Should I be wary? PP question

[DeathJag]

So there's still five pedals left over from the ones I listed a while ago. I decided to put them on CL. I got a reply from a guy who asks if he pays upfront will I send them to CA. He wants all of them, which is great! He offered a totally fair price and wants to use PP and have me eat the 3% fee. Which isn't that much.

My question is if he's a dishonest person, could he somehow get his money back by lying? It's not like ebay where they require photographic proof of damaged or other evidence of a non-working item.

I'd love to get these out the door but I don't want to open myself up to getting ripped off!

Thank you all,

Dan

[MattK]

The most likely scam in that situation is payment using a hacked account. Sometimes people do that and deliberately overpay, then claim it was a mistake and could you return the excess money (to a different account). At that point they may have your goods and money they can access for themselves.
Not to say that this is an example of that. Maybe test by asking about other payment arrangements to see what they say.

[JVG]

I’ve never used CL, but can you check the guy’s profile to see if it looks legit (not fool proof, since profiles can be hacked or faked, but worth checking).

My concern in this instance would be if he claims the items never arrived, can he request the payment be reversed through paypal? I’m not sure of the rules on this one.

Also - perhaps stating the obvious - exercise the usual cautions, ie don’t give any unnecessary personal info, esp phone numbers or email address. And if he starts asking for verification codes of any kind, run!

That said, most people are reasonably honest, so it’s highly likely he’s just on a pedal binge or a gear flipper.

Let us know how this unfolds.

[sessylU]

Is the important distinction here not whether it's PayPal payment for goods/service or PayPal for friends/family (can't remember that actual terms PayPal uses...)

Friends family gives you no protection whatsoever, I think, while goods/service provides a more equitable set of protections.

Can you send the package recorded delivery? This, plus the 3%, all bumps up the prices. But that's sort of the cost of doing business in this scenario. If that makes it unworkable, then the deal doesn't work.

To be honest, I wouldn't buy off some randomer on Craigslist/gumtree/anywhere-else-online without using PayPal. So I can see the guy's point.

[DeathJag]

Thanks a lot for the thoughts. I decided I didn't want to send the pedals. I want to speak with on the phone and then later meet the buyer. One thing that bugged me was the guy's refusal to call me. I like CL because it allows me to meet other people and get a solid vibe check. This dude wanted it to be an amazon order. This was after I replied how much I like the phone chat and that it's for the purpose of a vibe check, and they said they preferred to only use email because it creates a record of everything. It made me wonder if he had some reason for not wanting me to talk to him!

[MattK]

Yeah in my experience if something seems off to you, don’t do it. I’ve been saved by that a few times (and failed to save myself a couple).

[Larry Mal]

Some years back I had a bass up for sale, a guy wanted me to work out a deal off Reverb. At first I said no, then I said I'll do it if you send me the money PayPal friends and family, and I told him that would leave him with no protection, in case he didn't know.

I told him in return we'd talk until he felt safe, he called me on the phone, we chatted for a while, I sent other pictures of the guitar. It all worked out.

Have this person call you. Ask something a scammer wouldn't know, like if I was selling a Jazzmaster I'd be like, so, it has EMG pickups in there so it would sound like Metallica, anyone who knows anything about the guitar would be like, what? But a scammer will just say fuck yeah, I love Metallica so you know they don't really have any interest in the actual item but only in scamming you.

[DeathJag]

Have this person call you. Ask something a scammer wouldn't know, like if I was selling a Jazzmaster I'd be like, so, it has EMG pickups in there so it would sound like Metallica, anyone who knows anything about the guitar would be like, what? But a scammer will just say fuck yeah, I love Metallica so you know they don't really have any interest in the actual item but only in scamming you.

I would have never thought of that example but it's straight up brilliant! I gotta think of prompts like that in the future. I just sold all but the $60 pedal to a nice older fellow. We had a nice conversation and then he came over and we chilled for a bit. He wants me to come see this weird custom 1x 6v6 1x el84 amp that does sound pretty interesting. Turns out he used to have a music store in the 80s and had a bunch of old Voxes and Marshalls. I really want a vintage AC30. He played a bunch of my amps and it was fun. THAT'S what CL is all about!

[andy_tchp]

My concern in this instance would be if he claims the items never arrived, can he request the payment be reversed through paypal? I’m not sure of the rules on this one.

For PP goods and services yes, he can.

The rules are that Paypal will side with and refund the buyer without much (if anything) in the way of proof.

The protection is ONLY there for the buyer.