Help!! Re: EBAY purchase possible insurance fraud/scam

[WarChild]

Originally Posted by 632627

going to call them tomorrow.... was at work all day

there ya go and I shot you over your first thanks.

[BeanAnimal]

Originally Posted by rafyrod

what they told me they didnt know it was stolen, and there are the only one that work for their store ( 2 brothers) and me that help them couple of days a week...

What they told you

they are from India and they are known to be cheap as hell.... i seen them buying good from ppl that come to the store selling stuff that make you think where in the hell this merchandise is coming from and they still buy to safe a couple of penny...

Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. Store owners are expected to know and understand the laws the govern the operation of their store. In any case, I highly doubt that they were ignorant of where the goods where coming from...

The reality is that they know the legitimate wholesale cost of products. Buying them from an unlicensed vendor cheaper than the legitimate wholesale price means that there is something shady about the deal.

If you buy your TVs from the back of a rented uHaul in an alley, it is not hard to make the argument that you are knowingly buying stolen goods. If a store owner is bypassing the tax laws and distribution channel to stock his store shelves, it is pretty easy to prove that they are knowingly breaking the law. Your store owner friends were likely not paying tax on some of their sales and not likely doing a lot of other things that got them busted. Could it be that they paid you in cash as well

[BeanAnimal]

Originally Posted by 632627

going to call them tomorrow.... was at work all day

Just be honest. The worst that can happen is that they will want the phone back as evidence. If that happens they will likely replace it. You also have paypal to turn to. If it was fraid, then paypal will refund the money. Don't fall into the fraud trap yourself though... That is, don't take a new phone from sprint AND a refund from paypal

[rafyrod]

Originally Posted by BeanAnimal

What they told you




Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. Store owners are expected to know and understand the laws the govern the operation of their store. In any case, I highly doubt that they were ignorant of where the goods where coming from...

The reality is that they know the legitimate wholesale cost of products. Buying them from an unlicensed vendor cheaper than the legitimate wholesale price means that there is something shady about the deal.

If you buy your TVs from the back of a rented uHaul in an alley, it is not hard to make the argument that you are knowingly buying stolen goods. If a store owner is bypassing the tax laws and distribution channel to stock his store shelves, it is pretty easy to prove that they are knowingly breaking the law. Your store owner friends were likely not paying tax on some of their sales and not likely doing a lot of other things that got them busted. Could it be that they paid you in cash as well

tru that they paid me in cash....

you seen really knowledgeable about all of this stuff.....

[632627]

Originally Posted by BeanAnimal

Just be honest. The worst that can happen is that they will want the phone back as evidence. If that happens they will likely replace it. You also have paypal to turn to. If it was fraid, then paypal will refund the money. Don't fall into the fraud trap yourself though... That is, don't take a new phone from sprint AND a refund from paypal

****.... that thought definately crossed my mind lol

im on hold with sprint right now...

[632627]

UPDATE

sprint fraud rep didnt go into detail, but she tracked the persons account # and said the phone was purchased from sprint and sent directly to me. had it been through insurance, there would have been a packing slip from asurion(which there wasnt).
so there is no insurance fraud.

from the rep's explanation, it sounds as if the phone was purchased as an add-on to for an existing customer, sent to my address, and then the new line was cancelled within 30 days. this would make sense if the purchaser gets the phones for the corporate rate of $199.

will sprint cancel the line without getting the phone back, or will they issue a chargeback to the buyer? i remember years ago you could open a new line of service with cingular and get a phone at discount, cancel the new line of service without penalty and keep the discounted phone.

now the only thing im hoping is that this phone wasnt added on to somebodys account without them knowing

[isdnmatt]

I'm not sure what Sprints ETF is, but he's probably going to pay the discounted price + $175 for the ETF. If you paid over $400, he still made out ok, but I don't see how its worth it for $25.

[632627]

there is no ETF on a cancellation within 30 days

[BeanAnimal]

Just my two cents... but I am getting tired of people gaming the system. Every place you turn people are abusing the good faith and/or legal limitations of the rules and policies set forth by comapnies. SOMEBODY has to pay for the products and services that are aquaired through scams like this. They guy is clearly wiggling around the grey areas of the law to profit at the expense of the carrier. That in turn means that each phone the carrier sells will cost just a bit more. We all pay for crap like this...

[isdnmatt]

Originally Posted by 632627

there is no ETF on a cancellation within 30 days

I dont understand this. If you return the phone there is no ETF, there must be a ETF if you keep the device no?