General Guidelines for Buying thing online
 

Given the recent list of scammers coming to HMT, here are some guidelines buyers/sellers should start following on here to prevent further problems.

BUYERS
1) Always pay with PayPal, or Credit Card.
2) Always be sure to get a physical address of your seller.
3) Always be sure to get a detailed list of what it is that you are going to recieve, pictures are always a plus.
4) Never, ever, let the seller talk you into waiting a couple more days for an item.

SELLERS
1) Always accept Paypal.
2) Be sure to TRACK your packages when shipping, and only ship to a buyer's confirmed address.
3) Be sure to take pictures of the product before it is shipped, or get the shipping company to sign a document stating the condition of the item before shipping.
4) Always insure your items
5) Ship your items immediately (within 7 days of payment)



These guidelines should help everyone out - essentially PayPal has a fraud protection program that very few people use to their advantage. If you pay for something that is physical (not software or intellectual property) you are legally entitled to your money back if the item recieved is lesser then what you paid for, incomplete or never recieved. All you have to do is file a complaint, within the 30 days of payment. Sellers have 7 days after payment is made to ship an item, and must ship that item to a confirmed shipping address. If a buyer doesn't have a confirmed shipping address than the whole transaction should be nulled as the seller is not protected from having their money taken even if they ship the product out.

Be sure to keep your tracking information, this can prevent someone from saying that they didn't recieve an item even though you actually sent it. You are not responsible for UPS' mistakes in shipping, you are responsible for addressing the package to the appropriate address, but if UPS gets it lost it is then up to the reciever to file a claim (this is why I strongly encourage everyone to use shipping insurance).

If you do not have a tracking number given to you within 7 days of payment, file a fraud. claim this is simply to long for any item to be shipped. if the seller isn't ready to ship within 7 days go ahead and assume they're going to ---- you over.

Hope this can help prevent any future problems.

Re:General Guidelines for Buying thing online
 

Very good idea posting that.. I was thinking the same thing. But if you don't mind I'd like to add something.

When possible, sell/buy locally to save hassles as you can do in person pick up / delivery.

Also, be very weary of NEW USERS. Even though they might not be a scammer you never know.

Another thing, hotmail is too easy to setup fake accounts. Look for some1 that might have a steady email account like a school address or @home or @cocego something like that.

Re:General Guidelines for Buying thing online
 

maybe HMT should do a rating scale like eBay.

Re:General Guidelines for Buying thing online
 

they sorta already have one.. but for length of registered and # of posts.. which are the stars and x.x bars below names

Re:General Guidelines for Buying thing online
 

yea how many post. But it doesnt mean if they have a good background or not. You feel? Good seller or not.

Re:General Guidelines for Buying thing online
 

don't you have to have a credit card to sign up for paypal? I don't have a credit card.

Re:General Guidelines for Buying thing online
 

ya but people who are purposely scamming people will come on here right away and start selling crap. People who have been here awhile is a some what indication of their purposes.

Kyle.. then do COD.

Re:General Guidelines for Buying thing online
 

I'm going to do cod now that I have some references that I'm not full of ---- (kErO-916, onyx, whiteb16crx), but most people don't trust enough to send cod

Re:General Guidelines for Buying thing online
 

COD is fine with me. haha.

Re:General Guidelines for Buying thing online
 

I'll try using cod from now on, see how it works out for me.