purchasing RV through eBay

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willh2o

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Someone is suggesting we purchase an RV through eBay. We are not familiar with eBay at all, let alone to buy a large item like an RV. She is suggesting she would pay for the RV to come to us, there would be a window of time for us to check it out, get our money back if we weren't satisfied, etc.

Your sage advice and experiences would be most welcome.

Sandra
 
I've never bought an RV on eBay, but a number of our members have. Click the Search button in the menu above, enter eBay in the search criteria, and you'll find numerous prior discussions on this subject.
 
SCAM written ALL OVER that!!!

That one is worse than the clowns that will send you thousands of dollars more than what you had an item posted for, and you send wire them the difference back via Western Union. Of course the payment they sent you is worthless, ie cashiers check with no routing or acct. nos or a fake check on someone else's business.
 
Many scams out there!  Never, never, never pay for something you haven't inspected!.
 
malexander said:
SCAM written ALL OVER that!!!

That one is worse than the clowns that will send you thousands of dollars more than what you had an item posted for, and you send wire them the difference back via Western Union. Of course the payment they sent you is worthless, ie cashiers check with no routing or acct. nos or a fake check on someone else's business.
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X3 - Let me guess, incredible price, no you can't see it because it is being managed through some broker and he/she is in the military, send earnest money and they will ship to you for inspection (ya right!  like transport is cheap)!!  Run, in fact, turn them in to Ebay.  Sometimes they even produce pictures with vin numbers, they gobbled down from someone elses ad on Craigslist.

If you want to test it, find out what city or state it is in and tell them you have a brother in law that lives there that would like to come look at it for you.  You'll get a list of reasons why that just wont work.
 
I have both heard of "E-bay" (And Craig's list) RVs and I've actually seen a few.......

Generally I found the ads were. shall we say a bit.. "Enthuastic" when describing the Rig.

They were "Fixer Uppers" for the most part.

Then there are the scammers

"I've got a few other people bidding you need to send me a DEPOSIT by Fed-EX overnight" or even.. Well by some means other than E-bay/pay Pal purchase or US mail.. HINT, if they are scared of US mail it is a scam.

On the other hand, some were good deals.

My Advice: Make sure you see the RV before they see your Money.
 
One more thing confirm the VIN number if you buy a motorhome.  Someone on one of the message boards got caught in a bait and switch a month or two ago.  The seller apparently had 2 motorhomes of the same model and year, the buyer inspected the good looking one, the seller met the buyer at the bank with the one with lots of interior water damage, etc. did the paperwork, buyer saw the motorhome from a distance in the parking lot and assumed it was the same one as they inspected earlier in the day and that it matched the title and bill of sale.  Papers signed, money transferred, sellers disappear, buyers walk to to discover what they just bought was a wreck.
 
I don't think Ebay is all that different from say RVTrader.

The same rules apply.

Always see the unit in person - even if you have to drive or fly a ways.
IF you don't know a lot about the RV your looking at then many time it's recommended to hire someone that does.
Drive the unit before you give any money for the unit.

I believe that EBay does have some protection if it turns out to be a total lemon, but I would confirm
that before I assumed that was true for the item you were looking at.

It's like most things - there are good deals out there if you know what your looking for and can spot the one's that aren't.
 
SCAM alert: :mad:
This was definitely a scam. We saw an RV on CraigsList. The person "Amy" responded. We spent 24 hours w/ e-volley. She claimed her husband had died 2 months ago from a heart attack. She gave a city, state where the RV was, no phone number, no address. She eventually had a SCAM ebay email come to us with a SCAM invoice. It indicated we have to pay a $3,000 deposit by eBay gift cards. It further claimed that the money wouldn't be transferred until we were totally satisfied. "Amy" had claimed she would pay to have the RV shipped to us (in another state), and would pay to have it returned if we weren't satisfied. Quite the claims!!

We contacted eBay directly (not from the scam email or scam phone number). eBay assured us it was a scam and had us file a report. eBay also suggested we file an FBI report which we did.

Thankfully we only lost time and effort, no money.  Too bad it was not real. 

We're still looking for the real thing.
 
willh2o said:
Someone is suggesting we purchase an RV through eBay. We are not familiar with eBay at all, let alone to buy a large item like an RV. She is suggesting she would pay for the RV to come to us, there would be a window of time for us to check it out, get our money back if we weren't satisfied, etc.

Your sage advice and experiences would be most welcome.

Sandra
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There are some decent deals to be found on Craigslist and eBay. But care and caution must prevail.

 
I stand by what I said "SEE THE UNIT IN PERSON".

If that can't be done then scream SCAM as you run away.

BUT if it can be seen, then it might be OK - Again you have to know what your looking for.
 
Totally a scam.  Bear in mind,even a genuine eBay transaction offers you NO protection.  All they can do is bring buyer and seller together.  As for inspections,Guarantees and refunds,you are on your own.  So glad you asked here first.
 
willh2o said:
Someone is suggesting we purchase an RV through eBay. We are not familiar with eBay at all, let alone to buy a large item like an RV. She is suggesting she would pay for the RV to come to us, there would be a window of time for us to check it out, get our money back if we weren't satisfied, etc.

Your sage advice and experiences would be most welcome.

Sandra
Click to expand...
Don't believe that !! I've bought 3 MH found on Ebay but not through Ebay. The one I did buy through Ebay was a night mare. If you can't see it and inspect in person, forget it. There are many sellers on Ebay that are out to hook you, craigslist too. Be very careful, no matter where you buy. Remember, if the deal is too good too be true, it probably is. Lots of scams going on, don't be part of one. If you can't look and DRIVE one in person forget it.
 
As already said several times, GO SEE IT IN PERSON before buying. I've bought two RV's out of four or five I found on eBay, and in all cases the units were over hyped in the ads with photos selected to show them at their best. I don't blame a seller for wanting to show it that way, but because I did go look at them all in person, I ended up only buying two. And those two were bought at significantly less than the seller was asking when the deficiencies were pointed out without judging the seller for not mentioning them. One seller mentioned he knew he was in trouble as soon as I bent down to check the tire date codes on the 12 year old tires that he had said in the ad had excellent tread and looked like new. ;) 
 
I've bought 2 motorhomes off CL ads.  The first one was in Dallas, TX. I live in the Oklahoma City area so it wasn't too far to drive. However, the guy advertising it said he was the owner and it had only been used for short trips to the surrounding lakes and such. I went and looked at it, I bought it but the man was really a dealer. It's true he was the owner but the title was still in the original owners name. It turned out okay, I had it for a year and a half, decided I wanted something different. I sold it on CL to a guy and his wife from North Carolina. They drove to OKC, bought it from me, CASH Dollar bills, I gave them a signed clear title and they drove it home.
    Bought my next one off CL, a 2014 Jayco Greyhawk 29MV, it was in Amarillo, TX, still not too far from OKC, wife and I drove out there looked at it, drove it and bought it and the car caddy with the cash dollar bills I got out of the other one, loaded our Honda Pilot on the car caddy and came home. So far all is good but I don't think I'd trust the Ebay deal. Don't get me wrong, I've bought a lot of stuff off Ebay, not too sure I'd buy a vehicle or something big and really expensive off there without being able to inspect it. As stated above, "If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is." Also, if it's a good deal, it won't be there long.
 
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