Has anyone ever been scammed before?

[Arexxk]

I mean, I've never purchased anything off of somebody from a messageboard before. And other than some sort of organized purchase interface and structure, I don't really see the difference between purchasing something on ebay vs paying someone through paypal and having them mail somehing to you. Has anyone ever had bad experiences purchasing from someone on this board?

[IvanIvanovich]

Not on this board. Everyone so far on geekhack I've bought/sold/traded with has been an upstanding human being.

[Arexxk]

That's a relief.

[fossala]

I have sold and bought here and all has been fine.

[Input Nirvana]

I've bought, sold and traded, never any issues.

[demik]

Not on this board. Everyone so far on geekhack I've bought/sold/traded with has been an upstanding human being.

same here. i haven't had any problems here so far.

[GeorgeStorm]

I've bought on here, got my first mechanical in the classifieds, a very smooth transaction

[chel-]

Never on this board so far. In fact only once have I been scammed for anything.

[trax]

As long as you do physical goods and know there address its al fine.

Id never pay somebody as a gift though.

[fossala]

I normally pay through gift if it is a little amount, say under £20.

[Internetlad]

i've made 2 transactions on GH as a buyer and never an issue, everybody seems to be polite and well informed.

[hazeluff]

i've had like 4 transactions. buy and sell. Everytime it's pleasent = ). Cept that time the post delivered to me a ripped open envelope, that was the posts fault.

That and like a few group buys have always been good = ).

[WhiteFireDragon]

Anyone with over 100 transactions have any input?

[pitashen]

It sounds scary at first but it is not too bad of an experience overall. That is not to say there is no risk at all.  

I am still waiting for Lethal Squirrel mailing keys that I purchased from him over a month ago. He hasn't logged on with the account since Jan 1st.

I will give it another couple of months before I declare being scammed.

[WhiteFireDragon]

I've had at least a few hundred transaction across the many forums that I go to. I've been scammed a few times on an airsoft forums, where most of the members there are kids (10yrs old or younger) or teenagers. This shows their maturity level and lack of responsibility as a group. I also got scammed when it comes to bitcoins, but this is expected when the biggest aspect of bitcoins is about profit and greed. Computer forums, it's very rare to get scammed on computer hardware, but there's a few that are not totally honest about the condition. This forum has the best statistics based on the time that I've been here.

Cheers to GeekHack

This is from hundreds of transactions that I've done, and only about a dozen has been bad. So if you've only a few, odds are you'll be fine, nothing to worry about.

[lightsout714]

I have seen one post here. Where a guy shipped of his caps and was complaining that he got burned. Not sure if it ever got worked out though.

[Ascaii]

Anyone with over 100 transactions have any input?

no scams per se. Only one transaction where shipping ended up costing 19 instead of 9 € and the buyer never payed me the missing 10€.

[teknikality]

Group Key Buy Four will be the one to watch.  For over $50K I'd sell my teenager.

So is this something I would be waiting for in the classified section???

[digitalleftovers]

I think the iTrader feedback is pretty representative of the risk involved.  Yes, that incident that lightsout714 mentioned in recorded there, but overall there is a lot of trust around here.  There is a lot of money passed around, and a few people have found honest ways of capitalizing on it.  I do worry that as the group gets larger we may attract scammers, but that is true of any online community and the reason we have paypal.  As a general rule, I use buyer protection with people who don't have feedback or low post counts, but I will send as gift for people that I know have been around for a while.

[lightsout714]

I think the iTrader feedback is pretty representative of the risk involved.  Yes, that incident that lightsout714 mentioned in recorded there, but overall there is a lot of trust around here.  There is a lot of money passed around, and a few people have found honest ways of capitalizing on it.  I do worry that as the group gets larger we may attract scammers, but that is true of any online community and the reason we have paypal.  As a general rule, I use buyer protection with people who don't have feedback or low post counts, but I will send as gift for people that I know have been around for a while.

I totally agree with this.  I prefer to deal with known people. But sometimes a new guy comes along. If I'm the seller I'm ok dealing with the new person. But they could always dispute the payment as soon as you ship. Between here and OCN I've done about 40 transactions and things have been good so far.

I personally try to stay away from the people with one post who are just on a site like this to get deals. I prefer active members of the community.

[Quarzac]

Nobody has mentioned the whole Weipim thing that went down a while ago. Guy took money for a PLU-87 group buy, couldn't go through with it due to customs or something, and disappeared. Apparently some people got refunded, but I don't know if everyone was. Other than that, there really hasn't been much trouble. I've dealt with a ton of people on here, and all have been a pleasure to deal with.

[mehkat1974]

I am in the middle of a bad transaction. Not ready to name and shame yet, but it's 5 weeks since I paid for items and the guy hasn't shipped it yet. His definition of "tomorrow" in terms of responding to email is 5 days.
Every other purchase I have made here including group buys have been smooth as. I also buy/sell a lot at OCAU (hardware, WC and a few keyboards) and never had any problems in nearly 50 transactions

[lightsout714]

Nobody has mentioned the whole Weipim thing that went down a while ago. Guy took money for a PLU-87 group buy, couldn't go through with it due to customs or something, and disappeared. Apparently some people got refunded, but I don't know if everyone was. Other than that, there really hasn't been much trouble. I've dealt with a ton of people on here, and all have been a pleasure to deal with.

Yah someone could definitely rake in on a group buy. Buts its normally trusted people that do them.

I am in the middle of a bad transaction. Not ready to name and shame yet, but it's 5 weeks since I paid for items and the guy hasn't shipped it yet. His definition of "tomorrow" in terms of responding to email is 5 days.
Every other purchase I have made here including group buys have been smooth as. I also buy/sell a lot at OCAU (hardware, WC and a few keyboards) and never had any problems in nearly 50 transactions

Holy crap 5 weeks is a long ass time. I would have demanded a refund a while ago. I personally would like to know the persons name just so I could avoid them in the future.

[mehkat1974]

Nah I am in communication with him and am going to give him the benefit of the doubt - I have already said that if he can't ship and give me some tracking info in the next couple of days I want a refund, if that doesn't happen I will be posting.

[digitalleftovers]

Nobody has mentioned the whole Weipim thing that went down a while ago. Guy took money for a PLU-87 group buy, couldn't go through with it due to customs or something, and disappeared. Apparently some people got refunded, but I don't know if everyone was. Other than that, there really hasn't been much trouble. I've dealt with a ton of people on here, and all have been a pleasure to deal with.

Weipim took off?  I wondered what happened with that.  Thats too bad.  He got me my poker w/reds for less than the going-rate a while back. There is always the risk that something bad happens to someone and they could be in the hospital, or worse.

[lightsout714]

Nah I am in communication with him and am going to give him the benefit of the doubt - I have already said that if he can't ship and give me some tracking info in the next couple of days I want a refund, if that doesn't happen I will be posting.

Yah not looking to get anybody flamed. But some people are just really laxed on shipping. Obviously this takes the cake. I try to ship within 24 hours. It kind of bothers me when people let a week go by before getting around to it.Obviously not everyone has the time but still.

[SmallFry]

I haven't been scammed around here. Though, I do find the teenage maturity comment to be a bit incorrect, as I consider myself to be quite mature for my age. I have gone through multiple transactions, all have gone smoothly so far.:biggrin:

[cactux]

^ So how do you know the age of the seller? Do you ask his/her id ;-)

[SmallFry]

To each their own, but I treat my boards with respect. I do agree however that many teenagers can be unreliable, but then again Ripster did give his son a mech board.

[Quarzac]

I'd never buy a used keyboard from a teenager.

Too much fapping.

I, for one, take meticulous care to keep foreign substances off my keyboards. However, I understand your concern. Keyboards are scary places.

[fossala]

To each their own, but I treat my boards with respect. I do agree however that many teenagers can be unreliable, but then again Ripster did give his son a mech board.

My 4 year old types on a Unicomp spacesaver. He went through 5 cheap RD and I was sick of replacing them so I gave him something he could abuse and still wouldn't break.