Bad eBay experiences?

[Darth_Kitten]

:shrug:

Here's mine:

buying a low cost item and then sending lots in for shipping. Okay, you think because it's coming from overseas the shipping will be a bit more. Understandable.

But when I pay the equivalent of 30 Canadian dollars and get something from the States shipped for 1.50, I feel burned. :mad: Thought the item was coming from overseas. No. :(

I don't want to leave negative feedback because I don't want retaliation on my perfect feedback record from them. :( But man am I steamed. :(

errr......

[philosophie_en_rose]

1. I wouldn't leave any feedback, then.

They'll think you're waiting for their feedback and will likely give you positive feedback.

Then, I'd either wait until just before the time limit to give negative feedback or not give any feedback at all.

[EstimatedProphet]

2. I've had the one that everyone dreads

Let's just say I got suckered for a helluva lot of money.

[Darth_Kitten]

3. I'm sorry.......

Did you ever get any of it back?

[EstimatedProphet]

5. Not yet

And I di take it to the police-Interpol, actually. Never heard anything back.

I paid more for my education but I certainly learned a lesson from this.

[Darth_Kitten]

6. I say what goes around comes around....

the person who took your money will get theirs someday. :)

[Maddy McCall]

7. I got suckered for almost 100 for some Justin boots...

The guy didn't send them, and in the meantime was kicked off of Ebay. So I said, screw it, because I saw no remedy....

But then, I was searching for the boots, hoping I could find some more like them. And lo and behold, the photo of MY FUCKING BOOTS was there.

I sent the guy and email and told him that if he didn't send me my boots, I'd not only report him to ebay but also to the local police and the post office for mail fraud.

He sent the boots. But it took me almost six months to get them.

I think the moral to the story is don't buy from people with less than 99% positive feedback, and never buy from anyone with zero feedback.

What did you get taken for? You said a lot of money...it wasn't a car or something similar, was it?

[EstimatedProphet]

12. Nope, wasn't a car

It was gold bullion. Chinese forger ring, apparently. I didn't do my homework. Very stupid and shallow on my part.

The feedback thing on Ebay is of limited value IMO. I've only gotten 2 negative feedbacks, but my ratio stays lower than it should. The first bad feedback was due to miscommunication-we solved the problem easily but it's still on my record even though he did what he could at the time to retract it. The second one was arevenge thing because the 'merchant' ripped me off IMO, but didn't like the fact that I said so and then left me bad feedback just to get back at me.

[undeterred]

4. I once bought something cheap and didn't read the fine print

about shipping charges. My mistake.

The only other time I had a problem- I had someone stall and then never send me the item worth about $30. He stalled past the time I could recover the money from Paypal.

I sent tons of emails and he ignored me.

I never got my item or my money back.

I left negative feedback, and he left me some, and kept insisting he sent the item, which I do not believe.

I've had two bad experiences in 5 years with about 100 transactions. In both cases I left negative feedback and got some back. In both cases the other user was kicked off EBAY within a week because they had so much negative feedback.

[Darth_Kitten]

8. The person I did business with had less than 100 percent feedback....

and ran one of those stores, so they had like 100 negative comments but their positive feedback percentage was about 96 so I thought I would give them a chance. Me bad. :( But they had a product I wanted. :(

If you count up the total of my transactions from two accounts I've had, it's a sum total of about 50 or 60. :) I don't want a retaliatory feedback comment to spoil my 100 percent. ;)

It's funny how they never seem to get your email when you have a concern.


Very funny. :(

[undeterred]

10. I've had to be patient with a few people

I know they might be doing it in their spare time and there may be days it is difficult to ship. I have bought a lot of orchids on ebay and I don't want anyone to ship them in a hurry or over a weekend. Usually the sellers are very protective of the plants.

But I do try to buy from big sellers and be a repeat buyer. Its safer shopping. And I exclude international in my searches because I just don't want to deal with it. I bought skis that way once and it took too long, cost too much extra.

[LostinVA]

13. 96% is considered a low rating for someone with a store

I only buy stuff from people with at least 99% for a store, 98.5% if an individual. It's not your fault, you're the victim. Just remember most people on ebay are honest -- but there are some scum...

[Darth_Kitten]

16. It's a nice enough product, but the shipping was a ripoff........

total ripoff.

Thing was I was looking through some of the feedback and some of the people who had the same concerns as me still put down positive feedback. :eyes:

[bettyellen]

21. people get revenge and leave YOU bad feedback if you leave it for them

always.
they will wait till you give feedback to give it themselves, any "smart" seller does it, and this is why:
i left bad feedback because i never got the item and it took forever for him to refund me, never answered my emails, i didn't know he refunded me. last i had heard, he had given me a tracking # for an item never picked up by UPS. never explained why he didn't send it.
so, i left him crappy, but honest feedback. then, i start getting nasty bullying e-mails, lots of them!! and he left feedback saying "BEWARE!!! SHE"S A SNAKE!!!" LOL. like i could give a shit, really.
anyway, you get to reply to the crappy feedback also. and then he tried to get me to take back the feeedback, my reward being, he would take back my neg feedback. if you don't repeatedly decline arbitration- or resolution, which he BEGGED me to, heh heh heh.... then they wipe off the negative feedback. it sucks, because i was on vacation and just made it back in time, to say, hell, no i want his feedback to stick. and stick it did.
but high shipping costs are an ebay scam, it's the "handling" and a lot of sellers do it. sorry dude.

[Left Is Write]

23. Next time, file a non-performing seller report with eBay.

Don't rely on the feedback system for something like that - report the bad guys, just as sellers should always report non-paying bidders.

[Lavender Brown]

9. My sister had her ebay identity stolen

Somebody listed a bunch of laptops and stuff under her name. She was hit with hundreds of dollars of user fees. Luckily, she noticed them right away and it was corrected. The person who did it has committed all kinds of fraud before (he had an AOL address in his listings - we did a search and we found a lot of people that he done this to on the net).

[Indy_Dem_Defender]

11. Bad Ebay Experiences

Sold some toy action figures I had as a kid on ebay a few years back, listed them as having been played with along with this I posted pictures so people could get an idea of the shape they where it. Bid went to $75 dollars for these 6 figures and a few days later I get the money order in the mail for them, I turn around that same day ship them out and email the bidder there on their way contact me when you get them. About a week later I'm checking my feedback and I see I have a negative for this item, I email the bidder. I'm like why did you give me negative feedback, the bidder response all picky, saying they basically aren't collectors quality, their missing parts, they smell old and their not mint in their original packages. I replied "are you blind idiot, it's stated in the ad they where mine as a kid that I played with of course their not up to collectors quality, they probably smell because they've been in my parents attic for 15 years and where did get they mint in a package when in the picture their clearly laying there on a table not in any packaging. I finish the email up telling this bidder to get a life and stop hanging out at Toys R Us buying up all the new action figures for his collection and let some kids actually have a chance buy them so the toys could actually be used for what they where intended to be used for, played with!

[Nutmegger]

14. I got scammed!

Yup, lost my eighty buck to someone in TN. Contacted to police but they couldn't have cared less!

Hope they choke on my money!

[FarLeftRage]

15. Only once.

I was buying some English Farthings from a seller in Ohio and after he got my payment, he sent them to a person in England.
After a few threats and a complaint I filed with the FTC, the seller finally sent them... 4 months after I paid for them.

Live and learn.

[Tom_Foolery]

17. I've had several as a seller and a buyer...

the one that sticks out was as a buyer. I bought a pocket watch from a guy. He never sent the watch. I waited and waited and waited. I sent him several emails about the watch, and he never answered them. Well, I started getting emails from other people whom this guy had ripped off. Now this was back in the early days of eBay when you could leave feedback for sellers even without having had a transaction with them. We all started leaving this guy huge amounts of negative feedback. He finally grew tired of the harassment and sent everyone's money back. It was only about $40.00, but the guy pissed me off. The whole ordeal took about 4 months.

[OneTwentyoNine]

18. Its not about the shipping price,its the total price....

Who cares what the shipping is? If your wanting something bad enough then you should always do your research before hand to see what the retail price and online price is first then head out to ebay.

If its an item that sells for $40.00 in the big box stores in your city then it doesn't matter if the ebay seller charges $25.00 for shipping and then $5.00 or less for the item. Only the total price matters,and what matters more is their postive FB and how long they've been a member.

Many sellers will jack the shipping way up and bring the price way down--its six of one and half a dozen of the other. What that does is save the seller some money because ebay listing and final value fees are based only on the item selling price without the shipping added in. Of course if you pay using Pay Pal the seller gets giged around 3% of the TOTAL transaction price.

BTW,if you want to see what Ebay looks like when its a total mess head over there right now. I don't know if they got hacked or had a hell of a system failure but the entire site is a screwed up mess. I've been around ebay for over four years,never seen it look like it does tonight.

[Left Is Write]

20. Fee avoidance...

"What that does is save the seller some money because ebay listing and final value fees are based only on the item selling price"

What you are describing is fee avoidance. eBay will only get involved if it's egregious and worth their trouble, but fee avoidance IS against eBay policy.

I agree that a bidder should consider total price when determining what to bid, and that by bidding she is agreeing to any stated shipping charges, but it's still incredibly irritating to pay a shipping and handling charge that is obviously inflated for the purpose of padding profit.

For example, I recently purchased a handmade nightgown for a favorite doll of my daughter's. The auction indicated that shipping would be $3.95 - which is exactly what I would have charged if I were selling the item. I would have wrapped the item, put it in a waterproof priority envelope and it would have cost $3.85 or $3.95 to send priority. What I SHOULD have done was ask if it was to be sent priority, but I don't think it was a coincidence that the state price just HAPPENS to be the priority cost for lightweight items.

The nightgown arrived in a paper envelope - about 60 cents - with 70 cents postage. The envelope was ripped.

Did I complain? No. I agreed to the shipping cost when I bid. Did I lose a bunch of money? No. It's pretty negligible. But there's a principle involved that irritates me.

I understand that shipping charges often include a handling charge for supplies, time spent, and travel to the post office, or other little expenses. That makes sense and I don't mind paying handling charges. But when inflated shipping is obviously for the purpose of padding profit because the seller dislikes eBay's fees, then I'm bothered. Who enjoys paying 6, 8, 10 bucks for something that cost a dollar to pack and two dollars to ship?

I do have one hard and fast rule: if a seller is padding postal insurance - which is illegal - I simply will not bid, no matter how badly I may want the item.

[OneTwentyoNine]

27. Sorry ,but Ebay couldn't care less.....

Ebay doesn't care what you charge for shipping,they might act like they do if your read through some of their "rules" but its rarely enforced because they just flat out don't care. For the most part they brought it on themselves by constantly raising fees while they rake in millions PER DAY. More and more checkouts on items bought are going through Pay Pal which Ebay owns and another 3% of your profit disappears. I'm surprised more sellers don't offer a reduction if buyers DON'T use Pay Pal,although buyers like it for the supposed security of a sale. At the end of a sale the only thing that matters is the total you paid for the product and shipping. The quality of the shipping comes down to asking the seller before you bid,if they don't answer back then look elsewhere.

One easy way to tell why this goes on is to click on and look through "completed listings". If there is an item that normally sells for $60.00 plus $4.00 shipping look at how many were never sold when the "Buy It Now" was set at $60.00 and only $4.00 for shipping. Then look at how many sold for $37.00 plus $27.00 in shipping. A lot of buyers ONLY look at that selling price and will absorb ridiculous shipping to a certain extent. Its a game thats played on Ebay 24/7,if your a seller you'll probably be a part of that game at some point in time or never sell your items.

Ebay has NO interest in cutting their own throats buy limiting shipping prices. It would be to complicated to come up with a "selling price vs shipping price" formula that would be fair to all nor will Ebay ever try, especially with word running around that Google wants in on the on-line auction business.

[Left Is Write]

33. I believe I said...

eBay wouldn't do anything about it unless it was egregious (in their definition). That does not, however, make it right or require me to like the practice.

"A lot of buyers ONLY look at that selling price and will absorb ridiculous shipping to a certain extent."

Of course they do. I'm not one of them. And again, I don't have to like the practice.

"Its a game thats played on Ebay 24/7,if your a seller you'll probably be a part of that game at some point in time or never sell your items."

I have been selling on eBay periodically over the last seven years. I have never once inflated shipping costs to pad profit. Never. And I have done plenty of business with very successful sellers who do not inflate their shipping costs. I don't subscribe to the "but everybody's doing it!" school of thought.

[Fatima]

19. Generally good experiences, but

am in the process of a dispute with one seller over a small oriental rug which was apparently lost between their place and mine.
I had to sign an affidavit from UPS that I never received the item. It's been six weeks on, and I am getting very impatient with this otherwise good seller (he has great feedback and I've successfully bought from him before). Of oourse he has lost any future business from me!

I also sell from time to time, and learned the hard way to buy a POSTAGE SCALE because underestimating weight cost me extra postage. Now I pre-package and weigh before assigning a weight for the buyer to calculate postage.

[BuelahWitch]

24. I agree about the postage scale

I had to ship something to the UK a few weeks ago and used the info available on eBay to determine cost of shipping for the high bidder. When I got to the post office I found out it was much less than I quoted to her, so I refunded her the extra money. The buyer was nice about it, but if I'd had a postage scale I wouldn't have made the mistake in the first place.

[OneTwentyoNine]

30. And some of the best prices on scales are on well...Ebay!

I looked around at some of the big box Office stores--shessh! What they want for a puny scale that only goes up to 5 or 10 pounds is ridiculous. There are great prices on Ebay on scales that will go up to 32lb or more if you need.

There is a postal scale at a small PO branch,but its still about a 12 mile round trip to weigh a package. I'm going to buy one, I'll save that much on gas in the long run.

Yup...don't ever do a listing without knowing EXACTLY what the package will weigh in its total shipping form. Underbidding your own shipping costs will put a hurting on you....

[fujiyama]

22. It happenns sometimes

I've generally had deecent experiences on eBay. A few hhad excess shipping, but I always calculate shhipping costst into account when buying something. I will usuaally make sure to find out the shipping cost if it's not listed.

EBay and PayPal take out aa chunk from the total cost of the item, so I don't see a problem in placing shipping higher to make that back. Butt I would prefer that all eBayers would list it in their auctions.

The only two experiences I hhad where I was disappointed was with PDAs. The two were relatively older models and thteir battery life was nonexistant. I wishh the sellers had mentioned that, though I beelieve thtat neither was tested...so it really wasn't their fault.

[Awsi Dooger]

25. Someone hacked into my account and tried to sell a camcorder

I was on vacation. Luckily, the eBay system caught it and canceled the auction almost immediately. The person changed my password and address (completely different state and region) in the morning then listed the $1500 camcorder within hours. It must have set off alarms my account was suspended. I had to change my user name and email address but was able to retain my old feedback and no other problems other than a few days hassle.

Anyone who charges ripoff shipping/handling is a lowlife. No excuses accepted or warranted. That's bunk about total cost being the criteria. They are scheming around the system and that's the definition of a creep. It's absolutely my first priority when evaluating an item and I've never regretted it. Plus the people who charge real world shipping are inevitably very nice and will often throw in bonuses, or simply make the email exchanges very friendly and enjoyable.

[Nutmegger]

26. LOL

I was buying a game cartridge a while back that cost ten bucks. When I checked the shipping it was twelve! Completely outrageous.

I hate it when people take advantage like that. As if I'm a totally "moran". Puh-leeease!

[Midlodemocrat]

28. I bought something once that the seller never shipped to me.

She ended up being banned from ebay. I was out about $25

[Patiod]

29. I've had very good experiences

Which is a surprise, really, since I'm buying gemstone beads, which are difficult to judge without actually seeing them -- pictures can be very deceptive. I get better prices on ebay then I get at gem shows (other than Tucson).

I won't buy without checking S&H though -- some are just robbery.

[Puglover]

31. I once left someone NEUTRAL feedback

due to the fact that the item wasn't in the condition described and and asshole left me negative in retaliation. I think EBAY should not let that bullshit go on.

[CanuckAmok]

32. I only had one bad experience... and it was recently.

I sold my MGB on-line, and once I finally tracked-down the "buyer", he wanted me to deliver the car to him at my expense and then so he could inspect it prior to buying.

I'm like, dude, you already entered into a contract to purchase, and not only that, is specifically said in the details that buyer was responsible for all costs associated with transport/delivery of the car.

Soo asshead made a bid deal out of it, and refused to pay. I didn't leave any neg feedback because I didn't want any on my perfect record. But he left neg feedback anyway.

I'm taking him to small claims court for breach of contract, and at that time I'll ask the court for a court-order for eBay to remove my negative feedback (they are happy to do so).