Gunbroker is welcher friendly?

[Condition2]

So I’m not a pro a gun buying by any means. I’ve bought a couple guns on Gunbroker tho. And I’ve never had a problem until now. I won the auction the Sunday after thanksgiving at 715 in the morning.

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/957987961

Now you have to be a special kind of stupid I think to list a 99041 with no reserve and a penny start and allow that auction to end at 715 in the morning the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Because what are people doing that Sunday morning that early? For one thing no one is awake (except for me) and everyone is traveling (not me because I’m hosting). But no one is looking at the auction pages that time of a Sunday morning and no one but no one the Sunday after Thanksgiving.



Funnily enough I think that’s Stuart I beat out. Didn’t know it at the time tho. Sorry Stuart. You dodged a bullet tho buddy, let me tell you.

This guy. This seller was such a baby. He was convinced this 99041 of his was sprinkled with some “extra unicorn dust” as a fellow forum member put it the other day in a private conversation. But what this guy did next just shocked me. I sent him my money order on 11/29. Guy waits until day 10 and files a non paying buyer case against me. I was dumbstruck. I assured him it’s on the way. Probably lost in the mail, etc - it’s the holidays and all. I send all this to Gunbroker and explain the situation. I think the guy is lying about not getting my payment. So I tell him - if it’s not there tomorrow, tell me and I’ll send him another money order.

And wouldn’t you know it?

Next day my money order like magic shows up. But Gunbroker already canceled the auction. Day before.

Guy sends me back my money order. Meanwhile I’ve been sending Gunbroker a series of 5 messages reiterating that I sent the payment. The guy is welching on the deal. And so on and so forth. Not one reply from them. Went even acknowledge receipt of the messages I’ve sent them.

Today guy has relisted the same pistol for 1000 with a 1400 buy now. And I can’t leave him negative feedback. I’m blocked from doing so because of the case he opened against me. They didn’t suspend his account. Nothing.

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/961008803

I get that they make their money from fees. And Gunbroker stands to make more money from a 1400 sale than a 755 sale. But this is ridiculous.

Welchers are the lowest of the low in my opinion. Welching on an auction is as bad as welching on a bet. Maybe worse.

[Tanners Owner]

Sorry to hear your troubles.  I am by no means bashing you with my comments below, only informing you what I do with Gunbroker dealings.  It disturbs me to see this behavior- as I like to think the best of people.

In some local gun boards, I’ve been subjected to flakes with either selling or buying & I’ve learned to not get too worked up over a deal gone sour if no money was lost.

I deliberately do not buy from those with very low feedback #s just for this reason.  I recognize one needs to start somewhere, but in this day & age, I stay with those established sellers with high positive #s.

I also prefer to use credit cards- gives me a little more protection.

Good news is you have your MO retuned and are not out any money.

Wish you good luck

[bang bang]

Welcome

its too bad that happened, but you just learned a hard lesson.  you could have lost some money in the deal, but all you lost was a gun. 

there will be others out there to buy and just a fyi, this wont be the last gun you loose out on. 

If you want, leave some negative feedback and make a note to not buy/bid from that person, if you want, but "will greed overcome all doubt" down the road.?

and fwiw, i had posted a Daewoo K2 several years ago when the AR was morphing into other non gas systems and for some reason i put BIN for 1k.  There was/is a collector that was more than happy to liberate it from me for that amount.  i could have done what that guy did, but chose not to since it was my mistake.  Easy come - easy go.

so, just chalk it up to a learning experience.

good luck

[crosstimbers]

FWIW there are plenty of headaches from the seller's side of doing business on gunbroker. Buyers who dont read or disregard what the listing says (for instance you specify type of payment as money order and they expect you to accept a credit card anyway) Buyers who expect the sellefr to contact his accepting dealer and arrange the transfer. Buyers who get buyer's remorse the next day and come up with all manner of excuses why they cant complete the sale (I actually had one say that a burgler got on his computer and made a bunch of purchases) In order to recover the listing fees from an incomplete sale, GB makes the seller jump through hoops- one of which is filing a non-payment complaint on the buyer.

I've had problems on GB both as a buyer and as a seller. I bought one rifle that was grossly misrepresented in the listing, and there was no out for me, I was lucky to get my money back out of it after listing it honestly. But I've had far more problems and headaches as a seller, so it works both ways and GB generally doesn't help much- at least not effectively. It's really a "use pretty much at your own risk" platform for buying and selling.

[Wobbly]

Ever since eBay split off from PayPal it's been the same thing. They have no way to verify payments, so they default to one side. And it's all done with automation, there is not a live person checking the "proof of payment" or anything you send them to verify you did what you said.

I'm sure it's the same on any auction site. Too many daily transactions to get a "judge" involved. Buying nationally is such a "roll of the dice".

[JBruns]

Sorry to hear about your issue. I've heard about so many bad experiences with GB, I guess this is just one more. I tried to contact them at one point, to join up. They were absolutely awful to work with. I know a lot of transactions go well there, but it seems like they have no customer support at all. I guess they make enough money that they don't care about the problems that arise.

[bang bang]

something else from a sellers point of view.

I had put up a Colt HBar during the AWB and it went to a noob on GB.  The guy didnt communicate much at all and we had some inclement weather where the shops were not open to do a transfer.  I had communicated this to him about teh closed shops but as far as he was concern, i wasnt being honest.   He supposedly had wanted it for a match too that week, but this was never communicated.  I dont know about you, but i wouldn't take an un tested/verified gun to a match. 

So, he left me negative feed back and thats his choice.  But i also had a chance to reply. 

there are always 2 sides and even if what he did wasnt right, its his choice. 

Everyone will do what they way, good or bad. 

I had other people tell me, after the fact, that they wanted it for some reason on x date.  But to me, unless its known upfront, it may not happen.  I also ask for USPS MO and some people just will say FU and send me whatever.  i had someone from Florida successfully bid on a gun from me and did not communicate with me on anything.   He waited until the last day to send the money and  was about to do the "no funds sent" to GB to put the add back up.  All the person had to do was a to say that they were short on funds and had to wait for their SS check to arrive.  I get it and everyone has issues.  I do too, but the lack of communication really puts me off since you know full well, they could have just dropped me a note to know whats going on.  And they could have been up front that they would not send the funds in time too. 

COMMUNICATION is the key.  Its ok to ask about such things such as what other forms of payment is accpetible.  I want USPS MO, but will accept checks but wont ship until it clears.  If they bought from be before, thats different.  And i get it not everyone can walk down to their corner USPS and get a USPS MO.   But again, COMMUNICATION.

If you are going to buy more from whatever site, just get used to different ways of things happening.  If you pay attention to who you are buying from, you may have less headaches, but dont forget its a 2 way street and hopefully you will do the right thing too.

and just remember, easy come, easy go.  And again, you will not always get what you want.

good luck

[Cinimod]

When purchasing a money order make sur it has tracking. This will show when the money order was received.

[Grendel]

This thread is done. If people can't behave like adults, then...