I'm trying to figure out whether this person I'm dealing with on ebay is incompetent, deceitful, malicious, a scammer... or what. Please let me know what you think.
I listed an item of furniture for a 7 day auction starting at 99p. Basically I just want shot of the thing and for someone to collect it,but if it happens to go for a few quid then that's a bonus. Soon after listing I got a request to put a buy it now of £10 on it, which I declined, as I usually do on principle (and bloody well always will do from now on). Then I thought, actually, a tenner's over double what I expected, so yeah, why not, and as it's for collection in person only I might get shot of the thing more quickly too. Sadly, I made the school girl error of not checking the potential buyer's feedback.
So, they agreed and ought it, but despite the listing stating cash on collection, they immediately paid via PayPal. I am aware of the decanters around scams, but tend to give people the benefit of the doubt, and haven't been stung that way yet with the odd person who has chosen to pay their 99p by PayPal before collecting! So then I tried to fix a time for them to collect, and it becomes apparent they live a long way away, and there are hints at confusion and they say they will send a courier the following day. Subsequent messages suggested there was very little risk of damage as the courier they use is good and wraps everything in blankets 
. I am not prepared to go along with this as (a) it is breakable, and (b) not waiting in all day for courier. By now my bullshit alarm has finally gone off 
.
Anyway, as a seller, obviously it is hard to get out of these situations unscathed. So I have been v v polite, and offered a refund and to cancel the transaction, apologised for their disappointment etc etc. However, having now gone and read the feedback they've left for other people, it is clear that they rarely leave feedback, and over half the feedback they've ever left is negative, with the responses from sellers indicating similar situations to this one, or other issues about claiming things have been damaged or sent to the wrong address. Reading the 'positive' feedback from sellers, some is very reserved "we got there in the end" type stuff, other bits actually state avoid and that they are awful to deal with.
So, I'll chalk it up to experience. Lesson learned re the buy it now and checking feedback before agreeing. BUT, what actually is their game?? What are they up to? I don't get how this works if it is a scam (my item is not high value, very much second hand and not sought after). Can anyone shed light?