EBAY Horror Stories.

Here's a funny one:

The other night I thought I'd take a look at my feedback on Ebay. The last (most recent) posted feedback was this:

User:**** (7836) Date: Oct-09-01 20:32:46 PST Item: 145158****
Praise : Super! Fast payment for rare earth magnets, freindly email. Two thumbs up!

I've edited out the name and item number 'cause this is not a complaint. But here's why I'm posting: I was the winning bidder on these magnets. I emailed the seller 3-5 times without a response. I never sent any money and never received the magnets.

Not quite sure what to make of it...

-Al-
 
I am pretty sure that most sellers have an auto response system that is run by people like auctionworks and such. Unless they call off the process, you get the good feedback.
 
I never buy from anyone with any negative feedback that they can't explain. And I've never had a problem. I deal honestly with people who buy my stuff, and others deal honestly with me.
 
I haven't had too many issues, just some things that were described a bit "optimistically". I've learned from this.

Generally I don't deal with anyone <99% feedback. Even 99% can be bad, especially when it happened recently. You have to figure that many people don't leave negatives for fear of retaliation.

To be honest, I'm actually somewhat more nervous about buying from Power Sellers. They are Ebay's money makers and Ebay tends to let them get away with a lot.

For instance (not knife related), there is a woman in Georgia who sells modern copies of rare and very valuable coins. In the auction she never states that they're copies and claims estate sale. She angles the camera in such a way that the glare perfectly covers the word "COPY" stamped into the coin. She also blatantly misrepresents the grades of the other coins she sells.

This Power Seller has been banned from Ebay many times. They let her back on again and again, despite the huge amount of negatives that pour in and the fact that the local police are aware of her activities.
 
Mostly I get what is described and within reasonable period of time. Some vendors are remarkably honest.

When I don't get what was described, eBay is NO HELP. Zero. Zip. Nadda.

Biggest area of trouble is folding knives where mechanical problems are undisclosed or outright lied about. I have given up on folding knives from eBay. Forumites are just far more reliable.

I too follow the 99% feedback rule for PayPal sales. I only buy with money order or check from 99.8% or better vendors with 200+ positive feedbacks.
 
I think you might have won the battle!!

"The User ID ottoskorzeny is not a registered eBay user".

Maybe the POS has moved on to diamond mines or selling bridges? :thumbdn:
 
ottoskorzeny also the kind of user name that should, ah, ring some negative bells. Like heinrichhimmler or ahitler.... :barf:
 
RyanMalpiede said:
Does Ebay have any form of Code of Honor with it's Sellers?
Click to expand...

Not to sound like Bill Clinton, but I really feel your pain and anger.

I got burned too (not on e-bay) but in other internet-based venues.

The way I look at, I paid 30 bucks for an important lesson: never buy from someone who is not 1) a well established entity (Barnes and Noble, Knifecenter.com..etc) or 2) across from you face to face so that you can pay him a physical visit if something is wrong.

Always remember that the internet is heaven for thieves and liars.

Good luck with your case.
 
I'ne had good experiences buying on ebay, except for one total ripoff on a $10 movie.
That's when I read the pay pal guarantee more closely, and discovered that

1) there is a $50 deductible !
2) you can only file TWO claims per year !

I haven't bought any used knives on ebay, but bought new oes a few times from power dealers with no problems.

I still use pay pal, too, I'm just very cautious about sellers now.
 
Well let's see. My first burn was a mac computer at $2400. I jumped all over it because the feedback was 100% positive, the price for that powerbook was around a grand more retail, and the buy it now was only a couple of hours old.

Paid with paypal.

Got an email from a concerned citizen who said he had done an auction with this same person and received nothing, including email.

I emailed the guy, who told me to wait five days for the computer to even ship before any tracking number could be sent. Turns out he had stolen the ID of the person on ebay, then set up a fraudulent paypal account. Ebay did absolutely nothing, and in fact, gave the person whose ID was stolen a really hard time about cancelling his ability to have auctions...he didn't want the other guy to keep running fraudulent auctions in his name. Paypal froze the account, but it was already $400 short. Seems he, the crook, had bought some stuff and paid with the stolen paypal money. Paypal apparently refused to give the crook's id and bank info to the Internet Police based in NYC, where the person whose account was stolen lives.

Finally, I just charged it all back by way of my Visa. They were most helpful, and Paypal ended up presumably eating the $400. As far as I know, nobody ever caught up with the crook.

Second near burn was more fun. I had lost an auction for a $4000 item on EBAY to someone else I knew of, and in an auction where I knew the seller from previous dealings. A couple of days later I received a second chance offer to buy which really looked incredibly legitamate. Of course, I contacted the real sellar, who said she already received the money from the real buyer, and there was no second chance offer. I wonder what black hole that money would have fallen into?

Buyer beware. That's why feedback is so important, though as you see, the crook who tried to steal my $2400 had "stolen" an account with perfect feedback. In a case of high dollar stuff, I contact the seller before paying and ask for (and better receive) his name, address and phone number, then I check on Whitepages to see if it all matches. If not, no deal.

Never had a bad deal, or even a bad moment on BF. A great group.
Regards,
Rich
 
Cougar Allen said:
Good idea -- but let's not limit the invitation to horror stories. If anybody has a story of Ebay helping them when a seller tried to cheat them, post that too!

(I have a hidden agenda ... if nobody responds to that invitation that will be significant too.)

Maybe I'm prejudiced, maybe I have a conflict of interest that makes me want to run down other places to trade in knives because of my connection with Bladeforums. All I know is I see a lot of clearly fraudulent ads on Ebay that would not be allowed here -- fake Confederate bowies, pushdaggers, that kind of thing, advertised as genuine with varying degrees of weaseling. Anybody who tried that here would be banned instantly.
Click to expand...


I got ripped off for 13 bucks back in 1999. The seller was still doing business so I contacted ebay told them this guy who had 0 negs when I bid ripped mo off and now has 13 negs in a 2 week period. They pulled his account the next morning.

I looked around for the same item and found an auction that used the same pic same description, same location I contacted ebay explaning that I thought it was the same guy. They investigated and shut him down again!

If you point out the problem user they will take action.
 
I bought a DVD on half.com (owned by eBay) and it never showed and the seller (who up to then, had good feedback) never replied to e-mail. I contacted to half.com and they gave him 10 business days to respond to their query. When he didn't, they refunded all of my money; which was around $10.
 
I think the biggest problem with Ebay is that if you get ripped off and the seller is a "Powerseller", you're screwed. Who do you think they are going to side with, you or somebody they make tons of money off of? :barf: :thumbdn:


So far, I've been lucky(or, maybe I'm just really selective). I sort of got burned by a pocketknive seller. I did a search for stag hen & rooster and it came back with a really nice stockman with a longhorn escutcheon and drop dead gorgeous and matching stag scales. I immediately emailed the seller and asked him specifically if the knife pictured was the EXACT knife being sold, and not just a representative picture of a similar knife. I told him I was only interested in this one, since I was mainly buying it for the killer stag. He replied back that, yes, it was the exact knife being sold. So, I bought it. A week and a half or so later, I get a box in the mail. You guessed it; it's not the exact same knife pictured. It was similar and still was fairly nice, but NOT the one pictured. I was pissed! :mad:

He had already left me positive feedback(as he should have), since I already completed my part of the deal. I contacted him and asked him why he would send me a different knife, after I specifically asked him about the one pictured. He replied that many sellers often use "representative" pics of items they have many of. I expressed my confusion and unhappiness with his reply and he said that he would send my money back(minus shipping) if I was that unhappy. Now, why would I trust this clown again to refund my money, if I couldn't trust him to keep his word and send the proper knife in the first place? :confused: At least this way I had a decent knife. I kept the knife and a friend of mine traded me something for it, so it worked out in the long run. I gave the seller a negative feedback. Funny thing is, about a year later, I get a nasty email from one of the seller's friends, who gave me some crap about how honest and how good of a guy the seller is. I related my side of the story and never heard from him again.
 
Here's my 2 cents on Ebay:
I have gong on 600 positive feedback on Ebay, It's been a long row to hoe to get there, and of those transactions all were not pretty but completed none the less. I have bought way more than sold and have found it's the Impulse bids that get you butt in a crack. example: you do a search for "knife" and get 115,789 matches and there is a knife you see the pic of and has 2 min. til close you click on it and the bid is "right" for the knife but don't take the time to A. make sure the shipping is not out of this world High. B. The Seller's feedback. C. if your on dialup like me they got pics loading and you have to bid before they have a chance to get fully loaded up(couldn't see in the small pic. that the blade is scratched to heck or looks as tip was broken then resharpened.). I have found that you don't need to really be in a hurry as if there is one of them for sale there probably will be another just like it or better come up later. Take the time to read the feedback and make a intelligent decision on if it's worth it to take a chance on the seller. If their negative feedback was a couple of years ago and have had 100 positive feedbacks since then I tend to give them a try. Honestly have had better luck with "0" feedback sellers as they Want good feedback and will ship quickly and want your business. But don't take that as a guarantee. They will burn ya as quick as the next.
Next topic, Ebay has never "Fixed" anything for me, You have to do everything you can to fix it for your self. And you have to stay on top of it don't let it die out, cause it will if you don't keep checking with them and prodding them along the way.
I got a ring off ebay from flickrl (R Flick - Athens, AL United States), Beware of this one. I paid the day i won it 42.00 roughly with shipping(12.00)Remember above impulse buy, I broke my own rule. LOL. Anyway 2 weeks went by with nothing, emailed seller many times then filed complaint with Paypal they did their "investigation" the day I did that I got a email from seller"I'm very sorry. I was involved in an accident that prevented me from getting my auctions shipped in a timely fashion. Your order will be shipped tomorrow via UPS. I will email a tracking number as soon as possible. Again I apologize.

Robby Flick"
I am thinking OK I go to paypal to stop the complaint. then right before i submit I read that if I stop the complaint, I will no longer be able to file on the matter it will be a done deal. Well still didn't feel all that comfortable with it so I gave it a couple of days for Robby to email the tracking numbers and You know what Suprise No Tracking Numbers came. To make a long story short He's a POS and knew if I stopped the complaint he would have a completely free ride then. Paypal refunded me a whopping 15.99 of the 42.00 I spent. why? Cause i used my bank account as opposed to Credit Card to pay. Jeez So if your gonna use paypal I guess use a C.C. so you can have someone else to try to recupe your losses from.
Anyway Thanks for listening and this was my 2 cents on the Issue.
James :thumbup:
 
By and large I have had some pretty decent luck with eBay. I had one guy burn me on a Spyderco Delica ( he said it was new/ it was used bad) but that was only a $35 dollar rip off. Most of the "top of the line" Spyderco collectibles I have bought off of Ebay have been up to snuff.

Where I have been burned on Ebay has been on Small Electronic Items such as Cell Phone batteries, minor computer items and mostly items that cost less than $10. I can give anyone who PMs me a list of who to avoid in that area. But I have done superbly with my knife dealings on ebay.

I do like 2 of the other guys said: I won't deal with anyone who has 2 negatives or a recent negative that they won't explain to me. I usually ask a couple of questions to people that I bid on their items. If they don't communicate in a timely fashion then I don't bid. I have had the luxury of dealing with a couple of quality knife dealers like "razorsharpknife" and "bsgrad" and have had exceptional luck with them. We ought to get a preferred Ebay knife seller's list here on Bladeforums which would supercede the fallible rating system on ebay. ;)
 
I've had pretty good luck. I've only been a buyer (about 85 so far) and all but 1 worked out.

The story was I bid on a Blackjack knife and won it.
I always pay by USPS money order if the item is more then $20, which this was. When I emailed him to get his address, so I could pay him, no responce.
Emailed again. No response. Waited a week or so thinking he might be on vacation, computer problems, etc. and emailed him a third time. Still no response. I finally contacted ebay and explained the problem.
A week later I get an email from ebay with his address, and that’s it! Nothing else. No explanation or excuses or anything. By this time my "red flag" went up and I wrote him again asking if he still was selling the knife or not and I wasn't sending any money till I heard from him personally.
Nothing. At this point I gave up.
The good news is that I didn't send any money so I'm not out anything. The bad news is I really wanted the knife.

But there's more to this story.

5 months later I see the same knife for sale again on ebay. I checked the seller's name & where he was from. Yup, you guessed it. IT was the same guy.
I emailed him using the "ask the seller a question" feature on his ebay ad.
I wasn't to nice about it and but I asked what gives. He ended up attaching my question and his answer to his ad.
He wrote back and called a me a few names and told me that "he was banning me from bidding on any of his items". I wrote him back one more time and blasted him, called him a thief, scam artist, etc. and told him I was turning over all the emails (which I kept) to ebay.

I then wrote ebay and sent them all I had and told them they needed to kick this guy off of ebay as he was a fraud.

I don't think ebay responded but a few weeks later, this guy was gone. At least the name he was using wasn't showing up anymore.

Everybody here some great suggestions. I follow most of them I guess. I always look at their feedback and read any negatives and how they were handled.

I think it's a great place to use, just be careful.

v/r
Mark T.
 
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