Questionable Ebay transaction?

Danbo

Danbo

Feedback: +27 / =0 / -0
Joined
Nov 28, 1999
Messages
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Ok, here's the situation. A little while ago, I went on Ebay and used the "Buy it now" feature to purchase a nice Hen & Rooster stag stockman. Some of you may have seen the picture I posted on the traditional folders and fixed forums. The auction in question featured nice 2 sided photos of the pocketknife. These photos were the main reason I bought the knife, as the stag was particularly nice and well matched.

Move forward to a day after I had mailed the money order to the guy. Note that I have yet to receive the knife, as I am sure he hasnt gotten my money yet. I am again surfing around on Ebay, and I see the exact same knife for auction, using the exact same picture and description. ???WTF???
I email the guy, and ask him how or why he is still auctioning the knife, since I have already bought the knife? He replies back that he and most dealers often use the same picture over and over when selling similar knives.

I reply back that I am only buying the exact knife pictured, as the pictures were why I bought the knife in the first place. I again explain my reasons as being that it is my understanding that I am getting the knife that I saw pictured in the auction. Three times in my reply, I specified that I want the EXACT knife pictured, and that if it is not the exact knife he is to send my money order back uncashed. I get no reply from the seller.

Yesterday, I get a box in the mail with the Hen & Rooster stag stockman inside. Yes, it is a nice pocketknife. No, it is clearly not the same knife that was pictured in the auction. The stag is not as nice and is not as well matched. What part of "Send me the exact knife that was pictured in the auction" does this guy not get?

I immediately emailed the guy and told him that I was sending the knife back for the above mentioned reasons, and that I was expecting my shipping costs refunded as well, since I would not have mailed any payment in the first place if I had known that he was shipping me something other than advertised. I have not, as yet, mailed the knife back. I have gotten no reply from the seller yet. The seller has already given me positive feedback on Ebay.

I wonder if I am making too big of a deal out of this, and I am also unsure if I should risk mailing the knife back to him? I feel that he misadvertised and lied to me, and wonder if I will get anything back if I send the knife to him? The price of the knife was not great; $51 shipped and insured. It's the principle of the deal that bothers me the most.
 
I would say that normally, with say a Microtech using the same picture is fine since all of the same model look the same. Since you bought a stag model, I feel it was wrong to send you a different knife. In this case I would say he misrepresented the knife since the stag isn't as nice as the one he "picked" for the picture. If he doesn't make good alert Ebay, they are good at handling problems, and if this guy makes a living selling on there he will do what they tell him to.
Nick
 
That sucks. Its quite obvious that you wanted the knife in the photo and you made that very clear to him in plenty of time. His lack of repsonse shows that he had no intention of refunding your money and sending you the wrong knife. No doubt the knife in the picture had probably been sold long ago.

I would be worried to send him back the knife first as it seems questionable whether or not you would see your money again. Hopefully there is a way he can be forced to return your money first since he is the one that screwed up intentionally it seems.

Can you post this situation in his feedback if he doesnt make it right?
 
I agree...it sucks 100%. I'd send it back if it's not what you bid on and DEMAND the $$$ for shipping (both ways). Unfortunately, this guy has 1400 positive feedbacks and you have 19...leaving him with one negative won't mean squat. GOOD LUCK, SOUL BROTHER
 
Danbo, it's true that a lot of eBay sellers use one photo to sell the same type of knife over and over. It's a dodgy practice at best, but then again large retail websites do the same thing.

Bottom line is "caveat emptor", you should have checked before bidding (as it states in the eBay regs), they won't help you out, but they might have a word with him about his selling practices. On the other hand, they probably won't.

As for Richard stating that you e-mailed him "in plenty of time", the right time to e-mail questions and comments about an auction is before it ends (or you use the "buy now" button), the chances are he just took a photo of the first of the batch of knives and has sold it months or even years ago. Would you moan about buying a knife from 1sks or knifecenter of wherever that had stag handles that didn't match the ones in the picture? No, you expect some variance because there's no way a large retailer can photograph every knife they recieve and then put them on a website. So why complain about someone following a standard business practice on eBay?
 
As soon as I noticed his duplicate auction showing the same pic, I emailed him as to how and why. I had already mailed the money order. He replied that most dealers do use the same pic for similar knives. He also offered that if I was unhappy, I could send the knife back with no questions. He also said that we could cancel the sale. It was at this time that I sent another email conveying my desire to go through with the sale, as long as I was to receive the EXACT knife pictured. In this email, I stated 3 times that I wanted the EXACT knife and that if this was not to be the case, then I wanted him to send my money order back UNCASHED. He knew well beforehand what was to happen and he chose to ignore my wishes and sent the wrong knife anyway. In this case, the seller was dishonest and that is what this thread is all about.
 
Danbo, I kind of agree with shortgoth.

While I am quite sympathetic in regard to a possible "misrepresentation" issue by the seller, I am infrequent Ebay seller myself.

If you have sold more than one or two items on Ebay, you will find that people use a number of squirrely methods to substitute for their real reason to back out of a sale, which mostly boil down to buyer's remorse. The fact that you emailed him after the auction regarding the "exact" knife may not come of to the seller any better than buyer's remorse.

In general, buying and selling on Ebay can be dicey. If anyone ever uses a "borrowed" photo, I email them to confirm what they actually have. I have gotten burned on the "borrowed" photo BS twice myself as a buyer. Now, I always, always email them ahead of time, even when it says "New In Box". When I post a knife for sale, I scan the item myself, and so state in the ad to avoid this very situation.
 
The only reason I emailed him after the auction was because I found the identical picture and knife being auctioned again. Nowhere in my auction did it say that the picture was representative of a batch of similar knives. In fact, the auction listed only 1 item was for sale. If, in fact, more than one like item was being sold, why was this not listed as a Dutch auction?

No, the more I think about this, the more it bothers me. The fact that the seller has yet to return my email, only bothers me more.
 
Just had someone use my pics on Ebay to sell his knives and he didn't
mention they weren't his.
Hope the buyer got what he wanted!!
 
My question is why does the buyer always have to pay up front. The
buyer is usually, as in the case above, the one that gets burned.
The seller sends you a piece of crap but $50 is $50 right?
Ray Smith
 
Danbo,

Re why this was not a dutch auction, I have seen many sellers of knives and other things either 1) list many (20 or more) simultaneous auctions for one each of the very same item, which makes for tedious searching, or 2) sell one, and as soon as that one is over sell another of the same item. I am not sure why they do the first, I assume they do the second in order to maximize the value of each by making it look like there aren't many around. I paid more than I had to/could have on a Fallkniven by buying at what looked like the going price after watching several others go, only to see the very next one after me go for $20 less. Nice knife, but I would have liked to keep the $20 . . .
 
My opinion on the original issue is that the seller is too lazy (and dishonest) to take new pix. If think the matter is straightforward.

Report the seller to ebay, try and get your
money back.

Off topic: On my 3 forays into ebay, I've been burned twice. Luckily it was for very small items. None the less I tend to see ebay as rife with scams and cheats.
 
For what it's worth my advice is to accept the deal as a learning experience. If you are truly unhappy with the knife turn around and resell it. The dealer's lack of communication wouldn't give me much confidence in sending the knife back. It would be bad to be out the money and the knife. People use duplicate pictures all the time on ebay and elsewhere. Most buyers aren't as descriminating as you are it seems.
 
I sell and buy occasionally on Ebay and have rarely had a bad deal. I consider myself knowledgable about most Ebay practices and I <b>did not know</b> that most Sellers use the same picture repeatedly. I don't! Like someone else mentioned, if it was a Black Microtech or a generic CRKT KFF then that is totally different. Being as Stag is at a Premium on <b>any</b> knife these days, and as such it is sure to increase the price of the knife, a buyer has every right to expect to receive the <b>exact</b> Stag handled knife pictured in the Ad.
I say send the knife back. The seller is not responding to you hoping that you will just blame yourself, accept the outcome and keep the knife even though you are not happy with it. Simpley reiterate that you were buying the knife pictured in Auction #UGNEM!@#@ and that since you received a totally different knife you want your Money returned. Already getting a hint of the Sellers personality by the way that he has acted so far, I do doubt that you will receive your Shipping costs back.
If you really don't want to send the knife back, try taking a pic and putting it back up for sale on Ebay. Or contact one of the underbidders, send them a picture of the knife and offer him/her the knife for a couple of dollars less that what you paid.
 
I deal on Ebay alot. Even being extremely careful, I still get screwed about 5% of the time. Ebay will actually do nothing to help you. They really don't want to know about your problems and make it nearly impossible to contact them and receive a reply. The pay first policy leaves the door open for all kinds of vermin. Beware of "super sellers" and others with a huge number of feedbacks. They are in business and many don't have the time nor the inclination to read and followup on anything but payments.
Fully a third of all the items listed on Ebay are misrepresented or have some type of problem that isn't noted. I have a "no reply, no bid" policy on questions that I ask the seller. Most times they will not reply because they don't want to be caught in a lie. Your best protection is to get to know your sellers and stick with the good ones.
Remember, there are no deals. You have a better chance of "cutting a fat hog" by buying lotto tickets.

Racer Roy

KNOWLEDGE THAT IS NOT SHARED IS LOST.
 
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