There has recently been a dispute put forward to paypal regarding payment of £800 and £50. The payments in question are for a vehicle, I personally feel a may be getting lined up as a victim of some kind of scam. The buyer firstly put a £50 deposit down on the car due to him living over 5 hours away a few days before the agreed pick up date. The buyer came to my parents address (as I was engaged with work commitments) checked the vehicle fully, reversed from the drive engaged reverse a couple of times then forwards, driving the vehicle backwards and forwards. My Father explained that the vehicle had been standing in my driveway for 2-3 months, we are not sure how the buyer got to the address as he claims he had left his partner 1/4 mile away from my parents address and he walked through the heavy snow in training shoes to the address? Which both my Father and I found extremely strange given the fact of not knowing the area and the adverse weather conditions. According to my Father he was very happy with the vehicle when he was inspecting it and when he left at 1315. Over two hours later at approximately 1530, my Father received a phone call claiming the vehicle broke down over two hours after leaving the address. The reason the vehicle broke down is a little sketchy in my opinion. The buyer claims he was travelling in excess of 80 mph down a motorway and the rear wheels own after leaving the address. The reason he gave for the vehicle breaking down is a little sketchy in my opinion. The buyer claims he was travelling in excess of 80 mph down a motorway (70 mph speed limit) and the rear wheels 'locked up' causing him to skid off the road, my Father was obviously concerned about his well being, thinking the worst given my job as a paramedic I regularly see aftermath of such road traffic accidents as my Father knows, he then went on to tell my Father he had managed to stop on the hard shoulder, a miraculous amount of skill this must have taken at such high speed. The buyer went on to explain that there was smoke coming from under the bonnet, the clutch had 'gone' and the only gear he could engage was reverse. My Father explained that I had never had such a problem with vehicle and that I would have never have let him drive the vehicle away if I had known of such a problem. He demanded his money back, at which point my Father asked where he was, he was unable to tell him where he was or how far he had travelled. He was the. asked if he would send pictures or/and videos of the car, skid marks etc etc to forward them to myself but he refused. My Father attempted to call the buyer back twice from 1600 onwards to gather more information of his location and what had happened, eventually leaving a voicemail. The buyer called my Father back at 1730 and explained 'the gearbox had gone' and it was being loaded onto a recovery vehicle. He stated it was going to cost him £1000 to get back home? My Father again asked him to send pictures of the vehicle on the recovery vehicle, again he refused? At 1815, I received a message through ebay asking how we are going to sort this problem out as it was going to cost the buyer £700 to get back home now? I then noticed the buyer has put a 'dispute' in regarding payment with paypal? So, he has the car and paypal have the money, leaving me with neither the car or the money? I honestly believe this has been some sort of scam as the car was sold as seen and in good faith. If something has happened to the car, which I doubt, the buyer had every opportunity to check and test drive (which he did) the car before he transferred monies. The buyer also had the car in his possession for over two hours, I don't know how many miles he had done in that time as he refused to divulge that information to my Father. I will be contacting the local Police about this situation as I feel the buyer has obtained the vehicle under false pretences.
