[Fat Albert]

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Important to keep in mind that no one buys anything from eBay. You buy from an individual or company that has chosen to advertise or auction the item on eBay's website. In fact eBay itself is so determined to keep buyers safe that they will refund your money, even if the seller is a complete numbskull. And they keep a scorecard so that if a seller gets a certain number of valid complaints - "defects" as eBay calls them - they are restricted from selling for a while, or just plain booted off the site altogether. So the story is of one horrible seller, not an eBay horror.

My working title was, "Tell us your horror stories of trading with lone entities who are loosely affiliated with a 3rd party intermediary whose primary aim is to facilitate the exchange of goods for consideration within the confines of an established online marketplace," but it didn't fit

[Sam Dennis]

My first negative feedback came from a fellow I'd sold a wireless router to. After two weeks I asked him where payment was. He said he wasn't sending anything until he got the item. I responded that's not how it works, the listing clearly stated the process and that's not it. His response was send it now or I'll leave you negative feedback. Needless to say, he never got the router (which I eventually sold to another buyer) and the only thing I got from that guy was negative feedback. Ebay's response when I filed a complaint was basically "sorry to hear about that". Another was a person I'd sold a silver watch chain to in Canada. Claimed the item never arrived and wanted a refund. I said no and sent her the USPS/CN postal records of delivery. I got negative feedback on that one too and again, Ebay's response was basically 'sorry, suck it up'.

The other hundreds of transactions I've done were all pleasant and positive but one does have to exercise "buyer beware".

These days - if you call ebay with those issues the neg will be removed more often than not. But you are right they used to have a bad attitude about that.

---------- Post added 07-16-15 at 04:33 PM ----------

My working title was, "Tell us your horror stories of trading with lone entities who are loosely affiliated with a 3rd party intermediary whose primary aim is to facilitate the exchange of goods for consideration within the confines of an established online marketplace," but it didn't fit

Okay that's more like it

I have been trading on ebay since the 1990's , and I love ebay.

Most recent problem was a Takumar 135 lens I bought. When It arrived I discovered it has fungus; so I contacted the seller and she said, "Whoops" and sent me a refund right away.

And as a tip for those who don't know, if you get an item that is "not as described" you can file a claim with ebay, and they will refund you , right away. They can zap the funds right out of the sellers paypal account if the seller does not cooperate. If there are no funds in the account, ebay will refund you anyway.

I love eBay.

[Fat Albert]

Somebody had what would be the polar opposite of the thread title, last night!

SMC Pentax Asahi 50mm 1 1 2 Lens Opt Co Japan | eBay

Holy cow

[pathdoc]

Somebody had what would be the polar opposite of the thread title, last night!

SMC Pentax Asahi 50mm 1 1 2 Lens Opt Co Japan | eBay

Holy cow

Provided the lens was in good shape, that's every Pentax lens hunter's dream come true right there.

[Sam Dennis]

I once sold a mint, fully CLAed and de-yellowed Super Tak 50mm f/1.4 on ebay a......

....Within 2 months of this feedback, after 5 years and thousands of transactions with a 99.9% positiive rating, eBay unceremoniously suspended my account and suggested "you find somewhere else to sell your items online" due to a "pattern of non-positive feedback." Apparently 1 negative feedback and 2 neutrals representing less than a tenth of 1% over 5 years was a pattern to them.

Ebay is currently trying to entice old sellers back....so if you want to reactivate your ebay account you probably can if your only issue was a tiny bit of bad feedback. Although after their treatment of you; you probably would prefer they go jump in the lake. But the "new" ebay management has a better attitude, so ..... up to you.

[Nass]

As a buyer though I'm glad ebay has the feedback policy it has. I've bought 750+ items from ebay and all except 4 have been absolutely fine. I don't play the system though, I can see why that'd be frustrating for sellers.

[Sam Dennis]

As a buyer though I'm glad ebay has the feedback policy it has. I've bought 750+ items from ebay and all except 4 have been absolutely fine. I don't play the system though, I can see why that'd be frustrating for sellers.

Right you are, buyers have great protection against fraud due to eBay's policies; designed to make it safe because without buyers there would be no ebay. Sellers have less protection, unfortunately- because in a dispute the margin for error is tilted towards buyers. For example sellers are not allowed to leave negative feedback to warn others about a bad apple. Shame.

[micromacro]

For example sellers are not allowed to leave negative feedback to warn others about a bad apple. Shame.

Yep, I agree on that, ebay welcomes buyers fraud, and there is no way to warn sellers by feedback.
Ones the buyer asked me if I could ship to his country. I checked him first, he's been living negative feedbacks to all US sellers because "shipping was too expensive". I wrote him, sorry, no, the shipping will be too expensive

[madison_wi_gal]

I recently got 2 lenses from eBay (different sellers), a Tam 18-250 and the Pentax 10-17 Fisheye. They came carefully packed and seem OK. One issue - neither had a lens cap. Not a huge deal since I can get a Tamrom 62mm lens cap for a few bucks, and the fishie can take a 60mm push on based on a thread here, but I'm a bit peeved. That said, the eBay images of the lenses are EXACTLY what I got - neither was ever photographed with a lens cap. Grrr!

[GateCityRadio]

Just sold a Sigma 400mm f5.6 lens for minolta A mount on ebay last week. I bought the lens when I owned a sony A7 and a-mount adapter for birding, These lenses need a chip to convert it to work on the newer a mounts. Well before I could do the conversion I decided to switch back to pentax and this lens sat on my shelf for a while. Decided to sell it AS-IS with the chip to convert it since I was unable to test the AF or Aperture control with out a minolta film body. I listed in the ad very clearly twice that the AF and aperture was not tested so the lens was being sold as-is. A guy finally bought it and within an hour of receiving it sent a message saying the AF did not work and he wanted to return the lens. I'm a pretty helpful guy so I asked what camera body he was using and repeated that some bodies need the chip for AF to work. He responded saying it was an older film body and that the AF should work with out the chip (and said he shouldn't have to install a chip he knows nothing about bla bla bla). So at that point I quote where I mentioned twice in the ad that it was sold AS-IS because it was untested and where I said specifically the AF and aperture control was untested....He just responded "well I guess I'll let ebay handle this" and opened a case saying the item was not as described....Needless to say they went in his favor. I called and talked to several people at ebay to argue my case. I stated several times where the ad said AS-IS and where the ad said it was untested but they said my description was not good enough, I didn't say the AF wasn't working, that it was just untested and that left a gray area....now we are just splitting hairs....I mean AS-IS and "untested" clearly means there is no guarantee it will work...I sold it for about half what the other ones are going for for this exact reason. Its not like I was trying to be shady or anything, I stated everything I knew and didn't know about the lens. Either way I'm completely pissed. I'm pretty easy going. I'm usually pretty good about taking stuff back or refunding part of the money if something isn't clear in the ad or if something was missed on my part. I have a 100% ebay rating and most people who have dealt with me on there or here will tell you I'm very easy going, but this has left a bad taste in my mouth. I doubt I will sell anything on ebay or amazon for a while and just stick to the kit I have. What really urked me is the case was opened and closed before I could even respond. I work night shifts and the case was opened on 9/30 during the day (when I was asleep) and a few hours later closed.... Its unfortunate because I have a lot of computer gear I need to sell on there and now my reputation is ruined. I guess I'll just do craigslist. This is just terrible service on ebay's part and shows the bias towards buyers.

[mee]

I once sold a mint, fully CLAed and de-yellowed Super Tak 50mm f/1.4 on ebay and had used their canned item description for the lens in addition to my own detailed description and photos of the lens.

This was a 30 day listing, and at the time I made it, there was a single canned item description in the eBay catalog for all Takumar 50mm f/1.4s, but sometime during the time the listing was active, eBay updated their catalog to differentiate between the 1964 (8 element), 1965, and 1971, and 1972 versions. Of course, in true eBay fashion, they just defaulted all pre-existing listings into the 1964 without informing sellers.

I ended up selling the lens to a guy in Romania at a price that was reasonable for the 7 element version. When he received it, he imediately opened an item not as described case and demanded that I pay for return shipping, despite the pictures and my own description clearly indicating it was a 7 element one, since the canned info had been updated to say "8 element." Bear in mind that the return shipping costs would have been well over half the cost of the lens. I explained the situation to him and offered him a partial discount for the confusion, but he turned around and immmediately slapped me with a negative feedback saying I was a liar and a ripoff artist.

I called up eBay and explained the situation to multiple customer service drones. Each time the response was "well, the item wasn't as described," "you are responsible for the content of your listings" (apparently even when eBay takes it upon themselves to edit them for you without your permission), and "we won't remove the negative feedback since it's the customer's right to express their opinion."

Within 2 months of this feedback, after 5 years and thousands of transactions with a 99.9% positiive rating, eBay unceremoniously suspended my account and suggested "you find somewhere else to sell your items online" due to a "pattern of non-positive feedback." Apparently 1 negative feedback and 2 neutrals representing less than a tenth of 1% over 5 years was a pattern to them.

That's nuts. They set you up then punished you for their set up.


I don't sell much on ebay, or buy for that matter. But I do use them as part of my pricing when buying or selling used.

Only issues as a buyer I've had were minor - 1 where a new L bracket didn't fit my K-5II when they said it would. But ebay refunded me and let me keep the item. After being refunded, the Chinese buyer wanted me to ship it back in private message (on my own dime). hahahha no. He didn't give up easily either.. technically him contacting me like that is against TOS.

and 2 where I bought an M 50mm 1.7 lens to find out the aperture ring was 'declicked' (ball bearing removed). Which was not indicated in the listing.

As a seller I had someone back out of buying an item claiming they misordered the wrong one (possible) after their kid discovered what they had ordered. I let it slide without forcing them to pay (even though I think I could have) since I hadn't shipped yet. Mistakes happen. If I was in that situation, I'd want to be let off the hook too..

I've heard far worse horror stories on craigslist though.. 'gently used' or 'clean' looking like its sat outdoors for weeks.. agreeing to buy but not showing.. robberies.. etc.

[GateCityRadio]

That's nuts. They set you up then punished you for their set up.

As a seller I had someone back out of buying an item claiming they misordered the wrong one (possible) after their kid discovered what they had ordered. I let it slide without forcing them to pay (even though I think I could have) since I hadn't shipped yet. Mistakes happen. If I was in that situation, I'd want to be let off the hook too..

I've heard far worse horror stories on craigslist though.. 'gently used' or 'clean' looking like its sat outdoors for weeks.. agreeing to buy but not showing.. robberies.. etc.

I've had several buyers not pay for items recently. I've been selling off a lot of the film in my freezer (just the stock I shoot very little of or just don't care for) and had two different people just flat out not pay and never respond to any of my messages. It gets annoying because usually you have to wait a week after you open up a case to be able to cancel the sale. If they had just responded and gave a reason I probably would of been cool with it....but silence is annoying and it just wastes time.

Craigslist is pretty shady sometimes, I sell larger items on there (whole computers, TVs, furniture, etc etc) and a lot of the time the people are super late or just don't show up. I haven't been robbed yet (knock on wood). I did sell an old gaming computer to a guy on craigslist that was trying to get his son into computer gaming so I gave him a good deal on it. Who knows if the story was true but I felt good about it lol.

[ChrisPlatt]

I recently bought an aquarium heater on eBay. For those of you not familiar with
these they are housed inside a 12" long glass tube, not unlike a large test-tube.

Heater in original retail box (smooth gray cardboard, barely larger than the item)
was shipped in an unpadded Tyvek envelope with no bubble wrap etc.

I'll give you one guess what happened in transit. "Darn that postal service!"

While none of you would ever pack a delicate item so, too many sellers on eBay do.
I have received many items that may well have been working when shipped but
didn't survive the bumps and shocks that occur in normal shipping by any carrier.

Chris

[monochrome]

I've decided I'm better off selling locally at a 50% discount than enduring the outright fraudulent behavior of eBay buyers.*


I get plenty annoyed selling to KEH, too.

[micromacro]

What really urked me is the case was opened and closed before I could even respond. I work night shifts and the case was opened on 9/30 during the day (when I was asleep) and a few hours later closed.... Its unfortunate because I have a lot of computer gear I need to sell on there and now my reputation is ruined. I guess I'll just do craigslist. This is just terrible service on ebay's part and shows the bias towards buyers.

Interesting. When I open the case as a seller, I can't do anything until the buyer responds.