After a long reflection, I finally decided that I should tell this story on how I got scammed buying a used board here on the buy and sell section. I never received it neitheur my money
The main reason to write all of this down is because I want to share my experience so this doesn’t has to happen to somebody else and because there is still a little hope that I will get my money back…
In November I contacted MarkeyScott (username) because I was interested in his Board.
Here is the selling thread still online:
After some very good a fast communication he offered me to add a second motor to the board to build me my dream set-up.
He would build fast and ship it out to me in France.
To not get scammed I paid using PayPal goods and services. He replied promptly to let me know that unfortunately he can’t withdraw the money from PayPal for a month’s time that he even called the consumer service of PayPal. The reason why he can’t withdraw would be because it was not sent as friends and family.
So he gave me the choice either to wait a month for the money to release so he could pay the motor from my money or refund me the money and I will send by friends&family and he could start building right away.
He was very responsive and even accepted to send me a picture of his Id- card (which I am willing to add to the post if this can help)
He still seemed very serious and trustworthy
After sending him the money he still replied, but not as fast as before, he kept telling me he had lots of work to do at the hotel as he would work as a hotelmanager and would finish the board on weekends. This went on until the end of December, he even told me twice he would just need to do some testing before sending the board off tomorrow which he of course did not do.
Mid December he told me that one motor broke and he would need to buy a new one, he sent me pictures of a new motor a week or so after the presumed old one broke, I have been texting him on a very regular basis since then with very lacy replies.
During the Christmas season he did not reply anymore to tell me in the beginning of January that his car got broken into and he and my board got stolen. But he assured me he would get money from the insurance.
He offered me to either build me a new board or give me the money back. I went for the second option which has not happened until today!
Every 10 days or so he does answer to tell me I would get some money right away through PayPal as I need it and pay me all of it back when the insurance does pay.
I never got a dime back from the guy and as I see how strong and honest the Esk8 community I got hope that somebody might know, dear MarkeyScott and tell him to send the money back to the student guy really needing his money.
Man that suckes… Did I understand it right that you first sent money with paypal service and goods, and theb he refunded you so you sent it again with F&F?
I am sorry for your loss hope it gets resolved soon!
Just to throw this out there for others to be aware, I was researching this when I was setting my shop with PayPal and there is no such thing as money being seized because of the way that they have been sent. That is for either side (seller and buyer).
Some reasons that the money could be seized is for suspicious activity which includes things like complaints from customers about a certain account, “unexpected” income so if you have an account that receives a payment from time to time and suddenly you receive big or bigger amounts of money that can alarm paypal to freeze your funds until they are sure you are not stealing or such…
Everyone needs to stop using friends and family. Only time you should ever use friends and family is when you send your mom or dad money lol. Im sorry this happened to you and it really gets under my skin when people scam people but this is the reason I will never use friends and family ever ( unless you’re a close friend and I know where you live ) I’d rather wait or pay the extra fee just to send money as goods and services then get burned because unfortunately some poeple are scumbags. Hope you can get the police involved and you have all the back and forth messages saved.
Hope you’ll sort it out. BTW I’m in France too, if you were to need legal assistance on this, you can hit me a message. Sorry for your experience !
Had the same bullshit with a guy named Marcin Sleziak few years ago, I still owe him a nice visit. Guys like these deserve the Tombstone Piledriver “serious series” signature.
PayPal will most of the time freeze the money till you either gave a tracking id or 30 days has been passed, I recently bought a board of a guy here I had to manuelly press confirm before he would get the money and I also recently sold some motor to a guy nearby I had/have to wait 30 days for the funds to be released I asked paypal and they simply told me it was due to my account not being used enough, they want 100 dollars to be sent or recived a month before they remove this limit.
Its simply just so PayPal cant lose any money due to chargebacks or scams.
In my opinion I don’t think its friends and family it’s more like don’t take friends and family if they have less than 80 days. 4 days in wanting to sell something is really fishy. I’ve bought many things and sold many things here never had a issue. Only issue I think I had is when I tell them I’ll ship in 2 days and they worry but I got a life sooo things happen .
I personally think friends and family would be fair to cover the shipping since not everyone can afford to pay the shipping outright, but the entire price of the board never.
You are right never ever pay By Friends and Family!
But now I want to give him another chance to answer me and if he does not do so I will publish his name and Id, as there might be a chance somebody actually knows him there are not so many people bulding an DIY all by thereself.
And yes I would appreciate your help because I don’t know how I can report to the police in the states while beeing here in Europe
Someone should start a thread on names of trusted sellers on the forum amd exclude those people with a website. Only those who use the forum may be even include those that aren’t trust worthy even their full Name. Idk just a thought
I don’t know, the real problem is people using friends and family payment method on paypal. Even if the person is trusted you still shouldn’t send friends and family
hope it gets resolved soon!
) I’d rather wait or pay the extra fee just to send money as goods and services then get burned because unfortunately some poeple are scumbags. Hope you can get the police involved and you have all the back and forth messages saved.
