Craigslist deals

My past experiences with Craigslist has not always been positive. There are a few deals on there for what they claim to be new Airsense 10 and or gently used machines under 500. These are on the various New Jersey Craigslist boards.

Does anyone know of a past scam with these purchases. One guy appears to be on many boards and wants to do things through paypal without any phone contact. I am leery of this as a scam.

gman41 wrote:My past experiences with Craigslist has not always been positive. There are a few deals on there for what they claim to be new Airsense 10 and or gently used machines under 500. These are on the various New Jersey Craigslist boards.

Does anyone know of a past scam with these purchases. One guy appears to be on many boards and wants to do things through paypal without any phone contact. I am leery of this as a scam.

Craigslist can have some deals and some scams. If you don't feel comfortable do NOT deal with them. Ask to do it your way and certainly get some contact info.
Use common sense and always, always meet in a public place - pick one you know has cameras. Certainly you want to see and plug in anything that needs power to make sure it works, doesn't smell, and to check the user hours on the cpap. Leave your cash in the car or with a friend outside.

If the seller seems like a scam there is a link to report it.

But Grayghost on this forum is a very reliable and honest seller - has a lot of good stuff a lot of the time if you want to PM him.

I do have several new and used machines ... but I am not home and the machines are at my home.

I am in Rochester MN ... Mayo clinic... my wife is going to have hip replacement next friday ... so I will not be home for a month .... it has been a busy surgery time for her ... gallbladder last month and now a new hip

gman41 wrote:
"One guy appears to be on many boards and wants to do things through paypal without any phone contact. I am leery of this as a scam."


I will ONLY pay with Paypal since they have buyer protection...but my purchases have been from a distance having item shipped to me. Done this many times with no problem.

I alwaystry to make contact by phone though... since you can tell alot about a person through conversation, attitude and such. So if someone will not speak to you...I'd forget about it.
CN

I have made a purchase of a Resmed 10 Auto...brand new in box...made it in person and have their lic plate if I need it. 400 dollars was a bargain. Still in box and wrappings.

I thought about the buyer protection in Paypal but feared a hacking attempt once they got the paypal address and my home address to ship it to. In person is much better I agree.

I think I got extremely lucky and will follow up with this over the weekend after I get it set up.

There is a clinical menu on the 10 where you can see the hours of use overall which will tell me if it is in fact brand new or needs to be cleaned. Who would do the internal cleaning if I ever needed it. My next move would have been a dreamstation from Secondwind unless I found another on line source.

Either lucky or a fool...we will see later on..

I think the biggest problem you will have with cpaps isn't so much a scam as it being sold by folks who have NO IDEA what they have or how many machine hours are on it (they aren't the owner - maybe grandma was). I can't fault you - there are scams on Craigslist. Even our county sheriff now has an exchange spot in their parking lot with cameras so that people can swap out what they bought. Only do what you feel comfortable with. My sis and BIL are very bothered by using Craigslist, so occasionally I just buy or sell stuff for them. But I won't do tools since I know nothing about them.

This place does cleaning.
http://www.acbio.com

gman41 wrote:There is a clinical menu on the 10 where you can see the hours of use overall which will tell me if it is in fact brand new

While you likely got a deal, I still think the hours of use should have been checked BEFORE any money changed hands, esp. when dealing with cash sales.

Paypal does offer buyer protection but there are times when you will not get your money back still. I remember reading about one case on here.

gman41 wrote:My past experiences with Craigslist has not always been positive. There are a few deals on there for what they claim to be new Airsense 10 and or gently used machines under 500. These are on the various New Jersey Craigslist boards.

Does anyone know of a past scam with these purchases. One guy appears to be on many boards and wants to do things through paypal without any phone contact. I am leery of this as a scam.

I have new Airsense 10 and new Dreamstation machines available. I have sold to many people on this forum and I'd be happy to speak to you on the phone . PM me if you're interested and I'll be happy to pass along my number.

The majority of people who attempt to use a CPAP machine do not remain compliant. (Unfortunately many people don't manage to find a way to make it a tolerable experience.) As a result a lot of machines end up available as lightly used machines. A lot of lightly used machines are given back to provider because they were paid for by an insurance company & if a person is not compliant per their standard, the insurance company requires it to be returned.

My impression is that these sometimes end up in the hands of respiratory therapists who resell them. I bought my whole set up from a respiratory therapist: Resmed Vauto, heated tube, new water chamber & top-of-the-line mask for $600. Would have cost over $2000 new.

I believe that nominally these transactions are illegal because they are prescription items. My sleep doctor suggested the used alternative to me. I had taken the overnight test at the hospital & only slept 30 minutes & that at stage one. I didn't have an event during that brief window & therefore doc couldn't give me a diagnosis of sleep apnea - so didn't qualify for insurance coverage for CPAP equipment.

I don't usually sleep well the first few nights away from home & the mass of wires made it impractical to sleep on my side as I usually do. Also I usually go to bed at about 2am & they made it clear they wanted me to try to go to sleep at 10pm since they had to leave the study center at 7am. I got up early the day I was to go in & was very tired, but still hardly slept.

Anyway based on things I reported to the doctor he thought it likely I did have apnea & said perhaps I could afford to buy without insurance if I needed relief. I just used what I gathered was a pretty standard setting ration of 4/8 for my epap/ipap.

After I paid by PayPal I was able to see the name of the seller at PayPal. When I looked him up online, he was a respiratory therapist. He was great to deal with.

I think there really are a lot of fine machines out there from honest sellers. It stands to reason since a lot of them are prescribed, paid for by insurance & then returned. I found a lot of them advertised online. It appears that like importing prescription meds, this is an Rx law that gov is not interested in enforcing.

SewTired wrote: Even our county sheriff now has an exchange spot in their parking lot with cameras so that people can swap out what they bought.

Gotta love them Sheriffs!!!

Sheriff

I used the machine last night without a hitch. My AHI was 1.3 per hour.....feeling rested and better.

Is it cheaper for the insurance companies to just give the machine, even gently used ones out...then go through the monitoring process.

My insurance is Horizon Blue of N.J. and it costs about 32k per year. 1100 each month is my cost. They made me go through a second company called Carecentrix who then hooked me up with Meridian Healthcare here. No one can explain the need for Carecentrix or the middle man except that Blue hires them to introduce me to a supplier of durable medical equipment. They approve nothing, just get billed by the supplier.

It is much easier to go out on your own if you can get a good deal and have the funds. The denial of the sleep study first, then the denial of the machine, then the recovery of the machine over a small amount of non compliance was not cost effective to either them or me.

gman41, I'm glad to read that the machine is working for you!! As for insurance companies, a lot of what they do appears to waste scads of money. I don't get it either.

I have an Airsense 10 available for sale, and I do a transactions on paypal.

funinsun5 wrote:I have an Airsense 10 available for sale, and I do a transactions on paypal.

Start a separate thread with pictures, more details like hours and price.
CN