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Avoid eBay seller “democra-1”

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Avoid eBay seller “democra-1”

Old 04-20-20, 03:14 PM
  #1  
FstrMnky
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Avoid eBay seller “democra-1”

Just a warning if you’re looking for Compass tires on eBay. Imagine if you bought from this seller & need to communicate with them - it would be a nightmare!
His listing title is “Compass tires, Barlow pass 700c x 38mm used”. Cool, I’ll bid on those ...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/compass-tir...4AAOSw9T1emlJX

Only see photos of one tire (I think) - hmm. Everybody’s human so maybe a typo, maybe selling a pair & accidentally only loaded photos of 1 tire? sent a message asking if the listing is selling 2 tires (1 pair) or, as his title seems to indicate, if he’s selling a single tire.

His reply is below. Wish I hadn’t asked. Surely I’m not the bad one here for asking?
“New message from: democra-1 (6)
one tire. did you see the price? did you see photos of multiple tires? what planet are you from? dont bid on this tire. buy a new one.”

I thought cycling made everyone happier!

End of PSA
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Old 04-20-20, 03:29 PM
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Originally Posted by FstrMnky
Just a warning if you’re looking for Compass tires on eBay. Imagine if you bought from this seller & need to communicate with them - it would be a nightmare!
His listing title is “Compass tires, Barlow pass 700c x 38mm used”. Cool, I’ll bid on those ...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/compass-tir...4AAOSw9T1emlJX

Only see photos of one tire (I think) - hmm. Everybody’s human so maybe a typo, maybe selling a pair & accidentally only loaded photos of 1 tire? sent a message asking if the listing is selling 2 tires (1 pair) or, as his title seems to indicate, if he’s selling a single tire.

His reply is below. Wish I hadn’t asked. Surely I’m not the bad one here for asking?
“New message from: democra-1 (6)
one tire. did you see the price? did you see photos of multiple tires? what planet are you from? dont bid on this tire. buy a new one.”

I thought cycling made everyone happier!

End of PSA
Seller's description also mentions "tires" in the multiple. I would move on -- looks like the "38" on the sidewall is in sharpie, and seller only has 6 items for feedback.

Seller is sloppy with description, marks up the tire, and is a jerk. No thanks.
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Old 04-20-20, 03:45 PM
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“These are barely used”.
I am fairly sure in English that suggests more than one.
Listing does say 1 available, which should confuse anyone paying attention. 1 tire? 1 pair?
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Old 04-20-20, 03:56 PM
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There are a lot of scams on Ebay. One scam is making it appear as if there are multiple items, then only sending one item. One seller tried that on me. After sending the item, he even changed the photo to show one item. I normally take screenshots of what I am buying, and was able to send screenshots of the original ad. He then offered a very small refund, which would still make the one item expensive. I refused the offer, and requested a much larger refund, which I got.

Ebay staff read the communication you send to sellers. In a case like that, where I had screenshots, if he did not do the right thing, Ebay would deal with it.

In my part of the world, a lot of sellers on Ebay are Chinese. Many Chinese think, if they scam somebody now, they can make money. Many Westerners think, if they do the right thing, they will get repeat business. When sellers do the wrong thing, I will never buy from them again.

Some Chinese don't speak English well. You may notice, a lot of Ebay ads, just copy what another seller has said. Some may not explain it well because their English is poor. Others my act like their English is poor, to intentionally scam people.

Australia has protection for consumers getting scammed. PayPal or Ebay will refund the money of people getting scammed. If they don't do the right thing, there are government departments that will deal with them. I suspect, in some countries there is little consumers can do about it.

I am surprised that Ebay does not remove sellers that are obviously scamming people. It would be a real good place to buy and sell if Ebay got rid of the scammers.
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Old 04-20-20, 04:22 PM
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Based on the pic, looks like a terrible deal for one tire or four.
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Old 04-20-20, 04:40 PM
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Seller is placed in the District of Columbia. On K street?
Unfortunately a purposeful play with plurals.
We are in that kind of time interval, radar up.
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Old 04-20-20, 04:58 PM
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6 items in feedback, all are as a buyer. May have never sold anything before. I like ebay, but you really gotta be careful. Shopping on ebay -> kinda like drinking at Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina
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Old 04-20-20, 05:01 PM
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I'd be very careful buying from anyone with 6 feedback.
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Old 04-20-20, 05:49 PM
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Originally Posted by repechage
Seller is placed in the District of Columbia. On K street?
Unfortunately a purposeful play with plurals.
We are in that kind of time interval, radar up.
I bought something from a 6 feedback seller. I waited a couple of weeks after I won the auction before I contacted the seller- he hadn't shipped it yet. When it finally arrived the item was more worn than the description and the pictures showed AND the item was fragile and just tossed in a re-used plastic shipping bag scotch taped shut. When I contacted ebay support- they contacted the seller- the seller never replied to them- they refunded the entire amount to me and told me to keep the item. I emailed the seller and said I'd give him like 80% of the price- the guy replied something like "whatever you want to do to get this over with." I don't recall if I replied- but my thought was 'this IS over.' I felt guilty about it because I think the seller was really just not a smart person. On the other hand, the seller was a non-communicative dick.
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Old 04-20-20, 06:04 PM
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Well, even the most veteran eBay sellers had only 6 transactions at some point! That said, in the words of Greg Brady, caveat emptor.
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Old 04-20-20, 07:13 PM
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I asked him the same question. Maybe if he gets enough messages whether it's 1 or more, he'll edit.
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Old 04-20-20, 07:19 PM
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Heres a little ranting I did on facebook recently:

"Tale of first world woe here: I had a ebay deal go squirrely with with some knucklehead in Finland. Sold me the wrong parts for for a precision tool, and then suggested I should cut up some beer cans to shim it to close enough and a steady stream of piss off dude. Then the virus hit. Ebay imploded. The seller ghosted. The only replies I got from Ebay where that I was a bad person and I should go away and leave them alone.. After a dozen emails I got a Oops, Sorry about that, here's a refund. Huge time suck, but hey I'm stuck at home.
So I leave the seller a negative feedback including Howdoyoulikethoseapples? I immediately here from the seller with a long plea to save his reputation, he had to travel, was out of the country had no internet service, was contacting me at great risk, yada yada... And sent me a scan of a convenience store receipt to prove that he was out of country.

The receipt was for beer bought at a Spanish beach town. Apparently Finnish knuckle heads also do spring break during a Pandemic. I hope he saved the empties for shim stock."

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Old 04-20-20, 10:22 PM
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Originally Posted by due ruote
Listing does say 1 available, which should confuse anyone paying attention. 1 tire? 1 pair?
To clarify, he is selling one tires.
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Old 04-20-20, 10:43 PM
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Buy them new. Used tires are like used underwear.

Also, there are few joys greater in life than that smell you experience when you first rip open the packaging of a Compass/Rene Herse tire. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of Compass tires in the packaging.
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Old 04-20-20, 10:49 PM
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Originally Posted by jackbombay
To clarify, he is selling one tires.
Actually I think he's selling half a pair of tires.
Or maybe it's two half-tires.
​​​​​
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Old 04-20-20, 10:54 PM
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Originally Posted by bark_eater
Heres a little ranting I did on facebook recently:

"Tale of first world woe here: I had a ebay deal go squirrely with with some knucklehead in Finland. Sold me the wrong parts for for a precision tool, and then suggested I should cut up some beer cans to shim it to close enough and a steady stream of piss off dude. Then the virus hit. Ebay imploded. The seller ghosted. The only replies I got from Ebay where that I was a bad person and I should go away and leave them alone.. After a dozen emails I got a Oops, Sorry about that, here's a refund. Huge time suck, but hey I'm stuck at home.
So I leave the seller a negative feedback including Howdoyoulikethoseapples? I immediately here from the seller with a long plea to save his reputation, he had to travel, was out of the country had no internet service, was contacting me at great risk, yada yada... And sent me a scan of a convenience store receipt to prove that he was out of country.

The receipt was for beer bought at a Spanish beach town. Apparently Finnish knuckle heads also do spring break during a Pandemic. I hope he saved the empties for shim stock."

Wow, a Heinekin is 65 eurocents and an apple is €1.07?
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Old 04-21-20, 06:58 AM
  #17  
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Originally Posted by LesterOfPuppets
Wow, a Heinekin is 65 eurocents and an apple is €1.07?
Heineken has become quite the inexpensive beer. It's one of the cheapest I can buy here, of all places.
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Old 04-21-20, 07:31 AM
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Originally Posted by wgscott
Buy them new. Used tires are like used underwear.

Also, there are few joys greater in life than that smell you experience when you first rip open the packaging of a Compass/Rene Herse tire. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of Compass tires in the packaging.
You mean the smell of opening a package of used underwear isn’t as good?
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Old 04-21-20, 08:52 AM
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Originally Posted by bark_eater
I hope he saved the empties for shim stock.
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Old 04-21-20, 09:03 AM
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Wow, if I put used tires on eBay, people will actually bid on them? Who knew, I usually just chuck them.
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Old 04-21-20, 10:08 AM
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Originally Posted by LesterOfPuppets
Wow, a Heinekin is 65 eurocents and an apple is €1.07?
Notice that the Heineken is cheaper than the water.
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Old 04-21-20, 11:01 AM
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Originally Posted by tricky
Notice that the Heineken is cheaper than the water.
In Prague, (around 2017) a liter of top notch Pilsner cost about $1 and a liter of water about $2.

And not to defend the eBay seller because that was a jerk response, but when you put in a search for an item you want to sell, you’ll get a “list one like this” and it will populate your ad with info from a previous one.
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Old 04-21-20, 04:00 PM
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Originally Posted by tricky
Notice that the Heineken is cheaper than the water.
And, thus, still overpriced.
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Old 04-21-20, 08:18 PM
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That happened to me with bar tape. Who sells one roll of Fizik bar tape for $17? Well, I found him on EBay. For some reason I still have that one roll 4 years later, I guess I need to find a track bike.
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Old 04-21-20, 08:21 PM
  #25  
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Originally Posted by LesterOfPuppets
Wow, a Heinekin is 65 eurocents
Sounds like 65 eurocents too much.
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