Is this a bad seller or not? You decide!

[michiganjfrog]

Ok, here's the deal. I bought one of these 2GB Full Metal i-Platinum players with the deluxe 1.8" screen (same as from UXCELL) from this Hong Kong seller, and I dont know if I should go through with it and pay them.

They're selling them at unusually low starting prices ($24.99), and extremely low global shipping of $5 (UXCELL's rate, actually). The seller has a VERY low feedback score of 3 (100% +). Well I contacted his entire feedback record. All 3 buyers appear to be legit (ie. not personal friends), and stated that they had not received their players yet! The seller had asked them to leave a + feedback so he ("she", depending on who you ask...) could build a reputation. But the buyers seemed quite confident they would. I'm not so confident, and I sure as shit wouldn't leave feedback until I received my item and inspected it under an electron microscope.

Besides the unusual feedback, here's a few reasons why I'm hesitating on Paypalling him and completing the transaction:

The seller offers no shipping insurance in his ad, so you cant ask for it. That leaves tracking (for later Paypal claims). In the feedback, one of the buyer's mentions "tracking" (I've asked the seller yesterday if tracking is available and gotten no reply yet, despite the other buyers saying "Fast communication!"). The seller lists the shipping service as "Expedited International Flat Rate". On Hong Kong's Post's site, I can not find any such service listed. Are they actually using a private shipper that charges $5 for international shipping service with tracking??

The seller's ad is fairly well put together and despite the low feedback, currently has about 775 items up. That to me says this is probably not a "new seller" to eBay (possibly a seller that got booted off eBay and is using a new name). If the seller is not legit, here's one possible scenario:

He has 775 items listed, but doesn't have a damn thing in stock and never saw any of these things in his life. He prices the items low enough to get a lot of people interested, with the shipping even lower to seal the deal. He convinces a few to give him feedback. Then when he makes enough money quickly, he splits eBayville. He of course empties his Paypal account every 5 minutes. One seller told me not to worry, Paypal will give me a refund if I dont get the item. But I just read Paypal's policy and they dont guarantee any such thing.

The seller does not have Paypal's Buyer Protection Policy. That means all Paypal will do is "make reasonable efforts to get the seller to reimburse". But that means if the seller has emptied his Paypal balance, even if you win the dispute, you won't get squat. And since Paypal notifies the seller of the dispute, you can bet your booties he's going to have enough time to empty his account.

Now I realize that sellers have to start "somewhere" but... what are my chances of not getting ripped off if I pay this seller for the item? I'm especially wary because in this case, it isn't my money its my girlfriend's money that I'd be spending.... (sorry for the long post!)

I just discovered this seller (tamainc) has another account in the UK (typical behaviour for Hong Kong sellers, isn't it?!). His UK account is "fatboy5354"The ads are almost exactly alike, even if the player's aren't. The M.O. is the same, with low shipping and starting price (but in pounds).
And so is the feedback. Very low 1 + feedback, that is also a "bogus feedback", where the buyer was asked to give a positive feedback (unless the seller truly managed to send an MP4 player from UK or Hong Kong to the US in one day!!). "FATBOY5354" is the seller mentioned in member rakashmiri's recent post in this forum called "2GB 2nd Generation Metal Pod MP3 MP4?".

This is the player I bought:

http://cgi.ebay.com/2GB-2nd-Generation-Metal-Pod-MP3-MP4-Player-i-Platinum_W0QQitemZ250071571786QQihZ015QQcategoryZ7 3839QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[geekwrestler]

Michiganjfrog, I would recommend you to stay away from the seller. Although he could be genuine, its a very slim chance.

I got an iPlatinum from a HongKong seller too, very stupid communication but it was okay. [Was scared to death when I read about the hack.] But the shipping was much higher and insurance was required. [about $25 for shipping and $14.99 for the 1GB product.]

This one just seems to be a con man attracting people with low prices. I'd be dumb to leave feedback BEFORE I got the product. It would be better if you paid a bit higher to get a product from a known and reputed seller instead of firing an arrow in the dark.

[JBlaze]

Well, michiganfrog it's a good thing you didn't pay for the item.
His "tamainc" , ebay account has just been deactivated for his profile now bears "no longer a registered user" and all his items have been pulled.

I wish I would have read your post before paying myself.
Now I have escalated a paypal claim and informed paypal that he may be operating under UK ebay account "fatboy5354" as you suspect.

That, "fatboy5354" account is still active.
I suggested they investigate that account and freeze the related paypal account if they can connect the sellers.

Man, I've got to read these forums before I ever buy another chipod.

[JBlaze]

Follow-up,
Glad I have been watching this guy, since I payed for item.
I filed paypal dispute immediately after seeing his ebay account
suspended and managed to get a full refund from his paypal account.
I'm sure some people won't be so lucky.

[michiganjfrog]

Originally Posted by JBlaze";p=&quot

Well, michiganfrog it's a good thing you didn't pay for the item.
His "tamainc" , ebay account has just been deactivated for his profile now bears "no longer a registered user" and all his items have been pulled.

I wish I would have read your post before paying myself.
Now I have escalated a paypal claim and informed paypal that he may be operating under UK ebay account "fatboy5354" as you suspect.

That, "fatboy5354" account is still active.
I suggested they investigate that account and freeze the related paypal account if they can connect the sellers.

Man, I've got to read these forums before I ever buy another chipod.

Thanks for letting me know. I had exactly this scenario in my mind when I bought the player. I would buy it, then the seller would skeedaddle with the loot and never send out a damn thing to anyone, and I'd see "NLARU" on his account. I guess that explains why TAMAINC never pushed that hard to get me to pay for the auction I won.

Glad you were able to get a full refund from Paypal. I wonder if all those people I emailed who bought the same player off this seller and told me they were putting their blind faith in "her", have seen refunds as well, or if they've gotten royally stiffed. I see a bit of a pattern in my Paypal disputes and that of others, where when a seller is definitely tagged as a crook due to many complaints or suspension from eBay, you're more likely to get your money back (providing Paypal froze the account in time). Of course eBay's pretending FAT5434 is not related to TAMAINC, it looks like.

[JBlaze]

Yes, I was tempted by the low prices and jumped right in the con.
It would surprize me greatly if "fatboy5354" turns out to be legitimate.
He has almost the exact same MO as "tamainc".
The premature positive feedbacks, the unbelievable low prices, in fact some of his prices are lower than "tamainc" , the 10-16 business day wait after shipping and the thousands of items for sale at any given time.
If it walks like a duck, smells like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's gotta be a duck. It's getting close to the 16 business day + 2 day ship wait for his first big bunch of buyers, so we will find out shortly.
Like I said I'm gonna search these posts before I commit to another chipod seller on ebay. Nice site here!

[michiganjfrog]

Originally Posted by JBlaze";p=&quot

Yes, I was tempted by the low prices and jumped right in the con.
It would surprize me greatly if "fatboy5354" turns out to be legitimate.
He has almost the exact same MO as "tamainc".
The premature positive feedbacks, the unbelievable low prices, in fact some of his prices are lower than "tamainc" , the 10-16 business day wait after shipping and the thousands of items for sale at any given time.
If it walks like a duck, smells like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's gotta be a duck. It's getting close to the 16 business day + 2 day ship wait for his first big bunch of buyers, so we will find out shortly.
Like I said I'm gonna search these posts before I commit to another chipod seller on ebay. Nice site here!

There is no doubt in my mind that TAMAINC IS FATBOY5354. It's a duck. I did find one buyer in the US who after only several days received a computer gadget from fatboy, and says its fine. Shill bidder? Possibly. I never found one that actually saw any of their mp4's though.

[JBlaze]

February 4th, Super Bowl Day!

Ok, it happened today. Fatboy5354 got a run of 60 negative feedbacks
from buyers who didn't receive items and all of his items were pulled from remaining auctions. That liar stole alot of money. What bothers me is that ebay and paypal are making a ton of money off of these theifs and they do very little to stop them.

[michiganjfrog]

Originally Posted by JBlaze";p=&quot

February 4th, Super Bowl Day!

Ok, it happened today. Fatboy5354 got a run of 60 negative feedbacks
from buyers who didn't receive items and all of his items were pulled from remaining auctions. That liar stole alot of money. What bothers me is that ebay and paypal are making a ton of money off of these theifs and they do very little to stop them.

DAMN, that's what I was afraid of. The sellers KNOW eBay wont do squat to protect consumers or go after them, which is why its SO easy to do. Not only did this Chinese bastard have the intention of stealing people's money (remeber, were not talking about selling 1GB players as 4GB here, were talking about not having any players to sell and taking peoples money!), but he had the balls to ask all his sellers to leave him feedback before getting product. Any theif could make thousands of dollars like this in a matter of weeks. Steal some photos of desirable items from some other eBay seller, open an eBay account with a false address or stolen cc, make tons of money. On top of that, if he filed an unpaid item strike against me for not wanting to get ripped off, eBay would refuse to remove it!

eBay is becoming eScam while they do nothing to protect consumers. Sorry to say folks, it was a quaint idea when it started, but the world is no longer suitable to do business on the "honour system" and neither eBay nor Paypal will insure your losses, despite what they claim.

[Cognition]

I was so lucky. I filed an "Item not received" dispute through Ebay/Paypal and got all my money back just a few days before Fatboy ended his Ebay membership.