The Cursed Cell Phone (a Samsung SGH-N625)

Background Info:

How perfect was it that, one year after starting my own cell phone contract, followed by a massive torture test administered by Cingular CSRs, I had to deal with a thousand headaches just to rid myself of the damn cell phone I got with the contract???

One year to the date of the opening of that contract, I opted to get a new phone--a Sony Ericsson T226.  It's a crummy phone really; the only reason why I opted for it and not something better like the Samsung S307 was that I was allowed to keep my old Samsung SGH-N625 (which fetched $40-60 on eBay at the time).  Granted, my phone had some major scratches and a problem with the pound key.

I figured I could easily get $30 for it.  That would pay for nearly one month of service, which would have pleased me greatly.  That is, until...

The Plot:

(The following is a recollection to the best of my knowledge; it is unfortunate I do not have the facts or figures to confirm most of what I have to say below).

I posted the first auction on September 23, 2003.  It ended on September 28, 2003, at $31.00.  Considering that I expected $30-50, I was rather pleased.  However, the buyer was a NPB (for those of you that don't know, NPB = Non Paying Bidder).  Rather dissatisfied, I filed a fee refund and posted the second auction on November 7, 2003...

The second auction was won by a local bidder (El Cajon, CA) for $36.00 on November 12, 2003.  Excited by this, I emailed the buyer immediately.  Two weeks later, I was frustrated with my second consecutive NPB!!!  Furious with this, I decided to lay low from eBay for a while, until I decided, on January 15, 2004, to post it a third time.

And I thought the first two NPBs were bad...

I put a Buy It Now on my phone for $50.00, thinking that there was maybe a .001% chance that somebody would actually pull the trigger and spend $60 (including S&H) on my phone.  Sure enough, somebody BINed.  Excited, I waited for the eBay confirmation email, to see that a person from the UK bought my phone!!!  (Note in my auction description that I do not, under any circumstances, ship to international bidders).

By the way, I posted six auctions during this time frame, and two idiots BINed on my auctions.  I ended up NPBing both of them.  Anyway...

So I email this idiot about the cell phone, telling her that I would not be willing to ship to international bidders.  For some reason, though, I felt like trying to work something out with this bidder.  Before I got to send that email, though, I got a money order confirmation from Western Union, saying that $15.00 was sent to me.

Now, let's do some quick math here.  $50 + $10 S&H = $60, right?  So WTF does $15 come from???  Here was my first email to this buyer:

Hi,

I got a confirmation from Western Union that you are sending me a money order for $15 for the purchase of this item.

Unfortunately, we have two problems here.  One, I explicitly stated in my auction description that I will NOT, under any circumstances, ship to an overseas bidder.  Secondly, the item total should have been $60.00, assuming you are a US buyer.

I shall provide you, then, with the following three options:

1)  Provide me a US address to ship the item to.  If you do so, you'll need to pay me the full $60.00 for this item.
2)  I can cancel the auction and request a fee refund.
3)  I can ship you the item, but I will only ship via Global Priority, and I will NOT be responsible for lost packages.  If you want to do this, however, I will have to ask for a $10 additional charge for Global Priority, making your total $70.00.

Please let me know what you want to do,

Peter

As if this was bad enough, the email address eBay gave me DID NOT WORK!!!  I "lucked out," though, when the Western Union confirmation had a second email address (btw, this should have been the first sign that there was a problem).  So I emailed the same damn thing to the second email addy, and finally got a reply!

Here was her reply, verbatim:

THANKS FOR YOUR EMAIL....ACTUALLY,THIS PHONE WAS BOUGHT FOR A FRIEND LIVING IN AFRICA  AND AM OUT OF THE COUNTRY NOW TO PAY FOR ANY SHIPPING FEES...
WHAT ABOUT IF I SEND U  UPS TO PICK IT UP AND SEND IT TO MY FRIEND SOTHAT WE WILL FREE FROM SHIPPING FEES...THEN I WILL NOW SEND U THE REMAINING 45 DOLLARS..
 
LET ME KNOW

At this point, you must all be screaming at me to stop with the transaction...first, I've seen two different email addresses (which aren't a big deal...YET).  Second, AFRICA???  Third, UPS???  How is she going to "send" UPS to pick up the package to ship it to Africa???  And how the hell does that circumvent shipping fees???

Needless to say, I'm pissed off at this.  So I fire off this nice email to her:

Hold on...

Exactly what do you want me to do?

I'm not clear on what it is, but you're sounding as if you want me to ship a package to Africa.  Is this correct?  If it's so, please look at stipulation #3 listed below [refers to the original email I sent her].  I have no idea how much extra it's going to cost me to ship it there...but it's going to cost more than $10.

I'm very confused as to what you want me to do.  Please clarify!

Peter

Why, oh why, did I bother to continue with this transaction???  Especially when, two days later, I get an email from a completely different person:

hello seller,
am still waiting for your response regarding the payment below
 
bye

The buyer signed her name in her email with the same name as used in her first email, but the email account belonged to another person (this is email account #3, btw).

At this point I decided to go to eBay's seller forums for advice.  Needless to say, they were all strongly against me shipping the item (not that I needed to be told that).  While that was going on, I replied to the buyer(s):

I am still waiting on your response to my last email.

You still have not given me a valid address to ship the phone to, nor have paid me in full for the phone.

My auction policies clearly stated that I would not ship to an international address, though I told you I would for an additional surcharge, and ONLY to your address (the one listed below).  You mentioned something about buying the phone for a friend in Africa, but have not clarified what you meant by this.

If you would like me to ship the phone to your address listed below, I will be willing provided you pay me in full + the additional $10 surcharge to cover the costs of shipping outside of the US.  Be warned, however, that there is no tracking on international shipments, and thus I will not be held responsible for lost/stolen/misdirected shipments.  You have already paid me $15 (of which I am still waiting for), so you would need to pay me $55 more if you want me to ship the phone to you.

Please let me know what you want to do.

Peter

The email above (not the one I sent her, but the last one she sent me) directed me to examine the payment information she attached below.  This is where things got really suspicious...attached to the bottom of this email were two Western Union money order confirmations, sent to two different people (myself included).  The two money orders were ordered by two different people at two different addresses, under two different names (one the buyer in question, another a fake alias?).  This begs one simple question:  how could this one person stumble upon TWO Western Union money order confirmations and attach them both for me to take a look at, unless they were a) the same person, or b) different people working together to scam people?

Needless to say, it was time to try to expose the buyer(s):

Hi,

I'm curious to know why there are two money order confirmations attached to the last email you sent me, from two different people and two different addresses to two different sellers.

I am quite suspicious as to what is going on here...with everything from the non-working email address you have registered at ebay, to the multiple email addresses you have used to contact me with, to the fact that you sent me less than the correct amount for this item.  I am also quite suspicious as to why there are multiple money order confirmations on this last email you sent me.

If you wouldn't mind, could you please explain to me what is going on here???

Peter

This was her stupid reply:

HI PETER,
HOW ARE U TODAY.....SORRY FOR THE EMAIL I SENT...ACTUALLY,AS U CAN SEE THAT AM NOT THE OWNER THIS EMAIL ADDRESS..AM JUST I JUST USE IT TO SEND THE EMAIL BECAUSE IT'S MY FRIEND'S OWN....I THINK HE'S THE ONE ONE THAT MAKES MISTAKE WHEN I TOLD HIM TO HELP ME SEND THE FORMER EMAIL.....
I THINK THAT'S IT'S OWN MISTAKE....I WILL TELL HIM TO OPEN MY PERSONAL EMAIL FOR ME..
THANKS.

Ok...btw, this was also sent from the third email address in question.  Before I replied, I decided to do a bit more investigation.  I noticed this bidder suddenly amassed a -4 feedback rating (ugh).  Also, I noticed she placed a lot of bids on high priced items, like cell phones.  After reporting this to the eBay forums, they continued to scream "STOP!!!" at me :P.  Here was my next reply:

While this is all nice and well, you have not yet addressed my concerns in this last email.

I've also noticed you have a -4 feedback.  My auctions clearly state that bidders with less than 0 feedback are not allowed to bid on my auctions.  Also, your contact info with eBay is incorrect, which is a violation of their terms and service.

All of these issues, plus the fact that you don't seem interested in answering my questions leads me to believe that there is something going on here.  The -4 feedback and incorrect email address on your ebay account, suspendable offenses by the way, only further my earlier suspicions.

If, in your next email, you do not address these problems, I will have no choice but to cancel this transaction and return your money order (if/when it arrives).  This is just too dangerous of a transaction for me to go through.

Peter

Here was the dolt's reply:

am very sorry for this... this was due to ammteur behaviour when i join ebay..
i made an equiry on many items which i need to pay but i don't know that is how to work ..so ebay need to cancel my account and put not a register user there.. since then i can be able to log in or buy anything again......or else i re-register
 
right now,am in Africa...so what can we do about it...
let me know

At this point, Peter got mad.  So mad, he decided to just blast this seller into oblivion once and for all (btw, how nice of her to suggest that she could always create a new account to circumvent eBay NARUing (Not A Registered User = getting kicked out) her account:

This is what YOU need to do.  I have no obligations to sell you this item any more, due to the violations of both Ebay's terms of service and my own.  This is because three NPBs (non-paying bidders) is an automatic suspension, and this is likely where you're headed.

You need to fix your email address associated with your account so that sellers can actually contact you when you bid on their auctions.
You need to email each seller and ask them how to pay for their items.
You need to read an auction's terms and conditions so that you don't violate them (being outside the US and bidding on a person's auction who clearly states that he will NOT ship outside the US).
Most importantly, it's a good idea to NOT bid on an auction if you're out of town and can't take responsibility for receiving the package once it arrives.

You've been a member at ebay for less than a month and yet you have bid on 91 auctions in all.  How many of those have you actually paid for?  How many of these have your sellers actually been able to get in touch with you on?  You need to clear these all up before I will be willing to deal with you.

And you still have yet to explain the two money order confirmations in that one email.

I would suggest getting in touch with Western Union and putting a stop payment on that money order you sent me, or await my rejecting the money order.  There is just far too much ambiguity and uncertainty for me to deal with this.

Re-registering on ebay is also a violation of their terms and conditions if you once had a suspended account, by the way, so please don't try it.

I'm very sorry for what has happened here, but I felt that this entire transaction is just wasting my time; plus, it's just way too risky for me to deal with a buyer with a negative feedback.

Peter

So...end of story, right?  Are you kidding?