E bay parts scam

d4v1d sm4rt

A2OC Donor
Needed some parts for the car so looked at ebay and found exactly what I wanted and the price seemed good and most importantly from a very low mileage car, delivery was shown as " free" Clicked buy It now only to find that a message popped up that the seller didn't deliver to my area which was strange considering I am not in the highlands or islands. So I clicked on and asked for an invoice including delivery, nothing came back so I rang the number on the advert and the person on the end of the phone rudely explained that they don't deliver under any circumstances and that was clearly explained on the listing. After proposing lots of suggestions I agreed to get a courier to collect and the seller sent me an invoice from his own company which I paid by bank transfer as he claimed that he would not accept PayPal or credit card because the charge could later be reversed and that he had been ripped off by unscrupulous buyers this way. ( despite this being clearly offered on the eBay advert ) After much tooing and froing my couriers finally picked the items up but soon after they were collected I had an e mail saying that the original low mileage perfect items had been substituted for some older ones that had been stripped of all the ancillary parts and that the ones that I had bought and paid for had been sold to a bidder abroad for twice the price. Not amused!

The same item was then advertised again under two headings with exactly the same unique description at a cheaper price which leads me to believe this is part of an orchestrated ploy.

It would seem that the scam involves advertising a perfect and very desirable part and then substituting it for a poor quality one in a way that gives the customer no actual redress and gains the seller more money for poor quality items. The seller will never address any issues directly and claims to be too busy and talks endlessly about what a great business he has and how much he sells abroad but never actually answers any questions then gets rude and angry when repeatedly challenged.

The seller is probably known to some members but it would seem that there is a new strategy in town to part A2 owners with their cash...
 
Needed some parts for the car so looked at ebay and found exactly what I wanted and the price seemed good and most importantly from a very low mileage car, delivery was shown as " free" Clicked buy It now only to find that a message popped up that the seller didn't deliver to my area which was strange considering I am not in the highlands or islands. So I clicked on and asked for an invoice including delivery, nothing came back so I rang the number on the advert and the person on the end of the phone rudely explained that they don't deliver under any circumstances and that was clearly explained on the listing. After proposing lots of suggestions I agreed to get a courier to collect and the seller sent me an invoice from his own company which I paid by bank transfer as he claimed that he would not accept PayPal or credit card because the charge could later be reversed and that he had been ripped off by unscrupulous buyers this way. ( despite this being clearly offered on the eBay advert ) After much tooing and froing my couriers finally picked the items up but soon after they were collected I had an e mail saying that the original low mileage perfect items had been substituted for some older ones that had been stripped of all the ancillary parts and that the ones that I had bought and paid for had been sold to a bidder abroad for twice the price. Not amused!

The same item was then advertised again under two headings with exactly the same unique description at a cheaper price which leads me to believe this is part of an orchestrated ploy.

It would seem that the scam involves advertising a perfect and very desirable part and then substituting it for a poor quality one in a way that gives the customer no actual redress and gains the seller more money for poor quality items. The seller will never address any issues directly and claims to be too busy and talks endlessly about what a great business he has and how much he sells abroad but never actually answers any questions then gets rude and angry when repeatedly challenged.

The seller is probably known to some members but it would seem that there is a new strategy in town to part A2 owners with their cash...

Someone will come along with a fuller reply, but I think this company and individual have been discussed on the forum before (Manchester based?). An incredibly rude and aggressive individual by all accounts.
 
You could report all the their listings to ebay for off ebay transactions which they are clamping down on.

Any listing with contact number is now liable for final value fees, even if it doesn't sell.
 
Unfortunately this has been see before (quite a few times) and these particular sellers keep popping up under different names. They have been reported to eBay before (if it's who I think it is), but as I say they quickly open another account under a different name. You can recognise the adverts by the style of the pictures and descriptions and the old "we do not deliver" - also the nature of the phone call sounds familiar :(

I think your best course of action is one which you have already started along, which is to highlight to the forum and all known A2 owners, and also to highlight to eBay. Also, as you were not warned about the replacement of parts, there is some redress under the trades description act, but this might be done through small claims court, and unfortunately, would involve a lot of effort just to get your monies back.

They seem to target A2 owners a lot, possibly because of our fastidious nature.
 
Sorry this has happened...

One of the reasons I only use PayPal and never go off eBay from ebay listing...


You can’t ignore all the red flags...

I know it’s tough to do if you really need the part but Just say no if seller goes off eBay or doesn’t want to use PayPal
 
Yes, I'm pretty sure myself who that must be ..... really obnoxious character! Another indicator that would tell you to "STEER CLEAR" of any listing is if the listings photos have "red arrows" to highlight the item in the photo!

David
 
Ebay are currently clamping down on any sellers doing deals outside of Ebay by using a listing to pull people in so it is best to report it to ebay
 
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