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etccarmageddon
15-01-2004, 12:10
This ebay thingy - has anyone had any good or bad experiences they'd like to share?

I have a mate who quite often raves about buying stuff cheap on it.

dilli-theclaw
15-01-2004, 12:12
I've bought a few things - never had a problem.

Nugget
15-01-2004, 12:14
My girlfriend bought a game off ebay a couple on months ago - once she 'won' in the auction, the guy who was selling sent us his details and we sent Postal Orders to him. 2 days after sending it, a parcel arrived with the game and he posted a message on the site saying that my girlfriend was a good ebayer. All in all, I was quite impressed!

Julian
15-01-2004, 12:17
This ebay thingy - has anyone had any good or bad experiences they'd like to share?

I have a mate who quite often raves about buying stuff cheap on it.

My son makes quite a living out of buying and selling things on there.

There are a few tips that seem to work for him, I have bought a few things myself too without any headaches. :)

homealone
15-01-2004, 12:48
My Wife has bought & sold stuff on there with no problems. We have also found that using Paypal is convenient.

eddie00001
15-01-2004, 13:11
I've never had a problem buying off there. Have sold a number of items most without problem, although 2 games I sold the winning bidders never contacted me despite numerous e-mails. Just waiting for eBay to credit me back the amount they took off me for the items I ended up not selling.

Neil
15-01-2004, 13:17
My experience is very good (both buying & selling)

But worth a look at www.paypalsucks.com :eek:

Bizarre
15-01-2004, 13:17
I've bought & sold numerous items. I had a problem last year when I bought a mobile phone for around £100. I paid the seller but the goods never arrived - probably never posted, maybe never existed! However, ebay have a protection scheme whereby the buyer is guaranteed a refund from ebay in a situation like that, subject to certain limits & deductions for admin, etc. I got back about £80 & the seller was banned.

Only problem (apart from the £20 loss) was that the refund process was very protracted & it was all dealt with by ebay in Germany. That wasn't a problem in itself but it gave the impression of slowing down the process. I guess it was about two to three months before I was actually reimbursed.

Paypal is good for taking credit card payments from buyers without actually being a "retailer" & having your own system, although the fees can make a dent in the proceeds!

All in all, well recommended & I shall continue to trade via ebay.

luftys
15-01-2004, 13:28
Its great :D I buy and sell :angel:
Do your homework before you buy,check price ect,dont forget to add PP to price
Check out seller ,if you have a prob e-mail them :angel:

homealone
15-01-2004, 13:39
My experience is very good (both buying & selling)

But worth a look at www.paypalsucks.com :eek:

ooh the paypalsucks site is a bit scarey, thanks for the 'heads up' Neil :)

Nugget
15-01-2004, 13:40
There was something in the local paper recently about 3 people who've been sent to prison for 'selling' items that didn't exist :mad: . The good thing about it was that it shows that if ebay are told about this sort of thing, they will take action against the fraudsters.

luftys
15-01-2004, 13:45
You can buy a lot of new stuff too,I saved a lot of money buying cables for networking under half the price :D

MikeyB
15-01-2004, 13:53
I've bought loads of stuff from eBay, and sold a few things.

I always have used PayPal or Nochex to pay if I can, never had any problems at all with either of them.

My one tip would be not to buy from someone with a 0 eBay rathing, done it twice now (not things for me, for a friend honestly!) and had trouble both times.

basa
15-01-2004, 13:56
I use eBay and Paypal regularly. Both a great IMO. You can get some real bargains e.g I bought two optical mini mouses (not wireless) for my daughters PCs for £4.99 + £4.98 p+p !!

Watch yourself though...you can pay over the odds especially for HDDs, mobos and cpus (especially when you check the p+p costs).

Overall a great site. :D

etccarmageddon
15-01-2004, 16:15
wow! what a great response - cheers folks....

I'm now bidding and currently in the lead for a ...... well I'll let you know later!

etccarmageddon
15-01-2004, 19:13
well I just lost it! someone outbid me for a nokia 7600 - bugger!

Fawkes
15-01-2004, 19:30
well I just lost it! someone outbid me for a nokia 7600 - bugger!

You bid £280 for a phone, for £280 it would need to wash the dishes and make the tea as well a calls!

EDIT: Back on topic, I've used eBay loads of times and never had any trouble. My dad must have done over 1000 transaction and only have one or two probs, but I bet thats a better rate than most high street stores.

Dave Stones
15-01-2004, 20:25
eBay is great for a bargain. lots of things are sold brand new for less than the store price, and if you are polite then people are generally really helpful.

ive got a feedback rating of 13 on eBay, considering ive only sold/bought 13 things there it is good. i dont find it that great for buying dvds and the like, but for electronics then i dont think you can beat it.

incidentally, watch out for importing stuff from the USA, you can really get stung by duty charges for that. i have had stuff from mainland EU before though without any problem.

oh and if you are selling anything you can make a killing in postage and packing ;)

Flubflow
15-01-2004, 21:12
On eBay, never assume that everyone else is as honest as yourself.
DO look at their feeback profile and take time to read any negatives (and their follow-ups). If in doubt leave it.
DO remain calm in the event of a problem/misunderstanding.
DO send/receive goods using a delivery service that offers enough compensation for loss or damage.
DO read the description and terms of auctions carefully. If you are not sure in the slightest then ASK. Be very careful about strange omissions from descriptions.
DON'T send goods out until the buyer's cheque has cleared.

After about 40+ transactions, mostly buying, I've had two major problems......
1) I bought a new car part that was advertised as being for a certain year range and turned out to be incorrect (despite it having the actual year on the original box label when it arrived). The seller ignored emails to resolve it and after a month of this I negged him. Then he came out of his shell and imediately posted untrue retaliatory negative feedback. So I end up I'm £20 poorer for it with a part I can't use and a neg to boot. You can report people like that to eBay in the hope that other people have complained too. 3 strikes and you are suspended and ultimately banned if you don't correct you ways but people like this can do a lot of swindling before they are banned.
2) There's a pending problem now I'm having with an item that was very badly packaged by the seller and damaged in the post but I can't say anything yet because it may still yet be resolved amicably.

Other than that it has been hunky dory.

Be very wary of selling to the USA. They can be a complete wonkers sometimes. They think that every ebay seller is a commercial superstore. In the USA they are very big on credit card "chargebacks" (which the their card companies do little to question) so if there is the slightest thing they are unhappy about and they have paid you by credit card via an online payment site (e.g. paypal or whatever) then they think nothing of doing a chargeback. Wait a long time before banking the money and giving them positive feedback just in case. As for selling abroad in general then unless you are doing it regularly then you are best adding a whopping extra great charge just for the potential pain-in-the-ar$e value or if you want complete peace of mind then do not sell abroad at all. I've done it twice and on the first occasoin their mail service messed up a tad it was many hours and emails before the situation was rescued. On the second occasion the guy could not get a handle on using PayPal so that transaction took an age to complete.

I've bought from the USA once. Becareful especially when spending lots of money for items abroad. It is bad enough trying to solve problems within the UK nevermind having to deal with another country's laws too. Buy from people who are experienced at exporting. Be wary of VAT and import duty on certain goods. Also be wary of electrical goods and if whether they can work in the UK (110volts in the USA and they use NTSC tv/video system).

Edit: As mentioned earlier, do check prices. It is just SO easy to get carried away with bidding especially when you have been pipped at the post quite a few times. Have a maxium price (as you would if you were buying in the shops) and, if you don't want to attract attention, then bid that price at the last possible moment. Be wary of those engaging in shill bidding.

luftys
15-01-2004, 21:27
oh and if you are selling anything you can make a killing in postage and packing ;)
Yes you can but not too big :D :rofl:

MadGamer
15-01-2004, 21:28
My dad has bought/sold things on ebay and he is very pleased with the quality of their service.

Xaccers
15-01-2004, 21:40
I can't use ebay
When I tried to sign up the say they thought I was a drub baron or master criminal or something like that and I've yet to get a straight answer from them.

Flubflow
15-01-2004, 21:43
oh and if you are selling anything you can make a killing in postage and packing ;)

Not a good way to do business.
If you started charging over the odds for the sake of it or charging full post office retail counter prices for re-used bubblewrap and old jiffybags then it you might just get comments in your feedback. If I thought I was being ripped off big time with the P&P then be asking questions and/or I'd leave the appropriate comments in the feedback.

Flubflow
15-01-2004, 21:47
I can't use ebay
When I tried to sign up the say they thought I was a drub baron or master criminal or something like that and I've yet to get a straight answer from them.

Maybe you've been naughty with your credit card in the past (since that is what they use to verify you) or it is your address that has had previous CCJ's on it. ???
Maybe you should stop dealing in "drubs" ;).

Xaccers
15-01-2004, 21:51
Maybe you've been naughty with your credit card in the past (since that is what they use to verify you) or it is your address that has had previous CCJ's on it. ???
Maybe you should stop dealing in "drubs" ;).

Might have been the horses head that the ebay manager woke up to...
And drubs never hurt anyone! :D

I think at the time I signed up, I had changed my home adress to my ex's as we were buying a cooker and paying by switch the store would only deliver it to the card holder's addy.
Cooker arrived, I changed my address back, confused ebay.
They said I'd breached a paragraph in their rules which covered drug barons, money laundering, nasty stuff like that.
Everytime I tried to find out what exactly I'd done so I could rectify it, I got the same respone "breached paragraph xxx"

Flubflow
15-01-2004, 22:01
Might have been the horses head that the ebay manager woke up to...
And drubs never hurt anyone! :D

I think at the time I signed up, I had changed my home adress to my ex's as we were buying a cooker and paying by switch the store would only deliver it to the card holder's addy.
Cooker arrived, I changed my address back, confused ebay.
They said I'd breached a paragraph in their rules which covered drug barons, money laundering, nasty stuff like that.
Everytime I tried to find out what exactly I'd done so I could rectify it, I got the same respone "breached paragraph xxx"

That's the problem with eBay. You'd be hard pushed to find a phone number let alone get any sense out of them. Even with email it would be unusual to acually get through to a real human being there. They don't look into the details of problem, they just see if it fits any one of a vast array of standard cut'n'paste replies relating to terms and conditions in the hope that you'll go away.
When its going great it is really great and when its naff it is really very badly naff. I think they had the UK boss on Watchdog over lack of contactability/accountability but they just gave the usual corporate bullpoo.

aliferste
15-01-2004, 22:51
I use ebay all the time with a rep of 50 :) never had any problems selling or buying! Just be carefull and take what they say as absolutely gospel. Like if someone says there is "little marks" on something actually expect it......you see what i mean!

IMPORTANT
Taken from another forum!!

"Last week I ws defrauded on ebay through no fault of theirs.

I sold my old Palm IIIx the week before Xmas and the buyer was from Ukraine. Her rating was neutral so I accepted her winning bid. Incl postage to Ukraine was to be $110. She emailed to say that Paypal was not available could she use Bidpay.
Having never sold via that method but only bought I knew they were ok. I accepted.

She asked as it was close to the holidays could I post it direct to her 'daughter' and gift wrap it etc. Next day I received two emails proporting to be from Bidpay which said her money was received and a money order was on its way. I posted the goods.

The cheque never arrived and upon contacting bidpay they never had heard of her or the order number in the emails. The return address was Bidpay.com sure enough but upon their examination of the message headers they were found to be temporary and fake.

I was scammed. I lost the goods, £20 in postage and packing.

Please be aware of sellers like this. Always confirm via the bidpay site before posting. Even Paypal is safer."

Just be on the lookout when its a lot of cash!!

bertykat
16-01-2004, 02:10
My experiences as buyer and seller have been pretty good. I've got 172 unique positives.

Buying from ebay (as already mentioned) can have many pitfalls if you're a newbie. A good thing to do is check out the forums. My favourite is the Round Table which is mainly for general chat but used as a help board too. There are others that are for more specific problems but I have always found everything I've needed to know at RT (and they seem a lot friendlier :) )

Ebay class exorbitant p+p charges as fee avoidance. They have been known to suspend accounts because of it but you do have to be reported first (which will usually be by a rival seller or someone you've cheesed off)

If you're buying you really do need to do your homework and make sure you are getting the bargain you think you are. Check out the feedback of the seller. A few negatives or neutrals aren't really anything to worry about if you read them in context. Also check out the person leaving the feedback for that seller. Make sure you ask all the questions you have before placing a bid as it just causes complications later on. If there are no p+p listed then always email the seller beforehand. Don't just bid assuming that you will be charged anything close to reasonable or at cost. Also what is a slight blemish to one person can be a dirty great stain to another. The colours you see on screen sometimes don't even come close to reality so if the colour or shade matters make sure you're satisfied before bidding. If you want to pay by a method that the seller hasn't listed, for example Postal Orders, again ask first. If it's not listed in their TOS (terms of sale) then they don't have to sell the item to you and can class you as a NPB (non paying bidder) plus they are likely to leave neg feedback. The buying thing is pretty straight forward but just going in and bidding without first knowing some basics can be a nightmare.

As a seller it's pretty straight forward until it comes to NPB's. If it looks pretty certain that someone isn't going to pay you need to claim back your FVF (final value fee's) and inform ebay that your buyer is a non paying bidder. If this person has three seperate instances of NPB then they will automatically be NARU'ed (not a registered user) Ebay will suspend their account indefinitely. Although you get back your FVF you won't get back your listing fee, which is pretty annoying. You do need to try every avenue to try and contact the buyer before taking this route as sometimes there are conflicts between different ISPs and emails don't always get through. You can email through ebay and also pull their contact details (but in return they get yours if you choose this method) and give them a ring. Having false contact details is also an offence that ebay will react to, sometime on an unfounded allegation, and suspend the account until you can prove who you are and where you live etc.

On the whole ebay is great for trading but not everyone is honest. Luckily I think they're in the minority.

A friend of mine sold a record in the summer for a little less than £2000 :D I reckon he likes ebay quite a lot.

Customer support at times is as useful as eating soup with chopsticks which is why they like the community boards so much. You'll find many long standing and experienced members there willing to give advice so if you really get stuck or have any worries you'll pretty much find the answer there, inc. phone numbers (if you're quick enough to read the post before it gets pulled that is) :D

Atomic22
16-01-2004, 19:34
i just got a "happy birthday youve been with us a year" email from ebay.....
whatever for i ask my self.....have they nothing better to do?
they werent even trying to sell me anything.
pointless

Ramrod
16-01-2004, 19:54
I didn't know that signing up for paypal was so easy!

Theodoric
16-01-2004, 23:06
You might find this article (http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1122859,00.html) of interest.

etccarmageddon
16-01-2004, 23:36
actually now realise things arent as rosey as they appear - firstly the things I've been looking at require payment by paypal - that's an extra 4% plus delivery is £12 - I emailed the seller and asked if they would allow me to pick up with cash and they ignored me.

hmmmmm me thinks I'll pay the extra £60 and go to carphonewarehouse or similar - that way I'll get a real guarantee if it buggers up.

Flubflow
16-01-2004, 23:55
actually now realise things arent as rosey as they appear - firstly the things I've been looking at require payment by paypal - that's an extra 4% plus delivery is £12 - I emailed the seller and asked if they would allow me to pick up with cash and they ignored me.

hmmmmm me thinks I'll pay the extra £60 and go to carphonewarehouse or similar - that way I'll get a real guarantee if it buggers up.

More and more sellers these days are not passing on fees for using PayPal (this practice is actually illegal in the U.S.) especially for common items because many of them have found that buyers just go elsewhere.

When emailing a seller or buyer don't always expect a fast response. They probably do have a life outside of eBay and the internet. ;).

etccarmageddon
17-01-2004, 00:06
I emailed them 12 hours ago mate - and no reply before the auction ended!

:(

etccarmageddon
17-01-2004, 13:32
When emailing a seller or buyer don't always expect a fast response. They probably do have a life outside of eBay and the internet. ;).

I emailed them 12 hours ago mate - and no reply before the auction ended!

:(


Just got this by email from Ebay...


We are writing to inform you that we recently ended all listings for seller smallcherry41 on eBay. The sellerââ‚Ã⠀šÃ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s privileges to trade on eBay have been temporarily suspended while we investigate this matter further. (The current account status can be viewed next to the user ID of the seller on the eBay site.).

Our records indicate that you were a participating bidder or buyer in this sellerââ‚Ã⠀šÃ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s listing. You will need to use your own personal judgment in deciding whether to complete this transaction.

As described in our User Agreement, eBay is only a venue, and we cannot guarantee that sellers will complete transactions nor can we guarantee the delivery or quality of bought items. As a basic principle, a buyer should know with whom he or she is dealing before sending a payment to a seller.

Depending on the circumstances, you might decide to delay payment to a seller until completely confident that the transaction will be completed safely. If you decide to delay payment but already paid by personal cheque, you may wish to contact your bank to discuss whether it would be possible to stop payment on the cheque. If you paid with a credit card, you may wish to contact your credit card companyââ‚à ‚¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s security department to discuss this payment †“ many companies provide protection in certain circumstances. If you paid by money order, you may want to contact that money order company for information on how to stop payment.

Please note that the ending of the listings for this seller is a precautionary measure. The grounds for this suspension may be the result of a mistake or misunderstanding.

Customer Support (Trust and Safety Department)

Looks like I'm one lucky son of a beach as I also got into a transaction with this person but got cold feet when they didnt respond to my query about picking up and paying with cash.

:eek:

Paul
17-01-2004, 14:15
I have never had any problems using ebay, I do however follow one rule - I do not deal with anyone outside of the UK.

Bifta
17-01-2004, 15:04
I've got someone on Ebay trying to send me something second class from the UK after charging nearly a tenner in postage and packing (it's a very small item).

aliferste
17-01-2004, 15:15
I've got someone on Ebay trying to send me something second class from the UK after charging nearly a tenner in postage and packing (it's a very small item).


To be honest though, if they say that is the postage, what it will cost them then...and you bid on it then you dont really have much to complain about. For all you know it costs them cash to get to the post office....a daft reason but ...if they say a tenner...accept it!

Although it is highly cheeky!