theschwinnman

A couple years ago, I started buying laptops on ebay, then reselling them with better auction pictures, and got a good bit more money than what I'd purchased them for. It worked great, until I sold this guy a $600 laptop, he left me good feedback, I left him good as well. about three months after selling it, Paypal locked my account, apparently he filed a chargeback on his credit card, Paypal did nothing. He got off with the $600 and the laptop. I haven't used ebay since

flammenwurfer

I've heard a number of horror stories with paypal locking up your funds or refunding people without your consent. That's why I try to do as much business as I can in person through CL or word of mouth instead. Minimize my risk.

Mos6502

The worst ebay/paypal experience I have had was I sold a couple of old box cameras - for a grand total of $3.

I was busy and did not ship them out right away so I sent the buyer a message saying that I would be late sending them out, and then sent her another message saying they had been posted when I sent them out. About a week later I receive negative feedback from her stating that the items never arrived, and that I wasn't responding to emails or messages.

I checked, she sent me one message less than 24hrs. earlier. She also filed a claim with paypal, but backed off when I stated that I have no responsibility for items once they're shipped and that if it was so important to her she could have asked for delivery confirmation or insurance. Technically paypal asks for sellers to provide proof that an item was sent out, but after that she called me a thief and liar and said it wasn't worth her time to fuss over $3 - so I refused to refund her any money. Eventually her complaint expired and I got the $3.

But it was really irksome to have gotten negative feedback saying I stole her money and wasn't responding to messages...

In my opinion, ebay's gone down the ****ter for sellers since they decided sellers don't have the right to give buyers negative feedback. Since they changed that I've noticed a lot of buyers have gotten pretty nasty attitudes even if they don't leave negative feedback.

prettyshady

Two girls one cup?

I had to ship a frame+fork to taiwan and had allready accepted the 39 euros postage. At the post office they said it would cost 79 euros so I paid it because it was too much for me to carry home. Never heard back from the guy in taiwan.

I don't mind the tough days on ebay because I can buy any bike I like locally knowing that If I don't like it It can be sold away on ebay.com to get my money back.

Ex Pres 

Selling: Fortunately no issues in probably 75-100 sales.

Buying:
I had to wait once a long while to get a new DA hub from a HK based seller. Filed w/Paypal and all that, then it magically showed up 2 days before whatever 90 day deadline the seller was up against. I figure he was just out of stock and waited to collect enough orders to replenish.

Two buying situations were with two brick & mortar bike shops.
1. I bought a NIB Shimano UN72 BB. Should be pretty simple, huh? I don't even remember now what length I wanted, but they shipped me a different length - one that did correspond to the Shimano stock number on the box, but not what they advertised. When I asked about the discrepency, they claimed I didn't know how to measure the length, nor could I interpret the number on the side of the box. They finally agreed that would take it back at my cost to return, less what I paid for shipping. Because they shipped me the correct item. Sure. I slammed them with negative feedback on the last day @ 11:45 PST(no retaliation) and kept the BB for some future use.

2. The other was a purchase of a Phil fixed/fixed hub. It came with two DA cogs and lockrings, extra bearings. All pictured together. (What a fool am I). Sounded like a great deal so I bid and won. The description failed to mention that the spokes had been cut off and the cogs had been ridden onto the hub, and hard. I had to partially build a sacrificial wheel (junk rim, old spokes) to twist the cogs loose. I just wouldn't have expected this treatment from a bike shop. I had purchased something from them in the past, and it too had something conveniently left off the description, but not as bad. I'm wary now in bidding on items from this particular "reputable' bike store.

gitarzan

I never had a problem selling, however I did learn to never ever use Parcel Post. They have no deadline for PP and do not have to deliver it if they don't have room, etc. A camera I sent sat in a post office for 3 weeks until the buyer went to to post office to file a complaint and they said well, here is...

Buying... Only burned once. Some idiot sold a camera lens stating it was like new, when it was badly hacked, looking like someone did a failed homemade repair job. It even had little sheet metal screws holding it together. The seller said he would refund, then cancelled his account after the Paypal dispute deadline passed. They guy copied his text from another auction and I smelled something before the auction ended. I have bailed out of gone-stinky auctions since.

I've bought a $10000 motorcycle with no issues, sold/bought guitars without incident.

beech333

Years ago, I won an auction for a collection of rare collectible cards. Yes, I am a dork. The auction specifically listed certain rare cards and a quantity for those items. A week after the auction ends, I get a box of commons. Specified items were not in the box.

I complain to the seller. No response.

Four days later, I threaten mail fraud and paypal refund. Seller contacts me and says items will be sent ASAP overnight.

Box arrives next day, some rare cards were included but specified items from auction still not found. File mail fraud (never heard back) and paypal complaint as "Items not as described".

Two weeks later, a paypal representative contacts me and says that the complaint does not match "Items not as described" and I cannot file another complaint. I got hosed.

beech333

I just started selling on Ebay. I posted 4 auctions first and stated that I would only ship to US and Canada in the text of the auction. The last day of the auction, a guy from Spain contacted me and asked if I would ship to Spain. I told him "No." An few minutes before the auction ended, I saw that he placed a bid. Luckily, someone else beat him out.

Now that I have more auctions running, I got another message from him. This time, I learned how to block bidders from countries I don't ship to.

gitarzan

I had a guy from Spain do that to me as well. But he won. A guitar. He was a US citizen working in Spain. He kept bugging me and finally bid at the very end. He had his mother in Boston send a Cashiers Check. I deposited it and waited a month until my bank guaranteed it. It worked out OK, but I was lucky.

r0ckh0und 

I have done roughly 70 transactions on ebay.........most of my issues have been as a buyer.

#1 Bought a bike and seller agreed to local pick up....he had already "dismantled" the bike and packed in a square box. He did not loosen any of the cables, instead he pryed open the cabled stops.

#2 Won a set of MTB wheels and seller said they were damaged by garage door.......he did refund.

#3 Won a Gunnar Rockhound w/853 Reynolds and full Shimano XTR in excellent condition for $400 shipped and the seller would not ship it. No money lost, but still.

#4 Recently won a Brooks saddle and the seller shipped it to the wrong buyer and sent me a Thompson Elite seatpost. He offered free shipping and ended up paying triple fees on the saddle and double on the seatpost.....I shipped the seatpost to the right buyer and the seller reimbursed me.

I have shipped to Hawaii and Puerto Rico without any issues.

r0ckh0und 

Oh ya.............#5 Won a vintage Manitou 3 suspension fork that had supposedly been rebuilt with 200+ springs and recieved a fork with zero rebound whatsoever. When I opened up the fork it had no springs and some of the original elastomers were missing. I asked the seller to reimburse for the cost of a rebuild kit and I would rebuild it myself. We went rounds with the emails for 4 or 5 days and he finally apologized and paid for the kit.

RobbieTunes

Worst on-line experience......there was this girl, see......

r0ckh0und 

Seems I get a spoof PayPal emails within a few days of a transaction many times stating my account has been locked. DO NOT CLICK ON THESE EMAILS........EVER!

CCrew

Similar experience on a laptop sale on eBay. On mine the buyer shipped back a brick wrapped in bubble wrap and disputed with Paypal saying it was returned. Since he had a tracking # Paypal sided with him.

20grit

I've never had a bad experience..... I was building a hollowbody electric guitar once and was using ebay to get the parts i needed. Won an auction for a tune-o-matic-esque roller bridge. When i got it, it was missing screws and upon installation of the strings I found you couldn't adjust the bridge because the screws for adjustment were right under the strings. Crappy Taiwanese knock off part. I explained things to the seller, they refunded my money and said not to bother shipping it back. This really tells me they knew it was junk. So, it wasn't a bad experience, but i had to wait another couple weeks to get a bridge for the thing.

gridplan

I've had lots of good experiences on eBay, but also a couple of horrific ones. Here's one...

1) Bought a $6K chair from a seller in Japan.
2) Received chair; chair was not as described.
3) Requested refund. Seller refused.
4) Opened a dispute with eBay. Their rules of mediation compelled me to send it back to seller.
5) Sent chair back to Japan. Shipping cost: $1200.
6) Chair arrived in Japan. Seller refused to accept delivery. Chair stuck at loading dock.
7) Consulted eBay. Their advice? Arrange to ship chair back from Japan. Why? They may request chair from me at a later date if negotiations with seller work out. Return shipping cost: $1300.
8) Good news: eBay refunds cost of chair, $6K. Bad news: I'm out the shipping costs, $2500, in what was a predictably vain attempt to return it to the seller.

yepyep

Hmm, I have a few. Some ended well, some did not.
I bought a 1964 Fender Duosonic. The seller did say in the auction that it was refinished, but otherwise original. This story will probably make sense to guitar people. It had been routed for a Floyd Rose and the auction pictures made a point to not to show the huge hole in the body beneath the bridge/pick guard. I was livid! The seller ended up refunding the full price and refused to let me send it back. That guitar haunted me with bad karma and I passed it along to a young aspiring guitarist.
I sold a drum machine to a bidder in Yemen who refused to pay more than the domestic shipping cost. Negative feedback on that one for me.
I haven't used ebay in over a year. It got out of hand with Paypal's terrible management of disputes and high fees. I'll take the 10-20% loss of profit over outrageous fees and personal disputes by using the CL today. Thankfully I live in a pretty large market.

CV-6 

But she wasn't a girl?

RobbieTunes

You know her, too?

RobbieTunes

Couldn't fill it with a quarter pounder? Not that you should have to, and I imagine the QP was a litle alien to the Duo.... I had no clue so many guitars were flying around cyberspace.

thirst

Nice bike, I can see why he would want it. I'm not sure how you know he is little, or a scammer. No real need to call him an idiot either. He asked, you answered not a big deal...

thirst

thirst

I have had pretty good ebay/CL results but one member of this forum tried some BS "technique" to get some bikes of mine. They didn't know that I knew who they were but it was sad. And when I read their posts about all their "deals" I know that they really kind of conned the people that fell for their "story". Sad.

thirst