eBay War Stories?

[leejax01]

I have a different outlook on the seller leaving feedback later.

In more than one case, a buyer when they receive an item can file a Paypal dispute to get the payment back and keep the item. With feedback already being left, the seller is powerless. That is one type of a buyer scam.

My worst deal was a loco that came in bad condition, but it also had bad pics and I should have known better. I have had way more great stories on Ebay and in all fairness, there should be a "Greatest Ebay Deal" topic and see those replies...in all fairness.

I have had bad deals also, but I rather buy from those over 40+ auctions and with excellent pics. I ask questions and see how fast they reply. I ask for better pics and see how they reply. Normally a person who isn't in a rush for payment is a seller who isn't trying to scam.  

[Rangerover]

This is "his" quote from the same article"

Mr. Donahoe says it is not the company's intent to discriminate against small sellers. But, he said, "where large and small sellers are trying to cut corners and not provide a good buying experience, we are making less room for them in the marketplace."

Amazon had much higher year end sales than eBay, and especially during the holiday period. He wants to copy Amazon with sellers having a store format.

I know of and have been burnt by 2 Power Sellers in the HO Model Railroad category on eBay. Most sellers on eBay are great both small sellers and Power Seller. For me 2 out of over 1500 buys and sells is a good percentage for me.

And I do not believe that "all" listings will be Buy It Now, I'm sure that new items will also have be auction type as to bid on. I think it is more aimed at used flea market items, but in all categories. eBay has allowed even "antique" items from China which are newly made or built. Again verified by eBay forums by real antique dealers, you have to read the descriptions more closely and look at pictures and where stuff is shipped from.

Jim Bresett, Elkins, West Virginia

[Rangerover]

Donohoe, the President of eBay and his "flea market charge":

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/technology/17ebay.html?ref=business

[Rangerover]

He, Donoho, is kicking out the mom and pops auction style listings and would like eBay to be similar to Amazon with only store's with large inventories and eventually shipping included and your only payment option may be Pay Pal which is being tested in Australia at the moment.

Sorry, but that's incorrect...they're ending the LIVE auctions (moderated in real time by an actual auctioneer), but the old-style eBay auctions will still remain. 

See link below: 

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200804151300402.html 

I'm sorry but I'm not here to argue. That is not Donoho's statement he made during his discussions. It's best, if in doubt about my statements I made on this forum, to check out ebays forums and eBay announcements, you get the correct information which I have posted!

The live auctions are one, but there are other auction listings which you can no longer list on eBay, software is another, also some franchised articles.

Donoho stated that he does not want the the "flea Market" auction listings!

[Rangerover]

He, Donoho, is kicking out the mom and pops auction style listings and would like eBay to be similar to Amazon with only store's with large inventories and eventually shipping included and your only payment option may be Pay Pal which is being tested in Australia at the moment.

Sorry, but that's incorrect...they're ending the LIVE auctions (moderated in real time by an actual auctioneer), but the old-style eBay auctions will still remain. 

See link below: 

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200804151300402.html 

[Arjay1969]

He, Donoho, is kicking out the mom and pops auction style listings and would like eBay to be similar to Amazon with only store's with large inventories and eventually shipping included and your only payment option may be Pay Pal which is being tested in Australia at the moment.

Sorry, but that's incorrect...they're ending the LIVE auctions (moderated in real time by an actual auctioneer), but the old-style eBay auctions will still remain. 

See link below: 

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200804151300402.html 

[Rangerover]

One other important thing! Pay Pal will be holding funds for 21 days if you do not have a good star rating, if you have recent negative or neutral feedback (neutral feedback is now considered negative when eBay calculates your feedback), certain high cost items, such as electronics, jewelry, anything over $250.00 more or less. The seller still has to ship the item within 7 days of the sale. During this 21 day hold the seller must still eat the cost's associated with shipping and handling, eBay fees, and Pay Pal fees, however they will release your funds once feedback is posted to the seller or the seller can prove the item was delivered to the buyer. The only way a seller can protect himself at least 95% of the time is by using the Pay Pal site to print the shipping labels and postage from there. Even if you have as a seller the DC (delivery confirmation), some buyers claim their package was not received, even if DC says it was, Pay Pal still sides with the buyer and they (buyer) can keep the item and get a refund from Pay Pal. Win Win for the buyer and total lost for the seller. These things happen folks! Jim Bresett, Elkins, West Virginia

[Rangerover]

Hello I'm both a buyer and seller on eBay though I haven't done so for a while. eBay is in the process of "cleaning" up the site from unscrupulous sellers, but some buyers also fit that category. I have been there for 8 years. A number of sellers both excellent and the absolute worst have already left. It's been ongoing since February when eBay announced it's new policy's. A seller can not leave negative or neutral feedback any longer, his only option will be to leave positive or none at all beginning May 1. The buyers who don't pay will be dealt with by eBay in that they will be suspended and any negative or neutral feedback they left for the seller will be removed in all fairness.  However beginning May 1 there will be a worldwide boycott of eBay by both the sellers and the buyers, will be interesting to see how things turn out. The sellers are screaming about the new CEO, Donoho, raising the final value cost which certainly hurt the small seller and also the feedback situation. He, Donoho, is kicking out the mom and pops auction style listings and would like eBay to be similar to Amazon with only store's with large inventories and eventually shipping included and your only payment option may be Pay Pal which is being tested in Australia at the moment. There is no other payment option and the buyers and sellers down under are really upset and leaving in droves to other selling venues such as what's going on here. The Mom and Pops built eBay's uniqueness from the beginning. The new Star System that was instilled last year will determine how your listings appear are also the reason some sellers are leaving or already have left. If you have less than, I believe 4.8%, your listing may never show up when you do a search, this is called Best Match Search, which is now the "default" search, which can be changed by pulling down the search link and changing your default. There is much more, this post is more like a summary and I'm sorry for the long post. But to stay on topic, I have bought with 99.9% satisfaction and 100% as a seller, I ship immediately, leave feedback when payment is received, and one very important thing I do is to answer all questions asked by a potential buyer. Important Post. Jim Bresett, Elkins, West Virginia

[Anonymous]

EBAY SUCKS, I HAVE HAD NOTHING BUT PROBLEMS WITH EBAY, THINGS ARE BROKEN, SELLERS ARE DISHONEST AND DIFFICULT TO DEAL WITH, SHIPPING TAKES WAY TOO LONG.

I personally believe that the best way to buy your hobby stuff is to go to the shop and speak to the guy down there. You'll always get exactly what you want without having to ask questions and wait for a reply for a day or two before you get a response.

[tebee]

I've bought and sold many things on eBay over the years and almost all of them have been really good buys - but then I mostly select things to buy very carefuly and am always watchful of other charges like posting and packing and try never to get into a bidding war. Sometimes though I'll take a chance  and buy something I'm not entirely sure about, for instance with photos so out of focus or distant you cann't realy see what you are buying.

Sometimes the gamble pays off, I once got a really well built La Belle obervation coach with CV truck for $9, but then sometimes not, but it's better odds that the lottery!

My saddest experince, though was getting a really nicely detailed Hobbytown Millwakie road RSD5. The guy who sent it had packed it better than anything else I had seen before or since, he'd cut foam to fit, even little strips between the hood and the handrails , double boxed it wraped it in bublewrap, but somehow in the post they managed to wreck it, I can only guess that some threw or dropped the box and the sheer weight of the Hobbytown loco caused the foam to move inside the box.

I can no longer deal there now though , early last year my domain and email address where hi-jacked followed by my eBay and paypal acounts. eBay refused to even disscuss it with me as I no longer had access to the email assosiated with the account and then banned my new account as it was assosiated with the old one that was now being fraudently used. I've still got a couple a couple of parcels I was due to send out but hadn't taken down the address for before losing access, I just hope the buyers managed to get a paypal refund. 

One day  I'll probably go back but not at the moment. I found ebay totaly unhelpful in this situation.

 

Tom 

 

[Chuck Geiger]

True - Look closely at the scale, under N Scale it said 1/50th scale. Has anyone bought any of those mass quantities of pole lamps, figures or vehicles from the overseas distributer?

[J. Daddy]

This is a great rule "no more than 50 dollars'. I have been burned but only in receiving damaged product that was not shown in the original bid. I returned said product and was refunded but ate the shipping charges... 8 bucks...This is a risk no matterwhat. I did go outside of E Bay and had to remind the seller to send the product but again it was money I could lose, 10 bucks....never go outside of E Bay... you might as well light a Cigar with that money....

[vsmith]

My war story is simply not following ebay's policies and going outside of ebay to make a deal, which I wound up getting burned on.  I ordered several good condition used Atlas turnouts in an ebay auction, only to get burned when I asked the seller if he had anymore, and we set up a deal via email not eBay, and I wind up receiving half Atlas #4 turnouts (what I ordered) and half snap switches which didn't even have the switch boxes with them.  I raised hell with the seller, and he threatened to leave me negative feedback, even though he got my money as soon as the deal was done, and he refused to refund my money on the snap switches, saying if I didn't leave him positive feedback, he was going to report me to ebay.  We finally agreed to just not leave any feedback either way, and he blocked me from his buy list, even though he was the one who sent the wrong turnouts and misrepresented his sale to me. 

Lesson Learned:  NEVER EVER EVER go outside of Ebay's auction and do a backdoor deal, because you WILL get burned.

[Mr_Ash]

Only problems I have ever had with ebay is sellers packing the items poorly, that was mostly with car parts though

[SteamFreak]

Time for an update to my tale of woe from this Summer. A seller shipped me the wrong locomotive with pieces broken and missing, then pleaded personal problems and said she'd send the correct one. Then she vanished. I had to file a claim with PayPal, which she responded to at the last minute with a request that I send the loco back for a full refund. Now did "full" mean the full winning bid, or the full amount sent to her via PayPal? She didn't elaborate, and I wasn't about to trust someone who had already broken several promises. Given the amount of the winning bid, it made no sense to lose shipping in both directions. The only bright spot is that she did give people feedback after payment, so I was free to tell the truth in my comments.

That was back in July. This thread resurfacing got me curious, so I checked into her profile. She is no longer a registered user, but was able to rack up 266 transactions and a 96% rating before eBay pulled the plug. There are far worse stories in her feedback than mine, including people who did return their item for a refund and got nothing. You'd think eBay would act sooner, before she could cheat so many buyers, but I guess they are such a monolith that they don't have to answer to anybody.

That's the last time I bid on anything from a new seller with only a few transactions under their belt. 

[tattooguy67]

Hey there GM&O that sucks about the guy from england and all, and i hate to be the one to tell you this but its kind of rude not answering peoples ?'s no matter how dumb they are, thats a deal killer for me, and what you think is plainly visible may not be to some one else, also if you go to the N-scale section on ebay you dont have to go far to find HO abd O and lionel and S and also N-guage, N-set, N-scale, and just about any other way to say N-scale, not every body who buys there is an expert.

[Chuck Geiger]

I have been looking at all the "deals" in N Scale, like this Hong Kong company that has hundreds of vehicles and figures for like 10 bucks and wonder what the catch is.

[Ted Marshall]

 As for negative feedback, I wouldn't let the threat of retaliatory feed back keep me from posting it if it was deserved.

 

Left negative feed back to this effect and the seller retaliated with negative feed back.  etc etc

Not to be a critic, but what's wrong with this statement? Why hasn't the seller already left his/her feedback for the buyer? The buyer did his/her part by paying promptly. What else is there to consider when it comes to leaving feedback for a buyer?

I strongly believe that any seller who waits for the buyer to leave feedback first is a problem waiting to happen. They are usually the type who don't answer emails, wait days or even weeks to ship your items and gouge you on the shipping. They know that their customers are going to be less than happy with the service they receive and realize that negative feedback is a very real probability, therefore they hold out to see what you're bound to say about them and then respond with negative feedback of their own, to summarize...to extort you.

Some buyers don't care and will not hesitate to tell it like it is as exemplified by riogrande5761. Most buyers know this and will leave unearned positive feedback just to avoid a receiving a negative from the seller. That's why I always review a seller's feedback to see if they reward their buyers with positive feedback before the buyer leaves theirs. IMHO, these are sellers to avoid and any respectable seller will tell you that superior service will get you positve feedback every time and know that unfair negative feedback can be removed.

[Anonymous]

Same here, with a couple minor exceptions.

I only accept Paypal from anywhere but the U.S.. I had a guy in England do a buy-it-now and then tried to scam me with a check- said his Paypal was messed up. (yeah, right, like I am going to accept payment after hearing that!) We traded some very terse emails and I reported him to Ebay. They sided with me. ( He said I was rude to him-LOL) BTW, he had only a few feedbacks- That was also a red flag.

 He continued sending me emails through Ebay that would go to the character limit for the email, send that one, and start another email, never missing a sentence. This went on for a few days until Ebay put a stop to him.

 I re-listed the item and I blocked him as a bidder. The emails from England were flowing again and I had to report him again.

 The only thing about questions is when somebody asks " Is this HO or N scale". I always state that in my auction if they read it. All they would also have to do is realize what category they are in.... HO, HELLO?  I often will not answer this question. I figure if they cannot read or know how to navigate Ebay, I do not want to ever deal with them. This policy has served me well. Keith Turley

[Mailman56701]

  Been buying/selling on eBay since the 90's.  Greatest thing since sliced bread; absolutely no complaints with it.

[mobilman44]

Hi,

I bought and sold mostly train stuff on Ebay with about 250 sales and 350 purchases.  For the record, my feedback is 100% positive.

As a buyer, my experiences are pretty good as a whole.  But, once I got scammed once for about $30 and the seller disappeared.  I also got a Lionel postwar GP7 with a coupler assembly that was totally broken off, which the seller denied.  I did get my money back but lost postage both ways.

I've also had about a dozen "less than satisfactory" purchases, with half being settled by the seller and the other half reflecting my lack of reading the fine print.  I guess my biggest gripe is paying by PayPal and still having to wait two weeks or so to get the item. 

As a seller, Paypal - while not cheap - has been a great help to sales, and I recommend it highly.  I pride myself on my packing and prompt shipping (as my feedbacks attest).  I have had two instances of "disappointment" from buyers, but after offering a refund, they realized that they did not read the ad as well as they could have.

This is a timely post, as I am preparing 90 auctions for the Holiday season, thinning out several HO kits and books from my collection.  Ha, many were bought on Ebay years ago at top dollar prices, and of course today's market for much of the kits, etc., is not the same.

ENJOY,

Mobilman44

 

[Tilden]

The feedback question is interesting.  I agree that a seller's feedback is due upon receipt of payment .  After all, at that point the buyers duties are fulfilled.  I've actually had sellers tell me in their post after the sale "when you leave me positive feedback, I'll do the same".  That alone should rate negative feedback. 

I'm surprised E-bay doesn't post some guidlines for posting feed back.  I.E. Seller feedback is due upon receipt of payment, buyer feed back is due within __ hours of receipt of merchandise.

I agree feedback can be helpful if the seller has a somewhat lower rating.  YOu can usually tell if negative feedback is real or just complaining.

Tilden

[rgappel]

I have only bought two or three items on Ebay and have never had a problem. I bought a P2k gp9, and was impressed with the packaging. It was double boxed, with two layers of bubble wrap and peanuts on top. It was also in the original packaging, so it probably could have been dropped off a 20 story building and still been alright.

I have had poor experiences buying textbooks off amazon. The conditions on arival are not always the same as when listed. I have given negative feedback in those situations and had the seller nuts trying to get me to remove it. If they want good feedback, list things in the condition they are actually in, and don't skimp on the packaging. Just because I can see the seller face to face, doesn't mean the principles of sales can be thrown out the window.

[tattooguy67]

Most of my experiances have been good but... okay there was the little 0-4-0 engine that was listed as a tank engine and ran great, what i got was an 0-4-0 that needed a tender with really badly stripped gears, so bad running and no way to hook cars to it, now i should have done some home work and i would have found out it needed a tender, but runs great? the thing jerked and squeled like a stuck pig, i emailed and got this " well we have all been screwed on ebay, better luck next time, sucks to be you " reply from him. The other one i like is the slow shippers, now if you are a seller and you only go to the post office once every 2 weeks just say so in your add, i will either wait or just not bid on your auction but dont take my paypal payment at the end of your auction then take weeks to send my stuff, its just rude!, i had one that said there would be a delay in sending because he or she had had a flooded bastment, would ship on such and such a date, waited like 2 weeks after the date promised, emailed and asked wheres my item, now its they have been through the flood of the century and would not be shipping it for like 3 more weeks and thank you for being so understanding, i emailed back and said you tell me you will ship it on this date, then dont tell me there is a delay on the delay, told them you either get it in the mail in the next couple of days or i want a refund, and oh was i an insenitive you know what then, got all this our policy this and that, well ended up with a refund and bad feedback, which is fine because if you look at my feedback 99% of it says instant payment-great ebayer-would do business with again, and so a couple of negatives do not bother me much, and i am the same way when buying, i look at the feedback, if mostly good with a few negatives i am fine, its when i see the same problem over and over, or some smarty responce to a problem that i stay away, and yeah you gotta love seeing $12 shipping for an N-scale box car sent flat rate!

[last mountain & eastern hogger]

Well here is a story for you..

Several years ago after Atlas came out with their RS-3 "Tidewater Southern" there was one that came up for auction out of southern Utah. I was successful in winning that bid. However after an extremely long wait, that happens occasionally with goods going through Customs as they go from one country to another, I contacted the seller to get some idea as to when he had sent it.

He had been punctual in sending it and I should have had it by that time.

Several weeks later when it finally arrived, the outside carton was torn and pushed in, but it still had the strapping around it. I made the mistake of signing for it as I was leaving for work right then.

After work I eagerly opened the carton by cutting off the strapping, reaching inside to get the Atlas box, only to have my hand feel something metal.  Looking inside there was no other box but in it's place was a small set of  black metal tonges { i guess they were added so that there was some weight in the carton.}

After contacting the seller he assured me that, that was not the way he had shipped it. He had indeed parcelled up a "new" RS-3 loco but had not put any strapping on the box. I checked again to make sure it had his return address on the carton and it did. So I sent him digital pictures of the carton and the tongs, and after we found we had no recourse through the Postal System because USPS blames Canada Post and (you guessed it) Canada Post blames USPS, he agreed to refund my money.  Many Kudos to him, I was most delighted.

We feel that possibly if the carton had ripped so that the person had the ability to look inside, that it was probably stolen somewhere in the postal or customs systems and replaced with some goofy weight and then strapped and sent on it's way.

This did not discourage me though and I tried again and finally got one out of Hagerstown Maryland.

I still buy on ebay but I tend to stick mainly to my favorite sellers with whom I have developed great relationships. They know me, they pack well, we have great communication, and since this incident I have always received the goods as described.

James:1 Verse:5

The "Wobbly" wobbles on................

Johnboy out.

[jasperofzeal]

If you realy want to get back at the guy, have him investigated for mail fraud. Using media mail to ship consumer goods is a NO-NO. It is only to be used for printed material, film & audio goods like tapes and CD/DVD's.

pike-62,

I would love to get back at the guy but I don't even remember his user name, and in any event, it's been a while.  I've also lost a lot of confidence in ebay when it comes to reporting people about shipping.  I've reported a lot of sellers whom I felt were trying to gouge buyers with very inflated shipping prices.  I've watched the auctions come to an end and the seller never changed the shipping cost.  I wouldn't know if the buyer got a fair price, but obviously ebay didn't stop the sale.  I'm confident the seller that got me with bad product and ripped me off with shipping will get his.  Life's a "beach", and he'll get it in the end.

[jasperofzeal]

Mike? (rs2mike),

I dug up the tanker in question (it's in the re-work box I have), and compared both sides to the "oil slick" that you pointed out.  All I can say is that the seller's picture must have been taken a heck of a long time (I'm talking months maybe) before the tanker got to my hands.  The reason I say that is that the body stains that are on the seller's pic, and on my pic match 100%, so I have no doubt that the tankers in both pics is the same tanker.  The decal film, which is also present, also matches exactly in shape and placement, for example the white rectangular thing that is under the 2nd white stenciling to the right of the ladder.  The fact that it "grew" also suggests that his picture is of a "younger" tanker.  Another reason I say that the seller's picture is old, is because the trucks on his picture look clean and somewhat shiny, as do the couplers.  The body of the tanker also doesn't look as dingy as the way I received it and show in my picture.  Oh well, I guess I'll just strip the poor decal job it has, try to repair the broken parts, repaint, re-decal, and nurse this tanker back to decent status. 

[Cederstrand]

Interesting thread. 

I've been about 95% pleased with my ebay purchases and met some really nice folks. You can usually tell if a person is being honest or not in how they answer your questions about an item.

As a seller (294 pos / 1 neg), I have had a couple characters claim they never got an item, only to share the Delivery Confirmation with them. Never hear anything back after that. Sometimes I feel sorta guilty when folks bid way more than an item is worth, but I admit to doing that myself the first time I discovered ebay.

Rob

 

[pike-62]

If you realy want to get back at the guy, have him investigated for mail fraud. Using media mail to ship consumer goods is a NO-NO. It is only to be used for printed material, film & audio goods like tapes and CD/DVD's.