Hi all. I’m new here and this is my first post. Probably not the best way to come in but I’m desperate
There are a couple of items on Ruten.com.tw that I want to bid on, but since I’m not in Taiwan it’s not possible for me. Would anyone here that uses Ruten be able to bid for me and ship the items to me? I would hope we could come to some sort of agreement on how that’d work if someone volunteers. Of course you’d get a little extra in addition to the cost of the item.
I wish there were a site for this, but it seems Ruten has no “middleman” sites yet. I’d really appreciate if anyone can help me, or even direct me to some site I may not know of that does this for you.
Its cool. Don’t worry. I saw your post and immediately bid NT$17.46 million for each item on your behalf. Guess what? YOU WON!!! I’ll PM you with my bank details so you can deposit the cash and we can get this ball rolling. CONGRATULATIONS!
…Wow guys, come on. I wasn’t being rude at all when I asked, no need to be jerks.
This isn’t a scam. In fact, if someone offers to help I’ll give you the money through paypal for what the auctions are worth, and then pay off the rest(shipping etc…) once you receive the item.
It’s just a friendly request. No one’s obligated, and I surely see no reason to make immediate assumptions like this.
[quote=“taihu57”]…Wow guys, come on. I wasn’t being rude at all when I asked, no need to be jerks.
This isn’t a scam. In fact, if someone offers to help I’ll give you the money through paypal for what the auctions are worth, and then pay off the rest(shipping etc…) once you receive the item.
It’s just a friendly request. No one’s obligated, and I surely see no reason to make immediate assumptions like this.[/quote]Sounds reasonable and not at all scam-like to me. If it were a scam I think you’d be offering more money, not “a little extra in addition”. I have to say I’m too busy, though, and as people don’t know you here I’m not sure whether they’ll want to spend their time helping out in this way. Good luck, though. It’s worth a try.
[quote=“taihu57”]…Wow guys, come on. I wasn’t being rude at all when I asked, no need to be jerks.
This isn’t a scam. In fact, if someone offers to help I’ll give you the money through paypal for what the auctions are worth, and then pay off the rest(shipping etc…) once you receive the item.
It’s just a friendly request. No one’s obligated, and I surely see no reason to make immediate assumptions like this.[/quote]
No. Here’s how it works. You see an item, then YOU send ME the bid information, PLUS the money you want me to bid for you, PLUS the commission, PLUS enough to cover shipping. If you’re successful, I’ll send you the goods. If you don’t win the bid, I’ll return the money and the shipping cost, but I’ll keep the commission.
You have one post here. Nobody knows you at all. You’re asking them to font up money for you. Then you get testy when people are incredulous. Tell me, if you’re out shopping and you see a nice pair of shoes but forgot your credit card, are you in the habit of asking the nearest stranger to front up the money and you’ll send them the money as soon as you get home?
Why can’t you bid on these items yourself? Just use your credit card. If you need help collecting and shipping, fair enough. Nobody in their right mind would fork out cash for a perfect stranger, even if they don’t have a Nigerian accent.
The card has to have a TW billing address to use that site, doesn’t it? Anyway, the guy’s offering to pay the money for the item in advance. Sandman’s suggestion about paying the shipping/commission in advance too sounds good, though. Maybe that’s something the OP could consider.
[quote=“sandman”][quote=“taihu57”]…Wow guys, come on. I wasn’t being rude at all when I asked, no need to be jerks.
This isn’t a scam. In fact, if someone offers to help I’ll give you the money through paypal for what the auctions are worth, and then pay off the rest(shipping etc…) once you receive the item.
It’s just a friendly request. No one’s obligated, and I surely see no reason to make immediate assumptions like this.[/quote]
No. Here’s how it works. You see an item, then YOU send ME the bid information, PLUS the money you want me to bid for you, PLUS the commission, PLUS enough to cover shipping. If you’re successful, I’ll send you the goods. If you don’t win the bid, I’ll return the money and the shipping cost, but I’ll keep the commission.
You have one post here. Nobody knows you at all. You’re asking them to font up money for you. Then you get testy when people are incredulous. Tell me, if you’re out shopping and you see a nice pair of shoes but forgot your credit card, are you in the habit of asking the nearest stranger to front up the money and you’ll send them the money as soon as you get home?[/quote]
I can relate to how taihu57 feels. I needed something on short notice in Shanghai last week, and I posted for help on ShanghaiExpat.com. A couple of wiseass remarks later, I got nothing. The hell I want to go back there for advice. Fortunately, I was able to find what I needed on Alibaba.com (an amazing response, btw), thought it would have been nicer to have gotten some advice from the long-term users of that forum. In the end, I ended up taking a chance with a vendor in Beijing I’ve never done business with
Sandy, is it too much to expect you to have posted more like what you did above, than with the wiseacre remark. This is supposed to be the WCIF forum. It would have been more appropriate for you to quote taihu57’s post and post your joke in the Temp forum. I’m all for Forumosa being a source of entertainment, but it’s also meant to be a place where people can go to for help
[quote=“joesax”]
The card has to have a TW billing address to use that site, doesn’t it? Anyway, the guy’s offering to pay the money for the item in advance. Sandman’s suggestion about paying the shipping/commission in advance too sounds good, though. Maybe that’s something the OP could consider.[/quote]
Fair enough, but then the OP’s taking a huge leap of faith him/herself. The vast majority of posters on forumosa have impeccable integrity, but there’s no doubt that a lot of scammers peruse this forum too.
Well, I’d trust someone with a sense of humour more than I would someone calling potential helpers jerks.
To not expect people to have a joke about it is a little naive, if you ask me. All it would need is a “I can understand the concern and jokes, but I really am serious, and here’s what I can do to show that I’m someone you can trust and help out.” Not sure if the “jerks” line works so well . . .
And for those who don’t know, this is very close to one of the classic Nigerian scams. A popular one a while back was to be contacted by someone with a genuine interest in buying something that you were selling online, and it would end up him getting the goods without shelling out a penny. Or the person asking for help is actually the vendor and is out to get your credit-card details. So to suggest that we jump in and help a newbie out with use of our credit cards is the opposite of what the admins should be doing, in my opinion - especially when bidding would mean lots of hurried transactions towards the end.
EDIT: There is, in fact, a scam called bid-assisting, which involves the victim receiving goods on someone else’s behalf because the bid isn’t open to international bidding.
taihu57, if you’re genuine, my advice is to do a little more than call people jerks.
Goose Egg, you should be protecting Forumosans from this kind of scam. The guy may be genuine, but you really shouldn’t be encouraging people to pay for, receive, and ship goods on a stranger’s behalf.
Well forgive me for not understanding this brilliant humor mastermind
Forget it. You guys are judging way too fast here. Sandman IS being a jerk here, you don’t just ONLY respond to someone with a joke, pretty much ridiculing them. It’s also insulting to just keep saying “Nigerian scam” over and over. I said I was new here, I was trying to be nice. Clearly some people just don’t have a good nature and want to jump on the newcomer immediately just because he has a request…
I’m out of this community. You can blame sandman for scaring off someone who’'s studied Mandarin for 5 years and was looking to actually maybe even make friends here besides getting a little help. Request or not, I may be new but I don’t need to be talked down to like I really AM a scammer; make that judgment when you have proof, making assumptions just makes you look bad here, not me.
Well, if none of us is going to help with the actual bidding, maybe someone knows about a middleman kind of site for this?[quote=“taihu57”]I wish there were a site for this, but it seems Ruten has no “middleman” sites yet. I’d really appreciate if anyone can help me, or even direct me to some site I may not know of that does this for you.[/quote]
I get what Goose Egg means about the tone, but Forumosa is what it is. Gotta take the rough with the smooth and all that.
Hi taihu57, sorry to see you getting such a rough reception here! I’d just like to ask for some clarification. Why is it that if you are not in Taiwan, it’s not possible to bid on Ruten? Where’s the hitch? Is it that they’re only accepting ATM payments, or won’t ship abroad, or what? Is it that they won’t take your credit card if it’s not Taiwan-based?
I believe I have paid Ruten sellers without using a credit card, so I don’t think credit card payment is required. I used an ATM, and I know you couldn’t do that from abroad, but the ATM accounts are in banks and can receive wire transfers if you get the additional routing info from the seller.
Could you not contact the seller and ask whether they can take a wire transfer or Paypal payment, as well as whether they can ship internationally if you cover the extra cost?
I have ordered items countless times from auction sites in other countries.
To others, if taihu put up the money in advance and then you paid by ATM, not credit card, I don’t see how there would be any risk to you (unless someone was trying to get you to transship drugs, but I don’t see how they would benefit from that arrangement as opposed to direct shipping). Please let me know if I’m missing something.
[quote=“taihu57”]Hi all. I’m new here and this is my first post. Probably not the best way to come in but I’m desperate
There are a couple of items on Ruten.com.tw that I want to bid on, but since I’m not in Taiwan it’s not possible for me. Would anyone here that uses Ruten be able to bid for me and ship the items to me? I would hope we could come to some sort of agreement on how that’d work if someone volunteers. Of course you’d get a little extra in addition to the cost of the item.
I wish there were a site for this, but it seems Ruten has no “middleman” sites yet. I’d really appreciate if anyone can help me, or even direct me to some site I may not know of that does this for you.
Thanks! [/quote]
Hi T57,
In addition to answering Dragonbones questions, maybe you can tell us where you are located, and what specific items you are after, perhaps some of our savvy researchers can source out your items where you will not need a middle man. Could even be cheaper, too!
[quote=“marboulette”][quote=“joesax”] Gotta take the rough with the smooth and all that.[/quote]Agreed. Especially when the rough is a moderator, a veteran poster and a good friend of the site administrator. Take it or leave it is right…
marboulette[/quote]That’s not what I meant. Forumosa seems to make us all a bit rough sometimes. Anyway, I’m out of here. Going to enjoy my Saturday. Good luck to the OP.
[quote=“joesax”][quote=“marboulette”][quote=“joesax”] Gotta take the rough with the smooth and all that.[/quote]Agreed. Especially when the rough is a moderator, a veteran poster and a good friend of the site administrator. Take it or leave it is right…
marboulette[/quote]That’s not what I meant. Forumosa seems to make us all a bit rough sometimes. Anyway, I’m out of here. Going to enjoy my Saturday. Good luck to the OP.[/quote]
I know that’s not what you meant. That’s what I said, not you.
There are a select few on this board that you can’t really argue with. If you do, your posts end up cut up, moved and or merged into a new thread or something. Some really crafty moderating happening sometimes when you disagree with the wrong posters… Not to mention the herds of sheep out and about… It can be rough, indeed!
As Stray Dog pointed out, the OP APPEARS to be trying to work what appears to be a classic and common Internet scam. So. Maybe he’s not. In which case I apologize unreservedly. On the other hand, this is the Internet, for heaven’s sake! Where scams like this are very common, and this is NOT a known poster. I don’t believe I was out of line AT ALL with my response, and nor was Stray Dog.
Oh, and by the WAY – just to keep the record absolutely STRAIGHT – it so happens that among all the hand-wringing, name-calling and wrong-headed opinions, the ONLY poster to ACTUALLY OFFER ANY FUCKING HELP was yours truly.
And, my commission is a MERE 35% of the value of the goods!
Bloody ingrates.
By the way, what actually happens when you bid on behalf of another person and win. When the person on whose behalf you’re bidding is the actual seller and then doesn’t hand over the money? Are you liable or can you just not pay? Would that put only your future transactions on that site in jeopardy or would there be criminal proceedings?
NOT, of course, that there’s ANYONE with an Internet connection who would ever even DREAM of doing such a thing, of course…
