Oh no!

[palazzo]

Hi

Can someone please reassure me please? I just bought a playhouse on ebay from a seller for £200 (it had 21 bids accruing over the past few days) but I have just noticed this is his first sale and he wants paypal payment. I don;t use ebay that much and feel so foolish!

I know I need to pay because I have bought it now (stupid, stupid!) but can anyone reassure me before I tell my dh!

I mean he might well be a genuine person selling a playhouse, mightn't he? I need to contact him to arrange collection so is there anything I should ask (other than will he accept cash on collection - doh!)?

Thanks

Everyone has to start somewhere! If you pay by Paypal and he's a nasty scammer, then Paypal give you your dosh back anyway. Win-win.

I may be wrong but you can get a refund if you pay via paypal and there's a problem/it all goes tits up whereas you're screwed if you pay in cash.

Thanks. Phew. I was really impressed with my purchase - for about 30 seconds! I agree everyone needs to start somewhere and his offer of helping take it down so you know how to reassemble all sounds genuine.

OK will pay by paypal. SO glad I remembered seeing an ebay section on here!

Oh, but while I have you - he has put collection in person (for obvious reasons) but has set a handling charge of £3.25. Why would that be - for his fees?

Thanks again :)

I don't think you will get a refund from Paypal for an item you collected.

how about if we go and it's not as described soupdragon?

he has just sent me an email asking me when we want to collect

Feeling less confident again :(

It's buy as seen. If you're not happy with it then don't accept it. You need to go over it with a fine toothcomb. The £3.25 could be his paypal fee?? You would have more coverage if you arrange a courier, then if there's something missing/broken you can send it back and get a refund.

Ebayers do not normally recover their ebay fees by charging a handling fee but if he stated this upfront on his advert then you will have to accept it.

Do not pay by cash on collection, you will not have any protection. Pay via paypal only.

The £3.25 sounds greedy- I would refuse to pay it.

The seller is foolish taking paypal for a collect only item. Unscrupulous buyers can say they didn't receive an item and get a full refund from paypal as seller has no online proof of delivery.

Oh and sellers are not allowed to charge for paypal - that was banned years ago.

If you don't want the item when you get there just walk away and file an item not received with paypal, you will then get a full refund in about 10 days.

And don't arrange a courier - you would then have to pay for it to be returned if it is not good enough - 2 lots of unnecessary charges.

sorry ETA - ebay sellers are not allowed to charge extra for their ebay fees either.

Hi All. Sorry, had to pop out. Before I had a chance to get in touch with him I had an email from the guy and he states that he would prefer cash on collection when we are happy with it and that he is not sure where that additional charge came from. He sounds quite embarrassed about it.

Phew - sounds genuine! Thanks all. I am pretty confident he is genuine and if not all we have wasted is time (although I am 99% sure we won't have)

Thanks for your replies. Mumsnet is great!