Is there a possibility of being scammed and if there is, how would the scammer scam me in this case?

[radz3714]

I have been back and forth on this for the risk to reward so here’s the juicy cliff notes: seller is (not surprisingly), 0 feedback with 1 month account. They are selling an item in healthcare (NOT business and industrial category), in an auction that no one is bidding on but the item has 1800$ shipping. If I got the item at current auction price, it would be around 15% of what this item would be worth new. Only 1 stock photo so I message the seller and ask for actual photos. They ignore my message. I call eBay support asking if there is any way I can end up getting burned since despite all the red flags, if it was legit, the deal is too good to not at least try. eBay support says if the item doesn’t come or is damaged I will get a full refund (including shipping). So far my only concern would be that if the item comes damaged, it is around 1000 pounds so I don’t know how to return it since I don’t have a forklift or truck to move it back to the delivery station. Interested in your opinion on this. (Red flags (item way too cheap, stock photo, no seller communication, seller account newly created with 0 feedback vs eBay support reassuring me I won’t lose my money if something goes wrong plus it’s not business industrial plus the deal if legit is too good to pass up on). What do you think? I am just trying to think of any angle I could get screwed over. (And what I have thought up is if the item is broken but so heavy I will have a hard time figuring out the logistics to ship it back). Thank you all and especially experienced buyers who can give me some insight on any angles that I could get burned in this transaction.

[radz3714]

Again appreciate all the thoughtful responses! Without all of your guidance, I think I would have leaned more towards going for the deal. I still probably will if the zoom call comes through and is legit but I doubt it will if the seller hasn't responded by now. Cheers to all the helpful comments, you guys rock!

[radz3714]

@frankenhobbitSo I called ebay support and followed up to make sure if  I was violating ebay policy or not. They looked at the direct messages and said that as long as there was no evidence showing the phone call was intended to do offline transaction, I and the seller have violated no ebay policy and my buyer protection is still intact for this transaction. Letting you know and anyone else, if someone has more detailed information regarding this since as many pointed out prior, that ebay customer service may not be fully trustworthy.

[radz3714]

Also a question for @mudshark61369 or anyone else who may know, the current auction has usps priority expedited mail as the modality for shipping which mudshark pointed out (amongst others) that this is not possible given the weight and dimensions being outside usps handling jurisdiction. Ebay agent call support said they will handle this on their end with the seller per my persistence, and also they said that at checkout, the seller will have the ability to choose a different shipment method. Is this correct? Either way, should I go for it, will be on the phone with call support every step of the way but just want a preemptive understanding if the seller can change shipping method after payment if finalized by me or ebay will be forced to step in and mandatorily change it? Also, I had asked if the usps (wrong modality) shipment and changing it by the seller would constitute an "outside courier" thereby violating ebay policy (which violates buyer protection), and they said no, it does not violate the buyer protection as the seller can change the shipment method at checkout (or I can?) not sure. If anyone has expertise on this, happy to hear your experiences. Thanks.

[albertabrightalberta]

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@radz3714 wrote:

but 2 weeks ago, I had gotten an amazing deal that was taken offline and seller and I ended up facetiming and ended up closing out a deal for a product that would have sold 3 times as high on ebay which saved me at least 8000 usd 

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Are you actually admitting on this public forum that you and another seller cheated ebay by taking a transaction off-site after discussing it and face timing? 

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@radz3714 wrote:

Well in that case it wasn't my fault since the seller sent me their phone number. Pretty sure, that wouldn't make me culpable. According to ebay policy it could void your money back guarantee but from speaking to ebay representatives (and according to a few of you that they don't tell the truth), it isn't a problem. Now that particular transaction went well since we were both stand up honest individuals. But I suppose it may have been a factor if the transaction had a problem. Either way, that wasn't the issue in that particular transaction so no harm no foul 😉

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Yeah, you're just as guilty as the seller! If you responded to the seller that you only do ebay business ON EBAY, you wouldn't have agreed to cheat ebay of the fees they earned by listed the item and allowing you to find it to purchase. 

It's not "no harm, no foul" because those of us (both buyers and sellers) who play by the rules pay more in order to compensate for those who cheat the system. 

You cannot rationalize what you've done.

People! We are being played! 

[kathiec]

People! We are being played! 

That's my feeling as well. No one can imagine that a group of total strangers are going to be so emotionally invested in a purchase as to warrant this level of updates and oversharing.

[reallynicestamps]

@kathiec 

The funny thing is that prior to me closing out this amazing deal 2 weeks ago, a seller had sent me an offer by mistake (some kind of ebay glitch) on a 16,000 usd item for under 6000 usd. I accepted but then he cancelled on me.

Or the OP responded to a setup and showed themselves to be naive.

@radz3714 

Have you actually received any of these amazing deals?

@albertabrightalberta 

Do you Americans often use formats like 6000usd? 
I sometimes will specify if a listing on my home site is in "loonies" which is what we Canadians call our currency. But not usually when I am talking to my fellow Canadians.

[radz3714]

All transactions were done on ebay. Phone calls were made and facetimes to verify the integrity of the products being discussed. So not sure what you are talking about. Yes, we took it off ebay servers if you mean we made phone calls and facetime to verify the product since it was a "too good to be true" deal but ended up being legit. The actual transaction was done through ebay since even though the seller seemed like a good dude, can never be too careful and this way we are both protected in case something goes awry. Please do not accuse someone until you have your facts straight. In any case, this is not a thread about previous completed ebay purchases. This is about if this auction is fraudulent. I think I may stop responding since this thread seems to be getting toxic. I mean if you really want to dig out my details on another transaction, you can see no ebay policy was violated. It was all done through ebay. And as I have mentioend per ebay support, no policy was violated as all phone calls that were done off site were to verify and get more information on the product. All transactions were ultimately completed on the ebay website. Perhaps the way I worded it made you assume the worst. I am sorry that this thread has turned so toxic. No wonder people say stay away from social media lmao! bunch of toxic people. But there were some great answers in here too so thank you to those peeps! Appreciate it!

[albertabrightalberta]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

@albertabrightalberta 

Do you Americans often use formats like 6000usd? 

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No, if I purchased something for that price, I'd say I paid $6000.

[radz3714]

Yes I have gotten amazing deals in the past in real life as well as ebay. As stated in the posts above, I got an item that usually sells for around 10,000-12,000 usd on ebay (and worth around 40,000 usd when it was new 10 years ago) for the package deal I got for only 4000 usd (all done through ebay but we discussed it prior to completing the transaction on ebay over the phone and facetime). That one was a little different than this one though where I had asked about another product the seller happened to be selling and they found out I was in the neighborhood looking for this particular product and they happened to have one on their hands from their company they were trying to get rid of since they were retiring. Just a "right place at the right time" type of scenario. This one (the topic of this thread being discussed) is more scammy since it's an existing auction that has all the red flags as previously mentioned by me, and other members. As such, I approach this situation differently.

[albertabrightalberta]

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@radz3714 wrote:

All transactions were done on ebay. Phone calls were made and facetimes to verify the integrity of the products being discussed. So not sure what you are talking about. Yes, we took it off ebay servers if you mean we made phone calls and facetime to verify the product since it was a "too good to be true" deal but ended up being legit. The actual transaction was done through ebay since even though the seller seemed like a good dude, can never be too careful and this way we are both protected in case something goes awry. Please do not accuse someone until you have your facts straight. In any case, this is not a thread about previous completed ebay purchases. This is about if this auction is fraudulent. I think I may stop responding since this thread seems to be getting toxic. I mean if you really want to dig out my details on another transaction, you can see no ebay policy was violated. It was all done through ebay. And as I have mentioend per ebay support, no policy was violated as all phone calls that were done off site were to verify and get more information on the product. All transactions were ultimately completed on the ebay website. Perhaps the way I worded it made you assume the worst. I am sorry that this thread has turned so toxic. No wonder people say stay away from social media lmao! bunch of toxic people. But there were some great answers in here too so thank you to those peeps! Appreciate it!

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I'm going by exactly what YOU posted: 
" I had gotten an amazing deal that was taken offline and seller and I ended up facetiming and ended up closing out a deal for a product that would have sold 3 times as high on ebay"

It would have cost 3X as much on ebay but you took it offline. 

Good bye and good night.

I'm done here.

[gone.c-33]

On top of everything already mentioned, I can’t fathom purchasing, let alone using, an expensive healthcare device not sold through a reputable dealer.

[radz3714]

Okay if you have a problem with this, as stated I had already called ebay support about this and they said it is perfectly legal to make phone calls to inquire about a product. All phone calls and offline communication were done for that exact reason. Just like this one. Ultimately all transactions were/are done on ebay. If you have confusion about the rules, perhaps you can call in to the support agent yourself to verify if this boggles your mind so intensely. I am completely befuddled how a group of people can just jump down someone's throat and come to these conclusions even though I had already stated that all the transactions were done ON ebay (and all the records will show as such). If you are going to accuse someone, make sure you have your facts right. And make sure you actually know the rules. As I have stated already per the ebay agent, it is legal to make phone calls to inquire about products as long as the phone call did not result in offline transactions being conducted (which they were not - all were done on ebay). Where in the quote did I say we did the transaction off ebay? Where? Oh right.. because we did NOT!

[radz3714]

Okay, well it was worded poorly. And yes it was taken offline as in phone calls and facetimes were made. We came to an agreement through negotiations over the phone. And then we completed the transaction VIA ebay. I have the transaction proof for this. So feel free to dig deeper, detective.

[radz3714]

I usually use the $ sign too but I use "usd" denotation sometimes if I'm unsure the nationality of the seller I'm talking to. Since $ could just mean their currency as well. I want to embalm the fact that I am using USD since it is more than CAD which is a common currency used on ebay platforms that gets converted.

[radz3714]

It's for personal use. If I needed to purchase to be used on clients then obviously I couldn't buy any of these items off ebay since there is liability. I just like to have my own personal hospital in my house just in case. I'm in talks with a hospital at the moment to buy out a used MRI machine (they are replacing with a newer one) and I've already built out a room just for that. But the deinstallation/installation process is something I'm unfamiliar with and to get someone who knows how to do it and transport it is very expensive so currently not feasible for me.