Ebay Western Union Money Transfer

Lostinspace

Hi, i'm just looking for some advice with regards to an item i'm about to purchase on ebay. It's from a guy in Malaysia and he's looking for payment via a western union transfer. I've never used western union before. I've read that it's dangerous enough to use it because you've no comeback if things go wrong. However, the seller has received 286 feedback comments with 99.5% of them positive. Should i take it for granted that this seller is genuine? He says that his country don't have paypal. Let me know what you think....cheers

Ruu_Old

I would stay away from it if possible, withdrawal facilities (or accounts but the looks of it) are not available for Paypal users in Malaysia. Have you already purchased the item? I'm not trying to be racist or anything but from that part of the world+western=suspicious Ruu.

edit: probably best put this in Online Buying/Auctions.

col1

Its a great way to send money to someone you know but for buying online
theres not a chance I would use it,link to item?

Lostinspace

No i haven't purchased it yet. Will have another look around for a similar product maybe although they are scarce enough tbh. He seems genuine to be fair as all the comments in his feedback page are fairly positive.

Lostinspace

col1 wrote:

its a great way to send money to someone you know but for buying online
theres not a chance I would use it,link to item?

http://www.ebay.com.my/viItem?ItemId=330003552236

m_stan

As far as I know, EBay themselves strongly recommend you DON'T pay this way. So I would do this entirely expecting your money to vanish and your item not to arrive.

I would insist on payment via another method before paying, and if the seller refuses, then back away from the deal.

*edit* In fact, selling items this way on ebay is explicitly against the rules, so I would point that out to the seller and then report them.

Lostinspace

I did email him re. the western union payment method and what he said was "other payment methods will be money gram or bidpay
cos my country can't take out payment by paypal". Does anyone know anything about bidpay or money gram?

Mountjoy Mugger

A number of people on his first page of ratings have their names repeated more than once. I'd steer clear. Just my gut instinct after reading about all those shafted by paying with Western Union.

m_stan

Know nothing about them, but on he face of it bidPay looks reasonably safe (that's just from a cursory look at their website, and you know how that goes sometimes!)

How much are we talking about here and can you afford to and are you prepared to see your money vanish and the good never appear ? If so, it might be worth a punt but it's 50/50 at best. If not, forget about it now.

Lostinspace

Alltogether it's about €65. I'll take a look around for a similar pair somewhere else as he's fairly anxious to receive payment. not alltogether convinced by him tbh.