for me, when it's a high dollar transaction i always try to talk to the person on the phone at least once. Its a lot easier to get a feeling for a person when you can hear their voice. Postal money orders are the hot ticket because, as was said above, getting a fed fraud rap is enough to make a lot of folks think...the postal guys are fairly agressive in persuing that kind of thing.
I got a pair of dunlavy athenas shiped from NC to Ne by covering shipping and a deposit with a PMO and then paying the rest with a PMO COD when the boxes came off the truck. If the boxes are trashed you can put a hold on the rest of the transaction right there. I went to a freight co to get my speakers shipped and it cost less than $300 as i remember. Much cheaper and to be honest i trust those guys more than the UPS guys. the trucking company just looked at the trucks in the are and found one with a partial load to fill and away they went. coordination between the seller and the trucker got a bit tricky but it worked.
That crap about fed ex/ups settling with the shipper is a chief rant of mine. I've had claims on about 30% of the stuff i've recieved and it is a huge hassel. THe seller has his money and sometimes they are in no hurry to settle things, especially considering the cooperative nature of the package services.
I got a pair of dunlavy athenas shiped from NC to Ne by covering shipping and a deposit with a PMO and then paying the rest with a PMO COD when the boxes came off the truck. If the boxes are trashed you can put a hold on the rest of the transaction right there. I went to a freight co to get my speakers shipped and it cost less than $300 as i remember. Much cheaper and to be honest i trust those guys more than the UPS guys. the trucking company just looked at the trucks in the are and found one with a partial load to fill and away they went. coordination between the seller and the trucker got a bit tricky but it worked.
That crap about fed ex/ups settling with the shipper is a chief rant of mine. I've had claims on about 30% of the stuff i've recieved and it is a huge hassel. THe seller has his money and sometimes they are in no hurry to settle things, especially considering the cooperative nature of the package services.