Have I been scammed (eBay)?

[Gerbil333]

I was one of two winners of this auction for Thinkpad T22's.

I paid the same day, Feb 3rd, but had to send an eCheck that didn't clear until Wed the 7th. Okay, fine. Well, the seller still hadn't sent any acknowlegement of my payment or shipping info by yesterday, 5 days after I'd sent payment.

Here's the communication so far:

Me, Thursday, 2-8
Hi, could I please get some kind of status? You've sent no order, payment, or shipping confirmation, and it's not like you're a high volume seller...

Seller, Thursday, 2-8
What kind of status you want?

Me, Thursday, 2-8
Hmm, sorry; I sent two earlier messages asking when and by what method you'd ship. Did they not arrive?

Seller, Friday, 2-9
I'm sorry. Who are you?
Do we sold anything to you?

Me, Friday, 2-9
I'm [name], I won a Thinkpad T22 as mentioned in the subject line (item# 120081107092). Payment of $226.98 was sent last week, transaction # [removed].

Seller, Friday, 2-9
HI, John:

We though we only list 1 pc which we sold already. But were 2 pcs.

We will sent you 1 pc today.

Sorry for the delay.

At this point, I figure everything's fine. English obviously isn't his native language, and therefore his failure to notice that he sold two laptops, not one, was somewhat excusable.

HOWEVER, he sent me the tracking number this evening, and this makes no sense. I've never seen UPS screw up this way:

Tracking Number: [removed]
Type: Package
Status: In Transit - On Time
Scheduled Delivery: 02/13/2007
Shipped to: ROLLA, MO, US
Shipped or Billed on: 02/09/2007
Service Type: GROUND
Weight: 1.00 Lb

Package Progress
Location Date Local Time Description
DORAVILLE,
GA, US 02/09/2007 9:18 P.M. ORIGIN SCAN
US 02/09/2007 6:02 P.M. BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

 

[thespeakerbox]

Yep. Youre fvcked.

$200 for a T22? Are you kiddin me?

Shipped from..........russia? nigeria?



Start that dispute. Hope you paid with a good CC.

 

[imported_Mike]

Originally posted by: thespeakerbox
Yep. Youre fvcked.

$200 for a T22? Are you kiddin me?

Its an old one, but I agree....looks like you're fvcked OP.

 

[Gerbil333]

I've been looking for two weeks. Most T22's are going for above $250, actually. I sold my 600e (PII 300MHz!) last week for $140. Old Thinkpads hold value well. And no, it was shipped from Georgia. His feedback isn't that bad...

The payment is protected. I'm not worried about losing money (I'll see to it that I don't), and this isn't even a hurry. The worst that can happen is he wastes my time.

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: thespeakerbox
Yep. Youre fvcked.

$200 for a T22? Are you kiddin me?

Shipped from..........russia? nigeria?



Start that dispute. Hope you paid with a good CC.

WTF are you talking about?

$200 for a P3 laptop sounds about right.

The item was shipped; the dispute can't start until it arrives. No CC company or PayPal would allow a dispute at this point in the transaction.

This forum is chock full of eBay newbies.

 

[Gerbil333]

jpeyton is right. I'm not going to start a dispute until I get the box.

 

[imported_Mike]

Might just be a mistake or maybe he has a hook up at UPS?

 

[RelaxTheMind]

Originally posted by: Gerbil333
I've been looking for two weeks. Most T22's are going for above $250, actually. I sold my 600e last week for $140. Old Thinkpads hold value well. And no, it was shipped from Georgia. His feedback isn't that bad...

The payment is protected. I'm not worried about losing money (I'll see to it that I don't), and this isn't even a hurry. The worst that can happen is he wastes my time.

time is money. at least in my book it is. in both literal and metaphorically speaking

 

[Gerbil333]

Time is only money if I could be making money during said time. Seeing how deals like this are done in my free time, I'm losing only free time, which is not money at all.

 

[doze]

Either you got jacked or he entered the weight manually at 1lb and sent this with the tracking # to UPS. UPS will weigh the box and bill the shipper the difference.

 

[Pepsi90919]

The weight listed on the tracking page isn't gospel. In UPS' software, you can pretty much put anything in for the weight, but they will weigh it themselves at the depot if it looks like it's way off.

 

[Colt45]

English probably is his first language, just that he's in georgia is all.

 

[Gerbil333]

UPS will weigh the box and bill the shipper the difference.

So have you seen this happen before? That's what I was thinking might be the case. The guy seems legit, just terrible with communication.

 

[drinkmorejava]

If the have an account with UPS, often times people just throw a random weight down and let the system charge them later.

 

[AaronB]

Originally posted by: Gerbil333

UPS will weigh the box and bill the shipper the difference.

So have you seen this happen before? That's what I was thinking might be the case. The guy seems legit, just terrible with communication.

Yes it happens. I do it all the time. When generating a lable online you can just claim the package weighs 1lb even if it weighs 50lbs. You will pay the 1lb price and later UPS will bill your credit card for the difference. There is no penalty.

I do it because I don't have a scale to weigh items. I do try to get close though. If I think something weighs 10lbs, I will claim 8lbs for example.

The UPS tracking info will only show what the customer put in as far as I know. Even if UPS reweighs it.

That doesn't mean that this isn't a scam. If a dispute arises, he can prove shipment. Paypal will side with him on this and you will have to take it up with your CC company. Even with the best CC companies this wouldn't be a gauranteed refund. (far too many people act as if all they have to do is make a phone call and the cc company will simply reverse any charge that they ask for, it does not work that way)

I would be more concerned with his english skills. For some reason, his style of communication sets off alarms with me. "I am would be happy to be sending you the amount of 25 million US dollars if you can be assisting me..."

 

[Pepsi90919]

Originally posted by: drinkmorejava
If the have an account with UPS, often times people just throw a random weight down and let the system charge them later.

i often guesstimate, but i've been told by my local depot that they often don't even bother weighing things if the weight looks 'close enough'. draw your own conclusion.

 

[Vegitto]

Well, it wouldn't be the first time UPS screws up with weight. A couple of weeks ago, I got a package that weighed 1500 kg according to UPS, while it was only 1.5.. Oh well..

 

[wazzledoozle]

UPS often screws up the weight. Once, when shipping a motherboard, they couldnt get the scale to work. So they just charged me the minimum weight for a box of that size.