Should I feel safe making payment on expensive item I won on ebay?

Question

It's for $300. After the auction ended I sent an email to the seller to send me pictures of the item (none were posted and that will make me feel better about the transaction.) He had said in the listing to email him for pics and he'd respond right away. I emailed him once to his personal address and once the next day to his ebay account with no reply. In the meantime I got a notice from ebay that I haven't made the payment yet. His rating is 80% but he's been a member for a few years so that put trust in him. What should I do?

Answer 1

its a scam,farward the email to [e-mail] they will help you,ebays want full payment up front

if its not a scam

pay for shipping upfront and tell this person  once you get the item then i make payments ,

Answer 2

personally i wouldn't buy anything from an eBay seller with a rating below 95% but my best advise would be to pay by credit card through paypal that way you have purchase protection from your credit card company as well as the buyer protection offed by paypal.

Answer 3

I think you should go read this page right away:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/tp/index.html

Answer 4

base your decision on their feedback rating,

and look at any negative comments.

paypal, as well as ebay, will insure large purchases.

Answer 5

well... if i was you i would have inquired about the item prior to making a bid and winning the item. especially on something that costs 300 dollars. I would not send any payment until he replies back to you. I would much rather have a negative feedback or my ebay account suspended rather than be scammed out of 300 dollars. Good luck!

Answer 6

No, don't pay for the item until you get the pics. If you get a negative rating, you can always answer the rating. I would contact ebay and explain the situation. I would continue to e-mail the seller and document that you won't pay for it until you receive the pics. And if you don't get any satisfaction then you pretty much know that you're being scammed and it's better to open a new account with ebay than be scammed out of $300.

Answer 7

definitely use paypal, it's the safest way to pay for an expensive item like that

Answer 8

I'd wait until I got a reply. 80% is REALLY bad. It sounds too iffy, 300 isn't worth the risk.

Answer 9

if he don't respond, you can file a complain, even 80% rating can scam you, and it isn't hard to give yourself good rating by creating new account.

Answer 10

Never pay the seller directly- always pay through Pay pal- he can take your money and you get nothing and since you didn't go thru pay pal- there is no insurance or anything that you will get the item.. I would not send him any money - unless you pay through Pay pal-  they even warn you about that! Please don't get ripped off !

Answer 11

umm well lets see it says 80% and he's been there for a long time but idk i wouldn't feel comfortable paying that much over the internet to someone compared to a company but then again if u already bought it well then there's not much u can do

Answer 12

You probably shouldn't be bidding on items with a seller who has such a bad feedback score. Why was he getting negative points? Also, why are you bidding on an item that doesn't have a picture. If you make your payment through paypal, they're pretty good at helping you out if you dont' recieve an item you've paid for.

Answer 13

80% is really bad for a reason.  If you pay by paypal, it is relatively safe.  However, unless it is something you really, really want, take the hit of non paying bidder strike and don't send this putz your money