Neo Bomber Man
Miracle Seller, , ,
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2000
- Posts
- 2,836
I know some of you use this like me, so if you do read on, it may prove useful.
I lost an auction for some stuff, a pretty expensive one.
The next day I heard back from the "seller" stating that the high bidder had retracted and since the next highest was a zero feedback bidder, that I was being offered the item. My 96xxx bid was met with an offer of 96000 yen ($864) shipped.
So I transferred the funds, felt a bit uneasy doing it I can't say why, and here's where it gets fun. One e-mail since then to say "thanks, I will ship it tonight/tomorrow, so wait 3~4 days please." which sort of alarmed me since 3~4 days is a bit abnormal by local standards. But anyway I had paid by then so there was nothing I could do but wait, then I went on holiday out of Japan for 11 days, return and what a surprise, no box of goods waiting for me. No surprise since I had asked for an e-mail with the tracking number (twice I think) and even on holiday there was no response.
Well the reason for making this thread is because at the police station the sergeant told me that there are LOTS of these cases in Japan now, where some creative folk somehow get a hold of the bidders' e-mail addresses, claim to be the seller and make off with the loot. They tried calling the tel. # registered to the address and some old dear who picked up claimed no relation to the name of the seller but they had the same family name so I think I slightly misunderstood what was probably a "we don't speak to him" kind of "no relation." Personally, it reeks of bullshit when families claim that however I do accept that some people will use their relatives in cases such as this. The mobile number provided is surprisingly still in service but the cops got the same message from Vodaphone that I did, which was that either it was switched off or that there was no reception where the person is.
So if you get these 2nd chance offers from supposed auction sellers, one thing you can do is ignore them outright, another thing is check to see that for sure you are the high bidder. Yahoo jp sellers CAN cancel bids once the auction is over so you can ask them to make you the high bidder and if they can't, don't even think about dealing with them. I guess that was my great error here, not checking that before transferring as since I got onto Yahoo in late 1999 I've never been taken to the cleaners like this and I suppose you could say let my guard down. What can I say, I'm under-slept and in a huge rush to get things done here every day. Anyway the Japanese suck ass as much as everyone else so be careful.
I lost an auction for some stuff, a pretty expensive one.
The next day I heard back from the "seller" stating that the high bidder had retracted and since the next highest was a zero feedback bidder, that I was being offered the item. My 96xxx bid was met with an offer of 96000 yen ($864) shipped.
So I transferred the funds, felt a bit uneasy doing it I can't say why, and here's where it gets fun. One e-mail since then to say "thanks, I will ship it tonight/tomorrow, so wait 3~4 days please." which sort of alarmed me since 3~4 days is a bit abnormal by local standards. But anyway I had paid by then so there was nothing I could do but wait, then I went on holiday out of Japan for 11 days, return and what a surprise, no box of goods waiting for me. No surprise since I had asked for an e-mail with the tracking number (twice I think) and even on holiday there was no response.
Well the reason for making this thread is because at the police station the sergeant told me that there are LOTS of these cases in Japan now, where some creative folk somehow get a hold of the bidders' e-mail addresses, claim to be the seller and make off with the loot. They tried calling the tel. # registered to the address and some old dear who picked up claimed no relation to the name of the seller but they had the same family name so I think I slightly misunderstood what was probably a "we don't speak to him" kind of "no relation." Personally, it reeks of bullshit when families claim that however I do accept that some people will use their relatives in cases such as this. The mobile number provided is surprisingly still in service but the cops got the same message from Vodaphone that I did, which was that either it was switched off or that there was no reception where the person is.
So if you get these 2nd chance offers from supposed auction sellers, one thing you can do is ignore them outright, another thing is check to see that for sure you are the high bidder. Yahoo jp sellers CAN cancel bids once the auction is over so you can ask them to make you the high bidder and if they can't, don't even think about dealing with them. I guess that was my great error here, not checking that before transferring as since I got onto Yahoo in late 1999 I've never been taken to the cleaners like this and I suppose you could say let my guard down. What can I say, I'm under-slept and in a huge rush to get things done here every day. Anyway the Japanese suck ass as much as everyone else so be careful.
