I love eBay. After over 5 years of using it both as a buyer and a seller, I’ve hardly ever had bad experiences. The extent of my bad experiences before was just one non-paying bidder (who left a negative!) and buyers/sellers who withhold positive feedback.
But, lately, my bad experiences seem to be increasing. So, I decided that I’ll start taking more notes here. As a reminder to me of bad selling and buying experiences, as well as to serve as case studies/learning experiences. And also, as a warning to other folks.
Bad Buying Experiences:
- mycameras2006 – Bought a camera remote from this seller. I paid as soon as the transaction closed. The item took a long time to get shipped. I had to file a Paypal/eBay dispute to get the seller to take action. After a few weeks, the item finally arrived. I left a neutral feedback due to shipping slowness and the seller’s poor communication. The seller retaliated with a neutral feedback and accused me of being personally abusive. Seller also receives negative and neutral feedback regularly plus receives similar complaints of being slow in shipping. So, I know it’s not just me.
LESSON/TIP: Make sure to check not just the seller’s feedback. Also check seller’s habits of leaving feedback. What kind of things do they say to other folks? It says something about the seller.
- jupiter-fam – Also known as Virginia’s Collectibles. I bought a bunch of craft-related items from this person that never arrived. I was told that it was shipped. And, I was even promised that a second batch was sent. No tracking numbers were ever sent both times. Resorted to Paypal/eBay dispute. Paypal/eBay ended up refunding me for my payment (thank goodness!). When I left negative, the seller continued to lie in her replies to my feedback. This one’s a Power Seller who receives negative feedback on a regular basis. Yet, her average is still at 99%. Similar complaints. Shows that the ‘Power Sellers’ symbol doesn’t always protect you.
LESSON/TIP: Make sure you check seller’s feedback before buying. Don’t rely on the Power Sellers symbol or the overall feedback score.
What about you? What have been your bad experiences with eBay? Any sellers you’ll never buy from – and why? And, if you were to have an eBay wish list to protect you from such bad experiences, what will be included in your list?
Shai,
That seller who gave you neutral feedback will no longer be able to give you neutral or negative feedback – the rules have changed.
I’ve not had any majorly negative situations. Just similar things like slow shipping, package crumpled when it arrives (books, cd’s) and the general “she’s o.k.” feeback after I leave them glowing remarks. If nothing else, just majorly aggravated.
Mark: Does it also cover neutral feedback? I thought it was just leaving negative feedback. Hmmm…
Bridget: Yeah – little things can also be annoying. But, major issues are a different matter. I’ve heard some really bad experiences from other folks too.
Avoid this seller–eandmcoins. He will leave you negative feedback for no reason. A real jerk!!!
I ‘ve bought $5 used children’s books in total recently. The seller asked me to pay $10 for combined shipping/handling. I paid immediately. But 2 weeks later, I received a damaged, open, empty box with postal stickers indicating that they had received it in this condition and without contents. The postman delivered this in-person and explained that this was corroborated by three other postal workers. He said that in their opinion the package was insufficiently wrapped. I took pictures of the box and the post office contact information and forwarded to the seller for resolution. At first he ignored my message. He finally replied with sarcastic remarks and implied that I was trying to cheat him. I waited to submit my feedback but finally reported honestly after I got no response from the seller. ( My feedback “Paid $10shipping/handling but received a broken and empty box “is the real thing happened on me ). But after this, he retaliated by leaving negative comments on my eBay account; such as, “Beware all sellers. Wants merchandise for free. Be cautious with this person.” I do feel this treatment is unfair to me. This is the worst shopping experience in my life. I need some advoice…
I originally purchased 2 phone adapers from this Chinese seller. One came with a European plug for some reason. After about 1 month I was sent the correct plug. Problem fixed. No biggie.
I setup 1 adapter and even though the MAC addresses were fabricated the unit worked so I continued to use it. I did email my concerns and got some canned response about how these were new adapters and the MAC addresses were correct. blah blah blah yeah right.
Anyways I tried to setup the second adapter about 1 month later and the port for plugging in the ethernet cable was damaged and the cable would not stay in the unit. I emailed Goezshopping and they told me to send it back to them. A replacement would be sent out and shipping costs would be refunded.
1 month and a half later I emailed them to find the status. They said ‘oh sorry it got lost in the shuffle yes we can send you out a new adapter or refund your money’. Because I needed to setup a new phone line immediately I ask for a refund. They said no problem and subsequently have ignored my emails for 4 weeks now.
I have all email documentation to back this up.
Other people who will never buy from Goezshopping at the risk of being ripped off:
http://toolhaus.org/cgi-bin/negs?User=goezshopping&Dirn=Received+by&ref=home
ebay sucks. they suspended me for no reason. and customer support is very bad. no personally response to my mails no nothing. iam so mad. what can i do, because unfortunatly ebay is the best place to buy and sell.
Yea I’m done with eBay. Dreading that my product may be in horrible condition or Pirated, etc. is too much. I would rather spend more money from a larger company or site or use Amazon to get the best quality so I know I’m not getting ripped off and don’t have to deal with angry hermits bitching at me for leaving neutral feedback (when it should have been negative) I hate when they send you @*#% in horrible condition and claim it was in Mint condition. I only really trust sellers with 99.9 – 100% positive feedback and 500+ sells. I’ve had some sellers with 90-95% positive feedback who have still been horrible.
I also always read the negative comments. If I see a lot of “horrible condition” or “not as described!” then I avoid it. If they are more unreasonable like “I don’t like this movie” or whatever, then I know it’s probably okay.
Just as a follow up to my post regarding the ebay seller Goezshopping they have never followed up or refunded money for the adapter I sent back.
Buyers beware. They have a lot of positive feedback but if they treat even a small percentage of buyers this way then they are scammers.
I agree with ebaysucks
November 12, 2009 | 3:34 am
ebay sucks. they suspended me for no reason. and customer support is very bad. no personally response to my mails no nothing. iam so mad. what can i do,
Our account was supsended in february 2010 without warning. We lost buyers and goods becuase we were mid transactions when account suspended. EBay have still billed us for commission on these sales, even though we have received no payment from buyers, who cancelled their payment once our account was suspended, but after goods sent.
Four times we have sent all aksed for documentation-really sensitive ID stuff like copies of passport and driving licence. Four times they have refused to act on same. Faxed the items first-twice-and they stated not clear from fax. Then posted-recorded to Dublin. Have proof of receipt-signature their end. They state first time docs sent not received. Posted again last week-signed for-Royal Mail say delivered but again EBay saying haven’t received them yet. What has happened internally to this personal information? We have complied with their every request but still account suspended. We are a small charitable organisation that use the proceeds from sales for elderly, vulnerable tenats.
It seems EBay just does not care about smaller sellers and seem to have no intention of putting things right. I have no idea how we can possibly get our account back online if EBay will not assist and do their part.
I would welcome any thoughts/comments/ideas/ similar experiences as to how to get them to do something! I could write a formal complaint to Luxembourg as advised by EBay but how long will that take and will they ever admit to receiving it???? Can anybody out there help?
I won a bid on a car May 9, 2010. The seller, electrikspecialist, tried to get me to cancel the sale from the start. I learned through DMV that he was selling the car for someone else, which is not an issue in itself, but the alleged current owner never registered the car in his name. I waited while this problem was allegedly being fixed. I didn’t get fixed. Seller tells me he is getting a lien sale against the owner, which is supposed to take a month. I wait for this to happen. Six weeks later DMV has no record of any lien sale on the vehicle. Almost three months have passed since the auction, seller has stopped answering my emails and phone calls. I never get the car I won at auction.
I became a victim of many deceitful sellers from China. I saw beautiful items of jewelry in photos and bid on many, many of them. Paid for it, waited at times for a month before getting something from that region. Several items I liked leaving positive feedbacks, but most items I did not like because either they were defective or not like in those photos. And many, many never arrived. I left MANY negative feedbacks. As a result I got messages from 2 buyers from USA who had the same experiences with one seller. I spent over 3000 US$ mainly on nothing and junk. It seemed that many sellers from China lured unsespected buyers from USA, CANADA, UK, AUSTRALIA with beautiful and expensive looking but affordable jewelry and instead sent unwanted junk or NOTHING. Not only I was victimized by such crooks, ebay suspended me as a BAD BIDDER. Prior to that I had a perfect (100%) record. I planned to sell what I bought from China on ebay, hoping to make some money, not to mention to cover my losses (I am unemployed). It has been more than 3 weeks and I am still suspended, even those I replied to the message, tried to contact CUSTOMER SUPPORT without success spending many, many hours. Tried to contact them on the phone – I bet they do not want to be bothered. It turned into NIGHTMARE. I hate ebay!
another ebay nightmare: I have to report a seller by the name of dinball and they also own http://www.rcmart.com/
Seller shipped it to the wrong address but right zip code so when I reported them it said a notice was left in the right city and zip code. I never received a notice, and when I called the post office they said they couldn’t do anything because the package was not addressed to my house. I’ve been fighting them for two months on ebay and they’ve really been dragging their feet. Worse part is the seller has 119,000+ feedback so my 1 feedback won’t do anything. Never again will I buy from a seller with 100,000+ feedback because they do not care when they get negative feedback.
In reality, lately we have had bad experiences on about 30% of our purchases. To top it all off now after ordering a part for my car’s engine a (4 cylinder)as described on an EBAY auction and receiving something completely different (a part for a 6 cylinder engine), and returning it back to the seller, them signing as proof of receiving it back, Ebay is deciding
IF I GET MY MONEY BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES IF I GET MY MONEY BACK. I am furious. Ebay in years past, was a good place to make a purchase but over the past couple of years they have gone down hill. They have gotten worse and not better. I have made hundreds of purchases and am in a good position to make a solid evaluation. They have now a “Buyer Protection Plan” It works like this: Buy an advertised item, receive something different, send it back and EBAY decides IF YOU GET A REFUND. You have to fight to get your money back. It is NOT WORTH THE STRESS. You think you are getting a good value on your purchase. You think that you are buying from a reputable company, but in reality you might not be at all. Some sellers on Ebay are good and some are NOT. But if you get shafted and have to fight to get your money back, why buy from Ebay? They fight for the seller because if the seller refunds the money, Ebay and PayPal have to refund the money to the seller that they made off of the item which you purchased(PayPal is now owned by Ebay). These days, they charge the seller a high price to sell an item on Ebay. And Paypal charges the seller also to process the sale of the item. Buyer Protection Plan? No it should be called BUYER BEWARE PLAN. I have been buying for about 10 years now, I used to love shopping on Ebay but after many purchases recently, I feel its a RISK to buy on EBAY. Ebay has a vested interest in the money they make off each item sold. Their policies now lean in the favor of the seller not the buyer because they both (Ebay and PayPal)charge the seller much more than they used to and love the extra money it makes them. It seems there has been a change in management or ownership of Ebay, certainly a change in their ethics.
I tried to buy my son an android tablet for his birthday. I ordered it 6 weeks before the day but didn’t receive the package until after his birthday (44 days from order), even though the seller gaurantees a refund if product takes more than 33 days to arrive. Not onlywas the tablet late, it was cracked. I took pictures and they told me to return the tablet to them and they would send me a new one. I paid the $42.05 to send it back. I also sent them the tracking number immediately and I know it has arrived. That was 2 months ago now and they are refusing to refund my money because I had the tablet too long (I received it on a monday and sent it back that friday so I only had it for 4 days). They say they want to send me a new tablet but they are developing really bad attitudes about it. I don’t know what to do because ebay won’t let me leave any comments now and paypal won’t allow me to open a dispute either. Does anyone have any ideas?? Thanks