Guarantee buying phone from Sheffield Forum?

[999tigger 10]

I have just done a little reading and it says you really are at serious risk of being scammed with someone buying on finance and then stopping payments a few months later after they sell it to you. The phone is then blocked and you lose your money.

 

The checkmend service above looks interesting.

 

the only method i can see that you can use against a private sale would be to get them to sign some sort of contract declaring their right to sell, payments made so you know its out of contract etc. If they default, then you would have to takle them to court.

 

A determined scammer will sign anything, you may have difficulty tracking him down to sue him.

 

---------- Post added 20-03-2014 at 23:13 ----------

 

Sheffield Forum,should now make it there site,were Sellers have Feedback an then people buying of Sheffield Forum know theres some Trust with the Person you are buying off

 

Hexus forums have certain rules about who can sell. Thing is sheffield forums just offer the for sale bit as a convenience and I doybt they want the hassle of monitoring sales. Mobiles are the riskiest from what I understand.

[medusa 16]

Feedback profiles are susceptible to abuse and bias so don't solve the purpose.

 

No matter how you buy a high value item like a phone, your contract is with the seller. We aren't in the position to even know for sure that the phone that is being offered for sale exists, so ads are posted on a 'caveat emptor' basis.

 

You really need to arm yourself with as much information as possible about the item and the seller in order to reduce the chances of things going wrong and to help yourself in case things do go wrong for getting it investigated and getting your money back. A written bill of sale would help you out with that too.

 

Do you know the seller's real name? We have information held about users which we could share with investigating police, but that doesn't include a real name and to get to the real name the police would need a court order to get their ISP to release their personal details.

 

Do you know where the seller lives? If you have reason to complain about your purchase meeting you at a central location and only having a mobile number makes the seller really hard to find again.

 

Is the item fit for purpose and suitable for you? Does it work and particularly with phones, how can you be sure that it will work tomorrow? This comes down to having a seller who is happy to go on the record as the seller of the phone.

[Penistone999 10]

i had a bad experience buying phone on this forum once with no receipt and was blocked 3 days later - when messaged seller all i got back was swear words. im now looking for samsung galaxy s4.

 

having learned my lesson id like to buy one with receipt, but even if you do have receipt and its gets blocked - if i was to take it to the network phone shop in meadowhall is this proof of purchase? and it would get unlocked?

 

it would be good advice for all of us.

 

Second hand goods are usually bought as seen . You pay your money , you take your chances .

[999tigger 10]

In the OPs case mobile phones are uniquely susceptible to abuse because they can be blocked several months later.

[Penistone999 10]

In the OPs case mobile phones are uniquely susceptible to abuse because they can be blocked several months later.

 

Yes, they can , but if you buy one online , second hand its a gamble you take ,and if you do your money and get ripped off there aint much you can do about it.

[999tigger 10]

Yes, they can , but if you buy one online , second hand its a gamble you take ,and if you do your money and get ripped off there aint much you can do about it.

 

Yes they can what?

[Penistone999 10]

Yes they can what?

 

be blocked at a later date

[Cyclone 10]

Yes, they can , but if you buy one online , second hand its a gamble you take ,and if you do your money and get ripped off there aint much you can do about it.

 

Of course there is, caveat emptor doesn't extend to the seller committing fraud.

 

So long as you have a name and address you can take them to court, not to mention reporting them to the phone company and the police.

[rodbender 10]

the best thing to do is not buy any phone from Sheffield forum there are to many scum bags out there selling stolen phones or phones that have not been paid for keep your money in your pocket or go to a phone shop

[salsafan 10]

Yes, they can , but if you buy one online , second hand its a gamble you take ,and if you do your money and get ripped off there aint much you can do about it.

 

No. This is whereby Sheffielders are SO dodgy in this regard, and we know that some people literally sell stolen goods, without an ounce of actual empathy or understanding, or even responsibility to what they are doing, cos they just want the money.

 

Selling a contract to someone else when it is under your name is not legal, unless you have the authorization of the phone company to do this. Which normally, I have not even heard of this situation to be acceptable. Even when I tried to end my contract with my existing mobile provider, they ask me to pay up the remaining amount before I can end and leave. A lot of people may not bother to think about their own position from a legal perspective, does not mean that the poor soul who goes and buy your phone has to be lumped with this kind of situation either.

 

I normally would also only consider selling very old phones, and only if others know. I always did not understand why so many other people buy phones off their mates and so forth. I would just give mine away. I would do that to family, and if I see a friend as close as family, then they can have it for free. I wouldn't make money off them and nor would I land them in hot water like this ! That is just nasty.

 

My only advice to the OP is to be smart. Never buy the latest and the newest phone on the market. If it exists on Ebay, or otherwise, then you have to question why it is there in the first place. Is it stolen goods, and is it okay to use. Always check the model against the release date to see if it can possibly be under contract or not.

 

The other thing is that, even when you sell an item onto someone else WITH the receipt, that receipt belongs to the original person who pays the phone. You still cannot then transfer this contract afterwards, it does not work that way !

 

I can see a lot of women selling handbags this way, but it just goes to show that it is genuine and not a fake, but in the sale of a handbag, it does not have any technical warranties or ties with the original seller. It just shows the possibly resell value, and nothing more than that. With a mobile phone, it is a sales or a transferal of a contract, which cannot exist.

 

That is why when you sell it onto someone else, they actually bring the item back to a manufacturer's setup and break the phone and reinstall. I am not sure if this is even legal or valid to be honest. You may possibly get involved in a chain of fraudulent act. Unknowingly.

[SellerS5 10]

I agree that you do need to be careful but I wouldn't. Tar everyone with the same brush. I was selling a phone the other day which was brand new because I had won it at work so nothing sinister going on. best bet is see if it's locked to network as most contract phones are.

[cv65user 10]

Thank you for the advice I don't think I'll be buying a phone or high value item from this forum again then .

 

for your information the last scrotes lived up in infirmary Road and I knew where he lived in a council estate

 

---------- Post added 22-03-2014 at 10:10 ----------

 

Just checked the scrote profile. He not logg in since 2010 and had 30 posts