money order, paypal, personal checks, etc.

i made a deal with this one dude on ebay after the auction ended when the guy that won it bailed out. i sent him a money order after negotiating a price, which he received last tuesday (more than a week ago). after that he hasn't replied my emails. i made out the money order from the bank. am i screwed if he doesn't send the goods???

 

You can put a hold on a money order/ stop payment for a fee.

Basically since you made a deal outside ebay you can't leave feedback, and that really is the only insurance you have on ebay...

Good Luck... I would recommend informing the person that you will contact ebay if he/she doesn't respond.

 

In my opinion:
Electronic transfer methods are safer for the buyer (paypal, etc) because it's very easy to stop those transactions (though paypal or worst case through the CC company). It's risky for the seller, though, as there are _tons_ of stories of people's accounts being locked down for god knows what reason and them never being able to get their money out of the account. Also, it is possible to use a fake credit card to send money on paypal which (eventually) gets charged back and you are out of luck if you sent the merchandise and the person manages to disappear. And, of course, an unscrupulous buyer could always receive the merchandise and then attempt to cancel the transaction.

Money Orders (and especially US Postal Money Orders) are safer for the seller since it's harder to fake USPMOs and it's a federal crime to do so. USPMOs cannot, as far as I know, be cancelled...although they can be reported stolen. obviously such a charge would bring some attention to both parties so I'd doubt too many people would risk a false accusation.

On any expensive item you can always request an escrow service be used. While it won't guarantee you will get what you want/what you get works...it will at least provide an additional check between you and the buyer.

Never, under any circumstances make deals outside of ebay unless you don't mind losing your seller protection. Ebay has options to send 'Second Chance Offers' to other bidders on an auction, or you can list it as a set price sale and have the person purchase it through the auction/with a buy it now, etc.


At any rate, with more expensive items (anything over $200) it's cheaper to send a USPMO via Priority Mail than it is to use paypal. On my last ebay auction I saved $36 by insisting on USPMOs instead of going through paypal (since they were fairly expensive items)

 

the best way to avoid problems on ebay is to look at their feedback. or talk with the person through email of the phone and make a judgement call. eventually u might get burned, but for the most part you can prevent it. shit happens. the last thing i bought from some1 their email was down for 2 weeks, but after that he was a nice guy and sent my shit asap

 

man, it's been about 3 weeks since he received the money for my rims. he hasn't replied to my emails since last week. the rims should've reached me by now. what should i do? i'm getting paranoid like crazy coz. i paid big bucks for the rims. he's from dallas... anyone from there?

 

it's prob too late to stop payment on the money order, if he owns the Bussiness, you can threaten him w/ a BBB (better bus. bureau) complaint, sometimes that helps......good luck bro!