To be suspicious of this eBay seller's request...

[af2000]

Calling anyone who knows more about ebay than me!

I have just successfully bid on a Bugaboo Donkey (£650). The seller said in her ad that she would courier for a fee of £25.

I emailed to check she was happy to courier before I paid. She sent the attached reply. I don't really understand what she is asking. Is it suspect? Obv as it is quite a lot of money I am a little wary of being scammed. Please can anyone shed some light on what this is about?

Many thanks!

I don't think she's necessarily trying to scam you - she's trying to avoid ebay fees. But in doing so, she's leaving you vulnerable because you have to trust her to complete the transaction.

Ask her to send you the goods on trust, and you'll pay on receipt!! If she wants to build relationships of trust, she can start by showing some. I imagine she'll not be keen, and you will have made your point about the need for protection in these transactions.

Do take heed of what everyone else says and avoid this request. It could be a scam - it could just be her wanting to avoid fees. You could report her to eBay for this - they take a very dim view (and rightly so as they'd be effectively scammed out of £65). If she doesn't want to pay fees she should put it in the Friday Ad or Gumtree or something - which makes me wonder why she didn't? All my scamdar alarms are sounding to be honest.

I would report them.

Report her email to eBay. They are a business and this is how they make their money. By asking you to do this she is using their services (advertising the item) and trying to avoid paying. eBay need to know about this. If she doesn't want to pay that amount she could use gumtree or pre loved or something.

She has a previous bad review, did you check this out?

Spelling mistakes are a classic for scammers. Do NOT give her any money.

She's got some good reviews aswell, I don't think she is a scammer by what she has previously sold.

But I would still go through ebay/paypal to make sure you are covered.

Do NOT give her any money and report this to Ebay.
If you pay her, you will never see your item, or get any refund for any of the purchase money, and will lose every penny.

The seller is identifiable from the picture you've posted, OP.

I wouldn't go through with it, and you shouldn't have given her the option to cancel, really.

Thanks, I have decided not to go through with the purchase for many of the reasons listed above. Lesson learnt.

I will ask MN to remove this thread now as I hadn't realised I'd put identifiable info in the original post.

Many thanks all.

Why on earth have you allowed her to back out of the sale? She has broken eBay's rules, not you.

You should have changed that last sentence for "if you back out of the sale, I will have no option but to report you to eBay".

who the fuck pays £650 for a (secondhand) pushchair?

There looked to be some 'sock-puppetry-bidding' going on too.

Um.. I do RealityCheque but thanks for your judgment about what I choose to spend my money on.

I am allowing her to back out because actually I now have no intention of going through with the sale following her dodgy dealings and some of the negative reviews I have since read from her previous sales. If she has any issue with this I will report her to eBay.

This has been really interesting, many people have highlighted some things which I just hadn't noticed (naivety and inexperience using ebay).

Am just going to go and buy it new from a shop I think.

You're better off buying brand new from a shop. Especially if it's expensive like a bugaboo

You get a warranty on it to have it fixed or replaced if it breaks within so many months

Hope you manage to get one OP

Af try gumtree or local FB pram pages. eBay could still be good if you find a local one too.

Armysal can I ask (for future reference) How do you know there is funny bidding activity going on? Just so I know what to look out for in future.

Someone with a zero score (no previous sales or buys) bidding on an expensive item is a red flag for me.

Obviously not always, but on your pram the buyer with 0 score bid repeatedly.

I'd be

It could be the seller bumping the price with another account.

Of course you will be covered by Paypal! As a pp said as long as you pay by goods and not family and friends.

She's trying to save some money on eBay fees, a little cheeky as usually people offer to split the saving but it's not uncommon to ask.

To be honest I have had e-bay a long time, I don't buy expensive things, probs max £80, and then I always follow the rules, pay through PayPal, check for feedback and read reviews.

Anything slightly suspicious and I walk away.

You may also find that other purchasers do the same, so something with a lot of watchers and bids are safer than something cheaper with no bids. That is probably because other buyers are suspicious or have noticed marks, or issues in the description, or the sellers feedback etc and wont take the chance either.

There was someone on here a few months ago that did an e-bay purchase of a range cooker and went with the seller and paid outside e-bay and ended up with a different cooker to the one advertised that they couldn't do a thing about. A very expensive lesson learnt.

This happened to me. It wasn't an expensive item but the seller contacted me to say could I pay her directly as her ebay account had an issue. I didn't think twice (was inexperienced in ebay sales) and it turned out she was a business that used ebay as a platform but wanted to avoid fees. I had her mobile number and when I got the item (it was a swimming costume that after the first wear tripled in size ) I thanked her etc and she was really friendly but as soon as I queried the product she blocked me from whatsapp.

It's not necessarily a scam.

What is a scam is ebay fees. They're extortionate and I don't blame the seller for attempting to skip them.

I've sold large value items on ebay and ended up regretting it wen the fees come through.

Get the seller to accept cash at drop off or sack it off.