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Today has been an unbelivable day! I need to vent and hear someone else’s POV on an unusual occurance.
Today my hubby and I had planned to take our little ones out to buy school clothes for their first day of preschool in just 10 days. Can you believe it, preschool already?? I went online to check my bank balance to make sure that what I THINK we have and what we ACTUALLY have are the same thing. The page says that my balance is frighteningly low! There are several $100 charges to places I never heard of! I wait for the bank to open and have them look at it. Apparently someone stole my debit card yesterday and I didn’t notice until my bank account was empty! Luckily they are all preauthorizations. The lady at the bank helped me find names and phone numbers for the stores that my card was used at. We called all the stores (they were all skateboard stores) and they all said that they caught it as a fraudulent charge and didn’t process the orders. WHEW! Thanks to my bank and all the super-nice people at the stores who caught it and helped keep my money safe! The good news is that no one got my money, the bad news is that every cent I have is caught in pre-auth limbo until Monday. 🙁 No fun school clothes shopping this weekend. 🙁 Luckily, I already did my grocery shopping for the weekend, so we’ll be ok. 🙂
My hubby works 10 hours a day in a factory so I can be a stay at home mom. So, to make extra cash to buy Windstones and other fun things without feeling guilty, I sell odds and ends on EvilBay. Last week a lady bid $46 on a doll I had listed. She messaged me and said she would pay on monday (last monday) and I thanked her for communicating with me (that’s rare!). Today during the bank fiasco she messaged me again and the only thing the message said was a website link. The website is a donation site saying her house burned down and she needs clothing and dolls to be donated to her children. Clothing and shoes I can understand, but pricey dolls? I’m feeling like I’m being guilted into giving them a $46 doll for free (plus shipping and ebay fees). I don’t have the resources to make expensive donations like that! I’d love to have the extra money to do stuff like that, but right now I have my own little ones to take care of! Am I being insensitive because someone almost took everything from me today?
I reviewed her bid history on ebay and in two days she bid a total of $370.49 on these dolls (Five RARE dolls). That smells fishy to me. How do you tell when someone TRULY needs help or when your heartstrings are being scammed? What do you think I should do?
I need a nap……..Regarding the bank issue: very inconvenient to be sure, but great that everything will be fine in the end!
As for that ebay buyer: 99.9999999999% chances that you’re being scammed. I would simply cancel the transaction and not even try to get your money through the claim process, in all likelihood, if this is a professional scammer, you’ll never see a penny of it. And even in the extremely unlikely case that this person’s story is true, there are surely groups and agencies in her area that are in the business of providing support to families in need. Making purchases and then aking that they be gifted is NOT the way to do this.
And you are NOT being insensitive! You’re being SMART!!!
Oh my goodness! You have had quite some day!! I am so thankful your bank funds will remain intact (though in limbo through the weekend 🙁 ). It sounds like the stores were more vigilant than the ones in my area!
As for selling the doll (EvilBay–I love it), I would definitely NOT donate the doll to her. It sounds too suspicious even for my naive little self. As a seller, I would request the transction be cancelled and relist the item. It is not worth the head/heartache to deal with this buyer.
This doesn’t make you evil, just practical. I am sure there are other people/charities closer to your heart you would help before some random stranger from eBay that may or may not be legitimate. Plus, no personal explanation, just a link?
Good luck in whatever you decide! 🙂 Let’s hope the rest of the day is smooth sailing!
Plus, no personal explanation, just a link?
The message said nothing except the website, it feels like she is trying to make me feel guilty (which I was!). If it’s not a scam, I totally understand that the kids need new toys after what they’ve been through, but why only the expensive ones?
I was worried that I was being overly suspicious and cold!
Thanks, LIH!
Hey Skeeter,
So glad that the bank card thing got sorted out and I’ll toss in my opinion on the doll buyer on e-bay.
IF it was a legitimate need I would think that she/he would have been honest enough to send a message before bidding letting you know of their need and plight. It seem very fishy that they would bid and claim to buy therefore ending your sale only to send a “Link” claiming all that they are going through. Also I would certainly question why this individual is bidding on “Valuable” Dolls. If you truly have children in need who have lost all they have any doll to replace it would brighten a childs eyes. I have a daughter and she has no clue as to a dolls value, only the love she feels for it. It certainly sounds like a very ambitious and devious scam to “Collect” valuable pieces for personal gain.
You are not being selfish in any way to question that authenticity of need. Unfortunately in this day and age there are so many out there willing to use the pain and suffering that some truly face to gain for themselves. I am sure that you are an individual who would go out of your way to help another and give to legitimate charities as your finances allow and I do not think that you need carry any burden of guilt for cancelling a VERY questionable sale with an auction buyer that has devious practices. People who are legitimate have no need to hide behind deceptions and serupticious ways of getting things. If it was someone in your own community I am sure that you would be kind hearted and give to those you see have a need.
Just my thoughts 🙂
oof, sounds like some teens got your card….glad all turned out okay….
on the ebayer, I call BS, the last thing you need after a fire is expensive and not essential items….
4 things I'm looking for:
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4. September Raffle Prize 2022 AHD Male GriffinSo glad your card was caught in time to prevent any serious financial losses! The eBay thing, sounds fishy to me too. I would report to Ebay, relist the item & block that person from buying from me in future as well. I know it sounds cold, but I suspect she is a scam artist. So protect yourself & others, let Ebay know what she is doing. Cause someone else out there might buy her scam, not to mention she is interfering with legitimate sales for you & others.
Kyrin
Holey Moley what a day!
First things first – good news about your debit card and your money. OK, so you wait until Monday. At least the money’s there.
As for the rest, I think it smells of a scam! You are not bad, guilty, selfish, or any of these other things. You are SMART. Cancel the transaction.
You gotta protect yourself. ‘member if it looks like a fish and smells like a fish…..
Take care.
Life is beautiful.
Regarding the bank issue: very inconvenient to be sure, but great that everything will be fine in the end!
As for that ebay buyer: 99.9999999999% chances that you’re being scammed. I would simply cancel the transaction and not even try to get your money through the claim process, in all likelihood, if this is a professional scammer, you’ll never see a penny of it. And even in the extremely unlikely case that this person’s story is true, there are surely groups and agencies in her area that are in the business of providing support to families in need. Making purchases and then aking that they be gifted is NOT the way to do this.
And you are NOT being insensitive! You’re being SMART!!!
What she said…
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http://www.sarahjestin.com/feedbacklists.htmYipes! I’m glad that you didn’t loose all your money and got it figured out!
The Ebay thing…
Like everyone else has said, I’m pretty sure this is a scam. Cancel the transaction and contact ebay to let them know what happened, send them the message you recieved too.Unfortunately it is easy to create a website these days so there is no guarantee that there really was a fire and there have been incidents here of people using and linking to legitimate disaster events to make a quick buck 🙁
There is no way this makes you insensitive! The fact that you were worried shows just how caring you are. *hugs*
I am glad your bank account is ok and as far as the doll and the lady’s other activities I would notify ebay.
I agree with the others. It’s very easy to make a website and claim your house burned down. And even if it was true, why would they be buying a bunch of expensive dolls instead of things like food, clothes, furniture, pillows, towels, etc. Another tell tale sign is that they just copy and pasted a link without taking the time to write you a personal note/explanation. Much easier and less time consuming to just copy and paste, especially if they might be doing this to multiple people! My scam alarm bells are ringing. Make sure you report it all to ebay too, so they don’t continue on scamming other less savvy sellers.
**HUGZ to all!** You guys always make me feel so much better! 🙂
I sent the buyer a cancel transaction request without specifying a reason for the cancellation. She agreed to it within a couple hours, without any kind of fuss or anything. I hope she’s not expecting that I’m sending it to her anyway. Her feedback shows that she bought a bunch of gently used kids’ clothes on ebay. If it would’ve been clothing she asked me for, I would’ve sent it in a heartbeat. But I’ve never heard of anyone picking and choosing what stuff they want donated to them?
I clicked on “report a buyer”, but none of the violations it listed matched the situation. Should I call ebay to report it? No feedback has been exchanged on the other dolls she bid on, so I can only assume she’s trying it on the other sellers too.An update on my strange bank situation. The skate shop that I talked to on friday (the one that told me not to worry about it), he was right! The preauth charge disappeared this morning! I checked again this afternoon and now I have a preauth CREDIT of $100 from that store. In other words, they never charged my card for $100, they credited $100, so now I’m $100 ahead of where I should be! Hopefully my account will be back to normal in a couple days. How weird is that??
Glad everything got sorted out! The skate shop probably saw a preauth debit, so they sent a preauth, credit to cancel it out-it should fall off when the dust settles, I am guessing.
Skeeter, I know you and everyone else here has a tender heart, but when it comes to selling on ebay-ebay is a business. Ebay exepects sellers to conduct their sales as if they were employees of ebay (the way you are suppossed to measure up to their standards as a seller or they put holds on your account) and how they encourage you to offer returns (which I never do because in my eyes, ebay is a giant garage sale-if you don’t know that you might want what you are thinking of bidding on, dont buy it. I also dont sell clothing-for which a return would be reasonable if the size was off) etc.
SO!…ebay is business. Part of you has to take the emotion out of it and hold to your policies. You did the right thing by canceling the transaction. Just because one lady didnt want to pay, doesnt mean there isnt someone out there who DOES want the doll that would be glad to pay 🙂
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