Need advice on buying points from a TUG ad

[Traveladdiction]

Hello there! I am a little short on Marriott legacy points and found an ad on here, and have been in contact by email with the owner... I think the deal may go through, but was wondering if you had any advice on protecting myself from getting scammed... He seems like an honest nice guy, but I just want to be careful... Is paypal safe enough? If I don't get the points transferred to my account, I can always file with paypal right?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[TUGBrian]

there are a number of TUG advice articles in the advice section here that discuss selling and buying: http://advice.tug2.net

they also discuss it from both sides of the transaction, so you can get a feel for what SHOULD happen, and be able to identify if something seems abnormal.

 

[slum808]

Best advice is to look at his post count and even his post. Is he a contributing member or just someone who created an account to post an ad. There are lots of long time members out there who have points for rent, you can try GregT's rental site for alternatives. Just find a post by GregT and click on the link in his signiture that says my website.

I don't believe paypal give protection on non tangable items like points. You can always do a three way call so that marriott can verify that he has the points to transfer. Once confirmed you hit make payment on paypal and it only takes a minute for him to get his confirmation. At that point he can complete the transaction with Marriott.

 

[curbysplace]

As a way of disclaimer I have sold points via the TUG Marketplace and don't have any 2012 points left to sell. Because of my interest in point sales I am an active observer of point sale threads on the TUG board. To date I have not seen or heard of any situations where the buyer did not receive what he or she purchased. If you are concerned enough that you want some protection you can find a contract to use in the transaction but often it can be burdensome and take time. I say this because the seller of the points may find another buyer in the interim who will not ask for a contract and you could be out of luck on purchasing those points and miss out on making the reservation you are looking for. PayPal is a very appropriate way to make the purchase. To answer your question regarding filing with PayPal you probably need to look at their terms and conditions and what your remedies might be.

 

[Traveladdiction]

Also the seller states he is from Europe.

 

[NJMOM2]

Please clarify. Are you buying DC points or are you DC renting points?

I wouldn’t want you to make a mistake. If you are buying DC points to add to your portfolio they will be very restricted to use as resale DC points. If you are renting points they would be for a one time use year – make sure you are renting the correct use year for your vacation plans.

 

[Traveladdiction]

Just wanted to thank everyone for their excellent advice... The member is an active one here, and as anticipated, the transfer went through quickly and seamlessly! (he may even chime in here)

Whew!

 

[Traveladdiction]

Yes njmom, I was renting, and for the correct year. Good advice though!

 

[bobmcgraw]

Now that the rental has gone through successfully, I feel I can chime in (since I have points for rent and did not want to appear to be trying to get a rental through this thread.)

I have used Greg T's site for renting points to others and the instructions he has at the bottom of the page work really well.

I will also put in a plug for the points system. I wasn't sure if I should try to rent my whole week the old way or convert it to points and rent the points. After getting advice from fellow Tuggers, I decided to go the points route.

I have not yet rented all the points I want to rent but I have rented more than half, the transactions have been easy and once the points are transferred to the other owner, I don't have to worry about anything. I am done. And they get to choose when and where they vacation.

I think it give an added level of flexibility that did not exist before!!

 

[Venter]

I am from Europe.

Also the seller states he is from Europe.

I own in the US but live in Europe and have rented out points sucessfully. This fact should therefore not worry you too much.

When did my first rent I was concerned that the renter would want all kinds of guarentees and make it all cumbersome but fortunately it all went smoothly. I went out with the understanding between me and the renter that I would like to keep my reputation clean as I would like to rent out in the future. Unfortunately it is no guarentee if you are the first to rent from a person but should anything go wrong I am sure the whole TUGG community will know about it.

 

[abdibile]

Just wanted to thank everyone for their excellent advice... The member is an active one here, and as anticipated, the transfer went through quickly and seamlessly! (he may even chime in here)

Whew!

I think you rented from me