Do these work the same as bankers drafts/building society cheques? I ask as I am selling/have potentially sold an in-car DVD player on Ebay and, even though I didn't say I'd ship international, the bod who pushed the 'Buy It Now' button is in Nigeria. I've told them how much it will cost to post (£122 with parcel farce, £123via UPS) as they are supposed to be sending a postal order. Now, when, hopefully not if, if this is a scam, they send said PO, can I deposit it straight away and that's it, no comeback months down the line or do I have to do summat different to protect myself?
Please help a bleating lamb who doesn't want to get led to the slaughter

[Edited on 1/3/06 by Browser]

[Edited on 1/3/06 by Browser]

[Edited on 1/3/06 by Browser]

You could ask your bank or the post office, otherwise, deposit it into your account and wait for it to clear before posting.

by the time you get the payment etc etc

id just stick it back on ebay and tell people again inland only or whatever

Ask them to pay you by Western Union, then see if they pay up

Once you have the postal orders and they are cashed theres nothing they can do to get their money back.

However I doubt you will ever see any money anyway. Refuse to ship to them as they obviously didnt read the description. Just stick it back on eBay.

David

id tell him the deals off. Im very untrusting, but theres no way id post anything more valuble than a turd to him. You said UK only, he ignored that, id pull the deal and complain to ebay to get fees back. Id be tempted to cash the postal order too!

Cant you swap postal orders for cash anywhere?

This is my experience of being paid by postal order from the USA:
1. Went to bank to pay it in and cashier said it would cost me £5 to cash it.
2. 5 days later postal order was cashed but bank charged me £10, but sent goods off as the bank charges were my problem not the buyers.
3. 10 days later bank bounced the postal order saying there was insufficient funds to clear the order (they did refund the £10 bank charge though). I couldn't understand this but apparently postal orders from other countries work differently than UK ones.

Luckily for me the amount was only £16 and the buyer resent the funds in cash so I was not out of pocket.

The morals of this story are:
1. Don't beleive what the bank cashiers tell you as they cannot possibly know the ins and out of banking systems world wide.
2. If you do accept the postal orders wait until they have cleared your account and then wait another 7 working days before you send the goods just in case.
3. Tell the buyer the above so they understand why you are stalling with delivery. If they quibble refer them to the item listing which said you would not ship outside the UK and if they then start threatening negative feeback do not be bullied and contact ebay immediately (although from personal experience this is not always helpful).

now imagine that risk with an in-car DVD player!

that seals it for me, id definately knock him back.

Did you describe it as an 'On Mule DVD Player'?!

Its a scam..... tell him you are only prepared to take UK postal orders.

I would tell him to wee off. I have never heard of anything going well to or from Nigeria.

In the UK postal orders are the same as cash and garunteed by the post office. Not sure about outside uk postal orders. There are nonrefundable methods. Bankers draft, western union and bank transfer which you could use.

NOT PAYPAL.

It will still be hassle though and if your not up for the worry etc. then just cancel it under the 'wont ship outside UK thing' and get your fees back.

Careful with bankers drafts, if you get a forged one the bank take the money back out again when they spot it (days later).

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/CARS/sell/cc/fr-12.jsp

The other thing to be wary of, is that it is illegal to send high technology products to some countries. If Nigeria is one of them, sending it would constitue a very serious offence. This is why you see people on ebay often refusing to send items to African countries.
My mate had an American trying to buy his PDA and wanting him to ship to Nigeria. He reorted him to Homeland Security. I don't know what happened but he doesn't appear to respond to e-mails anymore.

do you really think someone in nigeria would look on the uk ebay site for a dvd player?

most internet scams come from nigeria.

99% probability this is a scam.

dont fall for it.

just search this forum for nigeria - bet you only bad things come up.

atb

steve


ps - a search comes up with over 50 referneces...

[Edited on 1/3/06 by steve_gus]