General question about Internet purchase scam

[marc_]

I bought a watch from an alternate source. Sent payment Thursday. The seller hasn't responded to any off my messages since.

I paid "friends and family" as the seller's account was a few years old and had a previous verified purchase linked to it.

I did make the mistake of not researching the seller and seeing that the majority of their posts were simply commenting "yo I'll buy this" on other user's posts then not following up, so I'm ready to just take this as a lesson learned if it goes that route.

In any case, how long should I wait before letting the moderators know that seller has ghosted me?

 

[Grapeshot]

Not sure what ‘an alternate source’ is. If you are talking about a member here then flag it up to one of the RWI staff members.

 

[marc_]

Not sure what ‘an alternate source’ is. If you are talking about a member here then flag it up to one of the RWI staff members.

By "alternate source" I meant somewhere other than here.

Figured I would ask here though as there seems to be a good amount of experience and info.

 

[Grapeshot]

You talk about moderators so I’m assuming that there is some form of administration on the platform that you bought it from. I would have thought that the seller would have at least acknowledged your payment from three days ago. Without knowing on what platform you made the purchase it’s difficult to advise but I would be getting concerned enough by now to flag it up with the appropriate management.

 

[marc_]

You talk about moderators so I’m assuming that there is some form of administration on the platform that you bought it from. I would have thought that the seller would have at least acknowledged your payment from three days ago. Without knowing on what platform you made the purchase it’s difficult to advise but I would be getting concerned enough by now to flag it up with the appropriate management.

Thanks for the response.

I would mention the platform but I'm new here and am not fully aware of the etiquette regarding discussion of other places. If it is not frowned upon, I will post where the deal took place with full details.

 

[Hesekiel]

If you paid via PayPal's Friends & Family option -- and there's nothing wrong with it if you trust the seller -- you'll have no recourse to get your money back.
That out of the way, there's plenty of people who take a few days off, have a longer weekend, go on a business trip, and don't constantly monitor their PayPal account. I'd wait a bit before assuming you've been scammed.

 

[marc_]

If you paid via PayPal's Friends & Family option -- and there's nothing wrong with it if you trust the seller -- you'll have no recourse to get your money back.
That out of the way, there's plenty of people who take a few days off, have a longer weekend, go on a business trip, and don't constantly monitor their PayPal account. I'd wait a bit before assuming you've been scammed.

True. I'm only concerned because the last message I got was after paying and the seller sent "I'll get you tracking info tomorrow morning" (meaning Friday morning).

Gone dark since.

I do see your point though and I'll give it a couple days. I do a fair amount of purchases on forums and websites, but this will be my first watch. Usually there's a pretty strict rule about numbers of sales/purchases prior to being allowed to use F&F money. I guess I just got excited lol.

Either way, I'll just hope for the best. If I have to take it as a loss/lesson it wasn't an extraordinate amount and I'll be able to survive and move forward.

 

[tkingjr]

Consider the money as tuition for not using a Trusted Dealer.

 

[marc_]

Consider the money as tuition for not using a Trusted Dealer.

So you're saying I shouldn't buy watches from the sales section here unless it's a TD?

 

[tkingjr]

So you're saying I shouldn't buy watches from the sales section here unless it's a TD?

Only buy from TD's because they have been vetted and are safe. They are not going to do anything to jeopardize their status. If you buy from members, do your homework to confirm they are trustworthy.
It takes weeks of reading here to understand how to buy a watch without any trouble. You have to understand the different quality levels each factory produces.

 

[marc_]

Only buy from TD's because they have been vetted and are safe. They are not going to do anything to jeopardize their status. If you buy from members, do your homework to confirm they are trustworthy.
It takes weeks of reading here to understand how to buy a watch without any trouble. You have to understand the different quality levels each factory produces.

Yeah it's a bummer. I've been poking around for weeks and I've mostly decided on 3-4 specific watches I want and this was one of them. VSF Omega.

I'll def be sticking to G&S payment methods for users with low numbers for rep watches.

 

[tkingjr]

If you want, send me the links to the watches you want to buy, and I will take a look.

 

[eBoy]

I know that you didn't mean to ask from help from the mods on RWI and you just asked for general advice.

But let me ask you this: How much do you think the admins at the "alternate source" would care if someone asked them for advice about having potentially been scammed on RWI?

That's a rhetorical question.

So, just letting you know to not expect too much help (if any) here from staff.

Since we have this out of the way, let me give you my (private) advice: There's no recommended "gold standard of waiting time". If you think something is off, react now, let mods over there know something doesn't feel right. Time is of the essence if you have been really scammed. The longer you wait, the more time scammers have to cover their tracks, the less funds become unrecoverable etc.