I had a cue for sale on this site, someone stole my photos and attempting to sell to others!!!! Beware there are shitty people out there!!!! You know who you are!!!!!
Scammers on this site
- Thread starter Ron Padilla
- Start date
I only have two advices:
1) video live chat with the seller, ask to see the cue and his face. This will give you a chance to verify if the seller is real n item also verified.
2) ask to pay with PayPal good and services or Venmo good n services . To protect yourself. If they say no to either request: RUN AWAY, it’s not worth it. You’ll lose your hard earned working money to scammers.
I don't use PayPal.
I use Venmo or Zelle.
I have bought more than I have sold and sent Venmo or Zelle with zero problem
I like to talk on the phone and if a buyer wants a picture with the item next to my face that's ok with me or a new picture of the item next to any balls on my table chosen to prove I own it is still ok with me.
Talking to the buyer or seller has always worked for me.
I use Venmo or Zelle.
I have bought more than I have sold and sent Venmo or Zelle with zero problem
I like to talk on the phone and if a buyer wants a picture with the item next to my face that's ok with me or a new picture of the item next to any balls on my table chosen to prove I own it is still ok with me.
Talking to the buyer or seller has always worked for me.
Biloxi Boy
Man With A Golden Arm
ESCROW. But with whom? The existing outfit which, in my mind, would be perfect is Proficient Billiards. (Y'all hear Scot running for the back door, muttering under his breath . . . ?)
Seriously. Proficient enjoys the trust of the Billiard World. It has vast experience in assessing cues. It is also efficient in packing and shipping cues. What else do y'all need?
There would be some expense involved, but how much is peace of mind worth? Sellers would not have to be concerned that their cues could be ripped off/not paid for, and buyers would not run the risk of receiving damaged or incorrectly described cues after their money was already out the door. Buying and selling cues might even become fun again. (As an incidental benefit in those instances in which a cue was going to shipped to Proficient after purchase to be worked on, duplication of shipping costs would be avoided.)
Think about it. Anyone else come to mind? Scot, or whoever, throw me some jelly if this pans out.
Seriously. Proficient enjoys the trust of the Billiard World. It has vast experience in assessing cues. It is also efficient in packing and shipping cues. What else do y'all need?
There would be some expense involved, but how much is peace of mind worth? Sellers would not have to be concerned that their cues could be ripped off/not paid for, and buyers would not run the risk of receiving damaged or incorrectly described cues after their money was already out the door. Buying and selling cues might even become fun again. (As an incidental benefit in those instances in which a cue was going to shipped to Proficient after purchase to be worked on, duplication of shipping costs would be avoided.)
Think about it. Anyone else come to mind? Scot, or whoever, throw me some jelly if this pans out.
I do escrow for many of my cue groups in Facebook. I barely charge anything because I’ll tried to helping people prevent getting scam. Exposing them scammers got my old Facebook account locked, so I slowing down on doing that. I’m just concentrating on keeping them out of popular cue groups and banned them from it.
As a seller and buyer, I have only ever used check, or postal money order, and just the other day did a sell with zelle. I have no problem sending photos a buyer requests or video calls, I'm an open book. I've only had one purchase of a cue on here go slightly off track, but chose to live with it. If a buyer of what I am selling, or seller of what I want to buy doesn't want to deal with my method of payment, that's ok, not the end of the world. When buying or selling on here I only deal with established members. Twice I've had new members want to buy what I was selling and I told them I don't business with new members. Also when buying I do a search on the picture.
Heck, I have a new condition DZ that I don't use and wouldn't mind selling, but haven't listed it due to some of the crazy stories on here. Sometimes when practicing, I will pick it out of the rack to shoot a game with it just because.
By and large I’ve had good dealings both ways on AZB. I will not do f&f on pp unless it's with actual friends or family. Besides, the fee isn't that much and I don't want to lose the protection of pp. I’ve been scammed a few times ( non pool related) filed cases with pp and received a refund. That protection doesn't happen with f&f.
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Biloxi Boy
Man With A Golden Arm
Escrow is an accepted and time honored method in those areas which have used it. Folks not accustomed to such are wary and understandably question it. Inexpensive transactions in which the parties are not familiar with each other would seem to be in the greatest need of a good inexpensive escrow process. The high dollar transactions have sophisticated parties who very much understand what a good escrow agent brings to their transactions. I feel certain this need is being met. It is the low dollar transactions which need help. Such persons should not be forced to rely on a credit card company employee with little knowledge or exposure to billiards to understand and sort out a pool cue deal gone bad. OTOH, an outfit like Proficient is uniquely suited to see such fiascoes to acceptable ends and do so at a reasonable cost.
Am I making any sense? My usual sounding board, Mrs. Doctor BB, is out of town with the girls this weekend, leaving our faithful dog/child to serve as my monitor. Nappy usually does a fine job, but lately he too has begun to suffer somewhat from the effects of advancing age and my communicating complicated business issues to him many times causes him to walk patiently to his door and plaintively seek the freedom of the outdoors.
Am I making any sense? My usual sounding board, Mrs. Doctor BB, is out of town with the girls this weekend, leaving our faithful dog/child to serve as my monitor. Nappy usually does a fine job, but lately he too has begun to suffer somewhat from the effects of advancing age and my communicating complicated business issues to him many times causes him to walk patiently to his door and plaintively seek the freedom of the outdoors.
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Parents are not raising their kids right.
I’ve bought and sold a lot of cues on eBay and FB using goods and services. Only had one scammer and got my money back without much of an issue.
I’ve traded with people that I could verify through other people I trusted.
Have yet to make a deal on here.
Personally, I’m not sending a check or money order to someone I don’t know and I’m not asking someone to send one to me.
I’ll pay the 3 percent to be sure everyone is covered.
I also only ship UPS and will not buy if someone will only ship USPS.
Guess we all make choices
Happens on FB all the time. People will also pull from eBay and try to sell.
Did you mean you are a friend of goods and services for pay pal?
As a buyer i will only pay g&s and if the buyer insists on friends and family i pass
Biloxi Boy
Man With A Golden Arm
Assuming that both parties are honest and above board, the key to it all, whether there is an escrow or not, is good, clear, communication, and the reduction of the oral dealings to a written agreement. So easy to say, but oftentimes so difficult to accomplish. One of the saddest experiences in business results from two straight-up cats who both honestly believe they understand each other, and their agreement, but who, through no fault of their own, have missed each other -- a complete, stone cold, miss -- without a single hair being cut.
With and without written agreements, miscommunication happens, and it most always results in a gnarly, f_cked-up, mess, because both parties firmly believe they know what's up but neither has the real idea. Sometimes we seem to hear what we want. Unwinding such rats nests is the first challenge; explaining and leading the parties to a true understanding of what happened, and why, is the second. Such ordeals can, and do, happen to anyone, including lawyers. So what I urge is that y'all always take care of each other and your deals, and truly listen and communicate -- take the time needed to understand and get it right when reducing it to writing. For a single dollar or ten thousand of them, these important measures are the things of which business, and lifelong relationships, are made.
With and without written agreements, miscommunication happens, and it most always results in a gnarly, f_cked-up, mess, because both parties firmly believe they know what's up but neither has the real idea. Sometimes we seem to hear what we want. Unwinding such rats nests is the first challenge; explaining and leading the parties to a true understanding of what happened, and why, is the second. Such ordeals can, and do, happen to anyone, including lawyers. So what I urge is that y'all always take care of each other and your deals, and truly listen and communicate -- take the time needed to understand and get it right when reducing it to writing. For a single dollar or ten thousand of them, these important measures are the things of which business, and lifelong relationships, are made.
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Sorry that happened to you, Kenney. Hate to see one of the good guys caught in the pinch from thieves. Better days!!
Could be that I misunderstand your post but are you suggesting treating a cue purchase like an amazon purchase? It’s not like you can click the return button and take the cue down to the UPS store or Whole Goods.
It’s a pain in the ass process to file a PP claim.
You still need to do what ever due diligence you would normally do on a cue purchase.