Agreed......never EVER send a moneygram, western union, or anything like that if they say there is a buy it now in the listing, yet there is no buy it now button. USE PAYPAL ONLY. Also, you can tell if its a hijacked account if you look to see where the item is located and where the seller is supposed to be. If the Item is in china or say the UK and the seller is registered in the USA....its definitely a scam. Also, if you have doubts, check to see what other items the seller has listed. If its random electronics, musical instruments, clothing, basically random items that are not consistant with what someone selling drums exclusively on ebay would be selling, then stay away, its a scam.....and most of all, REPORT IT TO EBAY as a scam. this way it will be removed as soon as possible so that some poor fellow like yourself doesn't fall for it.

If it sounds too good to be true it probably is......

Ok, I've NEVER had that happen....but....you can CALL Paypal if something like this does happen to you. Take pictures of the non-item you received back. They have to find in your favor at that point. Threatening to cancel your account and never doing business with them helps too I've found.

After that is resolved you should be able to contact ebay and explain what happened with paypal and they should be able to reverse or remove the negative feedback. If not, no big deal. Close the account and start a new one with a clean slate and a differnt email address if negative feedback bothers you that much. I got my one and only negative from some moron that claimed to receive an empty box, yet before I shipped it they asked to make sure it was packaged "properly"....if thats not an intent to commit a scam I don't know what it. They had the package a full day before they reported anything to the post office, two days after they received it I got an email. Well, I wasn't playing that game, so I let them file a claim with paypal. Paypal ruled in their favor even though they opted to not pay for insurance, something that used to be an option for the buyer to pay, now its not even offered....they make it up to the seller to insure it! In my opinion, its the BUYER's responsibility to pay for insurance on whatever they bought, NOT the seller. Anyway, I was so annoyed with the whole thing that I CALLED paypal to complain, explained the whole thing, forwarding them the original paypal invoice request to "properly package" the item via email.....well they reversed their decision right then and there. I told them that why should I refund the money when I'm out the item too! I sold it, it was lost by the shipping company, the buyer didn't pay for insurance, its the buyer's problem ultimately, not the seller's........Paypal, upside-down and backwards now yes.....but if you complain enough over the telephone they will fix their stupidity.

Ludwig-dude

I dont know how long ago was your last ebay experience but I quit selling there like a year ago since the Paypal only, one-sided feedback took place. Nowadays you got 0.0000001% of chances to win any dispute if a buyer open an SNAD claim to you.

99.999999% of scammers are using this option now.

I had a girl who's ebay Id is Valpasworld who bought a set of Ludwig Powertoms set from me, used them for 3 weeks and then opened a SNAD claim. she returned the set with chinese hoops and very used heads (not even the same brand or model the set has).

Paypal returned all her money (Included S/H) no question asked.

I had 100% positive feedback after 450 transactions. I wasnt in to starting a new account after working my a$$ off for obtaining a 4.8 DSR (5 being the top rate)

At least I was lucky enough for having an Item back. Theres a lot of people reporting receing back bricks,newspapers,old clothes,etc

Paypal doesnt care as soon as the scammer has online viewable tracking no.

Check Ebay's discussion boards to have a scoop on what long time sellers are saying about Paypal here:http://forums.ebay.com/db2/forum/Paypal/97

Vin

I sold about 45 leather seat cover replacement kits last year on ebay, and never had one single problem. I had a few returns and resold them and all was good. Not 1 single bad feedback. I got em on conseignmant from a Chinese company and never sold them. Ended giving pennies on the dollar for them. Decided to see what would happen and sold them like hotcakes for 299-399 on ebay. Got me a paypal debit card and had a good time! I have received a few refunds from paypal also, because the sellers didn't respond, and I never was contacted by the sellers to return the items. I better knock on wood huh?

Credit card absolutely gives you protection. You can dispute ANY charge on credit card.

Problem with paypal is not the fees, they are the same as when I accept a credit card. Its what they use as criteria for a refund to the buyer. Although its never happened to me and I've been selling on ebay since 1998, a buyer can return an empty box to the seller but as long as the box had a tracking number Paypal will refund the buyer, shafting the seller.

The only protection on ebay is for the buyer. And it will be there undoing. And since ebay is now a publicly traded company if they don't show consistent growth and profit there stock will go down. The only way they seem to think they can generate profit is by raising fees. That will help them in the short term but that resource will eventually run dry. Its just a matter of time. Ever since they went public they went to crap. Thats always the way it goes.

Poppy; Like I said I had 450 successfull transactions untill they decided to side with the buyer no matter what...Good or bad buyers. Honest people or scammers, the same for Paypal. Just check the boards on the link provided on my previous post. If you're not selling a high dolar item there you should be OK.

I found this video about a guy who got ripped off selling on eBay:

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!playnext=1&playnext_from=TL&videos=jkoSiY9RLXQ&v=lr_7--e5A1g

Check this:http://forums.ebay.com/db2/topic/Paypal/How-Does-Paypal/520188380

Where's the Aussie guy? I wanted to ask him a question about something and now he disappeared!

I just got a refund from Ebay after dealing with a real jerk with 100% feedback. But I was not able to leave a negative feedback.....maybe because they closed the case before I could leave it?

I wonder how many sets of drums this guy has scammed and got away with?