OT: WTF!!!!!!!!!!! Ebay waster

just noticed the feedback left for the preveous buyer

"WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY. non paid item - Bike got stolen & PC crashed apparenty."

what a mess

-- Jon

AFAIK a winning bid forms a legally binding contract. Invoke the power of the courts (whatever the UK equivalent of our Disputes Tribunal here is).

Report them straight away to ebay and keep the e-mail they sent.

They won't actually do anything, though. Happened to me once a long time ago and I reported it. Zilch. The laugh is re-listing it attracted a lower maximum than I'd won it for.

Recently I bought a 3.9 engine described as having a recent new cam and head overhaul.

When it was delivered it turned out to be full of water and the cam worn out. The seller said he'd bought it from his brother in good faith and it 'owed' him more than I'd paid - although I'd paid a fair price. Ebay sent the usual automated letters after I complained but did nothing else.

After what I saw the feed back they left the previous buyer I paid for it, now I'm fully in the right and it's all up to him, either that or I've lost money.......... Think I'll report him too, he sent the message through ebay not by direct email.

-- Jon

I once won a mobile pone on ebay, and the seller admitted to me in writing that the had put the auction on without actually having the phone to sell...

Ebay did nothing after lots of email, and i lost £30.

I always read other comments now - i suppose thats what they are there for!

I had pretty much the same thing - except I won an item for 99p+£5 p+p and he sent me a bill for £10 saying 'i'm not selling it for that heres the bill for what i will sell it for'. He was already making a profit on the £5 postage..

Not a lot you can do other than leaving them some shitty feedback. The guy i was using already had a couple of crappy ones which i didnt notice when i bid.

I would have done this but after arguing with him for a week his ebay account got cancelled :)

jOn uttered summat worrerz funny about:

Register a new account purely with the intention of frigging him around as much as he ahs frigged you around by placing very ott bids - thats what I hear some people do.

been lucky meself so far.

Lee D

Same here - the two examples I noted earlier were my only two bad experiences out of about 400 - mainly for small value items. I'd probably be wary about buying the high value stuff subject to scams - expensive cars, flat screen TVs, etc.

In message , Lee_D writes

If he does relist it ask an appropriately worded question.

On or around Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:58:23 GMT, "jOn" enlightened us thusly:

indeed. hope you're not out too much money...

personally, in buying, I'm very fussy about feedback and I won't bid on things with less than about 98% positive, and that's only if they have feedback scores in the thousands. For sub-100 feedback, I want to see 100% or a very genuine-looking explanation for any negatives.

I'd like to see eBay include a "show only negatives" option on the feedback, but they won't, it might hurt their profits.

I sold a V8 waterpump for £4.99 starting bid, no reserve, I wasn't bothered about the price as I just didn't need it anymore. The winner didn't bother getting in touch but all the legal binding crap means nothing as he just removed himself from Ebay. At least I could notify him as a non payer and Ebay credited the listing fees to my account as he wasn't registered with them anymore and I didn't lose anything. When they are no longer registered you can't do anything, not even give them bad feedback, not that I was going to bother anyway. Still got it if anyone wants it, too good to throw away.

Martin

I believe you can remove it from auction for any valid reason so long as it's still got more than 12 hours to go. I suppose that would only be considered if, for example, you had done something like forgot to put a reserve on it and it only reached a fraction of it's worth, rather than just practically give it away. If it's less than 12 hours to go then I don't think you can remove it, just put it down to experience, you won't drop the same bollock twice.

Martin

Mine isn't 100% because after I'd won something the guy decided the bid wasn't enough for him and refused to sell it. So I gave negative feedback and he did tit for tat. To add insult he said I wouldn't pay up.

I usually go back about 5-6 screens max, negatives beyond that aren't worth bothering with. There's so many idiot buyers on fleabay that it's probably almost impossible to get nothing but positives if you sell much, I had a near negative from a seller when he tried to convince me an ipod I'd sold him ran out of power after half an hour. I'd tested it repeatedly and was getting 4 hours (old model) so wasn't having any of it. In such situations, I didn't leave him a negative for trying to rip me off because I know he'd then leave me one, and vice versa. He got a shitload of extra goodies for his cash, I told him to send it back and I'd give him a full refund minus postage and re-list it for more, strangely enough it never arrived.

When buying, I wait until the seller leaves feedback before leaving mine, if I pay immediately but they don't leave feedback, they won't get owt from me. They wait for my money before shipping the goods, then try and wait for feedback too before leaving any, cheeky buggers. I've had a few moan at me, which is a bit crap, it's not like it really matters.

Dave Hi,

on ALL occasions where you start having a problem with a seller or a buyer it is better to address to the dispute center right after you get the first "negative approach" reply from the other side.

In case someone posts a negative feedback which does not represent the true situation you can also address the matter to the Paypal feedback center (I do not remember the exact name but you get the meaning)

I have had all the above happening (non payers, non sending sellers, bought goods lost while posted, seller providing negative feedback despite paying properly) and on ALL occasions I have managed to get my money back, be compensated for my loss and always keep a 100% positive feedback. The trick is to always act making the problem known to Paypal and ALWAYS keep a record of the communications with the other side and when you pay or send something (either the sold goods or the money for payment) keep the proper receipts (post, couriers, Paypal receipts). And of course whenever possible pay by Paypal.

I don't like Paypal either but it does make life easier, payments faster and provides with some sort of insurance that you may get your money back if something turns sour.

Take care Pantelis

On or around Mon, 17 Dec 2007 23:59:35 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)" enlightened us thusly:

mind, you can respond to that, which doesn't affect the score but does show up when people look at the comments.

the one type I won't buy from is someone who keeps the comments private...

Hmm. Interesting point. Would you use a credit/debit card in a shop if you were charged directly for it - ie always got a lower price if you didn't use it? The attraction for the buyer is it's free to them - so rather like PayPal.

And cheques can cost both sides to use.

I far prefer to do an electronic transfer direct to their bank - but many on ebay don't seem to want to use this method.

It happened to me in the early days of ebay and I'm not sure that facility was available - or more likely I didn't know about it.

I had one prat invoke the disputes procedure after a very short time when he didn't get a cheque from me quickly - during the postal strike. He had a low feedback score. I'd emailed him via ebay asking for his bank details twice so I could do an electronic transfer because of the strike but he didn't reply. Eventually found out he was using his father's computer and didn't understand the ebay system. But obviously knew the disputes procedure. It was all resolved ok though - he got the cheque some three weeks after I'd sent it.