Tarantino

Anyone have any real bad experiences with e-bay? It's fun to read these kind of things...

jandaman

a thermal printer listed as working, sold as-is
Recieved it, didn't work, though crap, I'm out $114 since it was listed as-is
Contacted other buyers who bought items listed as working and they recieved junk. Therefore, the seller was committing fraud by willingly selling items he knew wasn't working.
Filed all the fraud complaints, seller is NARU'd, phone number no longer works.
Ebay sends me the paperwork but I forgot to get the printer inspected by a 3rd party to verify it as non-working so currently out $114
Other than that, had good experience in 30+ auctions
Another complaint, buyers who don't leave feedback

mytzplyx

This took place over a good 6 week period. I ordered a Canon Elura 2MC camcorder on Ebay from this guy named Terry in the fall of last year. He had about 20 or 30 good feedback, all sales (u know those scammers who have only a few "buy" feedbacks).
I wasn't really worried because everything seemed legit and he accepted credit cards and paypal. The 1 thing that crept into my mind was that as stated, it would take "2 to 4 weeks" for me to receive it.

Here's what happened. After 3 weeks, I started emailing him. He emailed me back saying he's just a "dropship guy" and that his supplier was "being slow". He also blamed it on 9/11 which forced him to switch suppliers. After 4 weeks, I was panicking because Ebay's buyer protection thing only lasts one crappy month, and so does paypal. (I used paypal to pay with my credit card). He then emails me back with his number and I call him up. its a voice mail so I leave my number, and he calls me back, telling me that his other buyers haven't gotten theirs yet cause of his supplier.

2 more weeks pass...guess what. Out of the blue, I get a 72 name mass email sent to me by another buyer. What followed was several weeks of mass emails of deciding what to do, and threatening letters sent to Terry. Terry, out of the "goodness of his heart" said he would refund the portion he was making on the camcorders (a mere 50 bucks per), and that it wasn't his fault for his supplier's unscrupulousness. What an idiot.

Meanwhile, those who paid with CC got their money back from their credit card companies, but paypal, those bastards froze our accounts afterwards cause we issued a chargeback (CC payment through paypal). What were we supposed to do? Paypal wouldn't do a thing after 4 wks. But the majority had paid with MO and checks.

Anyways, Terry kept pointing fingers at his supplier and even gave us his name and address, "Raj" Now it gets funny.

So, since Terry's name is on the mass email list, one guy said he worked as supplies guy for the IRS and that he had bid for the item as a supply. What happens is that if they don't get it, they do an audit or something. Guess what, guy's camcorder shows up. At this point, for the most part, everyone believes that it is Raj's fault, but that Terry should bear responsibility.

Now it gets funnier. One guy out of the 72, lives right next to FOX news somewhere in Texas I forgot. He went to them with the story and they actually pursued it and CAUGHT Raj. He then sent us a link for the arrest article posted on the internet. It was hilarious seeing Raj who had taken over "$250,000" from ebayers.

Meanwhile, some have resorted to suing Terry and taking him to court. An internet savvy person found out the company where Terry was working at and as of now, he no longer works there. I don't know what exactly happened to him and for the buyers who lost their money. I just hope everyone is careful when they make expensive purchases online.

costanza187

I had a sort of horror story...with a semi-happy ending, couple years ago.

I was foolish enough to buy a laptop computer from a person who had a 10 feedback.

Story begins on Oct 3 I believe...

It was a Dell, sounded like a good machine, and I won the bidding for like $205...and shipping was $20 for second day air...so i hurried to the bank the next morning and go a cashiers check for the amt, and sent it certified with the return receipt...

I did get confirmation pretty soon that my check had arrived...so I was all anxious...and I emailed to ask for the tracking number so I could know what day it was coming...no response, so I emailed a couple more times, no reply so I get his number and call...just an answering machine, I left a message no response...so I leave a couple more messages...nothing

Finally a few days later, this guy calls me and says sorry he is real busy and hard to reach and says he was cleaning up the computer and it went out a couple days ago and should be there within a few days by US Mail...

So a couple days go by, no computer...so I email him and tell him, try to call, leave messages...NOT A WORD from this guy...by the this time, I am ready to file a fraud report, and all that....but finally I get an email from him at work the day I was gonna start all this that same afternoon...saying HE had the computer, what had happened he said his "ding-aling" employee, sent it regular mail...and the post office put insufficient postage, so it had been sitting in a post office somewhere in Indiana for a while, until he called around and located it and it had been sent back to him...he then gave me a UPS tracking number, which came up legit...so I waited on the fraud thing...and sure enough, in a couple days, the big brown truck shows up with my computer which happened to be Oct 31 by that time...and it works fine and all, I still use it.

Needless to say, I did not leave this guy positive feedback...stupid thing is, I didnt leave any feedback...I would have felt bad leaving negative because I actually got the item in excellen condition....BUT his service was so poor...he was one of these guys who sold a few items in one night, and I got an email from somebody who bought something else...a router that cost like $700 saying did I get what I bought from him cause they had not received their pkg and they were frantic...

I love the way he blamed everybody but himself for the delay, his employee, the post office...but thing is the auction said 2nd day air shipping to begin with...oh well things turned out alright in the end.

TonyDVD

Not really a horror story but a couple of months ago I sold a mint copy of 2001:A Space Odyssey(Restored) DVD to some idiot who could barely comprehend the English language. He had mostly good feedback and paid promptly. I shipped the DVD promptly. The next thing I know, he sends me an email in broken English asking me why I sent him a "pirate copy" of the movie. This was AFTER he already left me negative feedback on eBay warning everyone that I sell "pirate copies" of DVD's. I've sold many DVD's on eBay and have never run across anything like this. I responded that this was NOT in any way a pirate/bootleg copy(original disc with ID #'s,artwork and packaging) and had NO idea what would even have made him think that it was. He never responded nor did it really matter since he already did the damage by leaving negative feedback before contacting me. This really pissed me off. This was an authentic DVD from the studio that I purchased at Borders. Why would anyone ever bother copying/selling a pirate copy of a common movie that he paid $12 for and could be purchased new almost anywhere? It's not like this was some rare, out-of-print DVD that someone might actually bother to copy. This moron obviously didn't know what the hell he was taking about

Jericho

Two stories are kinda interesting to me at least.

the first, the horror story was actually a roommate of mine at the time. He liked to buy hockey jerseys and such. Most of the stuff you find around here in stores is expensive and the pickings are slim. But this guy on e-bay was selling replicas for pretty cheap. So my friend ordered a couple. Since he's a big fella, it was even better since he can't always find his size. Well after a few successful transactions he starts buying a whole bunch of these things. Not sure why he wanted so many, but he bought almost $300 worth at once. Sent his money and then nothing. The guy just disappeared basically. Which was weird because he had sold tons of stuff on e-bay. Anyways a few months later the roommate moved out, still never to receive his stuff. He had found other people who had been ripped off, but to my knowledge they never found out what happened or got their money back.

The other story was find of funny for me. I bought some posters from a guy. Selleer was pretty specific as to what he wanted. He only accepted Checks and Money Orders. Helisted everything you had to do to get the item in the auction webpage. Basically all you had to do was send him the money (address provided) along with a note saying what your item was/auction number. He wouldn't contact you via e-mail or anything after the autcion though, it was your responsability to pay him. I decided to buy from him despite large negative feedback because it seems like everyone who left negative feedback ignored the guys directions (i.e. didn't send money, sent money w/o saying what it is for, or sent via paypal or such). If you ignored his directions he basically ignored you. I got my stuff though, quick and pretty cheap (maybe people got scared off). A few weeks later a guy contacted me, saying they were bring a class action suit against the seller and I could join if I didn't get my stuff. I politely declined. Wnder what happened with that?

RevLiver

Out of 1400+ transactions on eBay over the last 5 years, I've been burned once as a buyer and bemused once as a seller.

A few years ago I won a rare CD from a seller in Ireland who had all positive feedback. I had bought from international sellers before and had great service. I sent cash, as instructed, and waited. Never got my CD, found out he burned about 50 or so buyers and all had left negative feedback since my item had ended. A few people started digging around and supposedly the guy died. Those who had sent cash were pretty much out of luck. That's the only bad experience I had.

As a seller, I sold some VHS tapes a few years ago to a guy in Virginia. Explained I accepted money orders and personal checks (but that they would have to clear first) - this was pre-Paypal. He emails me about 2 weeks after the auction ended asking where his tapes were. I asked him where his payment was. He claimed he sent me $76 in cash. I told him I never received it and strongly advise against sending cash in the mail. I expected to get drawn into an ugly battle, since it was my word against his. To my surprise, this never happened. I relisted the items, he won them again, really making me mad. This time, I pleaded with him not to send cash. A week later I received an envelope stuffed with bills and coins taped to an index card. The idiot was burned once sending cash and chose to do it again. I sent him his tapes and just thought about what would happen to this guy with less than honest sellers.

As I said, these are the standouts. All of my other transactions have gone near flawlessly. Though, I'm currently waiting on some rare 12" records I won 3 weeks ago. The seller claims he has misplaced one of them and is looking for it. Time to email him.

bboisvert

I've been getting this more and more often too (buyers claiming that I've sold them bootlegs). I realize that bootleg DVDs on eBay is getting to be more and more of a problem, but it's a mystery to me why some buyers start claiming that a perfectly legitimate DVD is a bootleg.

Frankly, if you are so paranoid about bootlegs that you are going to start accusing sellers of legitimate products, what they heck are you doing buying over eBay in the first place?!?

J-Dubya

Almost got burned by a seller last year who had a flawless feedback of 100+. It seems at the time right after I sent amoney order(for soem Atkins bars) that he stopped sending people their goods. I emailed a few times and told him I would contact the postal sevice about mail fraud if I didn't get my bars. Had them a week later.
As a seller I had a deadbeat bidder from eastern europe use 2 IDs to screw a Sony digital camcorder auction. Had to relist so I lost a little bit in fees.

Heat

He bid once with a high max bid, then bid with his second ID to get the auction to a real high price, then withdrew his second bid right before the end of the auction?

cineman

I'vd been lucky with Ebay, I had a couple of close calls, but everything eventually turned out okay when there was a problem. Since Ebay owns Half.com now, I though I'd share my horror experience with Half.

I bought a book, Hitchcock by Francois Truffaut. The package arrived soaking wet, book and all. I refused it and contacted the seller. He wrote back that he wasn't responsible and he'd "get to the bottom of it". He would not refund my money. So, I filed a buyer protection claim. A month later I received a package from him, with the same, now water damaged, book. I couldn't believe it. I sent it back and placed neutral feedback for him. He then leaves me my first and only negative feedback and lies by stating he sent a brand new book and I still "gave him grief". What a complete Jackhole.

gr8fuldave

I bought some dreamcast games once, before looking at the guy's feedback. I looked at his feedback after I won the auction, and my heart jumped when someone said they recv'd bootlegs from him. I sent him an email telling him I wouldnt pay for the auctions if they were bootlegs. He sent me one back saying they were just as good as the originals. He then sent me an email saying he would leave negative feedback as well as a non-paying bidder. I simply emailed E-bay, they told me not to buy them, and I forwarded the email from EBAY to him, and he got scared and left me alone. Glad I got out of that one.

Another funny story, My wife loves the movie Valley Girl. She saw a "Valley Girl" zippo and bid like 15 bucks for it. She won and we sent the payment. When it came, it was not a Zippo, and the idiot had just put a Valley Girl Sticker on the side of it that was crumpling off. I LMAO at her, she still gets mad when I bring that up