OT Fleabay

[Tim Watts]

Sigh - had to happen.

After many years of buying random stuff with extreme success on ebay by careful checking of supplier's ratings, I've now been stiffed.

Luckily not for much - 35 quid or so.

2.5 weeks ago when the warnings of snow were starting, thought I'd get a couple of el-cheapo Hamax sledges for the kids that were advertised as "5-7 days delivery".

Today - no sign of the products, seller presumed dead - no communications, 1/2 dozen other irate buyers leaving feedback to similar effect (seller had near 100% good reputation before).

I suppose the seller might be dead, or ill.

But that doesn't help me. Issued a request to cancel and got one dispute pending for my dosh back - might ring the CC company for good measure. ebay are of course as much use as a chocolate teapot in these cases.

Not a big deal but I will be very careful in future about ordering anything for non trivial amounts of money. I think I'd certainly want to speak to them on the phone for anything much over 50 quid

So there you go...

[Andrew Mawson]

measure.

OK I've done well over 1300 ebay transactions since I joined in 2001, I know that as my feedback score is 1305 or there abouts. Mostly purchases but a few sales. I've had problems with maybe 5 of those transactions, a very small proportion, and in each and every case Paypal and /or eBay have come up trumps and sorted out a refund, and in one case of a sale ruled in my favour and told the unreasonable purchaser to get stuffed. I reckon the system works well if you work with the system. Always pay by paypal for maximum seccurity.

AWEM

[chris French]

In message , Tim Watts writes

It does happen.

A rather sad tale. Friend ordered a kettle from someone on Ebay.

Didn't come, they did the usual chasing up, didn't get any reply etc. Wrote it off and got on wioth life.

Sometime later the kettle appeared in the post. It turns out the poor woman had been murdered. Her father was tidying up her affairs, found some ebay parcels waiting to go, so sent them off with covering letters.

[Mark]

well you will get your money refunded, but people were reporting non arrival of that item going back to 31/10/10

-

[Bob Eager]

Might. I've not had much luck with refunds.

In one case, the item just never arrived and I was ignored. Paypal said they couldn't refund me as the seller had no money in his account. And they froze the account so that none could be put in. Eventually, I tracked down the seller's *father* (turned out seller was a teenager) and wrote to him at his company address. Refund arrived three days later, by cheque.

In another case, item was badly misdescribed. Got a refund from seller, but nothing for return postage. Ebay/Paypal weren't interested.

Several other cases. I rarely buy from Ebay now, and never sell.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

On the one occasion this happened to me I had no problems getting Paypal to refund. All you have to do is register a dispute within the allotted time.

[Steve Firth]

Or the account may have been hijacked.

When I first got interested in fleabay I was tempted to bid for a camera. Then I noticed 100 identical ads from sellers of the identical camera, all with 100% feedback. I notified ebay - very slow to take action - and eventually it turned out that all of the accounts had been hacked. The crims look for perfect ebay ratings and people who seem to have given up on ebay then hack the accounts to use for scams.

If you paid by PayPal, get your money back. But if my wife's experience is anything to go by look for a long wait and a lot of aggro.

[stuart noble]

Yes, you have to go through a few hoops, but IME the system is pretty efficient once it gets going

[The Medway Handyman]

Maximum security? Are you having a laugh? They saw nothing unusual when I apparently moved from Kent to Washington DC and changed my bank from Chatham to Dublin.

Never again.

[Andrew Mawson]

teapot

ordering

I can only speak as I find.

AWEM