Gumtree help

Has anyone bought anything through gumtree?
I'm just after some advice really, I am looking to buy a bike off someone up country and am a bit unsure where you stand with paying really.

Am I a bit naive to pay up front before postage? or should I pay on delivery?
What is standard procedure? Can you get money back through paypa if someone screws you over?

Any advice is appreciated!

From my point of view, fine if buying locally, fine if buying at a distance and prepared to travel for a face to face transaction, for paypal at distance, not with a barge pole.

Also be weary theres a lot of stolen loot goes through gumtree. Theres a lot of blatant scams the ones that are not so blatant are the dangerous ones though.

Perhaps see if there an RB member willing to look at the bike for you, should go some way to assessing the deal.

Paypal it and you should be ok. I've had some pretty big Paypal refunds/help..

Never send a Paypal gift, everyone wants a gift but you give up all the protection. Pay the fees if they are a tight arse.

risk is equal on gumtree there is no protection that is ebay and retailer exclusive

if i was selling on gumtree and you didn't want to send gift go find the item somewhere else

the risk is just as bad for the seller how do they know its not a hacked paypal

I think the cover offered by paypal is different on gumtree compared to ebay.

There is cover, it may not be the same but it is there because I have used it several times successfully over the last ten years.

Paypal will always step in and ask the seller to prove delivery, if they cannot, you get your money back. It really is that simple most of the time, infact it sucks to be a seller and the whole system is heavily buyer biased. When I sell, regardless of what the buyer has paid in terms of shipping I make sure I can prove delivery. I normally photo expensive items in the box ready to go in order to prove condition.

This of course does not work when you send a gift. There is no protection.

(As a seller) You can mitigate hacked Paypal accounts by only taking payment from the same address you are communicating with the seller on.

I'm with Jerky here - far too many scams and stolen goods to risk anything other than a check it first purchase.

Gumtree round my way is a MINEFIELD! beware!!

if not paying face to face, then decide how much cash you are prepared to lose before sending payment to remote seller.

another option is to get a trusted forummer who is local to do the transaction for you but really is best to do it in person - always worth seeing what it is you are buying.

there have been horro stories of bikes being purchased, even on ebay, and receivibng a big bike sized box, signed for, containing bricks or some rusty kids bike.