So I won a macbook air on ebay..

I won an auction on ebay for a late 2008 model macbook air but the seller seemed very shady about his item. I just couldn't resist the price, no reserve so the laptop was won for only 1100. His auction only described the 2008 model and specs but failed to report if it was in working condition. I asked the seller about the laptop he tells me its fine and he upgraded the ram to 3gb in his shop. Now if I remember correctly, the air has 2gigs of ram soldered onto the MB so how was this person able to achieve 3gbs? I called paypal and they said that I would recieve a refund asap if the item does not fit the auction details so im not too worried. Im just curious to what the person may have done to increase the ram.

 

Well, as you said the 2GB are soldered onto the MB. The only way to get around this would be to remove one (or both) of the chips and solder a larger chip on there. However, it would require quite a bit of skill and would certainly not be covered under Apple's warranty.

He may also have just configured 1GB of virtual memory and is calling it "RAM".

Regards,

z.

 

I'm curious as to what will happen. It seems very unlikely that he upgraded to 3GB.

What was his reputation like?

 

If you link to the auction it would be a lot easier to suss.
It's not like we can outbid you

 

A rule of thumb. If a deal sounds too good to be true then there must be something wrong.
I hope that paypal will keep their promise if anything goes wrong.
Good Luck

 

$1100 is certainly a low price for a late 2008 MBA but not ridiculously low. What's his rep like? The 3 GB upgrade is worrisome. Why not ask him straight out how he did it? Has he shipped it out out yet? In the end it's a good thing you paid with PayPal at least you have some recourse. I hope you get your MBA in the end in good working and physical condition.

 

I did ask him about his upgrade and he claimed I was asking too many questions that did not pertain to business (confused me). He has 1 positive feedback.

 

I hope everything works out for you or that Paypal indeed protects you like you said.

I personally would not buy stuff like this from someone with only 1 feedback. I want to see at least 10x/20x positive feedback, with very little negative feedback. And I always check if the seller has sold expensive items before and why he got the negative feedback and how he responded to it.

 

Well then he's a idiot, try and get your money back. Link to the ebay?

 

Pertain to business? This guus aounds kindof shady you have the right to know since you purchased it. Hopefully it works out for the best

 

After being screwed over by PayPal twice in the past, I don't trust them as far as I can throw them.

I'd never buy something that expensive on eBay to begin with, but I also wouldn't expect PayPal to save me if something went wrong.

 

Yeah some of you probably know who Leo Laporte is, he got scammed for like $3000 I think for a video camera and ebay wouldn't get his money back, it wasn't until he started talking about it on his podcast/live stream he got his money back. You are probably better off using Visa or Master card.

 

If you pay using your PayPal balance, and the seller already withdrew the funds there's a slim chance you'll
get your money. I rarely with my balance, I always put it on a debit or credit card. From personal experience and websites like PayPalsucks.com the seller is usually the one that gets screwed.

 

Sorry for the OP. I hate to say this...BUT... its really the OP's fault for not reacting smartly about the whole thing. He asked the seller specific questions before buying and he got responses like "You're asking too many questions" and the seller said he upgraded the memory to 3GB when the OP knew the ram is soldered to the motherboard. Also the seller had 1 feedback score and the OP still gave the seller $1100.00 which seemed way too low for this type of computer? There are quite a few scams on Ebay and this one was quite prominent enough for most people to easily detect. Again, sorry to the OP, it may not be very easy to get a refund, Paypal sucks.

 

I hate ebay, there are so many cheaters on ebay. I would rather buy something in local store or o amazon.com

 

A link to ebay would answer a lot of the questions.

 

It's 2 late, but for your future sake..
You can always check how many items the seller is selling. If a person is trying to screw you in auction, he probably is selling many expensive at once.

Nevertheless, it is possible the seller don't understand what he is talking about and just want to get ridof it.

 

This has so many red flags that if you do lose money you have no one to blame but yourself.

 

Aw, I think you guys embarrassed him. Sounds like a few people have been ripped off here already.
Ebay is funny like that, a combination of impulse buy and mail order that lets con artists do their thing with very little effort. It's easy to think that you are unscammable and savvy, then you see that one thing, at an impossible price and take the risk. Everybody thinks they're smarter, that's why these scams work and will continue to work, just like the glut of new product auctions on there that are above retail price even before shipping.

 

Yeah I was thinking that I just didn't want to point it out. XD My New years resolution, Be less of a dick

Anyways, When I buy stuff I always check seller feed back, see if I can find feed back for the item I am buying, if I have questions I ask BEFORE I bid, Shipping cost, those cheap items that seem like a great deal will change once they add that $50 shipping charge on a item that would only take $15 to ship.

Ebay is filled with scammers, probably why they are seeing less business. There some good stories on what people have done once they got scammed.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=270324201617

I paid through my credit card using paypal so im not worrying about receiving my money back. Some of you seem to be confused, the seller told me that im asking too many questions after I won the item. He said that he has two models, one with 3gb and the other with 2gb. I was just curious if there was any other way to increase the ram [Iwithout[/I] soldering it to the motherboard.

 

Nope, there isn't AFAIK.

Unfortunately and sadly, you've been scammed.

 

File a dispute immediately.

 

Ok ive filed a dispute with both paypal and my cc. My CC company guaranteed full protection so everything should go well. Kinda sucks that I wasted my time =/

 

Im pretty sure some of those pictures arent even of the macbook air

 

There not XD

 

As far as I know, what ya don't see, ya don't get.

If he didn't put any details as far as condition goes, chances are you're getting what he put up: a bunch of nothing.

 

If its TOO good to be true, it usually is sadly..

 

Luckily, you did the right thing by using a real credit card via PayPal.

PayPal really tries to sell you on using Instant transfers or Echecks. I like how other funding options is a font size or two smaller, lol.

I've switched over to using a credit card for everything for the added protection via PayPal.

 

Sorry to hijack this thread, but my friend is in a similar situation. He bought a 60GB PS3 on ebay (due to backwards compatibility, which Sony screwed the pooch on, but that's another thread). It was $365, which is cheap. He paid with Paypal linked to a bank account. It's been over a week and still no PS3. He filed a dispute with paypal. What recourse does he have? AFAIK Paypal covers you for up to $2k, but how well does paypal handle disputes?

 

That depends on the item. It could either be 0, up to $200, up to $2000, or full price. He needs to check the listing again and see whether he's covered for up to $2000 or greater. If he isn't, then he lost money.

 

Yeah, he did. According to the auction he's covered up to $2k. Hopefully, paypal will come through.

 

Also, does anyone have any tips for getting paypal to expedite the process? Should we call them and or will they just tell us to wait for the investigation to finish? Would pointing them to his posts on paypalsucks or the consumerist help?

 

pointing them to paypalsucks will most likely not help the situation.

 

lol. true that. also...i don't get it...if i were to scam...i'd do a better job of it and not tip off the buyer like this. this guy sucks at scamming lol.

disclaimer: i am not a scammer .

 

So any updates?

 

I never buy anything over $500 on eBay, unless I can't get it anywhere else and the seller has pristine feedback. If the price is that low, you're either getting scammed or buying a stolen product. I wouldn't want either.

 

^if apple has 5000+ positive feedbacks,it means something

 

I got my money back. Won a NIB macbook for a bit more from someone with good feedback. Never buying anything used on ebay again =/

 

check out apple outlet-they have base model for 999

 

On the ebay note, I have been toying with the idea of finding MacBook's and MacBook Pro's with screen damage, to build a little Render Farm, a very portable render farm. ^_^

I have been scoping it out for awhile, but I am still not quite sure what a MBP will go for without a working screen.

I would just be accessing each one through Screen Sharing or even get them gridded together.

hmm. . .

 

^good idea if you think that it will be useful for you!BTW,new screens are ~120$,in case you ever want to make them "proper" again

 

wow amazing you got your money back quick, congrats