paying without using paypal (1 Viewer)

[JasonS]

I think I'm going to be buying some wheels for my Toyota Tundra from a guy offering them on another forum. I thought I'd ask here since many people buy/trade equipment. They are stock alloys, so they are $200 and approximately $60 to ship. He does not have a PayPal account. What is the best way to pay and cover my butt so he doesn't take my money and not ship?

He gave me his name and address, which I looked up on Yahoo people search and matched. Also, he uses an educational email address, and he is listed as faculty. I'd think he'd give bogus information if ripping me off, but I'm still a bit leary. He mentioned a cashier's check or money order in his email.

 

[Cam S]

What about using a Escrow (sp?) service. Arrange it with the Escrow service and then he can ship the wheels to them, and when they receive the wheels, you send the money. It's a guarantee that you'll get your product.

 

[SteveA]

Have him ship the goods COD.

 

[KyleS]

Escrow will not be a very good option since it isnt over a $500 dollar item but COD would certainly be possible. You could offer to pay any fees for the COD though.

KyleS

 

[Greg_P]

"He mentioned a cashier's check or money order in his email."


Either cashiers check or money order should be no problem.
Greg

 

[KyleS]

Either cashiers check or money order should be no problem.

It isnt a problem to send either one of those but neither offers you an ounce of protection. You could however send a Money order from the Post office. If he cashes it without delivering the goods then he will have broken a federal law... Enforcing it is another problem but hey.

KyleS

 

[Patrick Larkin]

I believe eBay has an escrow service. The way it works, AFAIK, is you send the money to eBay, he sends the goods, the escrow service releases the funds on your OK.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/escrow.html
The seller might have checked "No escrow" or something because I believe it costs the seller a fee. Otherwise, you have no protection. I never bought anything on eBay for a huge amount of money and if I did, it was from a seller that I felt comfortable with.