WWYD: 0 Feedback, Non-English, Non-Confirmed Buyr

T

twiggers

O.G.
May 7, 2006
33,003
32
#1
Seriously...my nightmare here! Fortunately it wasn't for a purse, just for an Ipod Nano.

Person did a BIN on my Nano (great for me because it was way more than I wanted for it)...and paid right away (per my requirements on the auction)....BUT they are a 0 feedback buyer from Canada. Quebec to be exact.
Check paypal and unconfirmed of course (not all CDN addresses can be confirmed).
They have been a member of ebay since February...just never bought anything.

First thing I thought: why pay $175 for my BNIB nano? Then I realized they can't buy the Red ones there. OK....things makes sense.

I email them and ask them to confirm their address...or confirm it is their home address. And also make a note in their about customs.

I get an email back saying they don't speak English (only french) but they understand and it is their home address.

OK...I pull contact info and name & city match what is on the email and the paypal address. BUT the name doesn't match paypal.

I'm thinking stolen CC and email them again. They say it is their mother's CC because they are only 15 yrs old.

OK...I know there are people out there who will buy for their kids...but crap. I'm in a rock & a hard place here.
I'll ship EMS so I'll signature and everything (not too worried about that).

I thought about calling and confirming it with the mother...but apparently they don't speak English.

Sooooo.....what would you do? I'm tempted to send it...I'll have the EMS stuff to be able to track everything. And if you stole your parents CC you would probably be smart and not send it to them right? LOL
 
#2
I'd send it... see... to confess, I used to buy stuff when I was 15 off ebay too using their credit card and yeah... we're definitely not scamming you or anything, we just want this super cool gadget that we can't get in our country and we do stupid things to get them. She'll get in trouble when her mum sees this on her bill though, but if she's paid then I really doubt anything bad will happen on your end unless her mother intervenes.

As for how ethical it is to send this... well... that's a different issue.
 
#3
If I were you, I would probably send it, ems certified as you say. It's not going to be a huge amount of money to get tied up in a paypal dispute if something does go wrong, and you should win. If a zero feedback bidder actually pays and makes contact with me, I basically give them the benefit of the doubt (of course, I also almost always sell in the US). First, though, I'd try to get ahold of a Canadian PFer just to see if this person's story about only speaking French is likely true. I'm honestly just not sure about how linguistically autonomous Quebec is from the rest of Canada.
 
#4
Thanks guys! I'm feeling a little better seeing as how she did respond to emails and stuff. The only hurdle will be customs...and on a $175 item....she might not get hit too hard (or her Mom won't)! I guess she'll be the coolest kid at school with a Red Nano LOLOL

As for the French thing vano...I'm CDN and it is entirely plausible especially since they are in Quebec (anywhere else in Canada and I might be doubting the story)...plus when she replied to my email it showed her message from ebay and it was all in french (except for what I had written).
 
#5
Hi Twiggers,

I logged on just for you :P (oh how I hate the loggin-deloggin glitch...)
I'm in Quebec and just to ease your mind we definitely have here (even in some parts of Montreal) non-english speakers - so that part can be very true.
Good luck with your transaction
 
#6
Thanks Hirondelle!!! Growing up in canada I definelty remember that there were a lot who were french-only! Shoot...I lived in Winnipeg and our French area of town had a lot who were french-only!!!

I think I'm going to go ahead with it! I'll ship the super secure way and cross my fingers for 3-5 business days LOL
 
#7
I would send it if I were you. Maybe I'm too liberal with stuff like this, but it really is not your problem to be monitoring children's usage of their parent's credit cards. You don't know what their arrangment is, maybe the kid buys stuff all the time and the parent is ok with it. My understanding of ebay policy is that even if the parent does find out later and is not ok with it, they are still obligated to complete the transaction. I've seen people get negative feedback for not going through with it. Because the item has already been paid for, I think you should just follow through with the transaction, and make sure to send it insured with a signature required. Good luck!:smile:
 
#9
I'm not very familiar with eBay because I'm a new eBayer(and by the sounds of it... I'm thinking of quitting after leaving feedback for the two items I recently won -- and paid for), and I find myself to be slightly similar to this buyer you're dealing with. I'm a 17 year old girl and when I signed up for the account, I didn't want to get in trouble with the must-be-18-years-of-age thing if they had one (I still don't know if they do, but I just wanted to be safe), so I put the confirmed address under my mom's name, but made an account with my e-mail address. I too have 0 feedback because well, I've only been on eBay for maybe 3 weeks, so don't worry too much about this person.
 
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