Shafted by Ebay Seller

[Capocheny]

For the first time since I've been buying/selling on Ebay I was shafted by a seller, Bruce Yettra Photography. He listed a Sinar C (P rear standard, F front standard) and the title said "Mint." But, his description said P standard was mint and everything else was a 9+. Upon receipt... yes, the P standard was mintish. The rear frame holder was scratched and the worse of it is that the front standard was broken and repaired with some sort of epoxy glue. This certainly shouldn't have been rated a 9+ by any stretch of the imagination.

When challenged on it... he said the only thing that was Mint was the P standard. That was all he said.

My response was that "honor would dictate that he mention the damaged/repaired rear standard." I didn't receive any email reply from him. So, I sent him another note that informed him that, "if he needed the resources (money) that badly... I'm glad I was able to help" and have decided to leave it at that.

It's unfortunate that he's turned out to be "one of those" sellers and the worse of it is that he's listed in The Black Book of Photographers.

I'd NEVER buy anything from him again!

He's definitely a "Two Thumbs Down!"

Anybody else have any experiences with this guy?

Cheers

[neil poulsen]

That's too bad. You might consider reporting him to EBay. What was his feedback like?

Out of all the EBay transactions I've done, one was fraudulent. While the feedback was good, it was few in numbers. Since that time, I only buy from people with about 100 feedback or more, all good.

[Michael Kadillak]

Ditto on the feedback. The tendency is to bend the rules when you are wanting to believe that it is the deal of the year.The more money that is involved, the great the risk and therefore the need to look carefully into the details and the numbers of the transactions completed. The other alternative is to use an excrow service. After getting schooled like you did, you need to do everything you can to let others know what a slimeball this guy is.

I would consider filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau in his local area. I would also contact the Black Book of Photographers and other professional agencies. And I would certainly contact E Bay about what can be done on their end to prevent this person from replicating his lies to another trusting person.

[Bill_1856]

According to your post on the other forum, you didn't actually buy this on eBay, which you failed to mention here, wasting everyone's time in making suggestions about how to deal with it. SOL.

[Todd Caudle]

Maybe it was rated 9+ on a scale of 100.

[Capocheny]

Bill... my apologies for not duplicating my second posting on Photo.net onto this site (due to emerg. call to work.) So, here it is for the record:

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You're both right, of course, in that "under normal circumstances" negative feedback should be left for a transaction like this. Unfortunately, negative feedback isn't really an option in this situation since I was approached after the auction ended.

Folks may say, "that's what you get for doing it that way." However, I did have quite a number of email communiques with the guy and he sounded like a good seller. In my total of 185+ transactions (some of which I was the seller) I've had great transactions with the majority of folks. I attribute this to the fact that I've always tried to "talk" with people and to get a sense of where they're coming from and who they are (and, of course, the converse is that they get a sense of who I am and where I'm coming from.) The vast majority of people have been just terrific. Out of all of my previous transactions, I've only been burned twice.... once by Amvona (through the normal bidding/winning process) and this time by Yettra Photography. My intuition and trust was really misplaced on this one. But, all in all, two negative experiences compared to the number of good ones.. I guess I can say that I've won many more than I've lost.

The bottom line to all of this is that, "what goes round, comes round." It'll all work out in the end and, as I said, "if he needed the resources that badly...I'm glad I was able to help :>)"

Anyway, I've said enough now.

Cheers...

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Sometimes, the animosity built up becomes more of a gut-wrencher than the effort is worth. The total amount of money involved isn't/wasn't the issue in my situation. Rather, it was just the ethical issue. I find that the majority of folks have been great to work with. In my communications I've learned that trust is a two-way street. This is why I like/enjoy "speaking" with people before I actually enter into a transaction with them.

In this case, his feedback record wasn't terrible and, in fact, it was quite acceptable. So, I felt pretty comfortable in dealing with him. That said... I recognize that there are some smooth people out there.
Again... if the money helped him for whatever reason... Great!

I'll now let it go and move onto the next fun and exciting deal.

Todd... good point! :>)

Bill... again, my apologies for wasting your time. However, my posting wasn't so much about asking folks "how to deal with it." It was simply a question of asking others whether they've ever had an experience with this particular seller. Nothing more and nothing less. But, thank you for your remark anyway.

Cheers to all of the respondents.

[Jeffrey Scott]

My understanding is to never deal with someone off ebay, especially after an auction ends and the seller contacts you to try and complete a sale. This is just one of many tactics used by unscrupulous sellers.

[Capocheny]

Jeffrey,

Generally, I don't accept offers from sellers after the auction ends. However, in this case, I accepted due to the emails and prior communications I had with the guy.

Suffice to say... I've learned my lesson! :>) Life in the fast lane!

Cheers

[Capocheny]

Hello All,

Here's that article on "Vigilante justice on Ebay." It's a very interesting article:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/165615_vigilantes20.html

Cheers

[Jim Beckman]

Henry,

I am currently involved in a transaction with Bruce Yettra. So far, things are going so so, and was wondering if you could send me your email (asap) so I could talk to you more about your prior unfortunate experience. Thanks! My email is jrbeckman@juno.com

[Frank Petronio]

If you used a credit card and/or Paypal you have some recourse, and you could complain with them that the seller is a fraud. Usually that should motivate a bad seller into accepting your return and giving you a refund. Even better is when you document their deception, present them with the facts in a business-like manner, and propose a reasonable solution. In your case, I would want a partial refund to compensate for the repaired standard - maybe a 33% refund.

On any large transaction I get their phone number and make a friendly call - just to chat - and that gives me a good sense of if they are legit. I did get screwed once when I ignored my own advice and fell for a "too good to be true" deal for a laptop on eBay - but I kept a paper trail and prosecuted the guy. It took a year, he went to jail for six months, I had to travel to Pennsylvania to testify - but in the end, he got taken off the streets, taught a lesson (and if not, he was taken off the streets at least) and he was forced to make full restitution from his prision pay. It took almost $2000 worth of my effort, but eventually I got my original $2000 back.

eBay itself is worthless, but reporting the deception to them is the first step in building a paper trail. Just don't expect them to be very helpful.