Buying and selling/cod

[jonbearman]

Have you fellas ever asked a seller for them to send an article you were purchasing COD,via ups? The reason I am asking is I have had some bad luck lately and want to know if it would work to stop bad deals. I realize it adds cost ,but I would gladly pay it to avoid getting nothing for my money. Just a thought to rack around in our thoughts. Any replys would be appreciated.

 

[Taildrag15X]

All you would be paying for is a box that UPS hands you, you don't get time to open it and check the stuff out before you have to hand him payment and he is on his way......really think that good communication, PM, email and even a phone call to a home number (cell is no longer an option) is the best way to feel secure about a deal to me.

After being taken to the cleaners for a scope and getting no help from the City, County, State or any Federal agency even though it's thought here that a Federal crime will get you help, it doesn't.

 

[Larryh128]

The way UPS collect works is that you can specify what type of payment that you will accept from cash to personal check. You hand the driver payment before you get handed the package. I can't imagine that you will get an inspection.

 

[Taildrag15X]

Your right Larry, in the hundreds of packages that I recieved in parts over 20 years in the HVACR world I never once had the chance to open any package before payment was made.

You can refuse the item, if you see damage to the package, once an 8' case heater box was folded in quarter, with the warning sticker "Do not Fold" in plain sight.......that one I didn't pay for.

 

[lynn]

Jonbearman
You can always send the seller a Postal Money Order to a street address.They cost a buck and have a $1000 limit on them but require identification to cash and if lost they are refundable.
None of the shippers are going to have a driver wait while each customer inspects his/her packages due to time constraints so buy insurance on your larger purchases.
Lynn

 

[shortgrass]

Any time a guy gets to concentrating too hard on that "super deal" ,that he just has to have, there is risk. Dealing with established business eliminates some of that risk.

 

[Taildrag15X]

lynn,

Your statement "You can always send the seller a Postal Money Order to a street address.They cost a buck and have a $1000 limit on them but require identification to cash and if lost they are refundable." is not 100% true, that's the way it should be, be it's not if you are dealing with a con artist in the first place.

A short break down of how one got me:

Seller requested USPS Tracking on payment to verify it was sent, what this did gave him the heads up to check the mailbox the day the payment came to the address he used (widowed middle aged women who works days) so he could grab the USPS Money Order, he then cashed it at a PayDay Loan Store (fancy name for a Loan Shark/Pawn Shop) without I.D., ie, no State Drivers License number or any other info. Phone calls went to voice mail after this, email came back as undelivered, no such user; calls to the address that I mail the payment to finally answered by female resident who said that she had heard from others looking for "Steve" so I wasn't alone. City Police did say they had other complaints and confirmed that there was no one else at the address other than the home owner, the State Police never replied to any of my calls or complaints. The USPS said that it was cashed by the person it was sent to and that it should be in the hands of the local authorities, or small claims court.

 

[moparman]

I think its really a shame we even have to worry about this and seems to keep getting worse and worse everywhere you look. The more ways people try and protect themselves the more schemes are thought up to take advantage of people.

 

[lynn]

Taildrag15
In your example the money order wasn't lost but postal fraud was committed.The PayDay Loan people should be on the hook for incorrectly cashing a money order withoput proper I.D. and they should have Steve on film for the local law enforcement/postal inspectors.
I see this kind of stuff all the time and someone in the system almost always didn't follow the rules/regulations in order for it to occur.
If the amounts are small it gets the bums rush and there is nothing we can do treatment because we are after the bigger fish.
Lynn

 

[Scott Harris]

As a seller, I always require full payment to include shipping prior to delivery. If they send a personal check, then I don't ship till it clears. Why allow the potential for problems when you don't need to?

As a buyer, I think eBay provides the fool-proof model because you can limit your transactions to well-established sellers with a perfect feedback score. You are certainly taking a risk buying off of forums where the seller is an unknown. Postal money orders, Paypal , or credit cards offer you some protection. If you are really concerned, then use an escrow service.

After buying and selling hundreds of items online over the years, I've never had a problem: just use your common sense.... or maybe "use your street sense" is a better suggestion.

 

[jonbearman]

One way is to get him to take a check for ups cod delivery and if you open the box and nothing is in there or its not what you ordered you put a stop payment on it. I dont know if it is legal or not. I dealt with a guy who had alot of interaction on a site and thought it would be ok. Got nothing and no help from the usps.

 

[shortgrass]

Now 'flip the coin' and look at it from the other side, how does the seller know that check is good? You got the goods, he's got a bad check!

 

[pgg]

I have always heard horror stories about Paypal and sellers getting screwed with no way to get problems resolved. PG

 

[shortgrass]

I guess if internet transactions frighten a person that much he should just stick with the 'brick & morter' stores. The politicians haven't managed to turn us into a total nanny state yet. There is some risk in every decision a person makes. When there is not we will no longer be a free society.

 

[Taildrag15X]

I have always heard horror stories about Paypal and sellers getting screwed with no way to get problems resolved. PG

Pay Pal does offer a semi-secure way to handle a deal, as long as you play by ebay/Pay Pal Rules, don't try to do anything gun or shooting related and a claim should go smooth. They saved my wife's butt on a coin purchase, she paid with Pay Pal, recieved a USPS Tracking number through them with in an email, 2 weeks no package and notices from UPS "Tracking number not found". This lead her to open a claim and stop payment from her Pay Pal account, within the course of a week she was refunded in full without having to any other contact.

I've seen the posts on various Forums from the ones that say they were screwed, but they tend to leave out that they didn't follow the Rules and had been trying to pay or recieve moneies for the banned items.

Best way is to send and recieve funds as a Gift, they don't charge the transfer % on the ammount.

 

[Steve Blair]

After being taken to the cleaners for a scope and getting no help from the City, County, State or any Federal agency even though it's thought here that a Federal crime will get you help, it doesn't.

Mike,

If you were late on a $10 tax bill, I bet you would get some gummint "help".

 

[Taildrag15X]

After being taken to the cleaners for a scope and getting no help from the City, County, State or any Federal agency even though it's thought here that a Federal crime will get you help, it doesn't.

Mike,

If you were late on a $10 tax bill, I bet you would get some gummint "help".

Yup you are right, been there, then got to fire an accountant over it........ think they would spend $10,000 to make sure they got $10 out of me.

 

[necchi]

I just buy Cod at the local grociery and don't worry about shipping, I let them handle it all.