I'd been looking for a pair of Bose headphones for a little while and after missing out on a couple on eBay I checked gumtree, found an ad that looked legit based in Chelsea, asked if they could post/paypal, said yes and agreed. £154
I've never had any problems with online purchases, and have sent quite a bit of £ as bank transfers/ppg. If I don't feel comfortable with the deal, I walk away. On this case, either I was tired or just chose to ignore the alarm bells.
Paypal e-mail address didn't match name on ad, headphones were iOS model, pictured next to the stand of an iMac, but messages exchanged came as sms as opposed to iMessages. I then decided to reverse image search the ad photos, and sure enough, a listing on Italian eBay came up. I immediately opened an item not received dispute on PayPal.
Was expecting no parcel, a brick or fakes - fakes arrived.
I videoed the unboxing in case I needed to prove something to PayPal and had Bose run the serial number (came back with counterfeit). I then changed the case to not as described.
In a couple of days PayPal said send them back, at my cost. £4.40 for the aggravation.
Two days later, delivered, phoned PayPal asked where dispute was at, was asked to send photo of postage receipt with house number and postcode visible. Next day refunded.
This morning the prick phones me and asks me what the name was on the parcel????
I hung up, got a text saying "please, I need to know what name was on the parcel" - replied check with PayPal and blocked.
The nerve.....
Comments
I believe it probably is. I report scam emails to it - if nothing else it provides statistics.
Gumtree is a different beast, and in a momentary lapse of reason I sent some money over, but backed by paypal. I am not crazy to bacs a gumtree seller.