How to spot a rip off on ebay Part 1

[Guest]

Well when dad (Nigel.d) used ebay and went for a laptop that was supposed to be located in London i think it was it had actually taken 3 weeks to arrive but then when recieving it the box was in a right state. He then reported him on ebay and they didn't do anything to my knownledge. But because dad paid via PayPal he complained to them and my dad got some money back and plus PayPal frozed the persons account. It's not a nice world Ebay. I remeber looking at a item on ebay and i pressed watch this item and then i had the item sent and the money taken out of dads paypal account as you can imagine he was not a happy bunny.

[Guest]

My past experience of being ripped off shows just how disgraceful Ebay are at responding to customers problems. As you say it is a con mans paradise and the whole system is geared up to keeping the sellers happy because that is where they get thier revenue from.

Feedback is abused continuously by sellers to manupulate thier own scores and I have had many an argument when I say that I will not leave feedback until I recieve it. My part of the transaction as a buyer is finished long before the actions of the seller are completed so why shouldn't they have to leave feedback first. All the excuses about knowing things have been delivered are rubbish and even Ebay recommends this as a policy.

I have been convinced for a couple of years now that this one issue is the foundation of a lot of problems and Ebay will never get any safer until they change this policy. Feedback should be left by sellers first to ensure a much more honest system and far less manipulation.

Having said that do your homework thoroughly, ask questions and satisfy yourself of a sellers legitimacy and there are still positive experiences to be had. I have just bought a toy helicopter which was sent to me the day they recieved my cheque, supported by an e-mail. It arrived this morning recorded delivery. Superb service but the seller has 100% feedback after over four and a half thousand feedbacks so he must be doing something OK.

Sorry Guy but I now steadfastly refuse to buy anything from Power Sellers as I have regularly found them to be the most arrogant, unhelpfull, uncaring sellers going and they are just not worth the hassle. This is a great shame because the genuine sellers such as yourself are getting tarred with the same brush and consequently loosing out.

[Guest]

HAHHAHHHAHHAHHA

look at the guys feedback now..... http://feedback.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayIS...ab=AllFeedback

2 negatives recently posted and his feedbacks gone private.

Shame on you Ebay ...they were warned yet still they let the sales go ahead...

EBAY DOESNT CARE AND ITS IN BRIGHT RED NEGATIVES.

[Guest]

Well at least with Private Feedback he will not be able to sell anything else.

Once again Ebay have proved that they have no interest whatsoever in protecting thier buyers.

[wonwinglo]

A friend who used to sell a lot of things on E-Bay, tells me that there are very few private sellers on there now ? and not many buyers either,I think that the bubble has burst,what was once a good idea that worked has now become a sham,people will only take so much and their customer service is an insult to anyones intelligence.

[Guest]

eBay misery

In my very limited experience of eBay, I have learned to avoid it like the plague. Last year after buying a couple of items from traders as 'buy it now' I found my inbox full of messages congratulating me on winning bids that I hadn't made. The idiot responsible had racked up £28k in stupid over the top bids which some naive sellers tried to hold me to. I eventually sorted it out by hours of emails and some tough talking. EBay were no help at all and only reacted at all when I instructed them to close the account saying that they could not do this for six months as it was the subject of dispute.

My advice don't go there at all.

[Guest]

One of the worst things about Ebay and Paypal - if you have money in your paypal account and then run into troubles with a buyer/seller, paypal can actually freeze your account. That means you have no access to the funds in there and no real means of easily contacting Paypal. It's not as if Paypal have a great customer support helpdesk working 24/7 and sufficient operators to deal with the huge number of complaints they get!

Also as Kevin mentioned, if all goes well with a transaction and positive feedback is left by both parties then all is well, however if anyone has an issue then it's impossible to actually leave negative feedback or else it will soon descend into a confrontation with the other member retaliating and just putting their side across and leaving comments like - "Paid for item but never received" even if they know full well that it was received and sent with proof of posting, recorded delivery etc.

I find it really annoying after leaving positive feedback where months later the buyer later leaves a disparaging remark for no apparent reason!

I once purchased a Mardave Ministock on Ebay but there was a problem with the item description as the title was missleading R12 / V1R etc - I contacted the seller on numerous occasions and although he was helpful he eventually offered a replacement item - as per the description but wanted to charge double for it! It then descended into him leaving negative feedback and later removing the feedback...