ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
Hello,
I recently made an offer on a Master Control Panel on ebay.de. My offer was 'accepted' and I received the below email, supposedly from ebay with a link to "pay now". When I click on the link, it opened up a page with the bank transfer details. Normally ebay sends a confirmation with a link "about your purchase" that logs into ebay. A big red flag. When I got home and logged onto ebay, there was no record of the purchase in my purchase history. Another red flag. I also couldn't find a copy of the email in my ebay inbox, a third red flag. Going by the three-strikes rule, I think the offer was bogus and forwarded the email to ebay. I just wanted to warn the community and to see if anyone had similar experiences.
If you've made an offer that is then accepted, I don't think it will show in your eBay account until it's paid for. It isn't 'sold' until you pay for it.
So far, he has 100% feedback (mainly as a buyer). This can always be a bit tricky especially as many sellers from Germany do not have to use Paypal - unlike in other parts of the World where it has to be offered.
Interesting to see if you get any response from eBay and hear what they say. If you aren't happy about it then pull out. I can't see anything different about this transaction compared to my purchases from Germany of a similar type.
If you did a BIN on the original price, it would appear on your eBay account but with an accepted offer, I don't think it does until you've paid for it.
If you look at the listing live today, it clearly says that the seller has accepted an offer for the item - presumably you. Be aware that if you do pull out, you are likely to receive negative feedback too.
Dave.
ALL ITEMS YOU WIN SHOW UP ON YOUR EBAY-SITE!!!
I was almost scammed for 4000 euros when I was told that it would "show up after I paid".
I don´t mean to offend you, Dave, but what you wrote is not correct and could end up with someone losing their money.
"You think we can slap some oak on this thing?"
Leosgonewild: ALL ITEMS YOU WIN SHOW UP ON YOUR EBAY-SITE!!! I was almost scammed for 4000 euros when I was told that it would "show up after I paid". I don´t mean to offend you, Dave, but what you wrote is not correct and could end up with someone losing their money.
Yes, but you 'didn't win it'. You made an offer that was accepted, that is different to BIN or when you bid in an auction listing.
What did eBay say when you contacted them?
I can only relate to the experiences I have had when I've made offers on items with a 'make an offer' possibility. It may be that different eBay sites e.g. UK, FR, DE operate differently - they do for all sorts of things. If you make an offer on something, the listing is still active and someone else can still buy it - that's why if you make an offer, it doesn't show in your 'bought' list until you've paid for it. Again, that's my experience.
No offence taken. The moral is to be very careful. As far as I'm aware, the original listing related to this thread was valid - unless someone knows differently. Again, I'd like to know what eBay said about it if it was highlighted to them as a possible fraud.
I haven't heard back from either eBay or from the seller. There is also no record in my "purchased" history. I'm assuming the sale never took place as it was already almost three months ago. As for the feedback, he had lots of positive feedback as a buyer. But at the time, he never sold anything, so it could have been a hijacked account.
Hi Brian,
good to follow up on your instincts and that you haven't lost out to a possibly dodgy deal. EBay should really follow up these type of cases (if there is any fraud) and get back to those involved. It doesn't help their reputation.
I've bought over 2000 items via eBay and personally have never come across this before. I have made offers on numerous articles where they have had the option of 'Buy It Now' or 'make an offer' and when the offer has been accepted by the seller, I've had an eBay e-mail saying the offer is accepted etc and asked to pay for it ('until you pay for the item it is still possible that another person can buy it' - e.g. if they use the Buy It Now option - this has also happened to me and I've lost the possibility to buy items in this way). This is why it won't (or didn't used to) appear in your 'items bought' folder until after you've paid for it. Until you've paid for it, you haven't 'won' it or bought it. If there ever is a problem, the Paypal coverage should in theory protect buyers - though not always in practice due to some other types of fraud.
Not to slight the German users of eBay but that's why I only buy things on the German eBay site if they offer Paypal as an option. With a bank transfer you have no protection against loss in case of deals like this. In Germany, sellers do not have to offer Paypal payments, unlike most other countries where it is supposed to be a requirement from sellers.
Shame you missed out on the item but you haven't lost any money either. Common sense and intuition prevailed.