intecel

Here's the story after I gave him reasons I didn't want to sell to him. He says that his girlfriend is in the U.S. visiting her aunt, he really wants the camera, but doesn't want to pay customs fees for shipping out of country. I think this is a pretty valid reason, as I called the number and there was a person with the shipping name visiting there.

I've read and heard of too many horror stories to go through paypal for this. I called paypal to ask why they're charging me fees for a premier account if I'm not getting seller protection. They couldn't even tell me why the transaction did not fall in the protection agreement. All they said is that if it doesn't say 'eligible for protection' on the transaction, it doesn't matter why, they just don't give protection on it.

I decided to try out bidpay.com. I've heard great things about them from friends, and from boards. It seems they give the sellers a lot more protection than the buyers (which is good for me on a deal like this), as long as the item is shipped with tracking and signature required.

With all the emails back and forth with him willing to deal with me, I seriously doubt he is trying to scam me at this point. If so, I'm out $400. It's not the end of the world I guess.