Posted here several weeks ago looking for forks. Helpful response from someone who offered to sell forks for agreed price. After some initial hiccups with Paypal, payment was sent (after flurry of emails between seller and myself).
There was assurance that confirmation of receipt of payment would be sent, along with likely timescale of delivery.

Since payment sent via Paypal, complete ‘silence’ from seller.
The best case scenario is that they are on leave or else simply out of touch with email, but i am concerned that the longer the lack of response, the more likely that i have been done.

Oddly, Paypal ‘name’ different from his claimed name in emails he sent.

Any advice about how to proceed, including how much ‘grace’ to give when waiting for goods or even response.

Cheers

PayPal gift with someone you don’t know?

How long’s this ‘silence’ been? How much longer than the agreed timescale?

Assuming you didn’t use PayPal gift enter a dispute.

You didn’t use gift….

As above was this a gift? Assuming not then give a deadline and thn enter a dispute

Is there a time limit for disputes?

Time limit may not be quite as long as the OP suggests above judging by his/her posting history.
Assuming it is only one week and not the “several weeks” mentioned above and given that it has been a bank holiday week during the holiday season you may want to give just a little bit longer.
Having said that, if they are on holiday or whatever they could have let you know.

Dispute first. If they then answer communications keep the dispute open until the goods arrive.

Gift, i’ m afraid.

Then you’re ****ed.

Sorry, but there it is.

FWIW, the forum owners do try and warn users. For example, scroll down to the bottom of your WTD thread.

oh god, do people never learn! Its like chucking cash out of the window of a car doing 80 on a motorway! You will never get it back!

In that case you might well not see either the forks or your money 🙁

You don’t need to be afraid, your mistake sadly, and you now have zero recourse. Hard luck. Different names should’ve been a clue.

Name and Shame or ask politely if anyone on here knows the seller…

From another Forum
“Please note, our PayPal policy is very strict. It is there to protect all members both sellers and buyers. No one should ever request payment for any item to be sent as a gift, either publicly or via PM. If you send payment as a gift, that is your choice but in doing so you waive all protection that PayPal offers. You will not be able to open a dispute and you wont get your money back if things go wrong. A seller should never ask for payment to be sent as a gift, if they do, report the post or Private Message to the staff here and the sellers advert will be removed and their account put under a yellow card for 2 weeks. All additional fees and costs, PayPal fees, postage, packing and anything else, must be stated clearly in the advert. There must be no hidden costs or requests for additional payments. Same penalty applies”

Paypal gift you say..

GIFSoup

I,m guessing that gif is just what he needs at the present time cloudnine,well done you 😕

Is there no prospect of identifying individual through their electronic profile, not least their own Paypal account? What about recourse to the Law?

It’s deception.

So is “gifting” someone money via paypal in order to avoid fees when it is, in fact, for payment of goods.

Post up his name and any details you have.. you’d be surprised how the stw massive may help track the fraudster down

Which one of the helpful souls was it?

Is there no prospect of identifying individual through their electronic profile, not least their own Paypal account? What about recourse to the Law?

It’s deception.

Depends on how much info they gave. If they were smart you have very little chance of tracking them down. The police won’t give a shit, mainly due to lack of resources for e-crime, but also as you didn’t make any effort to safeguard yourself.

You will probably have to take this one on the chin.

re: Speshpaul’s post.

I think PP Gift can be used from time to time. There are several members on here I would have no qualms using it for, and have recently sold myself via that method. Using it with randoms, tho…..well. The weird thing is, it’s not as if the buyer benefits in anyway from using it.

PayPal names often don’t match sellers, mums, mates, wife’s account etc. (Though I find that odd)

Definitely name them, one of us may know them or we could get out the pitchforks. *

* see how I didn’t lambasted you as an idiot for pp gifting I’m sure you don’t need someone else to remind you **

** sorry

Sorry to hear that, I have used Paypal gift for small things but generally anything more than £10 and its normal payment. Paying a little more to cover some charges is a slightly less expensive way to avoid getting done.

Unfortunately I doubt theres a comeback, sorry buddy.

Claims ti be from Inverness.

Email address : ‘whyterthanwhite@tiscali.co.uk’

Paypal name: Tim Lott

Email address that Paypal have is ‘mrtimlott@tiscali.co.uk’

There was someone from this forum with that user name last active approx 4 years ago.

Forks were for my son, for his birthday, and he had been keen to proceed. Pressure of time led to hasty action, i confess.

Whats his posting history? If hes ever bought something off here then someone will have his address.

All you’ll then need is a set of bombers to sort him out. Which coincidently I have going cheap. Lets say £150 PP gift to e.mail in profile…

edit…just saw the son’s birthday bit. not cool.

If it is the user, whyterthanwhite, they seem like a charmer…

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/wtdali-faye

…also, oldgit may have dealt with him back in 2010.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fs-nicolai-argon-singlespeed

Edit:

Since payment sent via Paypal, complete ‘silence’ from seller.

Should probably ask, how long has it been from payment?

stw username? any idea if he’s on pinkbike?

Might have bought this from Captain_Sponge

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fs-litespeed-pisgah

but also as you didn’t make any effort to safeguard yourself.

Ahhhh, the old “she was asking for it” defense.

whyterthanwhite – Member

go pook yourself in the ass.

He’s either Hora or Binners

Tinas – bit of a tasteless comparison. He hasn’t been raped, he’s been ripped off. Hardly comparable.

That said, it’s no secret that PP gift is a daft way to pay for goods from strangers. If you use it, you run the gauntlet / roll the dice… Don’t mean to rub it in but as has been pointed out, there’s a large warning on the buy / sell forums for a good reason.

user-removed – Member
Tinas – bit of a tasteless comparison. He hasn’t been raped, he’s been ripped off. Hardly comparable.

+1
Would you leave an envelope full of cash on a park bench for somebody you had never met?

and to the OP, advice? Learn from your mistake, hope that you can track down this person? If not you have been scammed and the cash wont be coming back.

You could try contacting him via his registered email with STW:

bummingspammerssince69@yahoo.com 😕

He has signed off a couple of posts on here as Tim though.

tasteless

Blaming victim – acceptable

Pointing out hypocracy – tasteless?

Gotcha

Blaming daftness – acceptable. Pointing out spelling errors – less so. So I won’t. Not at all.

Update – seller has been in contact. Some issue with fork has prevented the sale proceeding. But he has reassured me that the money will be reimbursed.
I have also asked moderators to close thread.
Thanks

I’d probably wait till I had the money in my account till I got too carried away.

Hopefully you do, tho, and realise you have successfully dodged a bullet.

Scammers will often tell you they’re going to pay the money back to buy time, so don’t count your chickens mate.

Escalate now if you have any means to, give him a deadline of a few hours before you contact the police?

I’m gonna be a real **** now and rub some top draw Himalayan mountain salt into that freshly sliced wound:

In this instance, for the buyer to receive £180 you would of had to of sent £186.54

Six pounds fifty four, or the cost a pint and a packet of nobbys, could of cost you £180.

Sorry man – I’m mainly posting this to hopefully give some perspective on the matter to others who may consider using Gift in the future.