rangerov

Has anyone had a experinece with ebay fraud after the actions are over. I have had 3 e-mails after an action is over that I have not won, with the seller of buyer trying to to sell me thier bike.(one buyer was trying to sell me a bike that he never bid on) Two of the three have been fraud, and the jury is still out on the last one. I bid from tim to time on bike that I might have an interst in, but after all the fraud going on, I would think twice about buying off ebay.

fogrider

I always pay with paypal with a credit card. I don't think paypal will protect you. but your credit card company will fix things with one phone call. Once someone did not send my item for 30 days. I called my credit card and said that I never recieved the item. they did not ask if I took any action to contact the seller, they just said that the money will be refunded to my account.

there are some sellers that will say that they will not accept payment from credit card...guest what...don't do business with them. some sellers don't like credit card sales because they charge a percentage on the seller, but if they want my business, they can pass the charge on to me, but I won't buy if they don't take the credit card.

when you pay, be sure to make sure you are paying through a credit card, paypal defaults to transfering funds from your account and they try to tell you why it better, but don't be fooled.

rich007

Regarding the above (PayPal and credit card payments), it's good to remember that PayPal will change the policy coming this February and sellers will no longer have choice to deny your credit card when accepting funds through PayPal (that's only available to sellers, if buyers have also a registered bank account)... Nice... Better security for buyers...

zacster

I've had nothing but bad luck lately from ebay. I tried 3 times to buy a bike and all three times found that the ads were frauds. It seems strange that the bicycle world is targeted the way it is, but they are big money items I guess.

I'm buying local, there are enough NYC shops to choose from.

Firefox is the only way to go.

Panoramic

True that - I'm running firefox too

rangerov

I justcalled the "sellers" bulf witha few hard questions. These questions if your were legit seller, you would have no problem with answering them. This "seller" flip out, or maybe it was the fact that I had sent ebay an e-mail to find out what they thought.

Moonshot

I'd guess there were lots of bikes on ebay with sellers near NYC. Why not narrow your search to just sellers near NYC? Meet the seller to pickup the bike and pay them C.O.D?

I downloaded Firefox last November and one of the first times I tried to use it I got a message that I needed to upgrade to the newest Firefox. I figured it was too much trouble. Maybe I was wrong.

pacesetter

Yea i got a email saying original bidder backed out. if i wanted the bike to email the seller. but the email wasn't the original seller. as of right now im waiting on a new dura ace 10 speed group and a new frame. the sellers sent me tracking #s quick and they are on the way. i only buy from sellers with lots of transactions and good feed back.

Trev Doyle

I have had good luck with ebay. So much so I would say it's not luck but common sense. Firstly if you are buying something expensive email the person. Get a feel for who they are, what does their feedback say? Are they into cycling, are they also worried about the prospect of ripp off artists, I have found cyclists will generally not rippp of other cyclists, so if they say "I'm selling it for a friend," be very wary, They probably don't ride, and as such do not adhere to any such codes of conduct.
IF YOU GET ANY FEELING THAT YOU SHOULD NOT TRUST THE TRANSACTION,DON'T BID.

Quick story: I recently purchaseda Pinarello Prince off of EBAY at a steal of a price. I had contacted the seller through several emails, and even requested his phone number, which he gladly gave me. We talked about riding, yadayadayada, I hit the buy it now button, and I got a great bike FWIW I paid $1700 Can for a 2002 Pinarello Prince Dura Ace that needed pedals and a bit of work to the rear shifter. I will post pics soon. I always communicate several times with the seller before a big purchase,if they aren't into it, it's simple, you cannot buy from them. IMO

joejack951

It's the fact that they are big money items; it has nothing to do with bicycling. I recently tried to buy an engine (944 S2 3 liter if anyone cares) and got the same deal where someone other than the seller contacted me trying to "sell" me the engine b/c the buyer backed out. What got me really confused was that I found out through another message board that the buyer really had backed out. I finally did hear from the real seller and was able to confirm the original email was attempted fraud. In this case, the bidding went almost to $2000. I'm still pissed I didn't win it and the seller decided he didn't want to sell it after all that.

phantomcow2

Well i can say, ive had good luck with ebay. I had one guy who never contacted me again, it was a 25 dollar purchase, never got ahold of him or the item. Filed a claim, and i got credit. ANd once i ordered a CD player from a korean company for 140 and it was over a month and i filed a claim, next day i finally got an email after sending over 50 to try to get ahold of them, and 3 days later it was at my door.

Chucklehead

i've had nothing but good experiences with ebay. i once even bought a pair of used cycling shorts... ok that's a joke, but i do buy alot on ebay and have even bought shorts. i can't say i've ever bought anything over $100, though. maybe that's part of it. i have my limits with the ebay thing. i can't imagine that some idioth would think that he or she could make a killing in fradulent tennis racquet sales on ebay.

zacster

One of the listings was from NYC, but when I contacted the seller it was suddenly in London. Another was from the other end of the state in Niagara Falls, which may have been legit, but the guy never answered my emails. Most listings though are in SoCal.

And give Firefox another try.

blaine

I run Firefox too...how does that help w/ fraud, though?

Trogon

I had two of them this week regarding a Colnago I bid on last week. Both messages were from User A telling me to contact User B directly for the same type of frame I was bidding on. Different usernames in both cases. Both offered to sell me a similar frame for the exact (to the penny) amount I had bid on the legitimate auction.

Today, I had a note from eBay warning me about User A #1.

vrkelley

How did user A and B get your e-bay address?

Trogon

I assume they simply clicked on my username and then "contact user" from the feedback page.

The return address was an eBay mail account, looked to me like it was being done inside of ebay. They clearly got my name by looking at the bid history on the bike I was going for as they offered to sell me one for the precise amount of my maximum bid.

Methos

I had the original situation happen to me. I contacted the buyer and he said that he was still buying it. I sent the ebayer who contacted me an email saying that he was a fraud and that I was contacting eBay. Which I did, but they didn't seem to care too much about it. I'm sure this kind of stuff happens all the time.

I did buy my last bike from eBay and had good luck. Everything went fine. I think the biking community is targeted because they are enough cash to make a deal, but not enough to cause a big ruckus. Most people are not taking out loans to buy bikes.