Ebay – am I being scammed?

I put my Devinci DH bike up on ebay about 10 days ago, with a BIN of £850 or best offer. A guy with 0 feedback has been asking a few questions, and sounds like he knows a reasonable amount about bikes.

We negotiated a BIN price that would be acceptable, and he’s submitted the bid which I’ve accepted.

He’s now paid via Paypal, and it seems his paypal postal address (which seems to be verified) is a Self Storage place in Surrey. On further investigation, his email address suggests he’s in Bulgaria.

I’ve googled the email address and his name and nothing is coming up. Also can’t find any stories of scams involving self storage.

Am I being paranoid? Any precautions I should take?

K

If you’re worried, empty your PP account and delink the bank account associated with it before you post it.
That said, it doesn’t sound like a scam to me.

phone the slef storage and see what they say?

Ring Paypal and ask them, they’re quite good

That way you’ll get the all clear to ship it and a comms trail

The only other thing to beware of is him claiming he never received it.

phone the slef storage and see what they say?

what could they tell you?

whether they accept parcels for the person making the purchase and who he is? Maybe he works there?

“I just wanted to make sure that if I posted a parcel to you for ‘x’ that he’d get it? Does he work there?’

I sold a couple of cheap shifters to a Bulgarian guy and posted them to a storage unit down south somewhere just recently – he had plenty of feedback though so must be a different bloke. No problems.

Sounds OK – courier it with the appropriate insurance. It’s obviously a calculated risk selling anything substantial to a no-feedback merchant, but it sounds like it was required to get a decent price for the bike.

Have you asked the buyer?
Don’t be afraid of asking him about any concerns you have.
He will understand and have a good explanation if legit.

Thanks all. Will ring paypal and also ask seller.

Just wanted to check I wasn’t falling for an obvious trick.

I’d be wary of shipping it and then having a dispute raised, with him saying he’s not received it. You could end up without a bike and having to give back the money.

As above, maybe ring PayPal and ask them for advice (or better yet email so you have a written record of their response), and ring the storage place to see what the crack is.

I’d be tempted to just let the auction run and hope someone else buys it.

Sounds like a scam to me, keep clear.

Not worth the hassle, tell him you cant go ahed with the deal due to pay pall issues etc and then get your fee back from Ebay and re list.

Not worth loosing such a large amount of money.

What’s the storage unit place? If it’s in a notably dodgy area some of us could tell you which might help

I’d be wary of shipping it and then having a dispute raised, with him saying he’s not received it.

But if you are using a decent courier, you’ll have all the tracking information so why would that be an issue?

Maybe the self storage place does just store stuff for him, until the ‘van’ comes over. He could have found that people don’t want to send items abroad.

That said I agree with just asking him, considering that he has 0 feedback you don’t need to feel bad about that.

But if you are using a decent courier, you’ll have all the tracking information so why would that be an issue?

It still could be
It’s not unheard of for scammers to claim they received nothing in the box or bricks, anything really.

I’d be happy shipping it though once Paypal/eBay cleared it as a kosher account and address.

I’ve had similar before, a woman in Hungary has the same and wanted me to refund the postage from Hungary back to me, I offered the postage I paid to the registered London address.

I’ve got the same setup in America, you post it my local address and that company post it on to me, as some companies/people only deal within the country/ VAT issues.

The self storage place might be forwarding his post to him. Loads of them offer various other options as the staff sit around all day so they offer services to keep them busy.

I would check with Paypal and once you have the money move it out f PayPal before shipping

sounds like a scam = probably is a scam.

i wouldnt touch it with a 10000000000000000000foot bargpole!

0 feedback, post to a storage place, email in bulgaria?!?!??!

why not give him your bank details whilst you are at it!

its gonna end badly for you if you post this, the guy will claim nothing in the box, paypal will refund him and you’ll be screwed.

all whilst probably paid for on a stolen/cloned card, which means the money may get recovered even if he doesnt claim nothing in the box

you’ve been warned!

It’s not unheard of for scammers to claim they received nothing in the box or bricks, anything really.

Fair point. Sounds like I’d be easy pickings for a scammer then. 😀

Self Storage place is Access Storage in Guildford.

Just googled his name again and found this YouTube clip

Think that re-assures me a little bit. Although suppose there could be lots of people with that name…

I think the thing that rings alarm bells for me is the combination of “established method of getting goods out of the country” and “zero feedback.”

Either one or the other could be reasonable, everyone has to start ebaying from scratch at some point, but it seems odd to me to have one and not the other.

Tell him you’d rather meet up in person when he’s over, get cash.

Or explain that his zero feedback means it’s got to be bank transfer.

You never know, with all this stalking of your buyer, it may turn into a beautiful relationship for you both 🙂

A Japanese guy bought a load of old motorbike stuff of me last year and wanted me to ship it to a shipping company near Rotterdam. In the end, he agreed to send them to me and left my feedback whilst it was still being loaded up.
I got the all clear from Paypal/eBay that he was pukka, there was over £35K worth of stuff in the end so a bit worrying.
He’s now my best[Japanese] mate, he still buys stuff off me and I get weekly emails off him with requests for stuff or asking me if I know where he can get it.

Call him see what he says.

Having a Bulgarian email address doesn’t mean he’s currently in Bulgaria.

Access do a business storage thing so you can ship parcels and they’ll hold them for a specified period. Doesn’t reassure me because it means he’d have to collect in probably 24-48 hours so you’d have to ask why not ship to work/home then

Thanks for that Atlaz. Doesn’t seem to be particularly cheap to rent a mailbox either…

He could have a Bulgarian email address but be living and working in the UK.

At a self storage depot in Guildford perhaps ?

+1 for scam… First instinct is to avoid like the plague !!! Being a bike person and having zero eBay
Feedback !!!! Alarm bells right there 🙁

Not a lot of people buying at the moment so easy to get sucked into a quick deal ..

I’d hang off and try to sell to established Ebayer … Better safe than sorry 🙂

nealglover – fair point. worth asking to find out I guess

Just had a response. He does indeed live in Bulgaria. And is using Access Storage to forward stuff to Bulgaria. Will ring the storage place now. He seems legit to me, but too many “if’s” at the moment.

Very often the Eastern Europeans have regular van runs to and from various countries. Bulgarians who reside in the UK will have stuff sent over on a weekly basis by a bloke in a van, no reason to suspect that said bloke in van isn’t going to collect and deliver in one of these vans. Just a thought.

Post it to another STW member who lives in Guildford.
They then take it personally to Access Storage . Take a nice video on your Iphone 7 of the bike being accepted and signed for.
Full picture evidence trail of full bike in good nick being deliverd to said addresss .
Still sounds like a scam to me. Somehow. I have been to Bulgaria , Saw things i didnt know about then as teenager and was abit of an eye opener

Well, I’m glad I made that call! I think they must get a few enquiries. Before I had even finished explaining the situation, the guy asked if it was a Bulgarian name.

It seems that a Bulgarian entrepreneur bloke has set up a business whereby people in Bulgaria can buy stuff in the UK, get it sent to the self storage place, and he then waits til he has a truckload of stuff and drives it over to Bulgaria.

Much happier now. Thanks people of STW, very helpful as always.

Speak next week when the chargeback happens….:-)

I have been to Bulgaria , Saw things i didnt know about then as teenager and was abit of an eye opener

oh come on, you can’t just leave it hanging like that!! Details please, and photos if you have ’em 🙂

It seems that a Bulgarian entrepreneur bloke has set up a business whereby people in Bulgaria can buy stuff in the UK, get it sent to the self storage place, and he then waits til he has a truckload of stuff and drives it over to Bulgaria.

Exactly what I was thinking. [/smug]

Yep, if there was a prize for closest answer you’d be a winner David. At least you won’t have to hand back the prize when it turns out to be a scam after all… 🙂

still sounds a bit fishy to me. even getting written receipt from the storage place that they’ve received the parcel still isn’t confirmation that it’s been received by the intended recipient. bit like having 2 couriers, and only having confirmation that it’s been collected and not delivered.

I wouldn’t send it unless it was say £30 or less, but then I wouldn’t use ebay either.

still sounds a bit fishy to me.

Why? It’s quite common practice. Not everyone is a conning, scamming Englishman, innit?

One small point. if you ship to an address other than the registered paypal address you lose your protection.

oh come on, you can’t just leave it hanging like that!! Details please, and photos if you have ’em

I went on a cheap ski holiday to Bulgaria in the 80’s , as an 18 year old on first holiday away from parents.

In the hotel ‘Nite Club’ toilets a pimp and his lady friends being touted for business .
Another really friendly chap selling class A drugs for $$$’s (closed market economy back then ),had a brick sized wad of cash.

In the capital city there were kids in rags ,high as kites ,sniffing bags of glue and begging from the tourist buses.

Bent Policemen trying to get ‘tourist dollars ‘ as no-one would sell them $$’s on the black market as they were coppers. there shops were empty , but the ‘duty free’ $$ shops were stocked with western goodies.

Someone died in the airport waiting lounge and they were covered with blankets before being wheeled off on a gurney trolly ( to the aircraft hold )