[Kirium]

So I've been selling my Canon dslr setup. I ended up putting it on ebay as I wanted to sell it soon for a decent price and have it in a buyers hands before christmas.

Anyway, It sold tonight, but I'm getting a bad gut feeling about this sale.

The buyer is a new ebay member, newly registered with the user id someid61. 0 feedback. When I sent the invoice for the sale, it came up with the name of someone called Paul B(edited for now) who lives on Wongawollan Rd, Beaudesert, Qld, 4271. The email address that the invoice was sent to was to chandr@sibers.com. This didn't have anything resembling the buyers name in it so I googled the domain sibers.com to find some sort of Russian programming outsourcing company. Red flag #1

I send the invoice to "Paul" and get a near instant reply from someone called Andrey Chashkov. Realising Andrey sounds nothing like Paul, A google for his name returns someone that is a VP Marketing for hirerussians.com. (Hirerussians.com has a link to sibers.com as a "partner" whatever that is). The email address for Andrey is a gmail address, chandroid@gmail.com. A google on this email address bring up a domain registry site with that email address being the registered contact for this website. Red flags # 2 and 3.

Grey pages lookup on the phone number provided with the ebay invoice reveals no result. White pages lookup on the surname and address on the ebay invoice reveal correct surname, but no "Paul" (not that big of a deal) and a different phone number to that of the ebay invoice. Red flag #4. White pages and google maps also tells me that Wongawollan Rd from the ebay invoice, is actually spelt Wongawallan Rd. Google street view tells me this particular address is a (nice looking) residential dwelling.

Question: WTF?

Am I about to get scammed? The buyer is happy to pay with paypal (and wanted to pay tonight, but when I started to get suspicious, I said I hadn't had the package weighed, so couldn't provide exact shipping amount until I went to the post office tomorrow (A Sunday). Buyer said that's fine (and didn't pick up that post offices don't open on Sunday?), but I'm concerned that he might pay, receive the camera, then lodge a report with paypal who will take back the payment from me, leaving buyer with money and camera.

I'm going to ring the White pages phone number for "Paul" tomorrow and see what happens. Will also try the ebay invoice phone number after that depending on what happens.

I spoke to ebay live chat and told them all this and they said it seemed suspicious, and recommended that I only accept paypal, and confirm that payment is made before sending the camera off.

Anyone have an opinion on my tale? Am I just being paranoid?

P.S. I think I've done some good homework on this transaction...

[Goodbye]

Send it registered or something, then he can't say the item didn't arrive. And maybe also take detailed pictures of all the items for sale so if there's some dispute, you have some evidence.

[Phase]

Go with your gut feeling mate, don't even tempt it.

If you're having to find reasons to justify it to yourself, you already know the answer.

[cosmichobo]

IMO, the fact you've spoken to eBay, and they've said to use PayPal... and the buyer is willing to use PayPal... I'd go through with it.

If they do try to claim the goods didn't arrive, I'd ensure that eBay refer to their own advice, and insist they deny his claim...

[Galumay]

i am surprised you are even considering going through with the deal.

[Currawong]

Is the shipping address that one in QLD? I don't see a problem if it is. If they were asking you to send it to Russia, then I'd declare it a fraud.

[Kirium]

Well the address on the invoice is the qld one, but I was expecting a different address as the ship to address when the paypal payment comes thru

[Kirium]

Well after ringing Paul B, we're somewhat closer to an explanation...

I rang Paul B going off the phone number on the white pages (not the one in the invoice listing). This turned out to be his parents. They put me in touch with him and the phone number on the invoice info was for his business (unlisted for some reason). Paul B has contracted Andrey the Russian to do some coding for Google Android software he's having written up. Not sure if this is global or Aus software. This is where the sibers.com and hirerussians.com come into the picture.

Paul (who only talks to Andrey via email and phone), said Andrey could use his contact details to purchase a Canon lens from Australia, which would be paid for via Paypal by Andrey, shipped to Paul in Qld, who would forward it on to Andrey. The lens had already been bought and Paul didn't know Andrey had used his Qld contact details to order my Canon kit thru ebay. He said he'd only do it for him once. He's since been in touch with Andrey to let him know he wouldn't be passing on the Canon kit.

Since then, I've learnt that Andrey will apparently be in Thailand shortly, and he's asking me to send it there directly. I've told him that since this was an Australia only auction, I'd be within my rights to contact ebay and have his winning bid canceled, and he agreed that would be fine, as he'd assumed he'd be able to have it shipped within Australia to his employer, Paul.

Still tossing up if I will allow his bid to stand and send the kit off to him, or wether I relist the item and try again...

[Goodbye]

What does it matter? Just insist that you send it to him in QLD, and that he pays by Paypal.

If it all goes through fine, and you get paid, what does it matter what he does with it after? Do you really want to go through all the hassle of contacting eBay and relisting the whole thing?

[Kirium]

The guy in Qld isn't the buyer. The buyer is Andrey, who is in Russia. He's been contracted by the guy in Qld to work on Android apps. The guy in Qld didn't know his address had been used by the Russian guy again, and doesn't want to the kit shipped to him.

[cosmichobo]

Yeah ok I'd pull out now. It's gonna be a lot more complicated trying to resolve this if it does go screwy now that you're dealing with overseas postage...

And as you have the "out" available, I'd take it.

[Currawong]

I'd forward the details to ebay to get the bid cancelled. The Russian thing sounds like a scam though, but it's not your problem, but Paul's.

[Beau]

Question - why do people not trust users with 0 feedback? How on earth are new people supposed to start on eBay if no-one trusts them??

[cosmichobo]

Originally Posted by Beau

Question - why do people not trust users with 0 feedback? How on earth are new people supposed to start on eBay if no-one trusts them??

Why do we not trust them? Because there is no track record to prove the person is genuine, and not gonna rip you off - whether a buyer or seller.

Sure, we all start out there, but it's best to start with cheap things that you can start building up a good record...

[W2ttsy]

Originally Posted by Beau

Question - why do people not trust users with 0 feedback? How on earth are new people supposed to start on eBay if no-one trusts them??

same reason new p platers cant drive turbos or V8s. Some douches ruined it in the past and now no one is trusted. Sucks when you get into some risky for the first time. n00bs suffer the most due to other peoples actions..

W2ttsy

[Japester]

I hate any auction this messy. I would advise getting out and relisting the item.