I clicked on the "contact seller" link but it brings me to the dispute center. I don't want to dispute it at least yet.
There are two levels with Paypal, Dispute = contact the seller, "hey, where's my ****?"
Next level if it's not resolved is called a "Claim"...that's when Paypal steps in..
I think I just did it correctly. I just opened a dispute and waiting for his reply. I have a few weeks to make it a claim.
I don't know anything about Parabellum other than another user on here was concerned about a deal they made with that user, not sure what happened with them but I pm'd them this thread if they want to speak publicly about it.
Thank you!
Yep. I've dealt with Parabellum as well. He offered to sell me some blue alps switches when I bumped my WTB thread in the classifieds looking for some. He responded via PM, we talked quite a bit. He offered me 102, then mentioned having another 105, and then another 102 I believe. We were having a decent conversation and he seemed friendly enough. He asked to be paid via a gift payment on PayPal, and though my gut told me not to do it, I did. I had never gotten scammed in the community thus far and have had pleasant transactions with everyone I've dealt with.
Well, to show my gratitude, I desoldered some Orange Alps I had in an AEK for him. I even paid for the shipping label and took pictures of the desoldering process. In the end, I figured he was scamming me thanks to his reluctance to show pictures when I asked for pictures of the goods he offered. He told me he did not have a camera on his phone and that his digital camera was out of batteries and that, by the time he got them, the switches would have already been shipped.
This seemed dodgy to me, and so I voiced my concern, telling him I was not going to ship the switches until he could get a picture, telling him to hold the shipment until then. Without openly accusing him, I mentioned that I was worried but felt like he couldn't be a scammer since he had ostensibly legit transactions on Deskthority and GH in the past (which are now showing to be fradulent, ironically enough).
Well, ever since that PM, he went offline and never returned. The fact I tracked his posts on the two forums might have spooked him or something, but obviously it's not something a person does when they were previously acting chatty and friendly.
Throughout our talks, the main points of suspicion were his continued offerings of the switches, mentioning a few switches with "bent stems and solder marks" (okay, how do you bend an Alps stem? It's practically a brick. Secondly, he said he was an electrical engineer, so I'd figure one wouldn't be so careless as to let the soldering iron touch the switches), his request for me to pay via gift, and the fact he went from telling me I could ship the orange switches I offered months later, when he needed them, to his request for me to ship them ASAP.
Yep, I was overjoyed at first because it seemed I found the elusive switches I was looking for, so I glazed over a lot of the red flags until it was too late. At least I kept my orange alps switches, but he got $90 from me and I wasted $11 on a shipping label I never used.
I should note that someone on Deskthority mentioned being ripped off by him as well.
http://deskthority.net/for-sale-f55/programmable-g80-3700-t11482.html#p252063 Seems like Para just decided to step out of the community and take unsuspecting buyers' money with him.
At least you did use an invoice or a payment sent for goods/services, so you're protected. I am not, and so my money is gone. X3
I also found his payment address to be strange too, since it was "Parabellum@usa.com" or something like that, though the guy's in Sweden. I feel so dumb, but whatev.
