Shipping with buyers fed ex account #

[Andy.B]

A new member here (2 posts) sent a paypal payment for my asking price on an es/is lip and early valance that I have listed for sale, and asked me to ship it using his fedex account number. It seems a fishy to me, as once I hand it off to fedex I have no control of the transaction. I have no idea what fedex's policies are regarding the transaction, so I have no idea if it even could be a scam, but the combination of it being a new member/weird shipping arrangement made me nervous. I just messaged the seller that I can either refund their payment, or I can provide them a shipping quote, and they can pay the difference, at which point I will ship the item through my account via my preferred method.

Has anybody else come across this situation? Anybody more experienced with shipping companies that can tell me if this is/could be/isn't a scam?

[blunttech]

I do this with guys I trust. But nobody should give up their fedex account number unless you have some trust established. They can ship all their stuff on your dime. For this reason I wouldnt trust the situation. Ship via your method or cancel the sale Not worth it

[Andy.B]

Thanks for the input Blunt.

It seemed kind of odd that they gave up their account info so readily, which makes me think it might not be their account's number. The only scam opportunity I saw was to claim they never received the package, at which point they could file a dispute with paypal AND fedex, at which point I would have no recourse, and they could get refunded (possibly twice, once from fedex, once from paypal?).

I will stick to my plan of letting them pay the additional cost for payment, or just get a refund.

Has anyone else come across this?

[yahh]

Well they can make you a ticket and then email it to you and you can print it off and mail it that way if they want to pay for shipping. I don't really see any risk there.

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[blunttech]

Well they can make you a ticket and then email it to you and you can print it off and mail it that way if they want to pay for shipping. I don't really see any risk there.

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Wonder what paypal would say though?? I mean if there were a claim??

[Thizzelle]

usually business do it, not private parties

[Andy.B]

Well they can make you a ticket and then email it to you and you can print it off and mail it that way if they want to pay for shipping. I don't really see any risk there.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 4

That is a good point. I could get it packaged up, send him the details, and he could buy the shipping, and send me the label.

The buyer agreed to wait for a shipping quote, so I am going to assume it wasn't a scam attempt. Unfortunately, with so many dishonest people in the world, it is hard to not be cynical when dealing with irregular transactions.

I will see if they buyer wants to pursue that avenue.

Thanks for you input everybody.