I’ve always been lucky with finding stuff to purchase online. I got my Profolio Macbook Protector on Philmug for a measly 500 bucks. I also found my 250GB WD Passport on Tipid PC and bought it for a third less than what it usually sells for in shopping malls. My 22 inch Samsung 225BW? Well, I saw my former officemate’s YM status message, and got it for almost half of what a new one would cost.

Despite my experience, nothing could have prepared me for the wild goose chase I was part of last Saturday.

As I was browsing through TipidPC on Saturday, I saw the following ad — Sony PS3 60GB version with game (Grand Theft Auto 4). P13,700.


The catch? The seller was in “San Fernando, Pampanga”.

I said to myself, fine, that’s not a problem at all. I knew it shouldn’t take more than an hour to get there from Manila — my mom grew up in Pampanga. After a few texts and a phonecall, I was on my way. I didn’t even wait for him to text me the address before I left out of fear someone might beat me to it.

I was halfway to San Fernando when I decided to give the guy a call. I didn’t have the address with me yet, because he said he was going to text it to me. First call, I got a busy signal. He probably pressed it by mistake. I asked my fiancee to text the same number to inquire about the unit, and she immediately got a reply — Sorry, reserved na po. I heaved a sigh of relief and assumed it was reserved for me.

When we finally got to San Fernando, I decided to give the guy another call. Someone finally picked up, but it wasn’t the person I had talked to earlier.

“Sino po ito?”

“Ako yung bibili nung PS3 package.”

“Ah nag deal po ba kayo ni ________(don’t remember the name)? Kasi umalis sila.”

“Ah ganun ba, kasi nangaling pako ng Manila para lang dun, pwede ba mahingi yung number nila?”

“Ah kasi ito talaga yung telepono nya eh, wala shang ibang number, tatawagan nalang kita ulit”

And with that, I put the phone down.

What do you say in a conversation like that? Right then and there, we parked ourselves in a Sbarro restaurant and I went online to check on the page again. Not surprisingly, there were quite a few posts that came right after. I even sent a private message to the person after me asking him if he had gotten it. What I got was a reply saying he was also trying to contact the seller, but he wasn’t answering at all.

That’s when I found out it was some sort of scam. I think the guy who was “selling” the used PS3 didn’t expect someone to actually go for the long drive just to pick it up (What can I say, Resident Evil 5 can do that to a person). I tried calling the same number at least thrice before I finally gave up. The phone was already off.

Will I ever buy anything online again? Most probably yeah, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to hit the brakes if I begin to sense even the slightest form of deceit or hesitation.

My advice to others still willing to risk any kind of online transaction:

  1. Good feedback doesn’t mean honest feedback – Try to look at the dates of the feedbacks that were submitted. If the guy doesn’t sell anything else, then he probably hasn’t sold a lot of items on a frequent basis. Chances are, most of the feedback you see there was invented.
  2. Proximity shouldn’t be a problem – When you’re talking to a provincial seller, try to determine if he keeps on insisting to have the item shipped. If he can’t give you his physical address or can’t give a straight answer, then you’re better off buying from someone else.
  3. If the price is too good to be true… – Then it probably is, specially for any item/s such as Ipods or PS3’s. Everyone who has posted online has Internet savvy to know what the market value of any item posted there is.
  4. Screenshot the sucker - If people start sensing that the seller is just a scammer, then the ad will probably be gone in less than a day. Save the page as proof and have the guys IP banned for life. He’ll probably come back, but they have to “manufacture” new positive feedback.

And oh, by the way, catherine_romero090681 with cell # 09159718266 — fu** you and your daughter, I got a spankin new piano black 80 GB PS3 the very next day.

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