Strange, nice, Ebay seller....I hope..

[dave_s13]

I won the following auction yesterday

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...

Pair of roof bars for an Alfa 156.

I was happy to pay what I did and Paypal'd straight after the auction finished. I then get a message from the seller thanking me for the prompt payment and also informing me that I had bid over what he wanted for the bars and that he'd refund me accordingly! I've since had 20 quid paypal'd back to my account. Surprising.

Now am I being cynical in thinking this is some elaborate scam or is this chap just investing in some virtual Ebay karma credit? I hope it's the latter, we shall see.

[rocksteadyeddie]

Sounds dodgy. Not heard of this sort of thing before and I can't work out for the life of me how it is a scam... unless he just doesn't bother sending them of course!

[anonymous-user]

dave_s13 said:

Now am I being cynical in thinking this is some elaborate scam

That's exactly what I would think. No idea how it could be a scam though.

I bought a bike on ebay a while back. It went for much much less than it was worth. I'm 100% sure it wasn't stolen or dodgy but I still wonder why I got it for so little. It actually bugs me a bit.

[jas xjr]

Not a big user of eBay but I cannot imagine any scammer returning any money

[dave_s13]

Weird innit?

I can't see how I can lose out really, if they don't come then Paypal should refund me via resolution centre.

The chap seems to sell car parts and does have 100% feed back.

[rfn]

dave_s13 said:

Weird innit?

I can't see how I can lose out really, if they don't come then Paypal should refund me via resolution centre.

The chap seems to sell car parts and does have 100% feed back.

He has already refunded you though, I wonder if that is a "scam"?

[Arese]

Possibly just a nice guy, with lots of money.

[dave_s13]

rfn said:

dave_s13 said:

Weird innit?

I can't see how I can lose out really, if they don't come then Paypal should refund me via resolution centre.

The chap seems to sell car parts and does have 100% feed back.

He has already refunded you though, I wonder if that is a "scam"?

Shows up as a "Gift" though????

[al1991]

Surely the point of an auction is to sell to the highest bidder to get the most you can for something?

Still, can't complain

[littleandy0410]

Initially I'd say could be some sort of scam - maybe they're incomplete or broken, and he's given you the money back as "agreed compensation".

But looking at his feedback, I think you may have found a genuine good guy! You never know!

[Risotto]

Not sure why everyone assumes it's a scam. I've refunded money to sellers before if I've overestimated postage etc; others have done the same for me too.

[plg101]

Some people are still very old school....

I have refunded buyers if I overestimate postage (and some things have cost £100+ to ship)

Not all in life is a scam.

[Claypole]

If you transfer money with Paypal and mark it as a gift they don't rob you blind on it, sorry I meant Ebay/Paypal seeing as they have all the cake to eat and the cake factory too.

[MondeoMan1981]

Strange one, hope your roof bars arrive!

I have only refunded postage, occasionally where I have sold something big and dont know how much postage will be I've put a couple of quid on my best guess and said in auction I'd refund difference.

[B'stard Child]

Risotto said:

Not sure why everyone assumes it's a scam. I've refunded money to sellers before if I've overestimated postage etc; others have done the same for me too.

Me too and recieved the same treatment from others

In fact I cocked up on postage once was out of pocket to the tune of a tenner and just swallowed it - the buyer emailed me to say hey that thing cost £12 to send you only charged me £2 - I replied my error no problem - he paypal'd me another £10 I was amazed

Maybe there was a BIN at the start and a low start price so bidding removed the BIN

Hell there are decent people out there - to the OP - say thanks and pass it on

[bazking69]

As the buyer you simply can't lose out. He sounds a bit nutty at worst. You've hit ebay gold.

[SimonCHere]

Isn't there something about you can't take money out of paypal until you receive feedback?

And a way around it is to refund some money?

I hope you get your bars.

Simon

[CraigW]

maybe he's just a really crap scammer and got it the wrong way round and scammed himself.

[sjg]

The price you paid is about £30 over what I paid for my 156 bars, brand new, from ebay.

I'll often do a part refund if I overestimated postage costs - I normally quote high in case I guessed the weight wrong.

[dave_s13]

sjg said:

The price you paid is about £30 over what I paid for my 156 bars, brand new, from ebay.

I'll often do a part refund if I overestimated postage costs - I normally quote high in case I guessed the weight wrong.

You were lucky.

I have a automatic search set up to let me know if these things crop up.....they don't really.

I could put these back up for sale in 2yrs and get what I paid for them I reckon.