Trying to sell a bike and i have 2 people who want to pay and then i send it by post. they both say they are using Anibis secure payment and send me a link which doesnt give much info on how it works in practice. the first person sent me a qr code in the message which has the anibis logo. i scanned it and it goes through a complicated process involving text meassages and my bank. in the end my credit card didnt work but worryingly i got a second message saying a payment of 800chf had been declined.
Anyone know how anibis secured payment works? The second person says i get a text message from anibis. These look like scams to me but this website is genuine:
it should go without saying, but you should not be visiting links sent to you by people you don't know - esp. with payment methods that you are not familiar with. these can easily install malware on your devices and if you're foolish enough to type in your bank credentials, well, the potential risk is even greater.
From reading the Anabis website you have to offer your bike for sale on the Anabis site. Than the buyer will purchase the bike from the classified ad. It appears that the buyer will pay a 5% charge.
I haven't used it but it appears to be a simple Escrow type system run be Tripartie.
You, as a seller, have to register with Tripartie and they need to verify your identity. This is a one time operation.
When you advertise something, you need make the selection to offer secure payment «Sicheres Bezahlen».
The purchaser pays Tripartie (including service and postal costs). The seller is informed that the payment has succeeded and prints an address label from his/her Tripartie account and despatches the goods. The purchaser gets the goods and, if all is well, acknowledges receipt in their Tripartie account and the seller then gets the payment.
You, the seller, do not simply believe any SMS, emails etc. saying that the payment has been made by the purchaser. You should go into your Tripartie account and verify the payment has been received. I guess you can't even print an address label until the money is at Tripartie.
I can't understand how you, as seller, would have been informed that an 800chf payment had failed, since that should be a matter between the purchaser and Tripartie. That is unless you were hoodwinked into making such a payment yourself and can then be glad it failed.
"Seems" complicated? Meaning you have never done it, but it must be complicated because it looks like complicated to you?
Practically one can usually get an empty box from any bike shop which they receive new bikes in - they would just throw these away. Then, depending on the size of the box, just remove the first wheel or both wheels, wrap them, remove the handlebar and wrap / fix it to the frame, and cover the sensitive parts on the frame. I would also remove the derailleur hanger, just to be sure. Put parts in the box, close the box, and you are ready to ship!
Alternatively there are some couriers (certainly in the UK, not sure about CH) which just accept the bike as-is, and provide pickup service. So really all you need to do is give your bike to them.
Your second sentence I completely agree with, but not because of the first sentence.
So they scammed you - almost -, but you got lucky. NEVER follow links sent to you from any source, and NEVER give your credit card or bank details unless you are 100% sure you know who is asking for it and why. And don't believe that people will just want your bike unseen and unconditionally. Did they ask any questions about it?
What page are you listing your bike on? Don't they provide some kind of a guarantee for both yourself and the buyer (like ebay)?
What kind of person ships a bicycle without removing the pedals first? Such savagery Just joking. More seriously, the simple act of removing the pedals requires a 15mm pedal wrench, or a rather long 8mm Allen key. It might be surprising, but not everyone has one of these at home.
Back to important issue: fully agree with you. Never input the credit card details on unknown websites, ever.
Probably you should report the case, at least the one leading to the attempted CHF 800.- transaction, say using the contact form https://www.anibis.ch/fr/contact.aspx .
Almost every time when selling a used electronic device on Anibis I was contacted by scammers trying to trick one into sending the item by faking some payment confirmation.
I'll let you in on a secret - bike shops can package your bike too (for a fee of course, which you can add to shipping costs). A long time ago I bought a bike in the US while on a short term contract there, I of course had no tools with me, but wanted to take the bike back home. So that is what I did - asked the bike shop I bought the bike at to have it packed for me. (That was actually the easy part - I spent far more time and effort trying to sqeeze the bike box into the trunk of my rental car - you'd think they have big cars in America, well, they might be big on the outside, but not very spacious inside - but that's another story.)