Are bank transfers safe to buy goods from here?

[michael2003x]

I have bought a bass from a seller on here (and I am very paranoid about scams), he had lots of great feedback and a lot of successful transactions. I did a bank transfer without any fear of being ripped off and everything went smoothly. It came packed better than most on-line stores !

[ProjeKtWEREWOLF]

Online it will be PayPal goods and services, every time.  I will happily pay the extra 3% fee.  

If I can turn up to someone's house with cash for an item and see it works etc, then that's fine. I also know where they live (for certain)....😉

 

My location tends to limit my ability to buy in person though. 

 

PayPal goods and services can be abused by the buyer too. I did my first purchase here with a member, and we used this method. We did a lot of back and forth conversation though. 

Edited February 24 by ProjeKtWEREWOLF

[neepheid]

5 minutes ago, ProjeKtWEREWOLF said:

My location tends to limit my ability to buy in person though. 

 

Hold my beer...

[ProjeKtWEREWOLF]

2 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

Hold my beer...

Aberdeen lol. 

I'm at the far end of North Wales. You might win.  My dad has horror stories about being stationed near Aberdeen with the RAF 😂

[aniki]

I bought a bass from a seller on here about 18 months ago; he had lots of great feedback and a lot of successful transactions.

He insisted on a bank transfer as 'there had been a lot of scammers active lately'.

I did a bank transfer (reluctantly) and it turned out the seller was knowingly selling me a stolen item. Took me about 12 months to resolve and whole ton of aggro.

As such, I will never use bank transfer for anything of a value I'm not prepared to lose.

[Beedster]

12 minutes ago, aniki said:

I bought a bass from a seller on here about 18 months ago; he had lots of great feedback and a lot of successful transactions.

He insisted on a bank transfer as 'there had been a lot of scammers active lately'.

I did a bank transfer (reluctantly) and it turned out the seller was knowingly selling me a stolen item. Took me about 12 months to resolve and whole ton of aggro.

As such, I will never use bank transfer for anything of a value I'm not prepared to lose.

 

Sorry to hear that. Given the seller had such good feedback, did you leave feedback detailing your experience? While fraud and even disagreement are VERY rare in sales here compared to eBay/Reverb/Facebook, one problem here compared with other sites does seem to be the general reluctance of people to leave negative feedback.... 

[Steve Browning]

20 minutes ago, Beedster said:

 

Sorry to hear that. Given the seller had such good feedback, did you leave feedback detailing your experience? While fraud and even disagreement are VERY rare in sales here compared to eBay/Reverb/Facebook, one problem here compared with other sites does seem to be the general reluctance of people to leave negative feedback.... 

I certainly left negative feedback after my encounter with that individual. 

[aniki]

1 hour ago, Beedster said:

 

Sorry to hear that. Given the seller had such good feedback, did you leave feedback detailing your experience? While fraud and even disagreement are VERY rare in sales here compared to eBay/Reverb/Facebook, one problem here compared with other sites does seem to be the general reluctance of people to leave negative feedback.... 

I didn’t; a crime was committed, the police were involved and he was subsequently removed from here anyway.

[Beedster]

1 hour ago, Steve Browning said:

I certainly left negative feedback after my encounter with that individual. 

 

9 minutes ago, aniki said:

I didn’t; a crime was committed, the police were involved and he was subsequently removed from here anyway.

Ah, I’ve just joined the dots 👍

[Steve Browning]

2 hours ago, Beedster said:

 

Ah, I’ve just joined the dots 👍

 

No need to give you the 'lowdown' then!! 🙂

[prowla]

For me it's F2F or Paypal G&S; I've stepped away from a couple of items where the seller wanted unsecured payment.

[mike257]

I've used bank transfer in both directions pretty extensively. 

 

I work for myself and I'm used to invoicing clients for my work and being paid by BACS, so that probably has some impact on how I feel about it, as I basically get my entire income via bank transfer, and regularly pay suppliers/freelancers that way too, but there's also no easy comeback to reverse the transaction if a deal goes wrong. 

 

On BC, as others are saying, there's usually a trail of feedback and/or community participation that can give you a clue. There's a fair few members (myself included) who were here when it was BassTalk and Bass world, so have probably been knocking around for a good 20 years at this point!

[Elfrasho]

I've been scammed out of 180 quid on here years ago as I did a bank transfer and then the item got "lost in the post". Bit of research led me find out I wasn't his first victim! 

 

Almost all deals will be fine but just be aware that's there's no 100% guarantee!

[Dan Dare]

The only time I will consider a bank transfer is if I am collecting an item I'm buying (saves carrying/handing over a bundle of notes). If I don't have the item in my hands at the moment I pay cash or by bank transfer, it's PayPal using a credit card. There is no difference from the seller's POV - they get the funds in the same way as they would if I paid by bank transfer - but I have some protection.

 

Any seller who objects is likely to be dodgy.

[warwickhunt]

9 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

The only time I will consider a bank transfer is if I am collecting an item I'm buying (saves carrying/handing over a bundle of notes). If I don't have the item in my hands at the moment I pay cash or by bank transfer, it's PayPal using a credit card. There is no difference from the seller's POV - they get the funds in the same way as they would if I paid by bank transfer - but I have some protection.

 

Any seller who objects is likely to be dodgy.

 

As I countered above.  You say that you (a buyer) is protected, you say no difference from the seller's POV but I've personally posted items and had chargeback claims which favoured the buyer... and the buyer sent back to me a broken item with an alternative serial number!  

 

...and I have an awful lot of people (inc many of the admins) who would vouch that I'm not dodgy!  I'm not saying trust every seller but I likewise wouldn't trust every buyer.    

[Dan Dare]

5 hours ago, warwickhunt said:

As I countered above.  You say that you (a buyer) is protected, you say no difference from the seller's POV but I've personally posted items and had chargeback claims which favoured the buyer... and the buyer sent back to me a broken item with an alternative serial number!  

 

...and I have an awful lot of people (inc many of the admins) who would vouch that I'm not dodgy!  I'm not saying trust every seller but I likewise wouldn't trust every buyer.    

 

Did you lose the chargeback claims, though? If not, then the system is working. I would have thought (you can tell me if I'm wrong), if someone sent you a different item in return and you could prove it, that judgment would be in your favour.

 

As I point out, I have no problem making a payment I cannot reverse if I have the goods in my hand when I make payment. Otherwise, I'm going to protect myself. If that means I cannot buy from you, that's fair enough.

Edited February 26 by Dan Dare

[Beedster]

1 minute ago, Dan Dare said:

 

Did you lose the chargeback claims, though? If not, then the system is working. I would have thought (you can tell me if I'm wrong), if someone sent you a different item in return and you could prove it, that judgment would be in your favour.

 

As I point out, I have no problem making a payment I cannot reverse if I have the goods in my hand when I make payment. Otherwise, I'm going to protect myself. If that means I cannot buy from you, that's fair enough.

 

I lost a claim with eBay when I sold a fully functional DigiDesign interface and had it returned as faulty, the return being demonstrably a different unit in terms of serial number and condition from that in the photos in my listing.

 

But when I pointed this out to eBay..........

 

The buyer claimed that I had in fact not sent him the item in the photos and that I was scamming him 😡

 

I realised I wasn't going to win if someone's prepared to be that devious and gave up. Ebay were not interested at al, they algorithms had made up its mind.

 

As someone said above, careful who you sell to  

[warwickhunt]

Just now, Dan Dare said:

 

Did you lose the chargeback claims, though? If not, then the system is working. I would have thought (you can tell me if I'm wrong), if someone sent you a different item in return and you could prove it, that judgment would be in your favour.

 

As I point out, I have no problem making a payment I cannot reverse if I have the goods in my hand when I make payment. Otherwise, I'm going to protect myself. If that means I cannot buy from you, that's fair enough.

 

No I didn't win.  The buyer was refunded despite the fact I had photographic evidence that the serial number of the returned item was different to that which I posted out; I ended up with his dead unit and he had a nice working one... mine.  It was at that point I washed my hands of Paypal and decided that I'd never accept it as form of payment (regardless of F&F).  Paypal is not infallible and where in the early days buyers could be scammed, it is as easy/easier for sellers to be on the losing end.

 

Just noted @Beedster's response which is almost identical.

 

[Beedster]

1 minute ago, warwickhunt said:

 

Just noted @Beedster's response which is almost identical.

 

 

I'm guessing if you have a broken piece of kit it's a good way of replacing if FOC....

 

Worst decision eBay ever made was not allowing sellers to leave negative feedback for buyers