EBay Comes Through for Buyer

[neil poulsen]

There's been a fair amount of discussion regarding EBay and their practices. I thought that I would offer my own recent experience.

I purchased a pair of 240mm G-Claron lens cells from an EBay seller. I've been interested in doing some 8x10 close ups, and with a stop correction, I could use my 180mm Symmar-S Copal shutter. The rear cell was disclosed to have a 1 cm scratch, but I didn't see this as a problem for the type of work I had in mind. The seller had over 800 feedback with a high percentage of Positive responses.

Receiving the cells, I discovered that both cells had undisclosed dents on the rims. Further, I paid for USPS Priority Shipping promised in the listing but received the cells in a poorly wrapped 1st class, large envelope with about $3 postage attached. Given the serious issue of dents and their implications, I decided that I didn't want these cells. I contacted the seller and requested a full refund to include all shipping. Had the dents been disclosed, I wouldn't have bid.

The seller did not want to pay any shipping, so I filed a claim with EBay, sent photos and scans, etc., etc. EBay found in my favor and eventually reimbursed me the full amount plus the seller's advertised shipping costs. In addition, they sent me a prepaid shipping label, so there was no cost to me to return the cells.

I know that there have been complaints about EBay withholding payments for a period of time. In this case, that practice worked to my advantage. At about the time that EBay insisted on PayPal, they made other changes that placed much more of the balance with buyers. Prior to that time, the seller had the buyer at a real disadvantage, especially if the buyer had low feedback. Not any more.

For example, I resisted PayPal. But after using it for a time, in my view, it's worth it. No longer do I pay for, nor take time to obtain money orders. Payment is immediate, and if the seller ships USPS Priority, the entire transaction is complete in a few days.

With enough usage to hit my 100th feedback, all positive, I view EBay is a first-rate resource.

[BrianShaw]

How refreshing... a good story about ebay. I have never had to file a claim but have only once had a bad experience, which the seller resolved without resorting to claims. I'm happy with ebay and paypal.

[Caroline Matthews]

Neil,

You've earned 100% feedback. Good job.

[welly]

I'm also one of the lucky ones with ebay. I've had a bit of a problem in the past with paypal but nothing that wasn't sorted in the end. I'm currently waiting on some items to be delivered which seem to be taking longer than they should but aside from that, everything has always been quite prompt and I've picked up some absolute bargains.

[Brian Vuillemenot]

E-Bay is great now, if you're just buying stuff. For sellers it can be a real pain. This is the oppoiste of how it was 5 or 6 years ago, when they always sided with sellers in the event of a dispute.

[domaz]

E-Bay is definetly trying to change the balance- sellers can't even leave negative feedback for buyers anymore. This is actually a good thing because 99% of the time the buyer is up against someone with 5000+ feedback who could care less about one bad feedback and the seller could always leave a negative feedback and totally mess up the buyers rating.

[W K Longcor]

E-Bay is definetly trying to change the balance- sellers can't even leave negative feedback for buyers anymore. This is actually a good thing because 99% of the time the buyer is up against someone with 5000+ feedback who could care less about one bad feedback and the seller could always leave a negative feedback and totally mess up the buyers rating.

Yeah - but as someone who sells on EBAy as well as buys -- I have run into a few real bums who cause all sorts of problems when I'm selling ( 99.9% of the people I deal with are great) -- I just wish there was some easy way to let the other sellers know what stinkers these guys are.

[neil poulsen]

Yeah, so far I've been lucky. But, I suppose I'm bound to run into one of these 'problem buyers' eventually.

[Dave Dawson]

Slightly related.....I have rescently been watching some lens's and film holders, all of which had no reserve price. All of which were removed well before the end of the auction, all having had bids made on them. When I contacted one of the sellers he replied " There weren't enough bids and the bid hadn't got high enough".

Why didn't they put a reserve on the item and why didn't the seller realise that the highest bids only come in in the last few seconds. At best very annoying.

Anyone else noticed this stupid practice?

Cheers Dave

[W K Longcor]

Slightly related.....I have rescently been watching some lens's and film holders, all of which had no reserve price. All of which were removed well before the end of the auction, all having had bids made on them. When I contacted one of the sellers he replied " There weren't enough bids and the bid hadn't got high enough".

Why didn't they put a reserve on the item and why didn't the seller realise that the highest bids only come in in the last few seconds. At best very annoying.

Anyone else noticed this stupid practice?

Cheers Dave

Really dumb on the part of the seller. Several years back, I was selling a nice antique piece of art. At 5 minutes before the end, it was at around $100.00 --- I hit the F5 key to refresh , when I thought the auction would have ended. It was up to $800.00 but there was 2 second to go. Clicked again and in that 2 seconds, the piece sold for almost $6000.00 --- I'm really glad I was not as dumb as the guy you reported about.:D

[luis a de santos]

I totally agree with awfull buyers.
I had a buyer from Canada buy few Olympus Pen F lenses.
When he got them he said that they were broken and did not work as advertised. The lenses wre pristine.
He proceeded to complain to Ebay. I told him the lenses were fine but offered a full refund.
He responded that he was going to play with them for a while because Ebay rules allowed him to do it and show them to some dealers in his area.A month later he said that he was wrong and since he had NO experience with Pen lenses he thought they worked differently but after showing them to few people there was nothing wrong so thanks and never mind my complaints.

Many buyers are total jerks like that one. I had no support from Ebay and in addition I had my funds witheld by PayPal for more than a month because of the complaint.

Totally unfair.

[john biskupski]

I haven't sold on ebay, but as a buyer over the past few years, always using paypal, I am very satisfied with my experience so far. Only exceptions were one where the camera condition was not as good as advertised, and the seller immediately agreed to take it back and refund, and one where some filters did not arrive, but the vendor had dissappeared from ebay. Well, after filing a dispute, ebay nailed the vendor somehow and I got a full refund within a month. Trying to achieve anything with either ebay or paypal by telephone however is hopeless. You have to hope that the 'issue' falls into one of their pre-designed categories.

I have found most ebay descriptions to be generally ok, contrary to what is sometimes said about these. By comparison, buying from classifieds on the rangefinder forum site is a real lottery. And with ebay, from a buyer perspective, the dispute procedure provides effective protection in case of overstated descriptions. Anyway, that's my experience.

[gevalia]

I too had a good experience with PayPal after a few tough run-ins over the years. The 1 thing I will say is that I always use AMEX through PayPal instead of opting for cash to be drawn out of my bank account. One 1 occassion Paypal was non-existent so I contacted AMEX who went to work for me to get the issue resolved. It was good to have that backup.

That being said, I know I have been blessed with good luck in my fleebay purchases.

[Brian Ellis]

The complaints about withholding payments for a period of time have been from sellers. You were a buyer and of course buyers love it because for up to three weeks they control when and whether the seller receives payment. For sellers the entire transaction isn't complete in a few days because of the hold Pay Pal places on the payments (for infrequent sellers, they don't do the hold thing for all sellers,just those who don't sell often enough or otherwise meet their standards for 3-day payment).

I posted a gripe here the first time I ran into the hold. I had 88 feedbacks, 100% positive, and Pay Pal wanted to hold my payment for up to 21 days. I called, spoke to a couple people up the chain, and eventually received my payment about a week to 10 days after the seller received the lens. That's much better than 3 weeks but it was still a while and it really galled me. If I had been a first-time seller it would have been one thing but what did they think, that I was perfect for 88 transactions but decided to become a crook for the 89th?

[Brian Ellis]

Slightly related.....I have rescently been watching some lens's and film holders, all of which had no reserve price. All of which were removed well before the end of the auction, all having had bids made on them. When I contacted one of the sellers he replied " There weren't enough bids and the bid hadn't got high enough".

Why didn't they put a reserve on the item and why didn't the seller realise that the highest bids only come in in the last few seconds. At best very annoying.

Anyone else noticed this stupid practice?

Cheers Dave

Perhaps they didn't put a reserve on it because ebay discourages reserves. Ebay maintains that items sell for higher prices without a reserve.

As for why someone engaged in that "stupid practice" - maybe because the seller was inexperienced (if that was the real reason he or she pulled the item). Any experienced seller knows that bids posted before the end of the auction are not only meaningless, they're counter-productive for the bidder because they let people like me, who use a sniping service and don't bid until 4 seconds before the end of the auction, know the minimum they'll need to bid to win the item.

[Brian Ellis]

The complaints about withholding payments for a period of time have been from sellers. You were a buyer and of course buyers love it because for up to three weeks they control when and whether the seller receives payment. For sellers the entire transaction isn't complete in a few days because of the hold Pay Pal places on the payments (for infrequent sellers, they don't do the hold thing for all sellers,just those who don't sell often enough or otherwise meet their standards for 3-day payment).

I posted a gripe here the first time I ran into the hold. I had 88 feedbacks, 100% positive, and Pay Pal wanted to hold my payment for up to 21 days. I called, spoke to a couple people up the chain, and eventually received my payment about a week to 10 days after the seller received the lens. That's much better than 3 weeks but it was still a while and it really galled me. If I had been a first-time seller it would have been one thing but what did they think, that I was perfect for 88 transactions but decided to become a crook for the 89th?

[engl]

I think most of the critique of Ebay is very unfair, given the nature of the service they provide. Ill complain about humanity before i complain about Ebay. I dont see anyone else offering an alternative auctioning/sales site providing better security and still enabling buying/selling with total strangers located all over the world.

Ive been outright scammed once (as a seller, lost a fair bit of money) and had one very bad buying experience. Neither was using EBay but rather a Swedish alternative, which I use a lot less regularly.

Ebay is not the problem, trading with unknown individuals all of the world is the problem, and Ebay tries to make the best of it. If someone else could facilitate such trades in a better way, thats where sellers would want to sell and buyers would buy.

What I cant stand about Ebay is that they never fix the country selection bug, meaning that I have to select my country a million times if I sort on price+shipping...

[Tom Monego]

I am an occasional user (40 or so transactions over 8 years) of EBay and have been happy with the service. You always hear about the bad, I am glad to hear a good comment.
My problem is with PayPal, I can't get a sellers account because they froze my original account for nonusage. I moved over 200 miles but maintained the same bank account, the bank I had in Massachusetts is also in Vermont. This is a no-no for Paypal, since I can't close my original account, they say I am accessing the same bank from different addresses. After 6 years here I addressed this with them again, same answer. So they will let me have a credit card only account, but I still have my catch22 account, so I can't get a sales account. I used to sell on EBay with my own credit card account from a photo business, that is long gone.

Tom

[rguinter]

Really dumb on the part of the seller. Several years back, I was selling a nice antique piece of art. At 5 minutes before the end, it was at around $100.00 --- I hit the F5 key to refresh , when I thought the auction would have ended. It was up to $800.00 but there was 2 second to go. Clicked again and in that 2 seconds, the piece sold for almost $6000.00 --- I'm really glad I was not as dumb as the guy you reported about.:D

I'm strictly a buyer on ebay. No selling since I am not inclined to join paypal (another story).

But I learned very early that if there is an item I want badly I click to watch the auction. I decide the maximum price I will be willing to pay and then I watch the auction periodically. If the bidding passes my maximum I delete it and forget about it. If not I post my maximum bid between 3 and 5 seconds prior to the auction close with a high speed internet connection.

Call it what you will. But there are so many people that continually bid up the auctions a few dollars at a time over 5 or more days, that I found it makes no sense to bid early and only costs me money.

So you are all right. The sellers should set a realistic reserve price and then let the auction go to completion. Bob G.