E-bay not so good?

[Les Henson]

Saw part of 'Tonight with Trevor Macdoughnut' concerning E-bay.

Customer service is somewhere between "we don't give a sh***e", and "keep trying, you might get a response from us"

The cons and rip-offs that they are obviously aware of is amazing, so too is the amazing way they do nothing at all about it. I've never bought stuff through E-bay, and only look on it occasionally, but I was shocked to see just how many people lose thier money or buy carp. It seems that there are a lot of idiots out there, and e-bay takes full advantage of them if they use the service.

Les.

[s2hotdog]

I've brought loads of stuff from ebay .................... most good and some carp and sold loads of stuff that I would of dumped ............... a old scalextric car for £ 150..................... I think you just have to use gut fealings and commom sence and not gety carried away

Steve

[Guest diesel_jim]

I've bought quite a lot of LR related stuff off of it, and /touching wood/ i've never been ripped off, although i make it a point to only buy stuff in the UK, so at the very worst, i have to drive in this country to slap someone about a bit.

my sister is an ebay-aholic, and has been stung a couple of times from folk in the US of A, but that's what you get for buying Louis Vuitton crappy handbags (for the price of a new 2.8 international engine AND a gearbox from Ashcrofts... some people have too much money! )

[muddyplugger]

I only buy fom people with excellent feedback, have high star rating and they are from the UK. I do enjoy having a browse now and again and see the numptys who are bidding for items that can be found cheaper in the shops!

The trick is be level headed and research carefully.

[Hybrid_From_Hell]

Being a cynical B, ..............

I ONLY buy what I am prepared to loose moneywise..............

anything higher eg high value stuff I always collect, .............

this philosophy so far has seem me ok, and I have lost nothing !..inc USA and other international sales, .............even when I expected to..

'Caviat Emptor' without doubt tho, and 'the fool and his money'... both spring to mind

Nige

[sgnas]

[standup] I'm an ebayaholic. It's been 85 days since my last "win"[/standup]

I've bought tons of stuff on ebay. Got a bit carried away a couple of times and paid over the odds, but generally buying stuff you can no longer buy in the shops.

Play it safe, check sellers feed back, research prices (even if you only look at completed items for comparison), don't get in a bidding war, only spend what you can afford to loose, don't trust ebay, don't trust paypal.

There are loads of issues that could easily be fixed by ebay.

e.g. letting a newly regisered ebay user with hotmail account and a made up address in the uk bid hundreds of thousands of pounds in 30 minutes so they can try their luck at the western union or "my associate in the uk will send you a cheque for £5000 take your £3000 and forward me the balance" scam. Setup 4 accounts a day bid on 50 high value items each 5 days a week that's 1000 potential scams. You only need one to pay off and be a couple of grand up! It happens thousands of times a day, especially on "ebay motors"

and remember.

If you buy anything from ebay (you don't win anything!!!!!) you were wiling to pay more for that item than everyone else in the world with an internet connection.

edited to add. I didn't see the Trevor Macdonald thing but can personally confirm that setting up a buyer or seller account is pi** easy but reporting an obvious scam (or scammer) takes some real digging through the tech files an shear perseverance.

[selectcase]

Idont have a problem with ebay its all the scams trying to get my username + password that annoy me

[Turbocharger]

But surely Ebay Ltd are just providing the framework for other people to use - it's not their responsibility if people are too stupid to see that they've just typed £5000 instead of £50.00, or to try to be internet fraudbusters. If you bought a dog off a man in a pub and it turned up later with three legs, you wouldn't slap the landlord!

[Les Henson]

Perhaps not, but you might reasonably expect the Landlord to tell you if he knew the dog only had three legs. And if you later found out that the Landlord made a few quid out of you being ripped-off, you might also reasonably be annoyed and suspect something is dodgy. The violence bit is a matter of taste.

The tickets thing is what I'm referring to.

Les.

[Turbocharger]

Perhaps not, but you might reasonably expect the Landlord to tell you if he knew the dog only had three legs. And if you later found out that the Landlord made a few quid out of you being ripped-off, you might also reasonably be annoyed and suspect something is dodgy. The violence bit is a matter of taste.

The tickets thing is what I'm referring to.

Les.

I see what you're saying though, but the landlord already does make a few quid out of you both drinking in his pub. It's not quite the same thing though. I think I'd just stop drinking in his pub, or at least stop buying things there...

[Les Henson]

See what you mean, he sells guiness, which is gross, and the likes of Mr barker, Rogue Trooper, and you get in the Lounge and are just plain trouble. I go to the Dog and Duck by the Common - a much better class of clientele, and the local floosies in that area are always good for a quick knee-trembler after closing time

Les

[FridgeFreezer]

If you treat eBay like a market / Sodbury / car boot sale you shouldn't have a problem - at all three you will always get:

- Loads of cr*p

- Overpriced stuff from people living in cloud-cuckoo land

- Dodgy geezers selling dodgy goods

- Occasionally, that rare genuine bargain that makes it worth the entry fee

[simonr]

I like eBay. Never had my trousers taken down on it. Guess I'm just careful about what I buy and who from!

It is fab for flogging stuff that you would otherwise struggle to get the local tip to take!

Using the pub analogy - I would expect the Landlord to bar dodgy geezers selling broken watches out of a suitcase, but it's a big pub & he can't see everything or be everywhere. The drinkers need to take some responsibility too.

Si

[Les Henson]

I agree, there are some right idiots that fall for obvious cons, such as sending cash.

Going back to the tickets scam, E-bay were aware of it going on, and knew that buyers were throwing thier money away, setting aside the argument that people should know/make relevent checks, I still think obvious things like this shouldn't be allowed.

Les.

[Mark90]

I put a bid in on a camera my mate was selling to bump it up a bit

Anyway after the auction I and every other bidder (his missus stuck a bid on too) got an email claiming to be from the seller offering a second chance offer (email broken contact me on alternative email address etc ) . Now in a 'normal' bidding situation neither the bider or seller would be sitting across teh office from each other and hence would not be aware of what was going one. So my mate contacts ebay to let them know sommat dodgy is going on, they reluctantly agree to look into it, but did they contact me as oen of teh peopel who was being scammed through their system? Did they f@#k! Ebay really don't give a toss they just want yer money.

If you bare that in mind and use a bit of common sense you should be fine, the scammers are usually easy to spot, even long standing member with good feeback doesn't mean owt if it's a hacked account, like that P38 that's been on there this week.

[TJ101]

Well I have not had any major problems with e-bay,, bar for muppets that can not read,,

e.g. a bloke in California who somehow expects to pay the uk price on shipping a pair of shocks !! and got well tinkle when I would not send them the other side of the world for seven quid !!

and a bloke who was selling a tomb raider,, I had the top bid at auction end, meeting the reserve, he then sell to a underbidder for what I presume is a better offer (have proof),, but ok ,,money is money, so fair enought,,, but then the git leave neg feedback and claims a listing refund !! and e bay could not care less

So , to my knowledge, have not been shafted as yet, after 4 years or so,

If you use a bit of nouse and common, and work on if its too cheap then there is a reason why,,,,,,,,,,,,, You get what you pay for

[Budgie]

I've only been scammed once but I caught it before sending any money.

I bid on a DVD box set and won the auction. When the email came through with the sellers address on it, for some reason, I decided to check it and found it was a mail forwarding company in London. So I sent an email to the seller telling them I'd found this and wanted personal name & address before any money was going to be sent. I got a nasty reply saying that if I didn't sent any money then they would leave negative feedback and that would be the end of my ebay account! Ya right!

I sent everything to ebay and when I checked back a couple of hours later they had been removed along with the other 50+ auctions they had running. Although I only received an automated email from ebay to say that had received my email, nothing to tell me not to send money to these people and what to do if I had already done so!

[MarkieB]

I've only had real difficulty with one vendor, Americans who had quite reasonable US shipping then [after auction end] sky high international shipping, it's the sheer dishonesty/nastiness for the sake of a listing fee refund [plus automatic non-paying bidder strike normally] that stinks, particularly when Ebay aren't taking much notice of the heavy dishonesty, nor wanting to do right at all, more keen on simply appeasing high volume traders, even allowing them to get up to all kinds of shenanigans [utterly dishonest retaliatory feedback; I think there's a way of complaining that suppresses feedback too, when I registered in an alias so as to put in feedback without fear of unjust retaliation] for the sake of suppressing the righteous feedback their behaviour elicits.

[TJ101]

Now thinking about it,, without upsetting our friends over the pond,, the man who made out he owned the Tomb Raider was a yank,, so both of my "problems" on e-bay has been with them,, is this a pattern?? !!!

[SteveG]

I can't complain too. Just sold two Range Rovers this month on ebay, for a total of 42,500.A lot easier than selling via autotrader etc.

Also bought a number of things.Likemost thingsyou just have to be cautious.

Cheers

Steve

[rtbarton]

Now thinking about it,, without upsetting our friends over the pond,, the man who made out he owned the Tomb Raider was a yank,, so both of my "problems" on e-bay has been with them,, is this a pattern?? !!!

I got a cheque from an American who crossed the $ sign out and put a £ sign in its place. I checked with my bank first. Just as well!

Another American didn't give his correct address, and three months later the magazine I sent came back.

Another two Americans tried to get me to end an auction early, didn't understand why, my item had reached £20.00 but I let it run. Next day it had gone up to £1135.00 !!!

A lot of Spoofs come from the States, but I suppose this would be the case statistically anyway.

On the other hand I've sold them stuff without problems, one guy changed his mind but paid anyway.

[Budgie]

I have my eBay profile set so that only Bidders from a UK address can bid on my stuff, there's couple of other things you can set as well.

You can set it in one of the sections off My eBay for those that didn't know it was there.

[02GF74]

Now thinking about it,, without upsetting our friends over the pond,, the man who made out he owned the Tomb Raider was a yank,, so both of my "problems" on e-bay has been with them,, is this a pattern?? !!!

The only times 2 or 3, I sent cash (before my paypal days) and did not reeive suff was to USA as well.

Surprisingly dealing with folks in far east (HK, Sing.) where I expected to be ripped off (one hac zero feedback!) turned out to be very quick transaction.

Satistics or culture- not sure which.

[Cartman]

Only had two probs with all my transaction through Ebay.

First bought some electronic stuff from a guy with no feedback. Yep, I know no feedback = avoid. But a bunch of us bid and I won and seeing as the guy wanted payment througn Paypal I thought I would have some protection

Stuff never arrived. Several e-mails and excuses such as 'It was retirned by mail you must have given me the wrong ad.!' I went thorugh the issue with Ebay and Paypal. Result I got $2.50 back from the £80 I laid out and he was kicked off Ebay. Paid by debit card as well so no way of getting the cash back there. Apparently Paypal can only take back from the balance in their account? Written that one off to bad experience.

The second one was a DVD. Action finished late on Friday and only manged to get internet ax on Monday morning and paid by Paypal. Then found a snotty e-mail from the seller saying he was going to 'report me' for late/non-payment - arse! Anyway he rx'd the money then after 3 weeks I got the DVD after several mails saying he didn't remember the transaction/had I paid/lost the DVD/fed up with E-bay as it was so much hassle. Should have realised when he could only communicate in text speak and didn't know what a capital letter was?

Generally EBay has been good. But that is down to the general honesty of the sellers and not the organisation which should be renamed 'E-Shylock'

[Daan]

no real problems with ebay, also not from the states. The only one was the bloke who sold 3 genuine LR steering joints: I won them at 1.99 pounds. A bargain, but it took 6 weeks, 4 emails and 5 phonecalls for him to send them. He was obviously hacked of about selling for nearly nothing.

I did get them in the end after threatening him into telling ebay.

In general, the concept is great.

Daan