ebay experiences

[JulieL]

Have any of you had any bad experiences of buying from ebay?

It's just that a colleague of mine is wanting to buy some stuff for his new house but is a little apprehensive especially re buying some bigger things eg furniture etc

 

[nstreet]

Purchased some safety gear from ebay, earlier this year. Fairly painless, set up paypal account, bid and bob's your preverbial. Check the feedback on the seller, and check other items that they are selling. The dubious ones are fairly easy to spot.

 

[oilman]

There are one or two things to be aware of, this may be the experience of a minority of users, but may help decision making.

 

[masona]

I bought a petrol chainsaw last year from e-bay from a seller who has 98.7% feedback rating, never got it, the seller done a runner. Paypal has refunded the money & and I think I was about £2.50 short, might be a handling fee

On the whole I have been told it's quite rare but not to say it could happen again. I think a lot depend on what you're buying. My son has brought a mobile phone and won the bid but refused to buy it as the seller couldn't produce a receipt, so no way of knowing if it's stolen. I understand 5,000 mobile phone are stolen every month. Like I say depends on what you are buying and best to sign up with Paypal

 

[pna]

I recently bought a sideboard and hi-fi unit and was very pleased, both with the price and product. I'll see if I can dig out who the seller was.

Quite a lot of privately sold furniture is collection only so your colleague should bear this in mind. However this is pretty safe as you won't have to part with the money until you get hold of the item.

If you go with commercial sellers who will deliver, use those with lots of feedback.

 

[rederech]

I have bought just over 100 items from eBay.

I set these rules up for myself.

Only pay by PayPal. It costs the buyer nothing and you are protected
should the item not be delivered.

Read Feedback carefully. I made the mistake of buying an item which was described as new only to find that on receipt that it had been worn.
I had not checked the feedback and if I had done so I would have
found that the person was in the habit of mis-describing goods.

Be careful of buying from a person with a low feedback i.e. I would say
below 5. Also look at what the seller has previously sold. I noticed
this seller with a feedback of 24 and 100%. The items he had previously
sold were values between 10p and £1. A risk if he suddenly appears
selling items at £100 or more.

Have I been caught out. No , not really, one person refused to sell me
an item that I had won at a very low price. His feedback was 4.
Another thing to watch out for is 'Shilling' this is where the seller gets someone to bid up the auction. Sometimes hard to detect but it well worth looking at the history of the others involved in any auction.

There are some good bargains to be had but watch for inflated postage
charges.

Safe eBaying to you.

 

[Nige F]

I bought a cheap car.£200.....seller had photo`d the best side.........paint was a mess on the other side..

 

[nstreet]

Another thing to watch out for is 'Shilling' this is where the seller gets someone to bid up the auction. Sometimes hard to detect but it well worth looking at the history of the others involved in any auction.

I've noticed on a few auctions that a bidder will make 8 or 9 bids in a row, often grossly inflating the price. Why would he bid against himself. Is this what you mean by 'shilling'?

 

[Richardp]

If you go to the Ebay front page and look down the bottom Left side to "going going gone" you can find a few bargains to be had but make sure you have time to check out the feedback and read the small print

 

[Luke]

I've noticed on a few auctions that a bidder will make 8 or 9 bids in a row, often grossly inflating the price. Why would he bid against himself. Is this what you mean by 'shilling'?

This is an 'auto-bid'. When you put a maximum bid on, eBay wont just chuck that bid on. It will slowly increment the 'current' bid for you automatically up until your maximum bid. If somebody places a bid that is below the amount of your MAXIMUM bid, then ebay won't put their bid into the history - instead they will just show the maxmum bid, in increments from you right up until your maximum bid price.

If that explains it better, great.

 

[rederech]

Another thing to watch out for is 'Shilling' this is where the seller gets someone to bid up the auction. Sometimes hard to detect but it well worth looking at the history of the others involved in any auction.

I've noticed on a few auctions that a bidder will make 8 or 9 bids in a row, often grossly inflating the price. Why would he bid against himself. Is this what you mean by 'shilling'?

Hi

Shilling is where you get a friend to bid up the auction in an attempt to make buyer pay more. Sometimes the shiller ends up winning the auction and you will get a email from the seller stating that the last winning bid was false and offering you the item as the second highest bidder. You should then check the bidding history and the feedback of the original winning bidder. Usually a shiller has very little feedback and can be previously linked to seller. Although this is very difficult to detect.

I normally wait until 30 seconds before the end of an auction and put
in the maximum I wish to pay for the item. eBay software then bids for you until you are either outbid or you have won the auction.

This way you are not caught up in the chase for the item and pay over the top.

I have seen second hand items on Ebay sell higher than you could buy
new on the main street . This is because it is human nature especially in the heat of the auction nearing the end that you want to win the item no matter the cost.


There was one case I know of on eBay where the buyer bid and bought a new television only to find out that Asda were selling it £50 cheeper.
The buyer wanted a reduction in the price but was contracted to pay the
bidding price which he reluctantly did.


In the case where a bidder makes several bids in a row which appear
against himself. This should not happen on eBay but sometimes on other sites. This is where the buyer has placed an initial bid of say £1 he can then set a tool which bids for him automatically up to the level he sets say £20. It appears that he is bidding against himself but he is actually outbidding other bidders who do not show up in the bidding list.

Hope this helps and happy eBaying.

 

[ms2004]

Good if you're buying, theres just about everything you could want, personally Ive only had one problem with someone but got my money back via Paypal.

Selling is a different matter. Ebay ban and suspend people all the time, me included, for violating their policies. I wrote to their head office and complained and they ignored me and i hadnt even done anything wrong.

 

[ferdinanddebargos]

There are one or two things to be aware of, this may be the experience of a minority of users, but may help decision making.

Whatever you do, DO NOT sign up with Paypal. I've been trying to close my account with them for a year now wit hno success at all. They just ignore your e-mails.

 

[masona]

There are one or two things to be aware of, this may be the experience of a minority of users, but may help decision making.

Whatever you do, DO NOT sign up with Paypal. I've been trying to close my account with them for a year now wit hno success at all. They just ignore your e-mails.

Yes I have heard of this, I must admit I never has any problem so far but that not to say it won't. Like everything else in life you never get 100% satisfy customer.

 

[Moz]

EBAY the 21st century modern jumble sale ..

where you can buy second hand crap that if you saw in a Cash Convertor/pawn shop you wouldnt even look at .. lol

much like those Awful shopping channels at the 600 nos on SKy ...lol...Diamonte Gold Ring , lol