<Removed> "Guitar Shop"

[N8Dizzy]

I bought a guitar yesterday from Guitar Shop at <Removed> for $95. The guitar model is Ibanez RG421. Today sometime told me the site might not be legitimate. I'm not sure what to do to make sure they don't get my money without sending the guitar.

[WearyTraveler]

And yet Pay-Pal still handles the transaction knowing that this is a bogus site! The very fact that Pay-pal was represented there had a great deal to do with why I decided to order! The "some" protection excuse is total BS as Pay-Pal openly represents itself as having made sure that this is a secure site! Their whole marketing strategy is all about "safety" and "security" on the web! By your own admission they knew that this is a bogus site and they still handled transactions for the site! SOUNDS LIKE COLLUSION TO ME!!!!! I pointed out to Pay-Pal the day after I made my order that the site was not fulfilling their promise and Pay-Pal just simply denied the claim even though the proof was absolute! They then paid the site while I still had an open claim! You can blow their horn all you want to but I'm seriously considering collecting as many names as possible of victims of this site and maybe file a class action suit against Pay-Pal for their part in enabling this scam!

[kernowlass]

@WearyTraveler 

The safety and security is keeping your financial information safe and then safely processing your payments for you, the buyer protection is an added aside but is NOT an insurance policy and comes with 'terms and conditions'.

So you need to read up on that buyer protection and then risk assess your transactions avoiding the sites as per above.

I could open a website in half an hour, flood it with lovely pictures and low prices > wait for some gullible buyer to spend their money and then send a fake tracking number or junk.

By the time the claims start to roll into paypal in enough numbers after a few months to see i am a scam then i shut up shop and start over with another business / business name and business account.

So tell me how can paypal stop me if I am South Asia somewhere....impossible.

So its BUYER BEWARE but if you do get caught out they 'may'  be able to help you but nothing is guaranteed.

I'm not blowing any horn, I am just telling you how it works, personally I think Paypal should not deal with Chinese sellers at all but that is neither here nor there as they do.

As for your class action suit forget it...................

https://www.theverge.com/2012/10/17/3511792/paypal-class-action-suit-ban

[AHatchmom]

I purchased using my PayPal thinking it was a safer transaction...boy was I wrong. The amount of loopholes allowing this to happen and bypassing the protection 'policy' is absolutely absurd. Do they not have a fraud department at PayPal?

[WearyTraveler]

Take your Pay-Pal email acknowledgement and whatever other evidence you have of your purchase to your bank/credit card company and tell them you want to report a fraud on your account. Believe me they will take it a lot more seriously than Pay-Pal does! Then go to www.USPIS.gov and report your ripoff as a mail fraud...because that is what it is! Make an appointment to see your local Post Master and explain the whole scam to him. The more people who do this the more serious it becomes to the U. S. Postal Inspector and the closer you will get to nailing this **bleep**! The Bank or Credit Card Company can get your money back by reversing the transaction if you act soon enough! The guy who runs this forum just likes to toot his little Pay-Pal horn and doesn't seem to realize that there are real world consequences to mail and bank fraud! There are also consequences to aiding and abetting in the commission of a crime when you know that a crime is being committed! We'll just let the Federal Prosecutor explain that one to them! SSSShhhhhh!!!! Good luck and I hope you get your money back!

[ToddBD]

I also thought i had bought a guitar from this place..  I thought paypal protects purchases like this and we can get our money back through them?  not the case??  if paypal does not refund my money they will have a problem..

[ldervin70]

Good  luck with that. Let me know if you figure this out with Paypal. My experience with they customer service was horrible and disheartening.

Total complacency towards scammers using their platform. All they could say is :"too bad for you, you got scammed, shame on you!" ... Well, in much more diplomatic terms of course, but this is the general idea. It took me 2 days of dropped calls, complete black out, impossible to connect with anyone at Paypal to discuss the problem. 

[ldervin70]

Yes, this is a very well documented scam unfortunately. And it has been going on for months. it is a chineese site and they are moving from account to account through Paypal. I have to admit I fell for it and had to file a resolution case with Paypal. Which is where the real nightmare started. 2 days without being able to talk to a human being at Paypal. Impossible to file online. Luckily part of the payment was made with a sapphire credit card with Chase. Their customer service was impeccable and immediate. But only part of the payment was made with the credit card, and part with Paypal balance. Since I contacted my credit card bank, now Paypal is refusing to continue to investigate the claim (even so that part of the payment made with paypal balance and was not refunded). I am appalled at the lack of customer service and protection experienced with Paypal. They are clearly encouraging scammers to utilize paypal by making it so easy for them and so difficult for the buyers. I used paypal for years, but now I am clearly going to investigate other platforms like Venmo for my future online transactions. It is inexcusable that Paypal is not able to proactively identify and stop such scammers who have been utilizing Paypal platform for months.

[KUhawks77]

Saw this Guitar Shop sale ad on the Yahoo News page today. Looked to good to be true that i could pick up a Gibson hollow body that should cost (Ebay) anywhere from $2-5,000 for only $96.00...Glad I listened to my head instead of my heart "Hy, it's only a hundred bucks, what's to worry"). I've had a few run ins with "less than legitimate" online offers and PayPal and everyone here is right. PayPal is a transaction site, not a crosswalk guard. They expect you to know what you are doing and have done your due diligence. After numerous fights about illegitimate charges it is clear to me that they are not going to go to bat for anyone in cases like this. Glad you all took the time to post here. It saved me the time and disappointment I secretly knew was coming, if i pressed that "confirm" button.

[BigWheels87]

I’m such a **bleep** ! I fell for this scam. It sucks that PayPal doesn’t help out. I got the same response as others...PayPal said the seller shipped something, but it certainly wasn't a guitar. It could have been a piece of paper that I threw away as junk mail. $96...gone. Bummer!

[katzma2n]

A REFUND OF $99.00 IS IN ORDER. PLEASE REPLY AT YOUR EARLIEST CONVENIENCE. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR HELPING ME WITH THIS FRAUDULENT COMPANY. I WILL CONTINUE TO PURSUE THIS SITUATION. THANK, AGAIN.