Avoiding getting screwed by a merchant

[Ambulance Chaser]

When buying an expensive item by mail order or over the internet from a merchant that does not accept credit cards, what is the form of payment that best avoids getting screwed if the merchant turns out to be unscrupulous?

 

[Connemara]

This is one hell of a threak resurrection.

 

[rnoldh]



This is one hell of a threak resurrection.

Weren't you in the 4th grade when this thread started?

 

[Connemara]



Weren't you in the 4th grade when this thread started?

Pretty close.

 

[Harold falcon]

Lol, why did nobody answer Ambulancesy's query?

 

[L'Incandescent]

I PM'd him at the time. (I was a different username then.)

 

[acidboy]

more importantly, who was this merchant?

 

[Ambulance Chaser]

LOL. I'm pretty sure that payment technology has advanced sufficiently in the last 11+ years to make my original question moot. I think I started this thread after getting screwed over by an eBay merchant of soccer jerseys. Lesson learned: Never use Western Union to pay somebody you don't know.