My first bad ebay experience

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M

medic

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Feb 28, 2003
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Bradford, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Recently I was looking around ebay and came upon a "new" Diamond Crown humidor. This is a very good brand name and retailed for $975. The buy it now price was $149.99. I didn't need this, but I couldn't turn the deal down. After reading into the description I saw thta this was a display unit in a store and was never used. Anyway, I jumped on it. 10 days after sending the payment via paypal, I had heard nothing and emailed the seller. He assured me that it was sent out that morning. When it did finally arrive I saw that it was shipped 3 days after the email. It doesn't stop there. Upon opening the box I found that the lid was warped making this completely useless as a humidor. I could easily slide a credit card under the right side of the lid. The first email was responded to by the seller telling me that the lid would straighten with the correct amount of humidity and with time. I'm not stupid. I responded and told him that I am very familiar with humidors and it was obviously worse than he thought. He then responded with an email that stated I should have expected this considering that I bought a $975 item for only $150. He also stated that he never tested the item to see if the lid would seal and never made the claim that it would seal. All I ever asked for was an exchange. After all of this I decided that he was obviously not going to allow me to send the item back for an exchange, so I filed a claim with paypal. This must have made him mad because he sent me the following email:
quote:
Seeing how you filed a complaint with paypal, and in turn they took the money you paid out of my account, YOU NEED TO SEND THE HUMIDOR BACK TO ME TODAY, WITH INSURANCE AND DELIVERY CONFIRMATION. I need to be sent the delivery confirmation # no later than 12:00 midnight, otherwise I will be contacting your local authorities and filing FRAUD charges against you. I expect you to resolve this matter AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. I have clearly stated my intentions and I will follow through on them exactly as described above. I will await the email with the delivery confirmation number.
I just laughed at this and called his bluff. I explained that I fully intended to follow through with the paypal claim and I would send nothing to him without paypal knowing about it. I also informed him that I am a law abiding citizen and I insisted that he contact my local police department. I even supplied him with their address and phone number. About an hour after this email I got an email from paypal stating that they determind that I was due a refund, including S & H charges, once the item was returned to the seller. I just have to supply them with a tracking number to prove that I shipped the item back. So, I am going to be out the return shipping, but I think all turned out pretty good. Anyway, I strongly urge everybody not to do business with an ebay user called capecodjewelry.
 
You have to be very careful nowadays. There are even fake ebay web sites and fake paypal websites. There are fake MICROSOFT websites! I pretty much have given up doing any business through the internet. The internet has gone from a pretty friendly community with many interesting web sites to a very threatening, vile place infested with criminals, con artists, perverts, and various lowlifes. I remember one time I was trying to sell a used computer through I think ebay (I am certain it was ebay but I can't remember totally for sure). A guy got in touch wih me and I had a very bad feeling about him. He contacted me through email and said that he just had to have my computer (like he couldn't get an eMac from the local Apple Store?). The guy even said that I could talk to his banker who would back up that he was a straight guy. He gave me a telephone number to this guy. I called and some woman answered and said that she was so-and-so's bank receptionist. There was something very wrong-it just did not seem like a bank and I decided to drop the whole thing. The guy acted like he JUST HAD TO HAVE MY EMAC! I had of course tried to get the best price possible figuring I could go down to sell the used computer. For what the guy was willing to pay he could almost buy a brand new eMac! There was just something all wrong with the whole deal. And this was a while back. Now with the way the internet is compared to the friendly community of the past I think my internet commece will be extremely limited. Eventually the pirates and criminals and sadists and perverts will ruin the entire internet for everybody. As it is right now I have four security programs updating themselves every time I turn on the computer. About time to pull the old typewriter out of the garage and get the cobwebs off of that old machine. Maybe have the internet on the old TV set and the clowns can see what they can do to a TV set rather then a computer.
 
Always check the feedback BEFORE you bid. The overall feedback is important, but the most recent 2 months or so should be given special consideration. If all neg f/b came in the last few transactions, skip that seller no matter how good the price may seem.
 
Medic, If retail on this Diamond Crown humidor was $975, and he is selling it for $150, that should have raised many red flags. That is the classic Ebay scam artist lure, selling an expensive item for peanuts.
 
quote:
Originally posted by JAYCEE: Always check the feedback BEFORE you bid. The overall feedback is important, but the most recent 2 months or so should be given special consideration. If all neg f/b came in the last few transactions, skip that seller no matter how good the price may seem.
That's good advice. So many eBayers have good feedback that there isn't much need to deal with those that don't. No need to pass up a good deal because someone having a bad hair day gave a seller a bad rating though. Read the negative feedback carefully. If it indicates dishonesty, beware. If it says the person was slow on delivery or didn't kiss the buyers butt properly, then maybe it's not important. Also take a look at all the feedback the complainer has left for others. Some people just have a lot of problems no matter who they are dealing with.
 
ya, ebay is alright for a good deal. I remember bidding on a brand name item and I got some generic "made in korea" part instead. I didn't see in small print of the bottom of the listing "photo may not be actual item" or something to the effect. also, when you do find a good item on ebay, there is 100's of people bidding on it or using computer programs to be the winner. I'm not into the power trip of winning like some of the clowns are on there. too many scams too.
 
I have spent a LOT of money on ebay. In fact I have several thousand dollars in photography gear (camera & lenses) all bought on ebay. Ive never had a bad experience, but as JAYCEE pointed out I am fanatical about feedback. As well, once I find a seller that is trustworthy I'll try and stay with them if they have what Im looking for. I agree though that ebay has become such a hot spot that the scam artists abound and you just have to protect yourself by being informed and doing research and checking feed back. Ive even contacted buyers from a particular seller before. If I buy big ticket items though, particularly photography gear, from someone that I havent bought from before I'll use PayPal's protection plan. To me its worth the added cost to cover your butt.
 
Medic, the good news is that the system worked. Too bad you had to go through dealing with that jerk to find out it did. I havn't bought much on eBay but have sold 40 some items. I've only had one bad experiance. That was someone who backed out but didn't have the balls to admit they were backing out. Fortunately I hadn't shipped the item because they hadn't paid, so it was just an inconvenience. I later relisted the item at no cost and sold it for more that the first buyer had bid. The large majority of buyers have been great to deal with. I think you get fewer jerks to deal with on eBay than a retail merchant in a store does. You still have to be carefull though.
 
I have only good experiences with eBayers. Well let me get in one gripe - some folks are REALLY slow with feedback. I had one funky thing with eBay when I changed my email address....I won't go into detail but their site is not perfect and eBay made it seem like I did something wrong. They have since updated their software. Medic - what is the seller's ebay name?
 
quote:
The overall feedback is important,
Well, I go one step further when reading feedback. I check how the seller handled negitive feedback and the feedback of the buyer other than dealing with that seller. I've found a few high number sellers that deal with otherwise 100% buyers like scum. When I see that every neg feedback to a seller is responded to with "Avoid this loser ..a real jerk" I tend to avoid buying from that seller since they aren't into problem resolution. If the deal goes sour ..which will be rare ..they throw a temper tantrum and ruin the buyers feedback profile. If I see, "Tried to resolve matter to buyer's satisfaction. Unable to do so - refunded money" ..that's a responsible seller. I had one seller, with a near 100% pos feedback ignore 3 emails with a question about an item. I messaged him directly without the item number and he finally replied that he didn't answer stupid questions. This was a "Buy it Now" item that was fairly expensive for what it was. I replied that I can't buy it without a measurement ..but he wants to keep relisting it until he stumbles across someone needing it ..fine. I wished him good luck. He still has it listed for the fifth time. Ebay is a very preditory environment. If you ever visit their message board, they're full of people that look at "normal" people as cattle. They appear to like the somewhat savage "Buyer beware!" type freeforall that's out there.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Gary Allan:
quote:
The overall feedback is important,
Well, I go one step further when reading feedback. I check how the seller handled negitive feedback and the feedback of the buyer other than dealing with that seller. I've found a few high number sellers that deal with otherwise 100% buyers like scum. When I see that every neg feedback to a seller is responded to with "Avoid this loser ..a real jerk" I tend to avoid buying from that seller since they aren't into problem resolution. If the deal goes sour ..which will be rare ..they throw a temper tantrum and ruin the buyers feedback profile. If I see, "Tried to resolve matter to buyer's satisfaction. Unable to do so - refunded money" ..that's a responsible seller.
I got interested after you posted this a started looking around. I found the seller that I had a problem with has responded the same to every person he has had a problem with. He even retaliated agaist a person who left him + feedback. Here is what he did for my feedback:
quote:
SELLERS BEWARE-Buys item,complains &files complaints with PayPal-WATCH OUT!!! Reply by medic181075: Seller sold defective item(labeled as new)& refused to exchange. I had no choice Follow-up by capecodjewelry: Item not defective, FILED COMPLAINT w/ PayPal-VERY DEMANDING Buyer-WATCH OUT
I really wish that ebay would leave more room for this type of thing. I would love to add that I never demanded a thing, only asking for an exchange once. . I would also love to add that when I filed the claim with PayPal, it was an invitation to participate in mediation. He opted not to participate in this and instead, admitted his guilt by allowing the return and refund. I am thinking about inviting him to square trade to try and get the neg removed from my feedback. follow up: I just went to Square Trade to see about getting this negative feedback removed. I guess I need to hire a mediator for $29.95. If the seller refuses mediation, I will not be charged and the feedback will be removed. If he does respond, we will go to mediation and I will be charged for the sevices. I assume that he probably won't agree to mediation, but I don't think my feedback profile is worth $29.95 if he does agree to mediation. I'll have to think about this one for a while. [ May 28, 2005, 09:44 PM: Message edited by: medic ]
 
quote:
I found the seller that I had a problem with has responded the same to every person he has had a problem with.
I really don't care about how many good deals went through for the seller ..I look at how he handled the bad deals. This gives you far more insight into the character of the individual on the other end of the deal. Basically they're successful jerks that have managed to get it right. They're people that you would not normally want to associate with.
 
Medic, I guess it's a little late, but I think it's a good idea to suggest that the person reading your 1st reply to negative feed back review the other persons feed back and yours before they decide who is was at fault.
 
Sorry about your "bad deal". It really stinks when this sort of thing happens. I guess looking back, the seller's 4 negative feedbacks in 6 months should have been a red flag. As for your negative FB, I wouldn't lose sleep over it. I have a 99.9% FB rating instead of a 100% because a buyer retaliated when I left her negative FB for not paying the winning bid. I was [Mad] as all *%@#, but am over it now because it hasn't impact my ability to sell stuff.
 
Medic, Might I suggest on your feedback rebuttle you write, "Please email me so I can explain" or "Its a long story but I am happy to explain" or "I am not a crook" (while holding the peace sign with both hands in the air.) This way other potential buyers can at least hear your full side of the story rather than go blow for blow in 1 sentence.
 
I agree with Gary, how one deals with trouble issues tells the story. The seller was a scammer. A warped lid on a humidor is just a fancy box. FRAUD. I would have seen red flags myself. Anything more than 50% off, well you rolled the dice. Six (6) times off the regular price! Are you telling us you are honestly "shocked"? Not fair, but not unexpected. Let me give an example. When I park downtown, I leave a $50.00 on my windshield, under the wipers. I come back and it is gone. Was it theft? You bet. Did I think it was going to be there when I came back? You answer. [Confused]
 
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