Rant Thread for BUYING on eBay.

[war-digs-it]

Alright, haven't seen the other side of the coin on this topic and I think it may help sellers here see things from a different point of view.

Perception plays a huge role in this topic and everything is in play. From picture quality to description, shipping times, prices, packing and the "bad seller" stories.

Would love to hear about them and what happened, and what you, the seller and eBay did or did not do to rectify the issues.

Let it out here and now, you will feel better!

 

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[willis7]

sellers posting things as sterling silver when they aren't just because the piece was tarnished. I bought a tiara that was supposed to be sterling, I get it and it was plated with chrome, I got a full refund and returned it

 

[clovis97]

I bought a Lionel train engine from a TRS, and the seller carefully hid the fact that the shell was broken. A cracked shell on a Lionel train is the kiss of death for value. That seller fought me tooth and nail, and literally tried to stall on the return time. I think that she thought that if she stalled past the 14 days, she wouldn't have to deal with the problem. I was not happy!

I bought another engine, and the seller jammed it into a small box to save shipping. The die cast shell was badly dented. Coming from NYC, I thought I would have a fight on my hands with the seller. Turns out, he refunded the engine 100%, and also sent another $15 for my return shipping. I was stunned great service, and happy.

I bought another kitchen gadget, and the seller was extremely deceptive. I should have left a neg, but I had an awesome time leaving extremely low DSR's. I didn't return it because I could still make $55 on the item, flipping it again on ebay.

 

[Ocean7]

seller posts a TOMTOM USA Canada LIFETIME MAPS Update lists XXL 540 but not XXL 540S. I e-mail him about it and he says, 'yep no problem!' WRONG useless POS - no refund! $40 out the door.
Reason: due to a family illness and death, I didn't get to try an Update until after 30 days had passed. Yep, you only have 30 days to come back at seller! I didn't realize this. Another lesson learned. LOL

 

[diggummup]

No issues lately other than stupid buyers who don't update their shipping addresses and then complain because it was delivered somewhere else or returned to me. I didn't have to do anything but wait for the item to get returned. I reshipped one item (after they paid the shipping for the 2nd round because I sold it with free shipping) and I gave another buyer a refund on the other item.

Actually I did leave a neutral feedback to a seller who sold me a (front vanity) license plate. He shipped it in a plain manila envelope with no protection whatsoever. It arrived bent with a crease in it. I straightened it out pretty much but not perfect. All he had to do was put a piece of cardboard in the envelope and it would not have happened.

This was my feedback to him...

"Tag arrived bent. No packing material whatsoever. Doesn't take much people"

 

[GibH]

I've had 2 different people try and pull a fast one for detectors. They shipped something to somewhere in my town. They figured the tracking would show as delivered and they would get away with it.

The first one screwed up because it was over $250 with shipping and they didn't have signature confirmation. The second time was under the $250 threshold, but I went to the post office and they gave me a copy of their tracking information and it showed that whatever it was, it was delivered to the local Walgreens. Both "sellers" were from So. Cal around LA.

Another time I had bought a mini milling machine from someone in Colorado. It arrived looking like it had been dragged behind the UPS truck the whole way. There wasn't any packing material in the box either. I refused the delivery and the seller wanted to refund everything except the shipping. I told him I shouldn't be out $35 for something that wasn't my fault. Ebay saw it my way.

 

[jerseyben]

Too many to count. Usually I am able to work it out with the seller but it is always a giant hassle.

How about the cell phone I ordered that never arrived. Local PO told me they had a package that matched the description that did not include a street address, only a name and town. I was new in town so that explains why the PO could not find me for delivery.

How about the broken 14k gold chain I ordered that the seller refused to ship. Seller claimed it broke. I told him I wanted it anyway but he still refused to send it to me.

How about the extremely rare LP I ordered that was described as NM in the description. It arrived clearly scratched with creases/stains on the cover. I got a $100 refund for that one.

How about the NJ colonial coin I ordered that was described as problem free, all original condition (which is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT for coins). It arrived clearly cleaned. I only got a $25 refund for that one... I should have just returned it.

I will say this: If I buy something on ebay and the deal sours and it is clearly the seller's fault, I go out of my way to get them to "make it right". I refuse to take any crap from an amateur ebay seller or scammer.

 

[mkulltra]

I've had 2 different people try and pull a fast one for detectors. They shipped something to somewhere in my town. They figured the tracking would show as delivered and they would get away with it.

The first one screwed up because it was over $250 with shipping and they didn't have signature confirmation. The second time was under the $250 threshold, but I went to the post office and they gave me a copy of their tracking information and it showed that whatever it was, it was delivered to the local Walgreens. Both "sellers" were from So. Cal around LA.

What happened? Did you get your money back?

 

[GibH]

What happened? Did you get your money back?

Yes, money back on all counts.

 

[mugsisme]

I just had a great experience. I ordered two cell phone covers. The bling one had the blings falling off like right away. I wrote to the seller that I wanted to exchange or return it. The seller told me to keep it, and refunded me the money for the bling cover. A++ seller in my view.

 

[Joe777Cool]

My #1 pet peeve is when you make an offer on an item and the seller says something to the effect of "If you have ten of X I'll buy them from you at that price." I was trying to buy a proof set from someone, offered about the same price as the last 3 had sold for, and he comes back with that. I point out the sold listings prices and he points out gray sheet price. Next day says "well my new grey sheet came in today and the price has gone down, but I would still buy all you had at that price." I felt like telling him how he could turn that grey sheet into a brown sheet!

 

[Koffee]

I have had a couple issues in the last month as a buyer. I bought a piece of Northwood Carnival glass. I get an invoice and I notice shipping is 10 dollars more then listed. So my price of shipping went from 4.65 to 14.65. I figured this was a mistake so I pointed out that there was a mistake on shipping. I get a really snarky reply, if I did not want the item why did I bid on the item without anything addressing my shipping problem. I ended up having to open a case with eBay.

I had another one where I bought an Imperial Russian Tea set that turned out to be just a Persian set with Cyrillic Markings. He argued that it was Imperial Russian and a case had to be opened.

If my failing memory is correct I have only had to open up 6 cases in the last 5 years, so in retrospect it is not to bad.

Cheers - Koffee

 

[willis7]

it's getting frustrating how many sellers I come across that are selling alpaca marked items as sterling silver, it takes seconds to research an item and know better. that and nickel silver

 

[Beachkid23]

it's getting frustrating how many sellers I come across that are selling alpaca marked items as sterling silver, it takes seconds to research an item and know better. that and nickel silver

I just had this happen last night. I got a package in the mail and I emailed the girl because one bracelet said alpaca 925. She said she had no idea but I paid $15 for 4 Sterling bracelets. And then asked her for five dollars back! But she gladly refunded. But I see that one a ton in jewelry lots on eBay.

 

[diggummup]

I have an opposite experience that was in my favor with buying silver recently. Seller had 9 misc. sterling silver 5 o'clock teaspoons up for auction. Item listing said the total weight was a little over 60 grams. That sounded very light to me, like 100 grams or so. She had the maker and pattern listed for each spoon. A little research proved that her stated weight was indeed wrong She didn't realize she missed the "1" in her stated weight. I ended up paying $53 for 168 grams of sterling. Silver prices are way low right now, $18.66 oz. to be exact. But I still ended up with $95 worth of sterling for $53. Not bad for an ebay pick.

 

[Beachkid23]

I have an opposite experience that was in my favor with buying silver recently. Seller had 9 misc. sterling silver 5 o'clock teaspoons up for auction. Item listing said the total weight was a little over 60 grams. That sounded very light to me, like 100 grams or so. She had the maker and pattern listed for each spoon. A little research proved that her stated weight was indeed wrong She didn't realize she missed the "1" in her stated weight. I ended up paying $53 for 168 grams of sterling. Silver prices are way low right now, $18.66 oz. to be exact. But I still ended up with $95 worth of sterling for $53. Not bad for an ebay pick.

Well that makes for a really good find! Every once in a while something like that will pop up and it's just wow got to get it!!

A while back I bought one jewelry lot that had four bracelets in it that ended up being plated. I emailed the seller back and said some of them are not real and she got all mad and said you know what just send the whole thing back I'm not doing a partial refund! I was going to send it back but I had maybe six pieces more to look through and one of the last pieces was a 14 K White Gold bracelet. That bracelet paid for the whole entire lot I just emailed her back and said never mind I'll keep it! Gave her positive feedback and left it at that.

 

[dirtdigginfool]

I sell a new, NOS Honda atv part for $12.00. Buyer pays, I ship it out (from OH to CA)..a week or so later, it gets returned to me with "NOT DELIVERABLE AS ADDRESSED" stamped on it. I had heard nothing from the buyer, btw. I send out an e-mail EVERY DAY for over a week to the buyer, asking if they had the correct address, if they had moved, etc..nothing..so three weeks after the purchase, the buyer, who had NEVER contacted me..blasted me with a big, fat NEG and wrote "SELLER IS CROOK!!".."DO NOT BUY!!"..so at this point I am seething!..and still nothing from the buyer. I contact Ebay, explain the process to them, they see all the e-mails from me to him..but they will not remove the neg..seething more now. BUT..they did remove the comments..I told the ebay rep that if they did not remove the neg that I would not buy OR sell anything on there until it disappeared...so a year later, it drops off. I actually considered a trip out west...lol...ddf

 

[diggummup]

I sell a new, NOS Honda atv part for $12.00. Buyer pays, I ship it out (from OH to CA)..a week or so later, it gets returned to me with "NOT DELIVERABLE AS ADDRESSED" stamped on it. I had heard nothing from the buyer, btw. I send out an e-mail EVERY DAY for over a week to the buyer, asking if they had the correct address, if they had moved, etc..nothing..so three weeks after the purchase, the buyer, who had NEVER contacted me..blasted me with a big, fat NEG and wrote "SELLER IS CROOK!!".."DO NOT BUY!!"..so at this point I am seething!..and still nothing from the buyer. I contact Ebay, explain the process to them, they see all the e-mails from me to him..but they will not remove the neg..seething more now. BUT..they did remove the comments..I told the ebay rep that if they did not remove the neg that I would not buy OR sell anything on there until it disappeared...so a year later, it drops off. I actually considered a trip out west...lol...ddf

This is why I print my labels via ebay. They can't leave negative feedback for their own stupidity. By that I mean if the address they have listed on ebay is not correct and the item does not get delivered because of that, it is not on you (the seller). I know this because I had a neg. removed a couple years ago for this exact same scenario. It took an hour of my life to get it done but...