e.bay fears realized ?

[sanking]

I personally do not see any deception on the part of the seller. If the item is indeed very clean in every other respect, a 1/4" scratch on the outside of the back of the lens is not sufficient to indicate mis-representation on the part of the seller, IMHO. And you should have resolved any questions about the condition of the lens before bidding.

What happens now, however, depends on both your attitude and the attitude of the seller.

Were I the seller and you wanted a refund for the lens, I would give you the refund because you might very well otherwise give me negative feedback. But the downside of that is that I would likely return the favor by giving you negative feedback in return. And of course that would hurt both of us, and is really not worth the hassle, especially if you want to continue buying and selling on ebay.

As others have suggested, the best course of action is to attempt to resolve the issue with the seller before taking any action that will damage your reputation as well as that of the seller. The issue most likley boils down to a simple difference of opinion as to the meaning of "very clean."

[jason_3776]

thank you all for the advice.

i put the lens on my camera & stopped it down to f45, & as best as i could see on the ground glass in that dim image there was no trace of an effect from the scratch. but i did not manipulate the standards, so...

i e'd the seller again after hearing back from him (very polite & concerned he was) & asked to either return the lens for a full refund or keep it w/ a 50% refund to reflect its truer market value. i am sooooo glad i used a cc thru paypal ! originally he wanted only an international money order (in canada), but that would have taken me a week to do in our very rural neck of the woods. so he suggested paypal. whew...

[Frank Filippone]

The issue is not the scratch itself, but your reaction to the scratch. If it upsets you enough that you are not going to use the lens, at any price, get rid of it. Either return it to the seller, or sell it off, with an honest description.

[David Vickery]

Hello, Is the scratch in the glass itself or is it just in the coating? Either way the scratch itself is unlikely to ever have a noticable effect on the image, but what caused the defect is what I would be more interested in. If it is just a coating scratch then it is not a big deal, but if it is actual glass that has been abraded then was there enough force to cause an alignment problem?? The effect of an impact on a lens may just be a scatch or it could be the scratch plus an alignment problem. It depends on how bad the impact was. I once bought a lens that looked great but had a little damage to the rear barrel. It did not look like a big deal at all, but after putting my money down and not testing the lens right away, I found out that I got taken and was dumb for not testing the lens. That lens creates an image with a center spot that is soft and greater in density than the rest of the image. But it does make a nice looking paperweight.

[Paul Schilliger]

I jump in the train to ask my own question: What means of pressure does the Ebay administration offer when the seller is not responding to polite and kind pressures? I paid an excess due to the bank sending the wrong currency, but if the seller who owns a large shop on Ebay Germany agreed at first to reimburse me, he never acted and has been silent to my kind mails for the past 3 months and recent urgent mails. I am about to place a bad feedback before I can't do it any more, but this will certainly not help in getting my money back and he could place a bad feedback for me as a revenge as I have seen some do... Is there a moderator that one can contact from the Ebay administration?

[neil poulsen]

I rarely purchase from anyone with under 100 feedback, and then it all must be good. I purchased lens from someone that advertised as clean, with no marks, etc.

Guess what: ding on front filter ring!

I contacted the seller. It turns out he was selling it for a friend and didn't realize it had a ding. I got a good enough price on the lens to make it worthwhile to get it repaired at the seller's expense. Both of us were satisfied, so I left positive feedback.

[Chuck_1686]

Maybe it's because we're in the political spin season but sellers on Ebay just do not want to tell the negatives. I have returned many items for surprise problems even after questioning the seller. Most times they do refund shipping costs. Some people just don't take the time to really check over an item and figure that the buyer will do the work. When I sell I try and list all the bad things I can see and expect the same in return.

[Ed Eubanks]

Paul Schilliger said...
"Is there a moderator that one can contact from the Ebay administration?"
Paul (et al), on the U.S. eBay site you can visit "SERVICES" and very close to the top you'll find a section entitled "Dispute Resolution". This link (again in the U.S.) will take you to an area called SquareTrade, which is a very thorough service for resolution of disputes of sales or purchases. This may help you.
If you pay with Paypal, you can scroll down to "Buyer Protection" (also in SERVICES) and make a fraud claim through the proper channels. While it appears that there may be some help here for non-Paypal users, this obviously appears to be more useful for Paypal users.
You might also search the site map to see if there appear to be other links for help with troublesome transactions. For example, there is an eBay discussion forum that may have helpful information. There is also a "Soapbox" area, where at very least you could have an opportunity for loud complaint about this user.

[Jonathan Brewer]

'I am about to place a bad feedback before I can't do it any more, but this will certainly not help in getting my money back and he could place a bad feedback for me as a revenge as I have seen some do'............................Paul.................my advice don't do it, he'll deserve his negative feedback, but you won't deserve the one he gives you, the only way you can give him a negative feedback without getting one from him is to wait to the second when the time limit for feedbacks expire, I just won't invest the time in watching and waiting to do something like that.

I've gotten one negative feedback, for nothing, a bad, smelly, nasty, foul looking SX-70, which she had the nerve to say was 'pristine', she deserved her negative feedback from me, I didn't deserve the one she gave me, she's since been kicked out, so out of all the choices you have don't get yourself a negative feedback you don't deserve.

[Andre Noble]

What is the exact length of time before feedback expiration?