Why are my hackles up? Seller is “in London” for 7 months, bike is “already in SquareTrade’s possession”, seperate contact email on page instead of utilizing eBay’s “ask a question” and willing to end auction for a pretty reasonable “reserve price” of $1900.
I emailed through eBay’s “ask a question” and got a response (as well as through the extra one), does that mean anything or can that be hi-jacked also?
I would think it’s reasonable to have your “hackles up”. Any time your spending that kind of money on ebay for something your only viewing through pictures and being sent from overseas, from and individual not a company you should be concerned. There are things I would spend a lot of money for on ebay. I would buy a $40k car from ebay but I would never drop more than $500 for a bike or bike part on ebay.
It does look a little fishy, especially only $1900 for a P3c. I’ve purchased two bikes at ‘too good to be true’ deals on eBay and had zero regrets (both bikes were great and as advertised), so you never know.
you may want to see if you can set up and escro account to pay for the bike (if that is even possible). If not make sure that you pay with a major credit card that has fraud protection. Most of the majors have pretty big sticks to swing and will get you your money back if the bike never shows up.
I agree. You never know. That’s why I would never drop more than $500 for something I wasn’t sure about. I’ve built entire bikes up off of ebay. Bought frames and new parts. But I wouldn’t buy an entire bike if the cost was more than $500. But that’s just me.
yeah - I just bailed out on my conversations with the “seller”. if it turns out to be real, oh well.
He gave me some more fishy info and skipped answering other questions. Like “How tall are you?” - 5’8" - wow that is really small for a 56 P3C what size stem did you use? - no answer. can I call you? - no answer; give me your SquareTrade ID, - I’ll give it to you after you give me you full shipping address and then you’ll get all of my info as well.
Seller is “in London” for 7 months, bike is “already in SquareTrade’s possession”, seperate contact email on page instead of utilizing eBay’s “ask a question” and willing to end auction for a pretty reasonable “reserve price” of $1900.
The auction is a scan! Besides, what the heck does “already in SquareTrade’s possession” mean?
SquareTrade is nothing more than an assortment of online services to help protect Ebay buyers and sellers and I am pretty sure that material possesion/handling of auction items is not one of the sevices they offer. Even if it is, the seller’s Ebay auction ID is not even recognized by SquareTrades verification service - go here http://www.squaretrade.com/cnt/jsp/buyers.jsp;jsessionid=nge94mgrr1?vhostid=daffy&stmp=google&cntid=nge94mgrr1 and enter the sellers Ebay ID (angelchumby) and this is what you will get:
SquareTrade shows NO record for this eBay ID.
*WARNING: validated Seal members do NOT guarantee your transaction is from that same Seller. Click here for other signs if a transaction is a scam
SquareTrade does NOT protect buyers from sellers who are not SquareTrade Verified
Furthermore, among the numerous violations of Ebay’s auction policies, the auction requires potential bidders to contact the seller outside of Ebay’s communication service (SCAM) and that alone is sufficient to get the sellers account suspended. While there is a possibility this is legit and the seller came into posession of the bike bike through illegal means, do yourself and the others who have already placed bids a favor and use Ebay’s fraud service to report this auction as well as forward copies of any e-mails between you and the seller to get the auction pulled.
Seems fishy. Squaretrade is a legit company - my wife was offered a job there last year, so I know a bit about the company. From what I understand, serving as an escrow service is NOT one of there services…
It would probably be best for the Slowtwitch comunity if you could just send me the $1900. That way at least one person on the board would be happy. The end result for you would be the same, out $1900 and no bike, well, I could send you the 20 year old department store woman’s mountain bike I’ve got hanging in the garage I just can’t bring myself to trash.
Asking you to e-mail outside of e-bay before you even bid is a gigantic red flag. And the seller only has 4 feedbacks, all from items they bought.
SquareTrade is NOT an Escrow service. SquareTrade is a seller-authorization service. SquareTrade basically means you agree to abide by a specific set of eBay rules and provide personal/business information to them to validate you as a seller. It is similar to ID-Verified, but actually involves a contractual obligation on your part. Any seller who is SquareTrade-certified will automatically have the logo placed alongside their name by eBay. You cannot put it on yourself; well, you can, but then it is fraudulent.
Check the bottom of the auction. You can verify the seller through SquareTrade. Although, as is always the case, even a SquareTrade seller can have their account hijacked…
I did forward all the correspondence I had with the “seller” off of eBay and told them just that I suspected it was a scam, not totally sure, but that it was up to them to do whatever next.
Don
PS now somebody sell me a P3C for a nice price – frameset is OK
I also notified E-bay of your suspicions early this morning and SafeHarbor is investigating the claims so maybe your claim will add fuel to the fire and we can expect that the auction will soon be removed.
angelchumby) and this is what you will get: