ã,  I always check the positive feedback score and also consider how many feedbacks he's recieved that led to the positive rating.Ã,  I mean ... if he's only got two sales and 100% positive feed back that doesn't mean squat to me.Ã,  I always find the negative/neutral feedback to see what it says. (it could be two of his buddies bidding on his stuff to make him look good)

The bad news?Ã,  eBay is not likely to come to your aid on this (depending on what the fine print says).Ã,  But if you've not yet given the money I don't see why you should have to.Ã,  Might result in a negative feedback is all but they can't take the money from you.

The good news?Ã,  Once burned like this on eBay you're not likely to get burned again

[DoorKnobHandle]

Okay. Here's the link. So, I don't really have to give the money, that'd be great. There's no fine print as far as I can see and from his profile, I thought he looked trustworthy...

Thanks again for everyone's help, I'm really counting on you guys.

[m0ds]

And which effects pedal is it? Perhaps we can find you a better deal elsewhere on the internet?

Like;
http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/077611/details.html?kbid=1143
(103 euros)

[DoorKnobHandle]

Haha, thanks for your effort, Mark, but I spent a rather long time informing myself over the various wah-pedal options. I'm not a crybaby-kinda guy when it comes to wah , I like the Vox V847 (which is discontinued and hard to get) and the Budda Wah (which is a boutique-pedal and hard to get). So I was kinda happy to find one on ebay, since none of my music shops carry either of the pedals.

Anyways, I'll just not pay and wait for a better chance to get one. ^^

On a more serious note: I find it terribly ridiculous that buyers can offer to sell via credit card, Then you buy (and effectively you HAVE to buy by now) and THEN they can tell you: "use the polish/russian/chinese site and enter your credit card number". This is precisely how my situation went, how can that be?

[Tuomas]

Good choise for a pedal, but don't go for that, even if it weren't a scam. Basically because you can get that same pedal from err, here for example http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Budda-BudWah-Wah-Pedal?sku=152111&src=3SOSWXXA for 169 USD, which is like 128 euros. Then I'd take the place in my post here to give a word for Voodoo Lab's Wahzoo, which is the pedal I'm going to get once I get money. I like the exeptional sound of it.

[DoorKnobHandle]

Unfortunately, Musician's Friend doesn't ship Vox pedals out of the US, I tried that before.

[Tuomas]

Then perhaps someone who is from the US would knidly get it and ship it to you for a small fee

[Huw Dawson]

I'd reccomend you walk away from the deal. I've seen something like this before on here (it was about someone who sold a laptop on ebay and never got the money I think) and it reeks of that nambian scam... the 419 or whatever it's called? Obscure companies may equal fake companies.

- Huw

PS: There was a website for this kinda thing... 419haters.com or something like that. The topic might also be on the forum still, unless CJ has cleared the archive sometime in the last year.

[Mr Flibble]

I believe Huw is referring to the P-P-P-Powerbook Prank!

Edit: No he isn't, but this is similar. Worth a read if you haven't already.

[Huw Dawson]

Mr Flibble, you have just single handedly split my sides with laughter at that scam, and half convinced me to check out somethingawful.com a bit more regulary. Cheers!   

And the website I was reffering to is http://www.419eater.com/index.htm . And I'm SURE there was a mention of this sort of scam before on this forum... It's probably my poor memory having a laugh at my expence again. Need more coffee.

- Huw