I'm very dissappointed with a few recent eBay deals - I've bought and sold over 100 items on eBay, but recently got shafted on 2 deals - one was a Porsche part from a private seller, and another was on a new radar detector from a supposed dealer.

The cover arrived completely useless - damaged before it was sent, and easy to see that someone had tried to glue it all back together. The detector never arrived at all, and now the "dealer" has mulitple negative complaints in the past week.

The point is that you can't trust eBay ratings anymore. Both sellers had supposed "positive" ratings.

And now there is no recourse other than to post a negative comment.... No help from eBay or PayPal either!

Anyone got suggestions other than posting the names of these deadbeat eBay vendors??

 

Randy,

I feel your pain. You have to be very careful nowadays. I've done alot of ebay selling/buying. Only piece of advice I have for you is to not look a the overall rating, but look at the feedback individually. If I'm bidding, and the seller has recent negatives, I don't bid. A few here and there are ok if there are a disproportionate number of positives also. The system can work. Go ahead and leave negative feedback so the next bidder won't get screwed. You can take some satisfaction that you're helping save an honest buyer from a jerk.

HTH

 

Randy,
I filed a fraud complaint with ebay against a guy who failed to send me a Porsche part. That got his attention real fast. He quickly refunded my money.

 

I dont trust this third party help in money matters. Asking for help from folks like Ebay and PayPal is like asking for ketchup with your fries at the drive thru -- it just goes in one ear and out the other. They are there to make money on your buying and selling, not help you get your 3-pak of hex nuts someone said they shipped.

I dont do a lot of Ebay purchasing, but do thousands (ok tens of thousands) over the web. I put it all on a credit card and if theres any trouble, I put it in contest and let the credit card company duke it out, plus Im not paying them a dime to use their money and their risk responsibility (at least when you dont pay fees and pay it off every month) so I win two times. The burden is on them to make it right and other than $50 or whatever it is, I dont carry the liability. It also helps when you talk to the Customer No-Service department at the establishment thats giving you grief and you tell them you are putting it in contest. They hate that and know they arent going to get your money and usually -- usually being the key word here -- try to make it right once you threaten.

Some smart companies (smart for their interests) are finally catching on to this and are starting to offer discounted prices on cash purchases. They get your money right away, you get a discount, they dont have to fight with Visa, just a nobody troll like yourself, and dont get dinged for the credit card transaction. For a 20 pack of #2 pencils at Kroger, it wouldnt be a big deal, but I sure wouldnt want my **** hanging out in the wind on a cash purchase on something expensive from a company I know little about. As PT Barnum said though...

I think a lot of those Ebay reviews are a bunch of horse dung. Isnt it amazing how enthusiastic they are. You buy a paper clip from a guy in Bozeman Montana and the review is "IT ARRIVED AT MY DOOR IN TWO DAYS, IN PERFECT SHAPE WITH A TRACKING NUMBER. MY GOD IT WAS EVEN GIFT WRAPPED AND OH WOW WHAT A PAPER CLIP!! DICKS PAPER CLIP FACTORY IS THE BEST!! IF I COULD BUY DICK A DICKIE TO SAY THANK YOU I WOULD I WOULD! WOULD DEFINITELY DO BUSINESS AGAIN! HE EVEN SENT BE A FREE BRASS TACK! OH IF I COULD HAVE AN INTIMATE RELATIONHSHIP WITH DICK, I'D SERIOUSLY CONSIDER IT IN LIGHT OF THIS AND IM A HAPPILY MARRIED MAN.

Sigh.

 

Thanks to all - yes, I am careful on buying from sellers with only good stats, but they can be so misleading.

These 2 purchases were from sellers with good recent feedback. The Rennlist community seems to share info pretty freely, and I just hate to see people get taken. Guess there are always a few rotten apples to spoil things for everyone else.

I usually prefer to use my VISA for the same reasons outlined above for precisely these reasons.

 

The only way to guard against someone who's decided to cash in their positive rating is to check to see if they have recently changed their selling pattern. Someone who has decided to rip people off will post a ton of items so they can cash in before the negative feedback is posted.

I don't expect EBay to get very involved in disputes, that's not their role.

Still, it must be a pain. So far, I've done well.

 

I'll throw in my 2 cents.

PayPal was always an issue from day one if you had a problem with the other party and you expected PayPal to get involved to resolve the matter fairly. I remember a print interview (think it was Wall Street Urinal) with a PayPal founder in which he prided himself for making it virtually impossible for users to contact the firm by telephone to get assistance in resolving problems. What does an attitude like this tell you?

EBAY has also recently acquired PayPal. So forget any further illusions about an independent third party overlooking the finances of the auction. And keep in mind EBAY now has your PayPal file and all the personal financial data that contains. I have been told EBAY was planning on data mining for various marketing schemes and I somehow find this a reasonable assertion.

The world's fraudsters have also set up shop on EBAY to sell larger ticket items, scam everyone and disappear. The new radar detector dealer would fit this profile. There is a group of EBAY vigilantes that are fighting the fraudsters and handing packaged cases to the FBI and local law enforcement. Tell them about this radar detector problem, though this scheme seems pretty clever so local law enforcement won't care about you getting ripped off. Sort of like complaining that a drug dealer sold you fake coke. <img src="graemlins/roflmao.gif" border="0" alt="[hiha]" />

You may know I have this hobby selling headlight upgrade packages to 924/944 owners. Many buyers ask if they can PayPal me the funds. I tell them to forget it, just send me a personal check. If either of us are thinking about fraud, may as well be up front about it. You need to trust the other party or get some real outfit like VISA involved for 3% of the transaction.

 

OK, so now hopefully one of y'all can answer a totally dumb question for me... what ever happened to good old COD shipping as a means of protection for both parties? I hear _soooo_ many rip-off stories about e-bay & other cyber purchases, and can't help but wonder why this process isn't used as a means of protecting both parties???

Here's my picture of how it would work... buyer agrees to buy; seller ships COD, emails buyer with exact total, including shippiong; buyer goes to bank, gets bank check for that exact amount (or cash???), turns it over to shipper when stuff arrives...If you can't be at home to pay the shipper, arrange for delivery to a Mailboxes, Etc or Post Net store & leave the funds with them.

What am I missing here???

Jim, my ignorance overfloweth...

 

Jim, my understanding of the COD thing is that some of the carriers (can you say UPS) are not so good at sending the shipper the money. Or rather the check. COD is a pretty messed up operation now that it has gone out of common use and no one understands it. And the driver would have to sit around for a while to watch the customer open things up and say OK, everything is fine. This would kill delivery route times!

Example: I had to get some specialty parts fast from the manufacturer. Didn't have time to set up a commercial account and they don't take VISA. So the sales rep fills a large part of the order with free samples to get the COD amount under their internal screen and ships remainder UPS with normal check as OK payment.

Hummm .... if I was going to screw them, they just got a private rubber check. And their margins just went to hell with all the free samples. What a way to do business! <img src="graemlins/roflmao.gif" border="0" alt="[hiha]" />

 

[quote]Originally posted by IceShark:
<strong> Hummm .... if I was going to screw them, they just got a private rubber check. And their margins just went to hell with all the free samples. What a way to do business! <img src="graemlins/roflmao.gif" border="0" alt="[hiha]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>

Shark, that's why I suggested a bank check.. "cashier's check"... fairly fraud-proof (not totally, but you gotta work at it). If the seller emails me on the day of shipment with the actual exact total (price + shipping + any packing charge), I can go by the bank during the transit time & get a check cut. Then when the shipment arrives, I turn it over to the driver, and it's forwarded to the seller.

Yep, I recognize the potential problems, but with all the ebay fraud concerns & pay pal problems, I think UPS & others are missing a good business opportunity by not promoting this kind of service. I'd cheerfully pay a small fee for the extra security when doing business with an unknown seller or buyer.

Since most of these transactions would be smooth, they'd be pure profit for UPS, which would cover the lost time and occasional refused shipment (charge seller for return shipping?).

And shipping to a "pack 'n' ship" mailing service would cover folks who can't be home during the day, tho' you lose the chance to actually inspect the merchandise before accepting. Just leave the bank check with them in advance ('nother handling fee, yes, but also another profit motive for a business) and get a receipt for it.

Nope, not a perfect system, but maybe better than what wee've got now.

I'll be selling a set of 18" MM's this fall, and I'll _only_ do it COD, unless it's a local sale (unlikely), for which I'll discount the price a little. I won't sell them to anybody that won't do COD & cashier's check. Period.

Jim, "For every action, there's an equal & opposite government program."

 

With the amount Paypal charges, they can't afford to get involved in investigating disputes. You don't have to use them if you dont want to. There used to be an escrow system, but I am not sure if they are stil available. I never used it anyway

I used to do PR for a telephone company, and every once in a while some reporter would ask us why the hell we weren't doing something about a shady telemarketer using OUR phone lines. The response was always that if the police asked us to get involved we would. But, we could not monitor what people were saying on the telephone, nor would people want us to. And we couldn't refuse anyone a phone line just because we didn't like them.

What happens with newspaper classifieds? Do you expect the newspaper to make sellers follow through on promises?

Ebay is a great system, but it's still a jungle out there.