Hi all,

Looking for your guidance on what I believe is a delicate buying matter on the bay, it is unusual to me so I am checking whether any other OF member has had a similar case.

I was recently awarded an auction for a -68 Speedy at a decent price, I did my research with MWO in my hands and apart for replacement hands and crown the watch looked in fair conditions so I decided to give it a try although I noticed the seller was:
a) relatively new: only 17 feedback all 100% positive and for watches or watch parts which gives me some degree of confidence
b) located in Peru: no offense for the country or the people of course (i visited and love Peru) but from reading around the forum I noted that in the past there have been cases of people buying vintage omegas from Peru who were not satisfied with their purchase and couldn't receive proper refund on their purchase.

As soon as I was awarded the auction I proceeded to pay through Ebay with the Paypal option just to be sure the purchase was protected. However after just 1 hour the seller proceeded with a refund of the payment stating that he was having issues with his Paypal account and asked to be paid into his wife's Paypal account, he then sent a Paypal invoice for the watch through a new account.

I expressed some doubts and he claimed that Paypal's buyer protection would still apply, so my actions were the following:

1)I asked the seller to change his Ebay settings so that he could get paid into the new Paypal account, however he said he couldn't do this once the auction has ended.. I cannot verify this statement.
2)I checked with Ebay and they confirmed that Ebay protection won't apply if i pay an invoice received directly through Paypal (this was expected)
3)I checked with Paypal and they confirmed that the invoice was ok and buyer protection will apply, my follow up question was: "what if the watch I receive is not the one I saw on the Ebay auction, how do I prove this and ask Paypal for refund if something goes wrong?" to which the Rep quickly responded that if i had this doubt it was better not to proceed with the purchase then..
So my last question was: "What if I ask the Seller to add the link to the Ebay auction into the invoice in order to make sure there is a connection between the auction and the payment done under the invoice" to which the rep answered that it could work in his opinion.

This last part is what scares me, is some Paypal customer services rep's opinion enough to pay confidently for this watch since we're still talking about a few $Ks?

Has anyone had a similar experience and could share his wisdom with me?

Thanks a lot

 

Peru? No bueno.

 

I would walk away, and briskly.

 

To me this reeks of a scam. No personal experience with Peru, but 20+ years of ebaying says, GET OUT NOW!

 

Too many warning flags to be worth the risk.

 

Scam

 

Avoid...

 

I had exactly the same request, from a seller in Peru, for a rare Omega box, that time it was his to his brother’s account. ..:. Did a bit of googling and saw the images were taken from other posts/sites.... I then ignored the request, and then a few weeks later had a follow up saying he would ship it to me, I could pay when I received it, and all he needed was $40 first for shipping. I ignored that too... as everyone else says - scam!

 

Thanks a lot guys,

appreciate the quick and candid feedback!

 

I think you knew the answer to this before you even asked.

If you send money via that route, it is highly unlikely you'll receive the watch you're expecting.

 

If I buy outside of the country They have to have stellar feedback and it has to be high. I only get smaller items remember it still has to go through customs and they may think hey this looks expensive......

 

I had the same thing happened to me but Venezuela instead of Peru and a Seiko instead of Omega. I did also but eBay instead of PayPal and Ebay rep told me just ask the seller to relist again buy it now and that way we can do the transaction. Of course eBay wants their fee but PayPal would also get their fee too. I guess it comes down to our explanation. How can Paypal know what exactly im paying the money for if there is no listing associated to the payment? At the end, I did the same, and ignored the seller request.

 

I would humbly suggest that one buys the seller as much as the timepiece, if not more.

The aforementioned actions do not inspire confidence.

Best of luck,

jB

 

Could be he wants to avoid eBay fees this way.

Could be something worse.

Regardless of country of origin, too much fuss for too much bucks. Run, don't walk.

 

Don't do it. Tell him it's straight payment through the eBay checkout system with no special requests or nothing and tell him to just "fix" his PayPal issues with PayPal. Among other things, if you don't check out through the eBay checkout system, you're only protected for non-receipt of the package; you're not protected for "not as described." Further, be careful about the answers you get from PayPal reps, because I've gotten totally wrong answers from them before (confirmed later by supervisors). They're not responsible if you rely on their bad answers, especially if you can't prove they gave you the wrong answer...and even if you could, it would be a huge headache to try to hold them responsible and it would probably cost you more than the transaction amount.

 

My golden rule. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush especially from Peru.

 

since you paid already, just wait for the watch it arrives. i reckon possibly never will.

could have been better if you include the ebay link here.

 

Regarding payment I can see in my PayPal that it has been refunded, I’m just waiting another couple of days to make sure that this is not a pending refund (although it doesn’t say anywhere that it is pending, just adding my extra bit of caution)

Regarding posting the eBay link since I am not familiar with all the forum rules I thought since it has not been proven 100% fraudulent (unless my money disappears in the next days) it shouldn’t be shared as a potential fraudster?

Maybe I can share via PM if anyone interested..