Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Its getting very difficult to buy anything on e-bay these days .so many scammers and ripoff artist an honest bass player cant get a break . I bought that 4001 S a week ago today and the guy lives 2 hours away and he wouldnt let me pick the bass up ! I was going right by where he lives on buisness and he refused to let me pick the bass up.Then when he finally returned one of my many e-mails , he told me he was not comfortable meeting with him or his wife ? HUH ! All i wanted was my stupid bass a bought . So i tell him have it your way pal and overnight him a cashiers check right from my bank wich he gets last Tuesday and its now Monday and no bass . He doesnt send me tracking info or nothing i e-mailed him and no response . So finally after the UPS truck drove past my house again today I get ****** off . so i e-mail him again wondering where my bass is and low and behold he e-mails me back and accuses me of dragging my feet on the deal . do you believe that . If you would have used paypal blah blah blah .The thought of handing out my bank account # scares the ***** out of me . Watch yourselfs fellow Rickenlovers E-bay is getting to be a bad place for good honest folks . Thanks for letting me vent by the way LOL

Last time I sold a bass on eBay, the guy who won it lived less than an hour away. I was thrilled that he wanted to come pick it up. That saved me a lot of hassle.

I wonder why your guy has problems.

By the way, with PayPal, you're only giving your account number to the company (PayPal). It's just like using your credit card or checking account at any other business.

I usually ask to meet at a public place. I'm not comfortable letting someone into my home, but I have no problem meeting someone halfway. I had a guy come over to buy my entire LP collection, and had a friend come over to make sure there wasn't any funny business.
Sometimes people worry about security. I'm sure you are a fine, upstanding person, Jeffrey, but he doesn't know that.

My problem is not so much with scammers, per se, but the problems of buying used **** sight-unseen.

I picked up a trace BLX-80...mainly I wanted the pre-amp, but the speaker was not stock, and the replacement is *******. Very boomy, by the time you get to the D on the G string you can barely hear anything. At least the amp works...

Recently I picked up what was supposed to be a set of Seymour Duncan PU's for my Jazz bass...I can't blame the seller, I suspect he had NO IDEA that he had 2 neck PU's rather than a matched set. I would have been OK to take out a little wood to make them fit, but there's no way to put the neck PU in the bridge position without it looking like a hack job. Although I hate the PU's on this bass, I don't have any desire to rape it...

So now my J bass lies in pieces, waiting for me to have the 20 minutes of spare time I need to put it back together.

cross your fingers Jeffry. If I was you I would have that money order cancelled and refunded if you can. Sounds like a big scam.

not allowing direct pickup is BAD NEWS

My advice is to follow your instinct. Never send payment if something makes you uncomfortable....just walk away. I don't care about my feedback as much as my money . That is why I have a negative feedback.....the guy got "shifty" after I won the auction and I wasn't confident I'd get what I was paying for so I bailed....oh well.

Good luck!

Ebay has taken the term 'buyer beware' to a new level. bottom line is you have to be educated before sending off the money. If something smells bad, that's probably because it stinks.

At least there aren't anywhere near as many forgeries of Rics as there are F*nders...

Thanks all . Just to set the record straight i did offer to pick the bass up at a public place . I offered cracker barrel , Lonestar steakhouse e.t.c. I did receive the bass today and it looked as if he just threw the case in the box and crossed his fingers . Thank god the bass arrived without any damage . He just saved himself a 6' 265 lb visit from me . Thanks all and be careful on the bay . Its getting really crazy !!

It's a good thing you finally got the bass.

Also, I've noticed that whenever I buy stuff on eBay, either the sellers get mad at me for not emailing within 5 milliseconds and overload my inbox with angry ranting on how I should've emailed RIGHT AWAY, or they don't respond at all to the emails I send.

Also, I bought this old custom bass (with no hardware or anything . . . but it's gorgeous) and I emailed the seller before I bid at all informing him that if I won it would take a little longer for me to send payment than he wanted because I was out of town at the time. He mailed back and said that was okay, so I bid, and won. Then, like two days after the auction, I had just gotten home, and he sends me a notification saying if I don't send payment within a day, he'll leave me negative feedback and void the auction. What the hell?! I drove to the post office half an hour later and did a money order, and emailed him very quickly saying the payment had been sent. I got the bass, but jeez, you think he might remember the conversation we had right before I won the auction . . .

...and you've been typing without posting pictures????

shame, shame, shame.

Scott-lol!

I must be the luckiest person on earth...

...so far(fingers crossed), I haven't been burned on the 'bay. When bidding, I usually e-mail the seller several times , so that he gets familiar with me. If I win, I contact the seller right away and have had good experiences all around this way.

When SELLING...I have had several people ask me if they could pick up...I always comply...I've even let a few local folk into my home to pick up their stuff....no problems so far.

I know the scammers are out there, and I'd rather do business HERE with familiar names and faces, but sometimes I just HAVE to hit that #@$%* Buy It Now button......and it DOES scare me...

I see tons of phishing scam messages during a typical week of work. Many are aimed at Ebay users. I suspect a lot of people blindly follow the instructions in those messages and get their accounts hijacked. It is especially bad if they use the same password for Ebay and PayPal. The phishers get a nice two-for-one deal that way. It is going to get worse before it gets better.

I'm starting to dislike ebay so much I may just let forum members only have a crack at my 4005 if I decide to sell it.

Thats probably the best way to sell it Joe . E-bay is a mess

Holy jes*s!
My dad uses Ebay quiet often, i think he's got 60 ratings and he has a 100% rating.
Today he got an email from Ebay and they said they changed his pass, because he asked for it. But he didn't! Some f*ck is now trying to sell mobile phones under his account.
Ebay turns out to be a dangerous place