Ebay Nightmares...

[Thanatos340 1]

[Rant]
I have bought and sold a few things on ebay over the past few years.. Never had a Problem at all..

Finally decided to sell a couple Larger Ticket Items..

What a Pain in the ASS. Nothing but one scammer and/or Idiot after another. I was selling my Daughters Junior Dragster and in a separate Auction The Race Car Trailer. Big Bold Letter in the Auction.. I will not Ship.. You must pick up.

Anyway.. Some guy in California Wins the Auction for the Trailer. Says Oh I’m Sorry, I didn’t realize you were in GEORGIA.. Never mind. How the hell does anyone BID over $3,200 for something and don’t even read what they are buying??

So I goto the second Place Bidder.. He tells me that 6 other people have already contacted him claming to be me and that they will deliver the trailer to him if he just sends them the Money. I told don’t send anyone anything, If he wants the Trailer.. come get it, Pay for it when you pick it up. Where at he asks?? Atlanta.. Just like Auction Says.. OH, He is in Virginia.. Never Mind.

So I contact 3rd Place Bidder.. Want the Trailer?? He had the same problem. People claiming to be me already contacted him with the same story. Send Money, Will deliver. Nice scam.. When they don’t get the trailer.. They come after me. UNREAL!!

Nothing but Idiots and Scammers.

Oh.. And the Race Car... Some guy in D.C. won the auction. Says he will drive down next week to get it. I ask him if he has a Trailer.. No he says.. I am just going to put it in the back of the Truck..
The car is 15 feet long and made from a Crome-Moly Chassis.. A) It will not fit in the back of the truck b) if you try it WILL warp the Chassis. Oh he says.. Not sure I want it then.. I dont have a Trailer. This guy bid over $4,000 on something he doesn’t know anything about.

UNFUCKING BELIEVABLE!!
[/Rant]


So lets hear your Ebay Nightmare stories...

[NWFlyer 2]

Wow, that sucks! I've never tried to sell anything "big ticket" and the only things I've sold that require local pickup are baseball tickets (which the folks from out of town aren't going to be interested in buying).

Worst experience I had like that ended up having no financial impact on me, but it was pretty impressive what this guy did. He was a seller on Amazon marketplace, and he managed to get a few positive feedback ratings over a couple months (enough that I wasn't worried buying from him). Bought the book and waited .... and waited... and waited. Tried contacting him a few times - no response. I then went back and looked at his feedback rating. He'd gone from a few positive ratings to over 4,000 negative ratings in the space of about 6 weeks. This guy put up that many bogus listings, collected the money, and ran. Fortunately, Amazon's fraud department got me a refund when I filed a claim, and I hope they were able to track his ass down.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[skinnyshrek 0]

hey ill deliver it for 450 dollars

http://www.skydivethefarm.com

do you realize that when you critisize people you dont know over the internet, you become part of a growing society of twats? ARE YOU ONE OF THEM?

[jloirsdaan 0]

Wow...that sheds some light on somethings....buddy of mine tried to buy a rig off of ebay...ended up being second place bidder....guy comes and says hey other guy backed out....want to buy the rig....of course....send me a money order and i will cover shipping and overnight it to you....buddy is stupid and sends him $1500....no rig.....he got ripped! dont ever do second chance buys ebay says....

Jordan

Go Fast, Dock Soft.

[nathaniel 0]

somehow I thought if you enter a bid you are obligated to pay if you win. Otherwise you could screw the system up.

My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

[Thanatos340 1]

Quote

somehow I thought if you enter a bid you are obligated to pay if you win

I think about all I can do is leave negative Feedback.. Ohhh.. That will teach then!! LOL!!

My biggest concern now is all these scammer Claiming to be going to the other bidder trying to get them to send them money.. Then these people come after me when they dont get their Trailer.

Scarry shit dealing with EBAY nowadays!! Just a Bunch of Scammers and Idiots.

[Clownburner 0]

Yeah, I used to use eBay back in the day before it got so bad. Bought and sold some high-end audio equipment, some of it several thousand $$$ worth.. No problems at all. Today, it's been overrun by scammers.

Have you tried something like craigslist or auto trader? (dunno if they make a 'dragster trader' though)

7CP#1 | BTR#2 | Payaso en fuego Rodriguez
"I want hot chicks in my boobies!"- McBeth

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

Jay, I am incredibly hesitant to either offer or bid for anything on E-bay. Thankfully, it was never my gig anyway, so I don't feel bad. My one and only E-bay experience ended with Katie and I getting shafted on two electric scooters. Never again. If I see something that I like on there, I will simply contact the person by other means and work the deal another way.

[vid666 0]

Quote

Wow...that sheds some light on somethings....buddy of mine tried to buy a rig off of ebay...ended up being second place bidder....guy comes and says hey other guy backed out....want to buy the rig....of course....send me a money order and i will cover shipping and overnight it to you....buddy is stupid and sends him $1500....no rig.....he got ripped! dont ever do second chance buys ebay says....

I beg to differ. I have close to 10,000 feedbacks , so I think I know what I am talking about. DO DO the 2nd chance buys - just do them through eBay, not cuz somebody sent you an email.

if you are do stupid things - stupid things will happen.

[thegreekone 0]

Whenever I read posts like this I am always astonished by how people can rob, cheat, and or steal other people and live with themselves!

I am no fudd-duddy, prude, or square....I just don't get it.

[vid666 0]

Hey,

as I said above, I have been actively using (mostly selling) on eBay since 1999. I have close to 10,000 feedbacks ( 9473 as of this second ).

I have sold a few our big 24' trucks on eBay, a few motorcycles, and a fair amount of items over $1000.

Selling vehicles - it's fairly standard to require a deposit within 24-72 hours of auction end date.

I "sold" our 1990 Ford truck a few months ago for $3700. The guy sent me a $500 deposit via Money Order. a week later he showed up to inspect the truck - and guess what ? he didn't see what HE expected - though the pictures were clearly posted, and he knew the truck was a 1990 with 220K miles - he thought it would be mint and need no work. Right, even the pics showed wear and rust.

long story short - HE TOLD ME to keep part of the deposit for wasting my time and eBay fees.

I suggest you do the same thing with all you large purchases - get their deposit, that per auction terms is unrefundable. Then they might be more motivated to be more careful or get the item shipped. Worst case scenario - a few hours of your time wasted, you still got the vehicle, and you got the deposit.

got questions ? USE COMMON SENSE ( or email me :)

cya

[TALONSKY 0]

I know e-bay can have it's issues so far I watch what I purchase and look at the sellers review. I bought alot of misc skydiving gear and even a new hot tub off of it. The only issue I have ever ran into is I found out if you buy a few items in quick succession and pay for each on paypal separately , paypal may charge you twice for the same item. I ended up paying twice for a camera and after about a month of hassle I got the second charge reversed.
Kirk
Here is a pic of the $3500 hot tub I bought which included delivery from Florida to Molalla, OR

[StevePhelps 0]

I have bought and sold over 250 things on Ebay with a few scammer, but nothing unreal such as yours. I learned a long time ago to NOT sell anything of great value. Too many con mane out there.

My neighbor won the bid on a $10,000 dollar Harley. They guy wanted $3000 wired to him in Las Vegas. He said he was in the Army and couldn't be reached by phone or letter. Big war games going on or something like that. Well, my not too bright neighbor sent the money. The money was picked up in Italy. Live and learn.

[vid666 0]

Quote

I have bought and sold over 250 things on Ebay with a few scammer, but nothing unreal such as yours. I learned a long time ago to NOT sell anything of great value. Too many con mane out there.

My neighbor won the bid on a $10,000 dollar Harley. They guy wanted $3000 wired to him in Las Vegas. He said he was in the Army and couldn't be reached by phone or letter. Big war games going on or something like that. Well, my not too bright neighbor sent the money. The money was picked up in Italy. Live and learn.

I hate to sound redundant - but it's those attitudes that make people turn away from an otherwise fine on-line flea market :)

a little common sense goes a long way. Requesting digital pictures of a certain part - that's an easy one. How many scammers would be able to do it ? And how many valid sellers will turn down a 5 min hassle to sell a multi-thousand dolllar "thing" ?

some things go incredible cheap on eBay - cuz people are sceptical. And they have a right to be.

keep in mind : Pay with paypal - you got $1000 protection.
pay with paypal AND FUND WITH YOUR CC - you can always charge back through a CC - unlimited amount. - I ALWAYS do that.

If the seller is quazi-local to ya - and only accepts cash/Money ORder - see if they are willing to meet up after the sale and exchange good for money. - that's fairly simple. If they are not - then you are definately taking a risk.

Lastly - damnit, skydivers are ALL OVER THE PLACE - find a peer local to the seller and have them check the person/item out. If you trust somebody in the area - have THEM exchange product for $$$ on the spot. I have had friends do that for me, as well as my buyers use their friends when they were in doubt.

peace

[jloirsdaan 0]

I completely agree with you....I wasn't very clear there.....After the incident he contacted ebay and they were the one's that put that little comment out there.....He sent the guy a money order which isn't to bright to begin with

Jordan

Go Fast, Dock Soft.

[ACMESkydiver 0]

This is why I hate E-bay.

Despite that, I still do business, and am looking to buy a $345 Palm Tungsten T5 through there. It's just so damn much cheaper...and no sales tax.

-'Course, no warranties either, but ya know...

~Jaye
Do not believe that possibly you can escape the reward of your action.

[Guest 1010]

Quote

I hate to sound redundant - but it's those attitudes that make people turn away from an otherwise fine on-line flea market :)

No, its not the attitude that causes the problem, it ebay & paypal that cause the attitude.


Got ripped off for a $400 set of speakers a couple years ago ... Ebay was no help (but hey I COULD submit messages to a web server about the probelm LOL) paypal was no help, cc was no help because that transaction was with paypal, not the seller.

So now I gave them another shot, recently did paypal. Verified with a bank account laying around that has $10 in it and has never had any other connections to ANYTHING.

Paypal then changed the "default" source of funds from the credit card to debit from the back account .. (probably because the fees are much much less, ie pennies down from a percentage; and there's no credit card company to dispute the transaction that way either )...

but 1) they didn't tell me they were going to do that
2) there is no way apparent way to change the default back the the CC, I have to remember to change it every transaction, or else it'll try to debit from the bank account
3) they haven't responded to my question submitted about it. I played the game and waded through many pages of of "help" before they would even let me submit the question ...
4) no easy to find phone number either to talk to a human, like that'd help ....

so yeah paypal & ebay are like dog food. If you make money there and like the taste, feel free.

You can have it good, fast, or cheap: pick two.

[vid666 0]

you are mistaken.
eBay does not sell you ANYTHING. eBay is a listing service. If you get ripped off there's little they can be responsible for. That is in their user agreement, and that is what they always say. If something looks like an EXCEPTIONAL price and the only catch is sending a money order to a PO box - well, there's probably a reason for that.

otherwise - if you file a case with paypal within 30 days - they should stand behind you. PLUS - trace back to what I said before about funding everything with a CC.

True on the fact that you have to select CC every time, as paypal defaults to a checking account. But it's not that big of a deal.

again - don't blame the car, blame the driver. Else Ford would be responsible for people falling asleep at the wheel.

[Guest 1010]

Quote

you are mistaken.
eBay does not sell you ANYTHING. eBay is a listing service. If you get ripped off there's little they can be responsible for. That is in their user agreement, and that is what they always say. If something looks like an EXCEPTIONAL price and the only catch is sending a money order to a PO box - well, there's probably a reason for that.

otherwise - if you file a case with paypal within 30 days - they should stand behind you. PLUS - trace back to what I said before about funding everything with a CC.

True on the fact that you have to select CC every time, as paypal defaults to a checking account. But it's not that big of a deal.

again - don't blame the car, blame the driver. Else Ford would be responsible for people falling asleep at the wheel.

I am mistaken?

I never said that ebay sold me anything. Since you desire to respond to things I have never said, why not just take it to Speakers Corner, they do it all the time there.

The price wasn't exceptional, and it wasn't to a PO box. Lets see, what else didn't I say? Oh yeah, I didn't pay by money order, I paid using PayPal.

I said I got ripped off and ebay/paypal were no help. Where's the mistake? Did someone magically send me money that i didn't find out about? Please, please tell me where it is.

I DID file a case with paypal, at 20 days. That was a joke. I filled out the online forms. The automated system contacted the seller. The other guy knew what answers to give to game the system. He said he sent the stuff blah blah blah. The only human response I received from ebay was a short note saying they would investigate. Over the next several months when I contacted them they were "still investigating". I finally gave up, moved on, and let it go. But I didn't forget.

>>pay with paypal AND FUND WITH YOUR CC - you can always charge back through a CC - unlimited amount. - I ALWAYS do that.

If you are not just blatently lying here, then things have changed since I used it. I used a major name credit card that has always been good about protecting me. But in this case they said that paypal had indeed received the $$, and paypal and I agreed on that, so there was nothing for them to dispute. The dispute was between myself and the seller with paypal in the middle, not the cc.

What else might I be mistaken on? Lets see, I said they change the defaults on how money is managed by my online account, without telling me. You agree with that point.

You also say:
>If you get ripped off there's little they can be responsible for. That is in their user agreement, and that is what they always say.

I say THAT IS THE PURPOSE for the user agreement. That's okay, that and IPR are the customary purposes of such agreements. But in other circumstances, people would say that ebay is facilitating a criminal enterprise, heck, thousands of them, and if the politicans were worth anything they'd put ebay on the hook for some criminal liability just like the enrons and arthur andersons of the world. But they won't be held responsible, because ebay has much better lawyers than those guys.
---

Now as far as skydiving stuff goes, the only way I do large purchases is if the seller agrees to have my rigger or DZO act as an escrow agent. If they won't agree to that then no deal, and they probably aren't skydivers anyway.

(I have never had any trouble buying gear from skydivers.

You can have it good, fast, or cheap: pick two.

[rdesilets 0]

That sucks man! I just bought 2 Jet Ski's ($10K) off Ebay last week. I was the only bidder. I used uship.com to have people bid on getting the items from Detroit down to Austin.

BTW, I used escrow.com for the transaction. It's sweet. Buyer and Seller come up with "terms" (what is being sold), etc. Then Buyer wires funds to a non interest bearing account (all part of escrow.com). Once funds are secured, Seller ships items. Once Buyer gets items, has X days to "inspect". Once all is well, he clicks yet another button and the funds are disbursed to the seller. It's perfect as the buyer is reluctant to send money without seeing the goods and the seller is reluctatnt to send goods without seeing money.

Jumping tomorrow until 3pm then meeting the shipper and will be on the lake by 5pm :)

[indyz 1]

Quote

somehow I thought if you enter a bid you are obligated to pay if you win. Otherwise you could screw the system up.

In theory, you are obligated to pay. In practice, it is almost impossible to collect payment if the buyer backs out. eBay can shut down the users account, but even that requires a fair amount of work on the part of the seller. I suppose you could sue to collect the money, but in the vast majority of situations it just isn't practical.

So most non-paying bidders go completely unpunished. A few loose their eBay accounts, but you only need a credit card to create a new one. Where I work, we don't even leave negative feedback, because it only guarantees that we will be hit with retaliatory negative feedback.

[Guest]

When selling, I mandate that nobody with less than ten positive feedbacks may bid on one of my auctions, and that if they do place a bid without contacting me first, their bid will be rejected and their ID blocked. The only time I've gotten any mail about that policy was from a young kid (and a low-time bidder) who apologized for not reading the auction terms before placing the bid.

I took his name off my shit list; he won the auction and promptly paid me.

mh

.

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[Douva 0]

I've been using eBay since early 1998. Here are a few tips:

1. Money orders and cashier's checks can bounce, just like personal checks. If you accept payment by money order or cashier's check, don't ship the item until it clears.

2. NEVER agree to accept a money order or cashier's check for more than the amount of the sale and refund the difference--IT IS A SCAM!

3. NEVER pay for anything with Western Union. Western Union is not designed to be used to pay for goods or services, and your payment can be picked up anywhere in the world (often without identification).

4. Don't rely entirely on somebody's positive feedback--Their account may have been hacked and used by a con artist.

5. Use deposits and/or escrow accounts for big ticket items.

6. Use eBay for all correspondence with bidders/sellers. Don't email anybody directly or reply directly to any emails you receive.

I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.