I know this is really off topc but I just wanted to share with everone the grief I have been having trying to sell my Sony 40" LCD in the last two days in the lead up to getting my BeoVision 7-40.
I put the TV up for sale with a start price of £300 and BUyItNow for £500, within hours someone does buy it now and sends me £500 over paypal, I send an e-mail saying thank you and when would the person like to pick up the TV?
I get an e-mail saying that its for a moving present for the guys sister and would tomorrow be OK. I send a message back saying that I prefer for paypal funds to clear before I hand over the goods. He says fair enough and that I can do a refund on Paypal and he will pay cash and see me at my work location sometime during the day.
The day goes by and nothing happens so I send an e-mail at 4.30 asking if we were still on and he replies saying hes had to work later than expected and could I wait until 7 or 8 to which I then reply saying no and that it will have to wait until tomorrow.
I then get an e-mail from PayPal saying that the user has reported the transaction as fraud and not to carry on, my work number was in my e-mail signature and so all of a sudden I get a phone call from a very panicky man telling me hes just logged into his hotmail to see all this correspondance which he had nothing to do with, checked his PayPal and seen that £500 had gone and that I shouldnt hand over the TV.
Annoyed by it all I think myself lucky and glad that actually I wasn't left TV and peniless and so relist the TV. 10 minutes later someone does buyitnow! I get an e-mail saying can I pay by paypal and collect tonight? Not a chance so the person put a phone number in and I called them up saying no but they can do cash on collection and pick up today the guy agrees to it and we arrange for him to come at midday, he then calls me back to change to 1 and I agree and ask for his name. He tells me his name is Richard and so I then ask for his surname to which he responds "I'm not being funny mate but why is that your business?" I then go onto tell him how I had just almost been scammed etc and he then tells me.
I send an e-mail to him confirming our agreed time/place and he come back saying yes. I then checked the guys feedback and they hadnt bought/sol anything in 12 months so I google the name. Up comes Facebook with the guys profile, well it could be his or could be someone with the same name. So I dig further. Profile pictures show that he likes to travel/camp etc and that I have 5 mutual friends!! I take it upon myself to message the guy and ask whether it was him etc etc and at 5.20am this morning I get an e-mail from the hotmail account saying that they had got my facebook message and confirmed collection.
Still nervous when I woke up and after speaking to the guy on the phone, lets just say his accent didnt match the pictures and so I was still suspect and requested the users contact details through ebay. They come through and then I get an agry phonecall from the guy asking why I was checking up on him through Facebook and ebay etc etc, I explain how I had been scammed and was being percautious! He calms down and so I casually ask how he knows our "mutual friends" the response is "through other friends" I say "which ones I might know them?" The response is "their manager" - Ah OK well that obviously explains it all, not the fact that they all went to university together!!
Anyway surprise surprise since then it is now an hour and 40 minutes after the agreed pickup and there has been no sign, all call to the mobile shows that it has been cut off.
It shows that people are obviously getting their hotmail and ebay accounts hacked and then people are doing god knows what with them which is mighty annoying for everyone involved but my biggest thing is how am I legitimately meant to sell my TV. Its costing me a fortune everytime I relist and is just getting so longwinded I just don't want it to happen again! I've sold many a thing on ebay before and never had a problem before it is just a shame how things like this get ruined!!
RANT OVER!! 