So I bid on a privately listed, P3C on ebay and won. A brand new P3C with a hed aerobar upgrade and a dura ace crankset upgrade for $2800 brand new(free shipping and delivery). I’m really excited about the bike, but the guy wants me to do a western union transfer instead of paypal because he says he’s going through a divorce. He also lives in the UK. I’m just nervous about wiring my whole wad of cash to the UK and hoping I receive a bike. I’m curious about what some of you think. Is this thing for real, or am I a complete and total sucker?
I received an official ebay confirmation that says to pay with Western Union, I’m just not sure how this stuff is insured. What happens if the bike shows up shattered? Is it protected? What happens if the bike doesn’t show up? I’ve tried to get a phone number for ebay so I can talk to an actual person to get some answers, but I haven’t been able to find one. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Contact Ebay asap. DO NOT PAY. Ebay has warnings all over the place about Western Union payment. Try to call Ebay rather than email. Always check first that they take paypal and then you still want to be careful. And watch out for the email scams that you will get after this. I bought a tandem on ebay and received about 20 email scams trying to “sell” me the bike I just bought.
I receive 2-3 emails from “the UK” every week for items posted here, craigslist or on eBay. None of them want to work with paypal. All of them want Western Union.
Just in case the point was not driven home, forget it.
Check this one from “Gary Smith” that I received today. This is exactly as it came to me.
from: gary smith
Hello, Gooday and how are you doing today,I saw your advert dvertised
at site
while i want you to know that i have my interest in buying your item,
While i
want you to make it known to me if this is still available and also
the final
sale price including the present term and condition and it’s pics…
Thanks
and
keep waiting to read from you asap…stay bless. cheer
Hi,
This is a scam for sure… I’m currently selling my bike through a local website and I received an email from a guy named Mark James living in UK asking for my last price, not even asking a single question about the bike. He said that he really needed the bike right now…It’s the middle of the winter! The emails that I received you could notice that they were using a template and plenty of grammar mistakes. I heard that lately a lot of scam come from Africa and not UK. Do yourself a favor whenever you want to buy a bike of that price either you pick-up locally or just go to your local bike shop. If you still want to go forward with the transaction use an intermediary (they will make sure they have the bike before release the Cheque).
Last year, I sold my P3 and used a shipping service that would make sure to have the certified Cheque in their hands before giving the bike.
Scam, but tell them you have relatives throughout the UK and would like to pick it up. If you get an address there might be a Slowtwictcher nearby who could pick it up.
But I am sure its a scam. It will be fun to see why you can not pick it up locally.
Why would a buyer want to do this on ebay? It seems to me that the advantage of ebay is that everyone has access to the auction and you’ll get top dollar for your product since people will outbid one another.
I really appreciate everyone’s feedback. I was about 98% sure it was a scam, but I haven’t done much on ebay before, so I really didn’t know how things usually work. There are so many grammatical errors in the e-mails, and he refuses to answer questions regarding the bike. He also refused to have anyone pick it up and ship it back to me. Now my question is, what would be the most entertaining way to tell them that he is a complete and utter waste of a heartbeat on this earth? I think his English isn’t so hot, so it has to be simple and easy to understand/translate.
you could always reply back with something along the lines of:
“I don’t want to sound skeptical of the process but a co-worker here in my office, U.S. Attorney General, is suggesting I do a little additional verification with you. How about calling me direct (insert number here) and we can review how to proceed. If I am not here, Asst. U.S. Attorney General Steve Smith will be able to talk to you on my behalf.”