eBay CDJ 2000 scam; my personal experience.

[JJDShrimpton]

Hi all,

I was recently the victim of a rather stressful, eBay scam that attempted to suck me out of £1700 of my year's CDJ savings. I thought I'd document my experience here as it may be useful to others unsure about buying from eBay and how the process actually works should anything go wrong when doing so.

Essentially, I had been watching the eBay market for a while for a pair of CDJ 2000 Nexuses as I wanted to buy second hand and I knew eBay provided cover, so it seemed wiser than buying through Gumtree/Craigslist like I normally do. The average 'bargain-price' I saw coming up was just under £2000 so I thought that would be a good region to look in when I had finished saving.

Low and behold when I reached the £1700 savings mark, a pair of CDJ 2000s came up for £1700. The ad checked out, decent photos and description and the guy had 100% positive feedback from many buyers. I noticed that the seller wanted to use standard delivery, so I contacted them requesting that if I committed to the auction they send the item tracked and insured. The seller quickly responded, explaining that he would send them insured and tracked, any any damage/loss during transit would be his responsibility to sort out with the courier and that I could expect the item in 3 days if I bought them. I was so overjoyed that I could finally have the CDJs that I'd been longing for for so long that I committed to the auction without being as thorough as I would usually be (I've also been using eBay for 8 years without a hitch so had grown to trust the site).

Around 5-6 hours after phoning all my friends telling them how I excited I was to finally have some CDJs on the way, I suddenly had a thought 'I wonder if this guy is selling any other gear so cheap', this led me to look at his previous sales history. It was when I checked this that I really started to panic, every single one of the seller's previous sales were of amounts of less than £1, generally sim cards. I figured that it was highly suspicious so tried to contact the seller to no avail. Shortly following this I noticed that 2 other almost identical ads to the one that I had 'paid for' came up from similarly-named sellers with a similar selling-history.

At this point I was 90% sure I was being scammed, so I contacted eBay with my concerns pleading with them to cancel the deal, however they explained that once purchased, unless you work something out with the seller before they send the item, you must wait until after the last expected date of delivery. Even though I had contacted the seller earlier and had confirmation from him that the item would be arriving within 3 days, the ad still claimed they would be sent standard delivery which in my case was 8-10 working days (this worked out as 2 and a half weeks), and this is the value which eBay use. So on their advice, I pleaded strongly to the seller to cancel the sale, again to no avail.

Essentially from here on, all I could do was wait patiently until either something arrived or if nothing arrived, until the last expected delivery date. It was an extremely stressful time for me as that money represented a lot of hard graft (I'm a full time student that works part time in a supermarket to pay for my accommodation and DJing). In this time I spent a lot of time talking to eBay on the phone, trying to work out what I would do in every eventuality, trying to calm my nerves. It's worth nothing that every single eBay representative I spoke with answered all of my questions, was extremely pleasant and paid (or at least convinced me that they were paying) genuine personal interest in my story. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't do anything music related for being so stressed, I felt totally helpless and upset.

eBay disclosed to me on the phone that if something arrived that wasn't what I ordered, I would need to contact them immediately (something like within 48 hours) with evidence of what it was compared to the ad. Because of this information, I became unbearably stressed when not at home, so took the decision to become a recluse at every opportunity until the case was sorted out.

Anyway, after about 2 and a half weeks of agonising waiting, nothing had showed up and I was finally able to open a case against this guy. I filed a case online detailing what had happened and sent it off. Incase you don't know how an eBay buyer protection case works, it's goes like this:

1. Buyer has a problem, files a case against the seller
2. Seller has 8 days to completely satisfy the buyer (buy providing a refund, replacing the product etc)
3. If the seller is not satisfied after the 8 day period, eBay step in and sort out matters themselves

In line with the rest of the seller's behaviour, he did not respond to this case at all, which meant I had another 8 agonising days of waiting before, as eBay put it, eBay would 'make a decision about what to do'. At the end of these 8 days, I received a letter from eBay saying my case was taking 'longer for them to sort out than usual'. This lead to another 2 days of waiting to hear what was going to happen to my money.

FINALLY, after almost a month after my first complaint about the ad, eBay sent me a refund themselves. I was told that eBay would be taking action against the seller, though I feel like this will amount to nothing more than banning his eBay account, which is no where near enough for the successful robbery of £1700, however I have my money back and can't be bothered with the entire predicament any more.

I feel like I was extremely lucky to get this money back, as eBays decision was in my favour this time however next time I might not be so lucky.

TLDR;
Don't go food shopping whilst hungry, it's dangerous

[makar1]

If you pay with Paypal you can claim back any goods payment if there's no proof it arrived at your house.

Using Ebay properly isn't a lottery or something that requires luck.

[JJDShrimpton]

Hi Makar1, whilst I appreciate that is the case what I was trying to do here was document my own experience in a way that other people may find useful when considering buying an expensive item from eBay. I was constantly being told by everyone 'don't worry, you will get your money back' but it's very hard to just accept that when you've got an entire month to wait before you are likely to see that money back in your account.

[mdcdesign]

Hi Makar1, whilst I appreciate that is the case what I was trying to do here was document my own experience in a way that other people may find useful when considering buying an expensive item from eBay. I was constantly being told by everyone 'don't worry, you will get your money back' but it's very hard to just accept that when you've got an entire month to wait before you are likely to see that money back in your account.

You WILL get your money back though, that's just the thing. PayPal are insured to the hilt and it's no skin off their nose to refund you even if the seller has done a runner with the cash. I'm in a similar situation currently where I bought an amplifier and the seller promised to deliver then reneged on the deal. Gotta wait a few more days then I'll be getting a refund. It CAN be worrying if you're new to eBay or have never bought something that expensive on there before, but really eBay/PayPal is the safest way of buying things full stop.

[DubluW]

And this is is why i buy from the shop direct or collect in person!

[Rip van Winkle]

If it's second hand and over a 100, and i can't go pick it up myself, i'm not buying. no matter how sweet the deal looks... it's my own failproof insurance.

[haze324]

For big ticket items I'll buy on eBay from known vendors. Pro Audio Star usually has some sweet deals on there that larger chain stores (Guitar Center) can't compete with.

[Itchy Gash]

Def feel your pain...esp when you've paid for it, the agony of waiting is torture...the reverse happened to me in that I sold and the buyer didn't pay...contacted him a few times then ebay..opened a case..still nothing..I was wise not send the item before I got the money so it was no loss to me...but having to wait around a few weeks till I could sell *&^%$£ me right off...so much so with the details and internet snooping found out the were the little (*&^ lived.

[Cook]

eBay ALWAYS protects the buyer. full stop. 100%.

but

have you never heard the saying, if its too good to be true, it probably isnt?

have you never seen the auctions looking like its a mixer with £2/300 knocked off, ad looks legit until the very last line in tiny text telling you its a mousemat or a photo of the mixer, £1100 mousemat if your not careful

[HawaiiR]

I've almost fallen victim to a similar scam on Craigslist, sadly, where the seller tries to sell CDJ2000's from some location in Indonesia.

My question is: how fruitful could this possibly be? most DJ's aren't THAT rich, so what's the point of trying to scam them out of a few hundred bucks?