advice on buying a flute online

[john]

There's someone I'm in touch with on fb marketplace about a flute for sale.

I'm a little wary about buying this way (I don't think there's buyer protection as on ebay), so I've asked the seller to provide their name, adress and number.

They've said that they're not comfortable doing so and that a return address will be on the package anyway.

Any thoughts? I'm in the right to request the information I've asked for aren't I?

[Peter Duggan]

I wouldn't buy off someone who wouldn't tell me who they were!

[john]

When you put it that way Peter it doesn't sound like much to ask.

[Katharine]

Are you paying via Paypal? They're supposed to have protections as well (just make sure you send as a payment, not to "friends and family"). I'm not sure about protections on Venmo and similar, but it seems I've heard that technically Paypal and Venmo are owned by the same company, so perhaps. Not familiar with others.

But yes, as privacy-conscious as I am (some would say paranoid, I might not even dispute that), if I were hoping someone would send me a fair amount of money in trust that I would send them a product, I would understand if they would want to know who I am.

If you assure the seller that you are indeed going to buy and aren't just trying to mine their info, IMO they should understand. (If they're that concerned about privacy, interacting with strangers on Facebook probably isn't the best way to go about it; I take it they're one of those people who doesn't use their real name on Facebook/has a straw account?)

[john]

I searched the seller's name and the word 'muscian'. There was a website with a URL consisting of the person's name hyphenated and '-music.business.site'. I've contacted them to ask if they are the same person. On the website a mobile number and full postal address are given for this musician (a highland piper, fluter and whistler). I'll see what happens. Hopefully, if it's the same person we can go ahead with the sale. That's if they're not cheesed off with me doing this cross-checking and contacting them this way.

[Dan A.]

I've had similar experiences in the recent past (no money changed hands, fortunately). Such sellers are what I refer to as "flakes." Flakes are not the sort of people I want to do business with. Just my $0.02.

[busterbill]

This does sound a bit suspicious to me as well. If they are running a business they'd want to tell you who they are. If they are a person in the Irish Trad community selling a flute for Irish music or the like, they most likely would want to know you. But if you are talking about boehm flutes all bets are off.

It could be useful to us here if we had a link or a screen shot. We might be able to give you better advice.

[an seanduine]

I would not be so concerned about how ´cheesed-off´'the seller might be, as how ´cheesed-off´ I might be if I somehow lost sizable money for naught. Ḿy pennies come hard.

Bob