Possibly scammed.

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gwu168

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I ordered an iphone 4s 32GB white with spider crack screen. The seller, FerraraZ, PM on Wednesday that he shipped the item via USPS. I received a package with no return address this Friday. The package contained a ton of shredded paper. The only contents I found in the package was some kind of dual charger for iphone/ipod and ipad.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1687928&highlight=spider

I'm still awaiting an answer from FerraraZ as to why I recieved a charger instead of an iphone 4s.
 
Yeah, FerraraZ wanted me to "gift" the payment (should have noted that as a huge red flag). I told him I would fork over the fees and paid the regular paypal method. I'm not sure whether I should wait a day or two to give FerraraZ to respond or just immediately file a claim with paypal.
 
Alright, I just opened a dispute on paypal. I'm so glad that I didn't go cheap for $10 by going the "gift" route.
 
Anyways for those curious as to what I received.

http://youtu.be/yu1ZBhTRon0

FerraraZ Gawd, 2.2 Years

Status:
Re: iphone 4s
Hey I shipped the phone after work today around 5 pm. Expect it in 2 business days from USPS. I believe you'll have it by Friday to tinker with replacing the glass
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Noted, the paid date on the package matches the claim shipped date, which is why I suspect this package is from him.
 
I almost bought his iPhone. Glad I didn't ran into this issue myself. Good luck to u
 
Thanks.

Hopefully I'll get my refund through paypal or the seller actually sends me the item I purchased (highly doubtful at this point).

Anyways, in the event the FerraraZ and paypal both screw me over, I made the purchase with my amex, which usually resolves any issues I have :)
 
It's entirely possible that it was stolen out of the mail as well. Was it shipped with insurance?

Usually the "gift" thing isn't a big deal or red flag, they are just trying to prevent Paypal requiring additional fees from the seller or buyer.
 
The box didn't look tampered when I received it.

Anyways, the lack of return address is really suspicious.
 
gwu168 said:
I ordered an iphone 4s 32GB white with spider crack screen. The seller, FerraraZ, PM on Wednesday that he shipped the item via USPS. I received a package with no return address this Friday. The package contained a ton of shredded paper. The only contents I found in the package was some kind of dual charger for iphone/ipod and ipad.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1687928&highlight=spider

I'm still awaiting an answer from FerraraZ as to why I recieved a charger instead of an iphone 4s.
Click to expand...

This sentence from him on the for sale thread:

" If you would like pics please PM me. Will come with a dual dock charger for iPhone and iPad as well as the necessary cable."

he mentions a dual charger for iphone and ipad which you got right? Does the package look like it was opened during the shipment to steal the phone?

Naw maybe not then he hasnt respnded yet and the thiefwould have taken the charger to maybe.
 
Does the seller have any Heatware feedback? If not or it was low, I would have required he ship first.
 
tgg said:
This sentence from him on the for sale thread:

" If you would like pics please PM me. Will come with a dual dock charger for iPhone and iPad as well as the necessary cable."

he mentions a dual charger for iphone and ipad which you got right? Does the package look like it was opened during the shipment to steal the phone?

Naw maybe not then he hasnt respnded yet and the thiefwould have taken the charger to maybe.
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The package I received didn't look tampered. You can't really tell from the video, but the box was a CDW box with shipping label that contain no a return address. The shipping label was the only readable label that was on the box (the original CDW shipping label was from UPS and basically torn off).

Anyways, box had two layers of tape on both the bottom and top. I'm guessing the first set was from the original shipment from CDW and the second set was from FerraraZ packaging up the box. The tape didn't look tampered to me.

In the mean time I filed a dispute with paypal. Hopefully FerraraZ will give some kind of explanation why he only shipped the charger. If the item was stolen by USPS, I would aid FerraraZ in his claim against USPS (seems unlikely the thief would bother to leave the charger inside), but I would still request that I be refunded first.
 
If the iPhone was stolen, then the weight of the package when you received it would differ from the weight when FerraraZ shipped it. Check that.
 
Fixall said:
If the iPhone was stolen, then the weight of the package when you received it would differ from the weight when FerraraZ shipped it. Check that.
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This is a perfect way to see and prove if it was stolen or never packaged. I've had to do this before with some guitar parts.
 
the weight on the mailing label shows 2lbs6.5ozs. weigh the box w/ all contents and see what u come up with.
 
timta2 said:
It's entirely possible that it was stolen out of the mail as well. Was it shipped with insurance?

Usually the "gift" thing isn't a big deal or red flag, they are just trying to prevent Paypal requiring additional fees from the seller or buyer.
Click to expand...

The "gift" thing is a big deal and a red flag. Most of the time, people who want gift payments wants you to have no protection. So even if they don't send you what you purchased, you can't do crap about it.


Also violates the FS/FT rules and PayPal TOS.

(23) Charging fees for PayPal is not allowed, nor is requesting a "gift" payment for goods (which gives the buyer no protection). Both violate PayPal's TOS.
 
Well FerraraZ just PM me claiming he included the 30 pin cable and the iphone. I'm going to weigh the box with all the original packaging to see if he's BSing me. If the box weight is the same as the stated weight on the label, that means FerraraZ most likely scammed me. The iphone weighs a hefty 4.9oz.

Today, 05:00 AM
FerraraZ Gawd, 2.2 Years

Status:
Re: iphone 4s
From the paypal dispute it seems like you didnt find the iPhone in the box at all. Please check the box thoroughly as it can easily be lost in that shredded paper which is dense. I assure you that I shipped it as iPad/iPhone black charger w/ wall outlet cable, iPhone 30pin connector cable and (1) iPhone 4S 32GB GSM device. It is the device only with nothing around it but shredded news paper.
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Also, who would package an iphone inside a huge box with tiny square shredded paper (only 2/3 filled by the way and it was regular printer paper and not newspapers, which you can see in my video). It would have provided little to no protection as the phone would have bounced everywhere inside the box during shipping. Again, everything seems to suggests that FerraraZ tried to screw me.
 
A day after I saw this was sold he pm'ed me saying the phone was available. I passed because it seemed fishy. Then I see it listed today so I thought the deal really fell through. I had just deleted my messages or I would have proof, anyway from an admin to restore my deleted messages?
 
Ugh, seems like I've been screwed over. I'm going to the post office later (in 90mins) to get a weight. Going to get a record of the weight and then escalate my paypal dispute to a claim. Any additional evidence or witness anyone can provide here would be helpful.

Thanks
 
If anyone hasn't learned yet, the PP Gift option offers absolutely NO protection for the buyer or the seller either..... and on anything costing over $10, it should be a HUGE red flag when the seller asks the buyer to use it.....
 
gwu168 said:
Ugh, seems like I've been screwed over. I'm going to the post office later (in 90mins) to get a weight. Going to get a record of the weight and then escalate my paypal dispute to a claim. Any additional evidence or witness anyone can provide here would be helpful.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Let us know how it turns out.

Here is his heatware: http://heatware.com/eval.php?id=70333

Pulled heatware form this thread: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1038010377#post1038010377


It looks like he has shipped some big value items without issue. Genuinely curious how the weight thing turns out.
 
swatX said:
If you payed through paypal, dispute it immediately.
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Paypal helps if you bought through Ebay. Otherwise it's a he said she said soap opera.
A seller here mis-characterized the motherboard he sold me. I had to go round-and-round through paypal to get the fucker to refund the money. Even then I didn't get a full refund.
 
The postage he used is prepaid from online it seem. So he could list whatever weight he wanted, it doesn't have to match the weight of the package just exceed it.

Also your video is with the box already opened so basically it going to come down to his word against your.
 
It seems doubtful to me that someone would steal an iPhone that has a cracked screen from the mail like that.
 
It's very suspicious that he listed it for sale after someone had already bought it.

However, if he was just trying to screw someone why would he list a broken iphone instead of listing a more valuable item? He would have to know that if he was trying to screw you over he would be throwing away his account here. It doesn't seem worth it for a broken iphone.
 
buschman31 said:
the weight on the mailing label shows 2lbs6.5ozs. weigh the box w/ all contents and see what u come up with.
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Was the label generated in a USPS retail location or on usps.com? If it was usps.com the weight can be set manually at the time of creating the label.
 
Anyways here are the red flags for me.

-Asked for payment to be PayPal "gift" (luckily i just paid him $360 te regular method)
-No return address on package
-Packaging insufficient for protection of iPhone (large open box with just tiny square shredded copy paper that filled only 2/3 of the box along with a charger that has a heavy ac adapter. During shipping the most likely would have bounced around and collided with the ac adapter resulting in damage)
-promised sale of the same item to multiple people (still waiting on the other buy that claimed he sent payment for the same item)

Going to the post office with this package during lunch break to get a weigh in.
 
The weight just seemed really specific. There was also no return address. The shipping address was filled out by hand writing. You can refer to my video in a eariler post of exactly what I received.
 
gwu168 said:
Yeah, FerraraZ wanted me to "gift" the payment (should have noted that as a huge red flag). I told him I would fork over the fees and paid the regular paypal method. I'm not sure whether I should wait a day or two to give FerraraZ to respond or just immediately file a claim with paypal.
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dude good job on paying the fees. I only pay gifted when its local sale and i see the person with item
 
Thanks for PM'ing me gwu168, I wasn't aware of the situation. I was going to buy this iphone and actually did message him for it (Probably faster then anyone else, I messaged him the second I saw the post, yet he said that because of my "enthusiasm" he would sell it to me.) Anyways I sent the payment, he was a little slow at sending PM's but whatever some people have lives. The next day he sends me the pictures and then says if I could please send it as gift so that he wouldn't get charged fees; I told him I was going to send the excess but then said I would said it as gift (This is where I changed my mind, it was feeling sketchy so I backed out)

I have all the PM's of the transactions we did along with the time stamp that I could give to you just in case he sold it to both of us. Also if you need any information of where he works or whatnot, feel free to PM me, I have that too. (Apparently he's a "doctor?" Or his Father?) Good luck for you!
 
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I must admit that I almost bought his non-existent iPhone too. Glad I didn't!

Here's to hoping you get your money back, OP!
 
While I'm certain this post wont change many people's opinions, this is as shocking to me as it was for gwu. I'm filing a complaint with USPS. As for the no return address, I packaged and shipped this from a self package USPS kiosk and dumped it at the USPS office in Blue Bell, PA. The weight was legitimate print out from the kiosk. I've never used USPS but I just tried to save some money shipping this way. I am going to get to the bottom of this from USPS Monday morning and then take it from there. I am not going to screw gwu out of phone or money.
 
FerraraZ said:
While I'm certain this post wont change many people's opinions, this is as shocking to me as it was for gwu. I'm filing a complaint with USPS. As for the no return address, I packaged and shipped this from a self package USPS kiosk and dumped it at the USPS office in Blue Bell, PA. The weight was legitimate print out from the kiosk. I've never used USPS but I just tried to save some money shipping this way. I am going to get to the bottom of this from USPS Monday morning and then take it from there. I am not going to screw gwu out of phone or money.
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The seller filing a complaint wont do any good unless he took out insurance on the package unless someone can prove me wrong. good luck with that.
 
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this is gonna end up being a 'he said she said' thing, hope it turns out good for you both.
 
FerraraZ said:
While I'm certain this post wont change many people's opinions, this is as shocking to me as it was for gwu. I'm filing a complaint with USPS. As for the no return address, I packaged and shipped this from a self package USPS kiosk and dumped it at the USPS office in Blue Bell, PA. The weight was legitimate print out from the kiosk. I've never used USPS but I just tried to save some money shipping this way. I am going to get to the bottom of this from USPS Monday morning and then take it from there. I am not going to screw gwu out of phone or money.
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What is your explanation for trying to sell the phone to multiple people after you supposedly already sold it? Do you have a stockpile of iPhones with spider-cracked screens?
 
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