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Hi All,

Just want to know if there is a safe way to buy stuff off gumtree? Just don't want to buy something off someone on the other side and never see the item or my money ever again.

Thanks for input,

Corax.

Generally with gumtree I only buy stuff that I can see in person and pay in person, and pick up myself. There's a lot of dodgy people and I've had numerous bad experiences on there, you can sometimes score a bargain though. For longer distance purchases I'd stick to ebay or finding special subie items from forum members, this site has never let me down so far

Silverbullet - i have bought and sold through Gumtree a number of times, both with locals, and with postage items. Paypal seems to be the 'most' safe means of paying for an item and waiting for it to get delivered...

eBay owns gumtree and paypal.

Paypal protection only exists within the confines of ebay, not gumtree

Gumtree for posting items comes down to the honesty of the seller - there is no recourse (other than the Police) if they scam you, regardless what payment method you use.

Other consideration is an escrow service - fees++ (I think I saw on here a member who knows about this)

98% of people will do the right thing - you just have to consider the risk…$30 - give a go, $300, maybe not

dodzy wrote:Silverbullet - i have bought and sold through Gumtree a number of times, both with locals, and with postage items. Paypal seems to be the 'most' safe means of paying for an item and waiting for it to get delivered...

Yeah me too, I've also had more than a couple of failed scams, time wasters and complete no-hopes contact me from there when buying/selling stuff. So I don't have a huge amount of trust in that site any more, time wasters are especially annoying. BUT if you've had success then that's great

And it's true like sven said, I'm more forgiving etc when small money is concerned but when it comes to the x hundreds of dollars I'm alot more careful.

sven '2' wrote:eBay owns gumtree and paypal.

Paypal protection only exists within the confines of ebay, not gumtree

Not true - Paypal now protect any purchase - but don't know how they go about proving it one way or the other without an ebay ad with description etc. They slipped this in quietly I think so that not too many people know about or take advantage of it.

sven '2' wrote:Other consideration is an escrow service - fees++ (I think I saw on here a member who knows about this)

That'd be me - I am trying to get my own escrow website up and running but the developer has taken 2 years to do what should have taken a month.
It is very close now but I said that this time last year.
Once it is up and running I will let everyone know and it is cheap - 1% of the purchase price or $1 if it is less than $100.

niterida wrote:Not true - Paypal now protect any purchase - but don't know how they go about proving it one way or the other without an ebay ad with description etc. They slipped this in quietly I think so that not too many people know about or take advantage of it.



That'd be me - I am trying to get my own escrow website up and running but the developer has taken 2 years to do what should have taken a month.
It is very close now but I said that this time last year.
Once it is up and running I will let everyone know and it is cheap - 1% of the purchase price or $1 if it is less than $100.

Thought so - GL!!

Didn't know that about PP - surely it would only apply to large businesses and work in the manner as the limited credit card protection schemes?

Could not see how it possibly work in private treaty such as a gumtree transaction?

sven '2' wrote:Didn't know that about PP - surely it would only apply to large businesses and work in the manner as the limited credit card protection schemes?

Could not see how it possibly work in private treaty such as a gumtree transaction?

Yeah I'm not sure how it works either - but here is the policy :

Eligibility


S12.1 You may be eligible for the PayPal Buyer Protection Policy if all the following requirements are met:

a.You use PayPal as your payment method;

b.Your payment is less than $20,000;

c.Your payment is not a Personal Transaction and is made through:

i.The “Checkout with PayPal” button or by otherwise selecting PayPal
as part of a seller’s PayPal checkout flow;

ii.An eBay “Pay Now” button or an eBay invoice, or

iii.The “Send Money” tab choosing “Goods or services” on our website or mobile app



Still not as good or as cheap as my escrow business model though

think you can cancel any credit card transaction (which paypal is) by lodging a complaint with your credit card provider. is a long drawn out process though and you have to prove non arrival or wrong description of goods or service. i got dudded off gumtree by a guy called m. cox of tamworth he rang me with a part i wanted, i paid, he delayed and delayed using all sorts of excuses, then his phone number got cancelled. down to experience. ask for name and address and tell them you will send someone to see the goods, then they know you have their address, although they can always take a hike. also always report scam even if only a small amount, if a guy is pulling off lots of small scams too small to bother reporting he could make quite a good living out of it with little risk, but if the cops have a history, they might think it worth while.