Scammed out of my Macbook air

[danetello]

I recently sold my 13" Macbook Air on Amazon marketplace. The guy paid, I sent off the macbook and everything was fine. Then about 2 days later the buyer started complaining saying it was too scratched and that I didn't describe it accurately, and he wanted to return it to me.

I accepted the return and told him to send it back and I will give a full refund. A few days later I received an amazon claim from him, saying that I have not refunded him yet, even though I received the item. But at that point, I had not received anything.

Anyway, I told amazon this and they asked the buyer for a tracking number, which he provided and showed that I had signed for it. But I had not received anything from him and told amazon this again. Then a few days later amazon said that he had provided a receipt which shows that he sent a parcel with the weight of a macbook inside, and I had received it (which I had not)!

Amazon refunded the buyer, so now he has my macbook AND money! I contacted the police but they basically said that they can't do anything since he didn't physically rob me. Is there anything else I can do?

 

[maflynn]

Bummers man

I tend to stay away form internet transactions like that and ebay when selling my Macs. I opt for Craigslist generally.

Sorry to hear about it being scammed. I'd still follow up with amazon and continue to fight it. Is a police report something that is an option?

 

[wpotere]

That sucks...

Did you get the tracking number and contact the shipping company to find out where it is? He should have provided you this information. If it turns out to be false you should have a case with Amazon.

 

[miles01110]

Anyway, I told amazon this and they asked the buyer for a tracking number, which he provided and showed that I had signed for it. But I had not received anything from him and told amazon this again. Then a few days later amazon said that he had provided a receipt which shows that he sent a parcel with the weight of a macbook inside, and I had received it (which I had not)!

Unless you resolve this, you won't get anywhere with anyone.

 

[jav6454]

For me, from now on, it's only Craigslist and locally hard cold, $20 bills only, cash.

Amazon, eBay or other sites don't give a **** about the seller many times.


Also, tell the buyer to show you where you signed and the address the item was sent to.

 

[KingCrimson]

Never ever sell stuff on Amazon, not worth dealing with psychos.

 

[416049]

Never ever sell stuff on Amazon, not worth dealing with psychos.

You could say that about any online selling website/business e.g. ebay.

 

[ucfgrad93]

For me, from now on, it's only Craigslist and locally hard cold, $20 bills only, cash.

Amazon, eBay or other sites don't give a **** about the seller many times.

Agreed. Selling expensive electronics online is a huge risk these days.

 

[mac jones]

Most likely, there's just some kind of mistake, and a someone else signed for it. If this happened, then the buyer is in the right, and you are in the wrong; for not figuring this out But i'm sure you thought of this.....you did right? (your description wasn't very clear)

sorry

BTW:I buy a lot of things from Amazon (A LOT). But the couple times I bought from the 'private' sellers I got ripped off (small $$ items, fortunately).

I've bought thousands of thing on Ebay, and haven't seen anything like this. Ebay has, at this point, substantial protections, but you also have clues to the buying's (and seller's) character.

 

[kev6677]

This is a common mail order scam

This happened to me once on Amazon it is a common scam.....the seller or buyer ships an empty item of same weight to the persons adrress it usually arrives in shorter than the usual time for that type of delivery complete with tracking info...However the item never actually arrives.

How it is done is still a mystery

You need to get the tracking info and the date time and location from where the item was shipped & then supposedlly recieved... then check the credibility of the seller from online reviews then call Amazon and ask to speak to a supervisor with all your evidence. Worst case scenario is the package got delivered to the wrong address in that case Amazon sometimes will still refund the money as all transactions are covered by insurance anyway.

I did this and I was eventually refunded my money.

 

[blunti]

Bummers man

I tend to stay away form internet transactions like that and ebay when selling my Macs. I opt for Craigslist generally.

It sounds a bit creepy to me to just meet with a stranger and swap an expensive gadget for cash from an unknown source...

 

[smirking]

I replace my Mac Pro and MacBook Pro every 4 years on the average and each time I just opt for trade-in from PowerMax.com. Their trade in values are extremely competitive and at times are really close to the price that I've seen similar items sold for on eBay.

The reason why I do the trade-in has nothing to do with fear of getting scammed. I simply just don't want to deal with the potential headaches and time it takes to sell it myself. After reading this, it's just all the more reason for me to trade it in every 4 years.

You do have to buy a new computer at the time of trade-in though. They don't just buy old Macs outright.

 

[Young Spade]

Wow; personally I just went through something like this, but with a netbook; I sent the netbook and the battery/cords in two packages; one got there, one didn't.

He raised the paypal claim, I sent extra money, nothing got returned, and Paypal JUST refunded him the money last night.

So i'm out 200+ and I sold the computer for less for that (not including shipping expenses out of country).

Last time I'm ever doing any online transactions like that.

 

[MacHamster68]

its simple and called BUYER protection , the buyer is in recent years overprotected on expense of the honest seller leaving all doors open for scammers

theres only one way cash on collection sales on sites like craiglist , if he wants to pay with paypal , check or other means its his problem not mine ,ok its sad for the honest buyers who cant collect because they live further away , but thats not my problem either , the buyer only receives a item from me after i received cash
Ok you get people who try to haggle that way, but i say its better to negotiate a bit and loose the odd tenner , but still way better then sitting there like the OP without item and money

 

[RawBert]

There has to be a record of the signature. UPS and FedEx (and most couriers) have digital signature devices and they keep that as proof of delivery. You have to try to obtain that signature. It's probably your only hope.

Major bummer.

 

[Young Spade]

It sounds a bit creepy to me to just meet with a stranger and swap an expensive gadget for cash from an unknown source...

How do you think people sold things before computers and the internet?

Wait until you're out in the real world and have to deal with people; my mom's the same way. Sometimes it doesn't work out, but most of the time it does.

If you're smart and don't do anything stupid, the person to person cash option is the best way to do it, given the insane amount of people who are pricks and will rip you straight off if you aren't careful.

Case 1: The OP.
Case 2: Me; I've learned from my little netbook selling fiasco and how bad it is to do that overseas; mainly because shipping is at least 20 bucks if the package is light.

 

[smirking]

How do you think people sold things before computers and the internet?

It's a shame it's come to this. Those of us who've been around long enough to know the glory days of USENET, have stories about buying and selling stuff online in blind trust that the other person would come through. I've shipped stuff out before getting money and paid money before getting stuff. Only a tiny percentage of the world's population had any clue what the Internet was then and so it was a relatively small and exclusive society and we all trusted each other.

 

[Young Spade]

It's a shame it's come to this. Those of us who've been around long enough to know the glory days of USENET, have stories about buying and selling stuff online in blind trust that the other person would come through. I've shipped stuff out before getting money and paid money before getting stuff. Only a tiny percentage of the world's population had any clue what the Internet was then and so it was a relatively small and exclusive society and we all trusted each other.

Darn right it is; the problem is the people, obviously, not the way they do the transaction.

And just to provide an example, when the huge tsunami hit Japan and all of those people died, buildings being washed away, and pretty much all hell breaking loose, there were practically ZERO robberies, break ins, and thefts, as reported by the various news casts.

In fact, there were a flurry of articles stating a mass amount of "lost" money that was just turned in by the population. You know, safes, boxes, pretty much all forms of containers holding money or valuables were being returned, in masse, to a central location in hopes that the original owner would find it.

I'll eat my hat if that ever happened in America. Never would that, or any close resemblance to that, ever happen here.




That's what I posted last night in a FB thread. I completely agree with you.There are a bunch of great people here who love to help others and provide information and all of these great things, however, there are also a lot of dumb people who are ignorant, opinionated, and would easily rip you off just like the OP was.

People suck. It was back (before my time, mind you, I'm only 19) when you were talking about Usenet and all of these great people; they were nerds! If you get a bunch of us in a room, the hard core Mac enthusiasts and tech enthusiasts, we would ALL get along.

Best friends. The problem is that it's just become such a large medium that... you just have a larger portion of crap that you have to deal with now.

 

[MacHamster68]

Darn right it is; the problem is the people, obviously, not the way they do the transaction.

And just to provide an example, when the huge tsunami hit Japan and all of those people died, buildings being washed away, and pretty much all hell breaking loose, there were practically ZERO robberies, break ins, and thefts, as reported by the various news casts.

In fact, there were a flurry of articles stating a mass amount of "lost" money that was just turned in by the population. You know, safes, boxes, pretty much all forms of containers holding money or valuables were being returned, in masse, to a central location in hopes that the original owner would find it.

I'll eat my hat if that ever happened in America. Never would that, or any close resemblance to that, ever happen here.




That's what I posted last night in a FB thread. I completely agree with you.There are a bunch of great people here who love to help others and provide information and all of these great things, however, there are also a lot of dumb people who are ignorant, opinionated, and would easily rip you off just like the OP was.

People suck. It was back (before my time, mind you, I'm only 19) when you were talking about Usenet and all of these great people; they were nerds! If you get a bunch of us in a room, the hard core Mac enthusiasts and tech enthusiasts, we would ALL get along.

Best friends. The problem is that it's just become such a large medium that... you just have a larger portion of crap that you have to deal with now.

not only in america , here in the Uk too
but back to subject ,today a lot of people using the internet feel totally anonymous and lose all inhibitions they would have face to face and its made so easy for them with buyer protections in place , sure there are scamming sellers too ,but they are not as protected as scamming buyers who can happy do one scam after the other knowing they are protected by ebay and paypal and amazon , sure they might get cought one day if they have bad luck ,if you can file a case and maybe ebay or amazon deletes their account , then they just need to create a new one

 

[Harpo]

Get the tracking information and signature (usually accessible on the delivery service website where you track the package). The buyer may not have scammed you; someone else may have seen the delivery truck and signed for it. Where is the buyer located? For a rock solid scam, he could even have done this himself.

I had a seller pull the false tracking info thing on me; there was no question about it, though, because delivery occurred in Puerto Rico.

 

[Young Spade]

not only in america , here in the Uk too
but back to subject ,today a lot of people using the internet feel totally anonymous and lose all inhibitions they would have face to face and its made so easy for them with buyer protections in place , sure there are scamming sellers too ,but they are not as protected as scamming buyers who can happy do one scam after the other knowing they are protected by ebay and paypal and amazon , sure they might get cought one day if they have bad luck ,if you can file a case and maybe ebay or amazon deletes their account , then they just need to create a new one

Oh of course; anonymity is THE reason why this happens... but it is also a good thing; it's very hard to... balance between this; personally I wouldn't mind Ebay/Amazon/Paypal actually linking the accounts to actual people.

That way you couldn't just go on there and cause all kinds of havok and whatnot. Some things don't need anonymity as much as others.

 

[MacHamster68]

Oh of course; anonymity is THE reason why this happens... but it is also a good thing; it's very hard to... balance between this; personally I wouldn't mind Ebay/Amazon/Paypal actually linking the accounts to actual people.

That way you couldn't just go on there and cause all kinds of havok and whatnot. Some things don't need anonymity as much as others.

nope not only to people , but direct to peoples bank account and not through paypal , means as soon as the buyer bids and wins the money is transfered instantly and if no funds are in the Bank account the bid is instantly removed , would save hassle

 

[Young Spade]

nope not only to people , but direct to peoples bank account and not through paypal , means as soon as the buyer bids and wins the money is transfered instantly and if no funds are in the Bank account the bid is instantly removed , would save hassle

Obviously, you can't link anything to an actual person. That's what I'm implying when i said people; I was hoping people would be smart enough to pick up on that.

 

[oneofthesedaves]

I was hoping people would be smart enough to pick up on that.

 

[Theclamshell]

Pay him a visit at his house