Dogbowl
Contributor
I wanted to let them know that their answers showed all the signs of being a scam. I wanted to get their reaction to such an accusation, to give me further clues to support one conclusion or another. Let’s just say I wasn’t accusing them of being scammers for their benefit!
If they were scammers, they probably would’ve ignored me from then on or told me to F off. If they were not, they would try to convince me otherwise. They tried to convince me otherwise and I got the sense they were just unsophisticated people rather than scammers, but I wasn’t totally sure at the time. But I was just kind of fed up with proceeding with the sale at that point anyway.
After thinking about it some more with the benefit of a clearer head and more time, and the buying impulse had lessened, I searched for the item again and it was STILL listed. I offered an even lower price than last time and the going rate for shipping the item, and they accepted. Giving them no opportunity to say anything more than “yes” or “no” prevented them from showing me any more stupidity on their part.
Win-win. I bought something I wanted at less than market price and they sold something they clearly weren’t having any success selling. Of course, if it turned out to be a scam, I was mentally prepared to lose that money and was ok with the risk.
I used to buy lots of vintage stuff from eBay that were highly priced and highly sought after so I’ve developed my own style of vetting those sellers.
I suspect scuba gear sellers are different and require a different type of vetting altogether.
Yes, I knew those were my options but I always plan for the worst case scenario, that is, even if PayPal and the cc companies denied my claim, I’d still be ok with losing that amount of money. I’m just a very conservative gal.
