diy solar

diy solar

Sell/buy without being ripped off?

svetz

svetz

Works in theory! Practice? That's something else
Joined
Sep 20, 2019
Messages
7,265
Location
Key Largo
As we grow from a small friendly village into a "big" city, we're bound to attract some scammers. This thread is for members to post ideas on how to protect both buyers and sellers.

I wish I could tell you I was an expert and provide rock-solid advice on how to keep from being screwed. Alas, I've no idea and am fairly naive on the topic as my 10 minutes of Googling below will reveal:


COD (Cash on Delivery)
ProsCons
  • You can ensure you were shipped what was promised
  • No payout until the product arrives
  • Not offered by all shippers, UPSP and UPS limit to $1000
  • Need Cashier's check or Money order for the exact amount
  • Doesn't protect against defective products
  • Seller is out shipping if the product is returned


Paypal
ProsCons
  • Some payment forms offer purchase protection
Note: Neither GooglePay, Venmo nor Zelle offer a protection program for any authorized payments, they are to send $ to trusted entities.


Resale website ( eBay, AmazonPay)
ProsCons
  • Some payment forms offer purchase protection
 
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Anything $$$ I use PayPal Credit. 6 months to pay and if anything goes wrong you can file a claim and you are not out any money of your own. This allows you to buy the item elsewhere while waiting for resolution to your claim. I have yet (knock on wood) to lose a PayPal claim for fraudulent items. Yeah that $89 GoPro Black, $50 Shoei Helmet, etc. where probably bad ideas to begin with, but I didn't have to pay when a bogus item showed up, although I did have to call PayPal a couple of times to get it sorted.

Just make sure you use someone else's money (Credit) so you are not out the cash while waiting.
 
My first line of defense is that I'm not entering a transaction with someone unless they have quite a few posts and have been registered for a few months.

I've bought/sold stuff on other forums and haven't been burned by following this rule. There's a Victron Multiplus for sale that I might have drooled over, but the forum member was too new with too few posts and I passed on it.
 
HRTKD said:
My first line of defense is that I'm not entering a transaction with someone unless they have quite a few posts and have been registered for a few months.

I've bought/sold stuff on other forums and haven't been burned by following this rule. There's a Victron Multiplus for sale that I might have drooled over, but the forum member was too new with too few posts and I passed on it.
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I like that, someone just here just to scam someone probably isn't going to be helping folks out for months.
 
If I see something that looks odd or suspicious, then I will post in the thread and start asking questions and be polite.

I have seen scammers with many posts and have been on a forum a long time...but never on this forum and that was a long time ago. They built up trust then scammed.
 
I sent @Will Prowse a message on this subject and pointed him to a forum that handles this Forum market place stuff very well. I am hopeful that he might incorporate some of their ideas but I have not heard back from him yet.
 
I think verifying someones identity before they can post in the for-sale section will deter much of the blatant fraud. People scamming online count on anonymity shielding them from consequences.
 
svetz said:
As we grow from a small friendly village into a "big" city, we're bound to attract some scammers. This thread is for members to post ideas on how to protect both buyers and sellers.

I wish I could tell you I was an expert and provide rock-solid advice on how to keep from being screwed. Alas, I've no idea and am fairly naive on the topic as my 10 minutes of Googling below will reveal:


COD (Cash on Delivery)
ProsCons
  • You can ensure you were shipped what was promised
  • No payout until the product arrives
  • Not offered by all shippers, UPSP and UPS limit to $1000
  • Need Cashier's check or Money order for the exact amount
  • Doesn't protect against defective products
  • Seller is out shipping if the product is returned


Paypal
ProsCons
  • Some payment forms offer purchase protection
Note: Neither GooglePay, Venmo nor Zelle offer a protection program for any authorized payments, they are to send $ to trusted entities.


Resale website ( eBay, AmazonPay)
ProsCons
  • Some payment forms offer purchase protection
Click to expand...
Thank you for this information.
 
As a long-time lurker and new member, I just avoided a scam today by using the poster's listed "workplace". Always get their workplace, or what they say is their workplace, then try to get ahold of them through the work number you obtain via another source. Make sure there is a phone call and if during that call, anything seems off, back away slowly. Finally, if they have no current social media, don't do it--there's likely a reason. It saved me today :).
 
OkieFarmer said:
As a long-time lurker and new member, I just avoided a scam today by using the poster's listed "workplace". Always get their workplace, or what they say is their workplace, then try to get ahold of them through the work number you obtain via another source. Make sure there is a phone call and if during that call, anything seems off, back away slowly. Finally, if they have no current social media, don't do it--there's likely a reason. It saved me today :).
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I like most of this. But I don’t do social media anymore after 2020. There are many others. That criteria may become challenging
 
svetz said:
I like that, someone just here just to scam someone probably isn't going to be helping folks out for months.
Click to expand...
basic practices from sites like d2jsp which have been trading forums for 20+ years

The only other practice would be to have mediators to act as in-betweeners of trades which is a headache for shipping costs etc.

I'd recommend everyone start using UPS and easypost for shipping as it'll be 80% discount. (there's no catch)
At that rate maybe your COD idea makes sense, if you send multiple packages with a $1k COD at least that helps them be "middle man" ish
(these systems are what corporates use to ship massively. easypost doesn't have a lower limit so even 1 package is ok instead of having to send 100k a month or whatever)

possibly if shipping is staggered oh huge trades and something goes wrong at least they didn't buy everything, though a scammer could send the broken stuff last.. at least the buyer got mostly working stuff there. (we hope)

@OkieFarmer my internet presence is pretty wide for ~30 years now and all of my usernames are randomly generated and I have no social media.

TheDan said:
I think verifying someones identity before they can post in the for-sale section will deter much of the blatant fraud. People scamming online count on anonymity shielding them from consequences.
Click to expand...
This is a good idea, it deters a lot of people whom like their privacy as well but will usually make scammers not bother.. however plenty of people have no issue scamming with their real identity or fake and someone needs to be dedicated full time to verifying stuff.
 
Q-Dog said:
I am on 3 other forums that require minimum number of posts or a certain amount of time as a member before one can post to the for sale section. One of them wont even let you view much less post in the for sale section if you don't fit the criteria.
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I like this because it filters out many bots and people just using a forum to scam others. I am all for the 'probationary period,' if you want to call it that.
 
gotbeans said:
I'd recommend everyone start using UPS and easypost for shipping as it'll be 80% discount. (there's no catch)
Click to expand...

How does easypost compare to PirateShip? I have used PirateShip many times now and it’s been just awesome. Cute theme and way better prices for shipping than I can get anywhere else on my own. The only exception is eBay has their own shipping rates which are slightly cheaper. There’s also no catch using PirateShip, they are up front about how they make money (the shipping companies pay them).
 
Tomthumb62 said:
How does easypost compare to PirateShip? I have used PirateShip many times now and it’s been just awesome. Cute theme and way better prices for shipping than I can get anywhere else on my own. The only exception is eBay has their own shipping rates which are slightly cheaper. There’s also no catch using PirateShip, they are up front about how they make money (the shipping companies pay them).
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easypost is the cheapest, equivalent to ebay. Their entire business is more catered toward their API and you programming your own thing and they have tiny fees for tracking/looking up address (IF THE LABEL IS NOT ORDERED FROM THEM) so you can track other packages.

Pirateship has a better interface and definitely funnier atmosphere. They take a chunk of the shipment money though it's definitely noticeably more expensive.

The interface on easypost is very usable. Some stuff is in their API and not in the interface though, they expect you to be adding all of the stuff to your own sites. They've been actively working on their own the past few years though so it is pretty good and the niche things we run into you probably won't.

There are several other sites that require minimums and over the years they've gotten more heavy like 100k minimums while easypost for some reason has gone the other way to have no minimums and still offer the API. We use it at our office, it's 0.02 and 0.04 fees for various stuff like track number lookup and address lookup (WHEN YOU DO NOT BUY THE LABEL) but if you lookup stuff and then buy that label there's no fee.
credit card fee is something like 3% (same as CC charges them) and bank transfer is nothing but takes a few days

overall both are good, I would recommend using either one rather than directly buying from fedex or ups or whoever. but it's not my money!

Our office spent several months testing both while I integrated some of the easypost API into our system. So I have a good understanding of both. They still use easypost interface and have stopped using pirateship entirely so I guess it's good enough.
 
gotbeans said:
easypost is the cheapest, equivalent to ebay. Their entire business is more catered toward their API and you programming your own thing and they have tiny fees for tracking/looking up address (IF THE LABEL IS NOT ORDERED FROM THEM) so you can track other packages.

Pirateship has a better interface and definitely funnier atmosphere. They take a chunk of the shipment money though it's definitely noticeably more expensive.

The interface on easypost is very usable. Some stuff is in their API and not in the interface though, they expect you to be adding all of the stuff to your own sites. They've been actively working on their own the past few years though so it is pretty good and the niche things we run into you probably won't.

There are several other sites that require minimums and over the years they've gotten more heavy like 100k minimums while easypost for some reason has gone the other way to have no minimums and still offer the API. We use it at our office, it's 0.02 and 0.04 fees for various stuff like track number lookup and address lookup (WHEN YOU DO NOT BUY THE LABEL) but if you lookup stuff and then buy that label there's no fee.
credit card fee is something like 3% (same as CC charges them) and bank transfer is nothing but takes a few days

overall both are good, I would recommend using either one rather than directly buying from fedex or ups or whoever. but it's not my money!

Our office spent several months testing both while I integrated some of the easypost API into our system. So I have a good understanding of both. They still use easypost interface and have stopped using pirateship entirely so I guess it's good enough.
Click to expand...
Hey thanks for that review. I will check out easypost.

But we don’t ship from our websites. At least not currently. We ship things 3-8 times a year for personal use mostly. So the easy interface of PirateShip is our cup of tea. I’m not a programmer so any time I have to deal with API stuff I groan.
 
Tomthumb62 said:
Hey thanks for that review. I will check out easypost.

But we don’t ship from our websites. At least not currently. We ship things 3-8 times a year for personal use mostly. So the easy interface of PirateShip is our cup of tea. I’m not a programmer so any time I have to deal with API stuff I groan.
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yea as I said easypost has an interface it's not as pretty but it works fine. You can just register and look at it. It's pretty basic but gets the job done.
I haven't even looked at it in like 2 years, the employees for shipping do.. but it looks nicer now, here's from their site example

I don't feel bad for people using pirateship.. but I do feel bad for those that use fedex/ups directly lol. Some of our international stuff goes from like $800 to $120 using these sites
 
it's not just buyers that can get ripped off . People can scam you when you're selling. Parts swappers or people new to solar and off grid that don't have a clue. They hook up something completely wrong then blame you . This is why i prefer face to face, cash in hand.
 
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