How to ship camera from different state

[S.Chak]

I want to buy a used product from jjmehta forum but the seller is located in different city. We agreed for courier but he/she is asking to pay the full amount first. How can I safely make this happen without being scammed? What if they fill the package with bricks or smth or just does not send the package after I pay them?

[Krish Chandran]

I want to buy a used product from jjmehta forum but the seller is located in different city. We agreed for courier but he/she is asking to pay the full amount first. How can I safely make this happen without being scammed? What if they fill the package with bricks or smth or just does not send the package after I pay them?

On this forum it is standard practice to pay the full amount before dispatch of the item. However, every seller puts a disclaimer on the top of his "sell" post saying that due diligence is the responsibility of the buyer.

Due diligence = research about the product (if it actually is what you need) + research about the seller, especially their reputation on this forum.

The forum has two threads in the WTS section called Feedback grins and Feedback frowns. Check if and where your seller figures on those two threads, and you will get a fair idea of his/her reliability from the comments made by people he has sold to or interacted with.

In addition, you could ask him/her for names (and numbers) of some people he has sold to before, and take their opinion.

If all that still does not give you the confidence to go ahead with a sale, then maybe you should stick to buying from local sellers.

Finally, consider this: if sending bricks were the norm this forum would not exist. The Admin & Moderators run a pretty tight ship.

[nirmalya]

First of all, this forum is the most trusted and closed group photography forum in India. Most of the users know each other for ages. The trust and camaraderie are so high, that sometimes either the seller or the buyer hesitate to negotiate or bargain. I had many such cases and the recent most case was with the same person who made the previous post, i.e. Krish Chandran. I purchased his SB910 in better than new condition and in very good price. I quoted X and he readily agreed. Then I thought my quotation was low, I wanted to pay X+1, but he denied. So, this is the trust and friendship level among us. Most of the members have registered here loooong back and made 100s of transactions. The forum rules are also very strict, the sellers must post the pictures with a handwritten slip which means that the item is indeed with him. This forum is in totally different level than facebook or olx. There are some (less than 1%) instances when some miscommunications happened in the either side or the items didn't come as per expectations. One notorious example was the dead pixel count in the sensor. The buyer found some deal pixels in the sensor and involved all the moderators for a long fight. There was no total fraud case (i.e. the item didn't arrive at all, or totally defective item) in the history of the forum.

So, the bottom line is that if the buyer has registered long time back and already made many transactions, no need to worry at all. Just blindly trust him. If he is a newcomer, you can take some preventive actions -

1. Request him for some return period.
2. Take his aadhar card copy.
3. Request your friend or any known person who is living in that city to inspect the item on behalf of you.

Hope you will find this post helpful.

Thanks

[Thad E Ginathom]

Buying on this forum is more likely to bring friendship than fraud!

[S.Chak]

THank you all, I've decided that I will go through with the purchase!

[DeepakS]

Let us know how the transaction went. . .  to complete the story