More ebay/paypal shenanigans

[AB]

A friend of mine has sold about 10 watches from his collection, credit crunch clearly biting hard.

Watches ranging from £300 to £3000 ish.

Now two of them sold to one person, who has had the watches delivered, and is now claiming that they are not genuine. They are.

Here's the thing, he has sent a watch back which is not the one that was sold to him - quite clearly he has bought fake and has 'replaced' it with the genuine one and it after Paypal giving him a refund.

What the hell does he do now? He could stand to lose the best part of £2k's worth of watch.

[hornetrider]

Send the boys around. Or take it up with Paypal?

[AndrewW-G]

your "friend" needs to pop down to the police station and make a complaint.

[Benten]

hornetrider said:

Send the boys around. Or take it up with Paypal?

I know he has the address now. I would go round and ask for it back. And if i didnt get it I would kick off.

[Ladyhayles]

Surely he must have documentation to prove the watch returned does not match the watch packaged and sent.

I'd involve the police rather than the normal Paypal/Ebay channels, technically what the purchaser has done is theft.

ETA - To be honest he was a bit stupid to sell something so expensive on ebay with all the current issues with it.

Edited by Ladyhayles on Tuesday 10th March 12:48

[AB]

AndrewW-G said:

your "friend" needs to pop down to the police station and make a complaint.

Hehe, I wish I did have grands worth of watches to sell!

[JonRB]

AB said:

Here's the thing, he has sent a watch back which is not the one that was sold to him - quite clearly he has bought fake and has 'replaced' it with the genuine one and it after Paypal giving him a refund.

Very sneaky scam. And so difficult to prove too.

[AB]

JonRB said:

AB said:

Here's the thing, he has sent a watch back which is not the one that was sold to him - quite clearly he has bought fake and has 'replaced' it with the genuine one and it after Paypal giving him a refund.

Very sneaky scam. And so difficult to prove too.

The problem is, even when he has the pictures and copy of the ebay listing, there's nothing to say that the pictures were of the watch he sent?

The first thing I said to him was 'oops, you're screwed' as ebay do seem to side with the buyer and as far as I am aware, if someone sells a fake watch, the buyer gets the money recovered from the sellers paypal account?

I will suggest the police, he is pretty angry, so even if fruitless, im pretty sure he will give it a go.

Serves him right for not selling a couple of them to me on the cheap :P

[AlexKP]

JonRB said:

AB said:

Here's the thing, he has sent a watch back which is not the one that was sold to him - quite clearly he has bought fake and has 'replaced' it with the genuine one and it after Paypal giving him a refund.

Very sneaky scam. And so difficult to prove too.

This is a known ebay scam - especially with watches. I think he needs to contact ebay and then the police in that order.

Edited by AlexKP on Tuesday 10th March 13:01

[AB]

Cheers, I think he is on it with Paypal and Ebay as a matter of course simply because the other guy has initiated it.

Got a horrible feeling the buyer is abroad... but can't confirm.

[JonRB]

AB said:

The first thing I said to him was 'oops, you're screwed'

First thing I thought too. He can't prove he didn't advertise a genuine watch and send a fake out, for a start. He can have all the documentation in the world that he owned a genuine one at some point, but he can't prove it was that watch that he sent out.

(For the avoidance of doubt, I'm not for one minute saying he did; I'm just saying that it is hard for him to prove one way or the other)

[AlexKP]

JonRB said:

AB said:

The first thing I said to him was 'oops, you're screwed'

First thing I thought too. He can't prove he didn't advertise a genuine watch and send a fake out, for a start. He can have all the documentation in the world that he owned a genuine one at some point, but he can't prove it was that watch that he sent out.

(For the avoidance of doubt, I'm not for one minute saying he did; I'm just saying that it is hard for him to prove one way or the other)

I think he'll be okay - like I said, this is a known ebay scam with prestige watches.

As someone who has bought and sold tens of thousands of pounds worth of watches on ebay in the past I am very aware of it, and so are the other sellers and ebay themselves.

[Iain328]

So he didn't take a picture or at least make a note of the serial number of the watch he sold ?

If not he's probably screwed.

[scotal]

Off topic, but why the hell would any one sell £2ks worth of watch via a stebox medium like ebay?

[JonRB]

Iain328 said:

So he didn't take a picture or at least make a note of the serial number of the watch he sold ?

Like I said in my previous post, that only proves he owned a genuine watch, not that he actually sent that out.

[AlexKP]

scotal said:

Off topic, but why the hell would any one sell £2ks worth of watch via a stebox medium like ebay?

I've bought and sold loads - often worth much more than that. There are very established and respected dealers on there.

In fact it is one of the main sources for prestige watches in the world now.

[Simpo Two]

hora said:

Another reason to avoid ebay. Last week ebay cancelled an auction of mine as I wouldnt accept paypal on a collection only auction. Why would anyone accept paypal if someones coming to your house to collect?

Since about the middle of last year eBay insist that PayPal is offered as a payment method (they own PayPal so it makes more money for them). As you say, another reason not to use them.

The system is so biased against sellers that there's no point even trying IMHO - you're at the mercy of crooked buyers who laugh all the way to the bank. Well done eBay, you corporate muppets.

[AB]

scotal said:

Off topic, but why the hell would any one sell £2ks worth of watch via a stebox medium like ebay?

I'm not sure, it seems a weekly thing, me making an ebay/paypal post. Most of the times I have used it myself have resulted in problems.

I did offer to list them on PH for him.

[scotal]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I'm stunned, it seems such an risky way to trade to me.

[Maxf]

He needs to empty his paypal account, cancel his direct debit and have his day in court if need be. Once PP have his money he is fked.