posted on September 27, 2001 03:14:03 PM new
I for one am tired of it. I've bought clothes that were falling apart, clothes with moth-eaten holes, and stains, clothing with the lining ripping apart and suits wiith no button, or a zipper that no longer stays closed. I honestly can't believe it. I've bought porcelain represented as in good condition with chips or hairlines. Or it has been poorly packaged and arrives broken. I've bought items I never received. As a buyer I have been taken so many times, but as a seller I have to be honest, I've not had many problems. So what is up with all this, how often has this happened to you? I can't even count it has happened so often!
posted on September 27, 2001 03:33:14 PM new
Overall I haven’t had to many bad experiences as a buy up until August 10th when I bought an item On eBay for $96.99 with shipping I paid $109.00 total. The item is a piece of radio equipment and normally there isn’t to much if anything that can go wrong with this device unless it has been abused So I bid on it. The seller was fairly new and I bantered back and forth with myself if I should take a chance or not with a fairly new seller and on an item that I knew was going to end up with a winning bid of at least $90.00 or more. Then I remembered, we all have to start someplace so I went for it and won.
The item arrived, I set it up and it did not work. It was DOA. I contacted the seller and he told me to mail
It back and he would send me a refund. I mailed it USPS Priority Mail with Delivery Confirmation and Insurance to make sure it arrived. After checking the USPS web site and finding the item had arrived I contacted the seller. I received no reply. I did this a few times then went through eBay’s ask seller a question. The seller replied that he had been in the hospital and is still recovering. He will not be able to Get me my refund until October 3rd.
I replied to his e-mail and asked if he was in the hospital why is he still listing auctions. I asked is he going to take these people’s money and not send them anything until after the 3rd or contact and advise them he can’t deliver until after the 3rd.
I told him nicely, I wasn’t a very happy camper. I haven’t heard from him since and feel I am out $109.00 plus my return postage. I have since purchased an identical item through eBay, it should be arriving here by tomorrow or shortly thereafter considering possible delays due to the 9-11 tragedy.
I am very disappointed. I still may get my money, the buyer may be telling the truth but his lack of communication and response has me wondering. Either way it’s not a pleasant feeling or a buying experience I would want anyone else to experience. Even if it works out in the end which I have my doubts.
posted on September 27, 2001 03:39:06 PM new
Hmmm, not sure about the word "scammed." I suppose that could mean something to different people.
I buy a lot on ebay for re-sale. Most of my transactions have been very favorable, but I've had about ten situations where the item just didn't measure up and the seller absolutely refuses to offer any recourse. I don't get it, it's as though these sellers want to be quick to take offense and assume that me, the buyer, is trying to scam THEM by saying I'm not pelased . . . and they don't understand the value of cultivating repeat business. It's not that these sellers scammed me necessarily, it's just that they provide terrible customer service.
Yes, I've left negs in these circumstances, which sometimes leads to retaliatory negs. That just further goes to show the sellers' mentality in these cases. But I won't ever hesitate to stick up for myself if I feel the seller has dropped the ball.
posted on September 27, 2001 03:55:28 PM new
Through several hundred transactions I've never been scammed....Been burned only once where the seller shipped a VERY breakable item without packing it virtually at all. It had to travel all the way across the country so natch it arrived broken all to hell. She wouldn't start the claim so I did and (stupidly I guess!) I gave the parcel up to the claims clerk with the claim form. They forwarded it to the seller who refused to finish it and returned it to me. She was pissed because she quoted the ship cost too low and so she feels she also lost $ (she only lost a couple dollars; I lost much more!). So, since I no longer had the parcel there was nothing further I could do to recover my loss and she, at that point, wouldn't even respond to me at all anymore.
posted on September 27, 2001 03:55:57 PM new
You can't count that high. I have probably purchased 1200 items, one out of 3 transactions turn out to be not even close to as described. I have purchased insurance, it arrives with no insurance and shattered. I had to quit bidding on my selling id because I was leaving so many negatives. I am nice about it, my email always says "hello, I receieved the item today and I fear there has been a mistake, your auctions states-whatever-but I received an item with chips, cracks, crazing, etc. I feel sure there has been a mistake, please contact me." I also receive retalitory negatives from the seller, doesn't bother me anymore since I am using my other id. 310 feedback, 5 negs.
posted on September 27, 2001 04:36:29 PM new
Colonel,
I wouldn't hesitate to file fraud charges if after 30 days there is no refund. You will at lease get some of your money back through e-bay insurance. I would also consider telling him this, it might speed up the refund.
posted on September 27, 2001 04:40:02 PM new
Lisa B.
I can really relate to your reply. I've had sellers try to accuse me of the same thing. I have in all honesty never tried to con a seller but they seem quick to be defensive. I know there probably are dishonest buyers, I just haven't run into hardly any, mostly it has been the seller who has misrepresented an item.
posted on September 27, 2001 04:44:45 PM new
hcross
1 out of 3 might be a good estimate here also, that is a pretty high ratio of problems on the buying end. I like your idea of having a different buyer id. I might just do that myself. Can you hook it up to the same credit card and address without any problem. I am very careful about giving negative feedback because I have had retalitory feedback also. In all honesty if I see a few negatives it doesn't excite me and I still buy. I know it is bound to happen, but if there are many it sends a pretty clear signal.
[ edited by mhillyrd on Sep 27, 2001 05:01 PM ]
posted on September 27, 2001 06:55:00 PM new
I came very, very close to losing almost $100 awhile back. I bought some things that were advertised as being glass, and once I received them, discovered that many of them were worthless plastic. I e-mailed the seller to ask for a refund, and (after a number of e-mails) finally arranged that the seller have UPS pick the package up and return it for a refund. That still left me paying the shipping one way, but the seller flat refused to budge on that.
Well, UPS picked up the package and returned it to the seller. I got the tracking number from the UPS guy, so I had a record of exactly when the seller received the package.
To make a long story short, I ended up having to file a fraud report with eBay and a complaint with the Better Business Bureau in order for the seller to refund my credit card for the cost of the merchandise. It took about 2 months and many, many e-mails before the seller issued the refund.
I left a neutral for the seller after finally receiving my refund, and of *course*, got a neutral back. Thankfully I bid under my bidding ID instead of my selling ID, so it didn't really matter, but it was still annoying.
Every once in awhile I go back and look up the seller's feedback. They've accumulated quite a large number of negatives and neutrals since then, and are no longer selling (at least under that ID).
posted on September 27, 2001 07:01:28 PM new
Once for a few bucks out of a couple hundred buys. However, there is a long list of items that I would never, ever bid on or buy off eBay. My one rule is never bid more than I can afford to loose.
posted on September 27, 2001 07:21:17 PM new
For me...maybe 1 out of 4 have been scammed. I never received anything and only once have I been able to get my money back and that was for only $3.00. My latest I was scammed out of close to $25.00. The crook has 67 negs now (mine included) from all the people he's conned out of their money. And of course he leaves a neg in return.
I've bought from five AW sellers now and received my item each time, and one (won't mention any names) seems to try and bombproof the package. Another AW seller barely packaged the item and it was hanging out the box when it arrived, but I did receive it. Do a poll and say AW sellers are more honest than ordinary sellers?? lol Too generalized...probably someone lurking the cyberspace reading this board, learning tricks from honest help to overcome the small obsticles to stealing some person's hardearned money.
posted on September 27, 2001 07:30:15 PM new
Once. When I first started buying on eBay. A seller from Hawaii took me for 211.00, never sent the item. At that time you could not recover from ebay insurance if the seller had ANY negative FB & she had three.
Five days after I sent a check I again looked at her feedback & noticed she was now NARU. This was on a Friday & I had to wait until Monday morning to call my bank to stop payment & would you believe it, my check had already cleared.
I still get mad thinking about it.
I have been so careful since then that it would surprize me if it happend again.
One good thing to look for in the FB of the buyer you are dealing with is "exactly as described" That says a lot.
posted on September 27, 2001 07:38:54 PM new
Microbes
I buy almost entirely out of the porcelain category, also some clothing. Both have been problematic. For some reason the damaged clothing really bugs me. I wouldn't even begin to try to sell some of the things that have been sold to me. A word of caution, pictures are definitely misleading in this category.
[ edited by mhillyrd on Sep 27, 2001 07:47 PM ]
posted on September 27, 2001 07:41:11 PM new
"One good thing to look for in the FB of the buyer you are dealing with is "exactly as described" That says a lot."
posted on September 27, 2001 08:02:25 PM new
I don't agree that previous feedback is necessarily an indicator of how a seller will handle a problem.
Customer service is not just about the 99 good days a seller has. It's about how that seller handles that 100th day when something goes wrong.
I've dealt with some sellers who have high feedback (often because they deal primarily in some category other than vintage jewelry, which is where I do most of my buying), but then that seller really doesn't know enough about the item they have in hand to properly disclose all defects. Or, in the case of another seller, is blind as a bat and can't see that several stones are missing. SHE had the nerve to accuse me of vandalizing the piece myself to harvest the stones. On a $12 pin, give me a break!
So high or consistently good feedback isn't necessarily a tipoff.
One thing I am now VERY wary of are sellers who say "all sales final" or "as is." That tells me that maybe they are getting too many requests for returns. In any event, an inflexible return policy gives me pause, even if the seller seems to be on the surface, a good egg.
[ edited by Lisa_B on Sep 27, 2001 08:04 PM ]
posted on September 27, 2001 08:04:21 PM new
mhillyrd, I kind'a figured. That's the same stuff hcross buys. Some catagories are way more prone to problems than others. I sell way more than I buy, but so far I've had nothing but good luck with stuff I've bought.
I alway check a sellers feedback before I buy anything, and there has been a few times I was ready to buy until I looked at someones feedback. Obvious retalitory negs don't bother me, but if I see what look to me to be many honest negs, unless they where early in someones eBay career, and they have "clean" feedback since, I just don't take the chance. I'd rather take a shot with a newbie (but not on a high ticket item).
posted on September 27, 2001 08:11:28 PM new
It only happened to me once and it was BAD!
I bid and won a ring that was suppose to be 1.10CTTW. My winning bid was based on that fact. It was absolutely gorgous in the picture, but it was so magnified I couldn't really tell that these were not .10pt stones as stated in the ad. The title had said 1.00+ CTTW and then the ad said 11-.10pt stones.
When the item arrived it was indeed gorgeous, but I found that the stones were about .03pts each and the total weight was .33CT!!!!! Big difference!!!!!
I contacted the seller believing they had sent me the wrong item. I received a reply that said basically it was the right ring and they knew for a fact they had sent me a 1.10CTTW ring and what was I trying to pull!
I was shocked! I also was fairly new and didn't know what to do. I hadn't found AW yet!
This was on Yahoo NOT eBAY. I contacted them and was sent a canned message that said if I felt I had been defrauded I needed to leave appropriate FB, and contact the authorities. That was it! At that time they didn't even have their buyer's protection plan. It all came down to his word against mine!
I have hung on to it to remind myself to be very careful about what I bid on and who I deal with.
posted on September 27, 2001 08:18:54 PM newbut then that seller really doesn't know enough about the item they have in hand to properly disclose all defects.
This can be a problem, but normally you can tell from reading the discription if you are dealing with someone that isn't real knowledgable about the merchandise.
If that's the case, it's time to ask (lots of) questions if you are really interested in the item. And also to realise that if they are not real knowledgable you should hedge your bets, and not bid as much (or at all) as you might if you where buying from someone who knows the subject items inside and out.
Not being an expert doesn't equal being a scam artist.
posted on September 27, 2001 08:28:05 PM new
Been disappointed a few times but never really "scammed".
My worst case was a high ticket item w/a glass top that was VERY poorly packed. Naturally it arrived shattered. The seller refused to make good & had underinsured the item by 75%. He managed to drag out the hassles until I was past the file date for insurance. When I finally gave up & filed for USPS insurance (which he refused to do from his end), he then "claimed" he lost the insurance form. He, of course, got a neg & then returned it. Mine was buried long ago, his is still prominently sitting on his feedback page.
Perhaps we ought to start a thread on what to do when you've paid for insurance but the seller underinsures your item.
mhillyrd,
I don't sell much in the clothing or pottery line, but just because of problems like the ones you described, I try to over emphasize any "flaws" or problems. That way, I hope my customers aren't surprised. I get a lot of "better than described" feedback, so I hope I'm doing right by them.
posted on September 27, 2001 11:08:56 PM new
Twice I never received the item at all. eBay doesn't seem to care and lets the seller continue selling even though I jumped through all of their hoops. Several times the item has been misdescribed and a waste of money. I'm very hesitate to buy items online anymore. Everyone has a horror story or several horror stories.
posted on September 27, 2001 11:19:41 PM new
I Buy MOSTLY comic books and Somewhat Odd collectibles (Redline Johnny Lightnings for example). Condition is of Course EVERYTHING in these areas, BUT sellers DO take liberties with Grading on eBay, and it is often VERY difficult to tell the "overgraders" from the Accurate ones (feedback does help,BUT sometimes fails miserably ,in my opinion). I probably get "burned" 1 out of every 5-6 transactions, AND I am EXPERIENCED!!! I do think this sometimes helps to Lower the prices of some of the stuff I Bid (This uncertainty of grading) on and I can every once in a while get a real "steal".
posted on September 28, 2001 05:56:06 AM new
Wow! I must be very lucky as I have never not received an item I have purchased. I have been on eBay since November 1998 and have bought a couple hundred items, which is probably a low estimate. The very first item I bought arrived broken and the seller and I worked the insurance out with no problems. I have had other items broken, on a couple of them I was heartbroken as they were items that don't come around that often.
Just this morning I received an e-mail from a buyer that stated she was unhappy with her purchase and outlined each of the reasons why. These items were outside of my "normal" expertise and I didn't describe them correctly. I guess I could have chastised her for not asking questions prior to bidding but I simply refunded her money, including the postage she paid.
I like to be able to sleep at night and don't plan on having to explain a lot of things to St. Peter when I get to the gates.
posted on September 28, 2001 06:00:44 AM new
Of my five plus years on Ebay as a buyer I have been scammed once by the bullion seller in IL. I blame Ebay and the seller. Ebay allowed him to buy someone elses 10000 plus feed back profile and the seller for not makeing good on his offer.
As far as the buyers that recieved there items and it was mis graded. Keep this in mind -- the seller is always looking for the positive in an item to increase the value -- the buyer is always looking for the negative to lower the value.
I go to a lot of live auctions and I use this rule of thumb -- when something is graded - unless by an authentication service that you can see!!!! Alway down grade it 2 grades, this works for coins, books, etc. I have found it to almost always work. I have also found it to work on Ebay and I am normally not disappointed.
posted on September 28, 2001 08:10:37 AM new
That's terrible that someone could buy someone else's feedback profile!!! Can they still do that? Good grief...
posted on September 28, 2001 09:18:35 AM new
I've never been scammed. Never had an item not arrive. Never had an item arrive in a condition les than described in the auction.
posted on September 28, 2001 09:38:47 AM new
A revelation of my stupidity:
When I was VERY NEW, my husband and his lead singer were looking at recording studio equipment to finish their album. Well, they bid on a recorder but got sniped on it. So, the guy emails me privately and says he has another that he was going to put up for bid, but we could have it for $600. Now the guys considered this to be a fairly good deal, so we took it. When the recorder came the seller had not wrapped it in any type of protective material at all. The packaging was a box from a "Power Wheels" jeep that he had cut up and duct-taped around the recorder. The recorder itself had been dropped hard enough to bust of knobs, bend screws, and dent the casing so badly that the inner components were screwed up horribly. UPS wouldn't cover the inusrance because it was due to improper packaging, and I never could get the guy to answer me. Since it wasn't bought through Ebay exactly, I couldn't even leave a scathing negative.
This incident still burns my butt.
Other than that, I have never had a bad experience. But I figure the $300 for the big hunk of metal and $40 for shipping (this reflects our half of the purchase) I have paid my rip-off dues.
-edited to correct my lousy typing
Lady Atana
-really, I'm much smarter now
[ edited by ladyatana on Sep 28, 2001 09:40 AM ]
posted on September 28, 2001 09:40:21 AM new
Microbes,
Please re-read my previous posts. I was very careful to say that the word "scam" was not always applicable.
It is NOT always easy to discern whether a seller is or is not knowledgeable, at least not in the area I deal with. In some cases, a few defects may be disclosed (ones I could live with) -- only for me to get the item and realize the damage was MUCH WORSE and the seller only disclosed what was readily apparent. While it is important for buyers to ask questions, it is not fair to assume that buyer disappointment is the buyer's own fault for not doing "x".
In any event, once a problem is brought to a seller's attention, it is that seller's responsibility to make it right. If the seller ducks behind an "all sales final" defense even though all defects were NOT disclosed, or if the seller tries to put the blame on the customer, then that seller is at best, irresponsible and lacking in customer service.
posted on September 28, 2001 09:52:30 AM new
Here, I have used the word scammed loosely. I have been scammed as in not receiving merchadise at all. Or merchadise that is obviously damaged and impossible not to see it. There has also been unintentional misrepresentation.
In all fairness, I've had two sellers recently offer full refunds and return shipping, one for a wool jacket with moth-eaten holes, the other a plate with a hairline crack. The problem is this is a major shopping hassle and neither item would have been purchase if all defects were disclosed. I left them very nice feedback, and they deserve it for backing their items.
I use the all sales final, but it is meant to discourage returns. I would take an item back if misrepresented. I offered a full refund to a guy one time in this situation,I felt the item was not misrepresented. He declined as the item was purchased through billpoint and he said I would be charged a $10.00 chargeback fee. He must have been experienced with this. He was unreasonable at best and I was fairly new. He immediately left retalitory feedback, and said some nasty things. Oh well, he was the exception, not the rule.
