Anyone else have any eBay nightmares?

Abners post about the Mini net book made me want to share a painful eBay "event" I have been dealing with. I listed an old Laptop I had at the house and by old I mean less than two years. It worked perfect and was a 17''. I listed it on eBay for $99 which I thought was a fair price. Two guys got in a war over it and the winner paid over $300 with shipping. He emailed me as soon as he won and told me he messed up but would pay for it, which he did. I shipped it out and a week later he opens a dispute with me over it. He had tried to wipe the OS and killed the computer. We go through the whole process and I lose because I could not prove it was working. Which I did I emailed eBay the pic's I had taken of the computer screen while it was on, which another bidder had asked for. Anyways he now had to ship it back to me and ships it to an address I have not lived at in over two and half years. I had all the addresses updated to my new one once I moved, the only thing that showed my old address was the registration address I signed up with in 2002. You can't change that it will always be there. I call eBay to speak to the lady working the case and she tells me its my fault I should have removed all references to my old address from my profile. I told her I could not change that, its going to always be there! She told me he shipped it back and the case is closed and they pulled the funds out of paypal. So now I have no money or laptop....go eBay.

This is up there with the guy buying $1,000 plus worth of Leerburg K9 training DVD’s and returning an empty box and eBay giving his money back. I had a 14 day any reason return policy, he tells me he does not want them so I say hey ship em back, I get an empty box with a tracking number on the side. He gives the tracking number to eBay tells them I won’t give his money back, boom eBay takes the money from my paypal. Worst thing was after this was over I saved the guy as a favorite seller and subscribed to be updated when he sold anything. Three months later he puts all the DVD’s I sold him up for sell and gets $1200. I even called eBay they chose not to help.

Anyone else have any eBay nightmares?

Sorry for the rant, I've had over 500 great eBay transaction and it only takes two to mess it all up. Thanks for putting up with my rant!!

 

You should have purchased them, returned an empty box, and requested a refund!

 

You know, paypal is just not trustworthy. It serves the function of a bank but does not offer the same protections. I've heard many stories like this and I just don't think I'll ever feel safe making significant purchases on ebay. Also, paypal can freeze your account without explanation indefinitely. They often just never revisit the issue and people unjustly lose their money. Until it's out of paypal, it's paypal's money, and paypal is just ebay's evil lackey.

I believe this kind of thing absolutely warrants a class action lawsuit. If I was as pissed as you must be right now I would call in some free lawyer consultations just for kicks and giggles and see what they say. Ebay should at a minimum be required to revisit a case when new evidence is uncovered. Laziness should not be permitted if they are the sole resolving power of disputes.

 

Oh, new idea! Post these two user names. File a rip-off report on ebay and name these guys in the report as well as here and anywhere else you can think of. I bet they will notice and have a cow, if they don't unanimously point it out to them as an ebay guest or with a sock-puppet account. Name them in your ebay profile as frauds.

Fight fire with fire dude. That is the way of the Internet.

 

I took a quick spin on the net and am happy to report that there have been constant lawsuits against ebay and paypal ranging from 2002 after public offering until now. I really believe that paypal is a scam and that there are serious implications due to their practices. I would never use paypal as an acceptable form of payment having heard the hundreds of complaints of stolen money. It's just not safe. I'm essentially a libertarian, but I believe that protecting peoples money is something the government actually should do! Money = property. If there's one thing the government actually must do above all else it's protect life and property.

 

Recently I bought a "Perry the Platypus" t-shirt on ebay. I used a credit card. The shirt arrived on time. High quality cotton. Clear strong screen print. No problem. I've never bought or sold anything from an individual party on ebay for the exact reasons you've described. Too risky. Also, I've never used paypal because your story is not unique. Sorry it didn't work out.

 

This topic really got me all fired up. I'm still seething just from reading about it. I haven't really gone an anti-paypal vendetta since high school.

 

One could make an easy living scamming people on eBay. There is no protection for the sellers at all. You could buy anything and return an empty box and eBay will rule in favor of the buyer, that's the party they care about.

On a side note my Pay Pal account is still frozen even after they refunded the guy's money. No response to when it will be unfrozen......

 

I like that show, that one and Sponge Bob. Ah, the joys of having a 7 year old...an excuse to watch cartoons...lol

 

That sucks man! I have only bought stuff from ebay, so no bad experiences. I have a couple of Mercedes rims I want to sell, but I am kind of leery now.


Abner

 

Do you have any money in that paypal account?

 

Yes, a few hundred dollars.

 

I have had only one minor issue with eBay where I ordered something and didn't get it. At the time the policy was that I could file a complaint, but I'd only get a maximum of the purchase price minus $20 for processing the claim or whatever. Well, my purchase was a little over $20, so it wasn't worth the time and effort.

I did have one issue with half.com a few years ago. I had completed a course and was trying to sell my book. I had it listed for around $90 or so, and someone bought it. I shipped it and was paid through direct depost during the regularly scheduled half.com deposits. A few weeks passed and I get an email from half.com saying that the buyer never recieved the book, and after efforts to try to contact me with no response, the buyer had filed a complaint. I told half.com I had never gotten a message from the buyer, and half.com told me that the person had emailed me. I told them I never got any emails and asked why the buyer did not use the "contact the seller" feature through the website. That way there would have been records of it. They didn't care. They insisted on proof, and luckily I had a tracking slip. Well, I thought I was lucky because apparently the post office had never activated it. (Our post office sucks, but that's another story...) In the end I couldn't prove I had actually shipped it, and so I was out the book and $90.

-Matt

 

I've never had any major problems with eBay or PayPal. The last thing I sold was an audio mixer; it was easy and I got the $$ with no trouble (though delayed by the PayPal "waiting period").

I do make sure that I can afford to lose anything that I am buying or selling. For me that means keeping the dollar amount of a under a few hundred or so.

 

My advice don't use eBay or PayPal.

And I use and shop on eBid they are simpler and do what eBay usd to althoughis a smaller auction site they have advantages for buyers and sellers.

But when eBay stopped allowing me to sell and buy using money orders as a form of payment I never used them again.

 

What kills me is that there doesn't seem to be a workable solution for an operation of the scale of Ebay.

 

I agree eBay got to big. I find smaller specialty auctions and alternatives in my case eBid about right for this sort of model.

 

cartoons are fun. no excuse needed.