Just put in a nightmare 2 weeks there. Bought an Ibanez J Custom on ebay on March 2nd. Seller answered all my questions very quickly so I went ahead and bought the guitar. After I bought it I emailed the seller asking how soon he could post, no reply. Emailed him another 4 times over the next few days and still he never replied. Starting to panic now. I contact ebay and they say If I don't get the item or hear from the seller to open up a Paypal dispute but I must wait 7 days. So on the 9th March the guitar hasn't arrived and still no word from the seller. I opened a Paypal dispute on 9th March which I escalated to a full claim. Paypal then tell me the seller has 10 days to respond... 10 f**kin' days. That gives a potential scammer far too much time to cover their tracks.

The seller then contacts me 8 days after I bought the guitar to say that his wife had broken his computer (bullsh*t!!!) and that whilst he was out of town one day the guitar was sold to someone else (utter bullsh*t). Unbelievable!! He said he would try and get the guitar back or he would refund me. I asked for a full and immediate refund. Never heard from him again.

9 days later Paypal contact me saying that they tried to contact the seller but he never replied to them. They then said that they had investigated my case and decided to refund me in full. They actually froze this guy's account and took the money out themselves. I'm talking big bucks here guys. Never want to go through that again.

Anyway before you guys part with your hard earned cash online do as much as you can to make sure you are covered. Far too many scammers on the internet these days.

Feel free to post buying online safely tips in this thread. Any of you guys ever been stung online????

Man, that sucks; I'm glad you got your money back one way or another.

Just how positive was the seller's feedback?

Got scammed last year. Luckily I didn't go through with cashing in the fake check and "wire" the money to her "mover."

On the main page his feedback 100%. However the feedback score that you see on the advert is only the feedback received in the last 12 months which is misleading. So somebody could have scammed people say 10 times and received negative feedback then not used the account for 12 months. After not using it for 12 months all they have to do is go out and buy a few cheap items and then the feedback that you see beside their username is back up to 100% which is ridiculous. It pays to read the detailed feedback pages where you can see ALL feedback relating to the ebay member. The guy whom I bought the guitar from had a 2 negatives out of 121 transactions but only one of those was as a seller and he refunded the buyer in that case. Turns out he is Indonesian. Real time waster but the main thing was I got my money back but it is a long drawn out process, 17 days in total from when I bought the guitar until I got a refund.

That surely stresses a man. Shit sucks, as they say.

I once paid like 50 pound for a Nintendo 64 on Ebay that came with a controller and like 10 or so games with it (Some of the best on that console. Goldeneye, Ocarina of Time etc) but a day after the guy contacted me saying that he had lost it all and it was probably stolen. He refunded me immediately. Certainly nothing as bad as ID's situation but still a pain in the ass since the guy took photos of it to show on the sale so I doubt it was stolen. He must have just changed his mind... Don't blame him tbh :P

Sounds like he changed his mind probably because he got a better offer from someone else. At least he refunded you immediately but it still sucks 'cos that sounded like a good deal.

I think it's because he probably didn't get the price he wanted from the bids. I have good memories of that bidding war... I sniped the bid at the last second.

That is highway robbery for sure. That guy should be put in jail.