>From: "Adam" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 19:59:14 +1000
>I just thought I'd point out that while eBay offers limited protection >against fraud, once you venture out on usenet, you're on your own. The protections at Ebay are mostly an illusion of safety. Sort of like the massively inconvenient "security" measures in USA airports after 9/11. > I don't >know what the situation in the US is like, but sales fraud in Australian >newsgroups while relatively uncommon, does happen. Which pretty much describes Ebay. >Some reasonable precautions to take would be to either pick the system up in >person, or pay via COD. I should point out that over here at least, some >sellers are wary of sending items, particularly heavy ones, COD as they end >up having to pay postage should the buyer (you) change their mind and refuse >the package. If you can't use COD or get the Mac in person, ask for the >seller's phone number and call them voice. When I traded more frequently on the news groups my policy on anything under $100 was to just cross ship. That means that me and the other person would agree to send our two items or item and payment at the same time. Out of a few hundred trades I had problems four times. Of those, only one was not resolvable and two cleared up with a simple reminder email. Things may be different now, but I suspect that you'll find a somewhat more reliable class of folks on the news groups than in Ebay. For anything over $100 I agree about COD and get a phone number and confirm that the phone number reaches a human. For heavy items, the recipient might agree to pay the shipping costs in advance, and leave the item cost as the value of the COD. That way, if the recipient does not pick up the item, the shipping cost is already paid, yet the recipient's risk is (mostly) reduced to the cost of shipping. There's still the old box 'o rocks shipped COD trick to watch out for. >Oh, and if you (or anyone else) does use usenet, remember to obfusicate your >email address, If you expect any replies to your ad do not obfuscate your email. Most of the denizens of the news groups won't bother to reply to someone whose headers are munged or whose "reply-to" requires editing. It's simply news group etiquette. If this is a problem, then get a throw away email address such as hotmail to use for newsgroups. Jeff Walther -- Compact Macs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/>. Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Compact Macs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/compact.shtml> The FAQ: <http://macfaq.org/> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive:<http://www.mail-archive.com/compact.macs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
