Comments on: A Steady Source of Side Income

By: Bobbette Hackle

Bobbette Hackle — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:54:31 +0000

You say if you had dealt with a large online vendor you would not have had a problem with a refund. That is not always true as I have had problems with large retailers. But that is just it. If you had been dealing with a large retailer you would not have been able to buy the discontinued jeans at all. Plus, a large retailer can afford to eat the S & H, loss on ebay fees, etc. as a small ebay seller cannot.You admit you did not do your part by not checking out the jeans before leaving feedback.It was not the sellers fault that the jeans were mismarked. Anyone who sells clothing knows that marked sizes can be very different on different brands, etc or even on the same brand.It depends on the sewer. Some sew looser or tighter seams making a difference.You should know you are taking a risk by buying from a source where you cannot try them on. There are plenty of brick and mortar stores that do not allow returns due to the nature of the product. A lot of ebay sellers have accepted returns only to get back another product other than the one that was sent out.So,you can see the reluctance to take returns You could have resold the jeans yourself at a profit most likely since they were a discontinued item. eBay fees have gotten so high that sellers are making no profit or little profit. I think you need to try and see the other side of the equation before posting stories like this. So, don’t buy clothing on ebay if you can’t afford to take the risk. Buy from Sears or Kmart and you can return them. But don’t trash ebay sellers.

By: Garnet

Garnet — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:45:22 +0000

I believe it was early last April, I won a bid on a digital camera that was to cost me almost $300. I didn’t need the camera — we already had this model. But a friend of my wife’s liked ours so much, I agreed to try and find her one, too.

Well, the seller kept coming up with excuses about why the camera wasn’t coming. Since I live in Canada, and the seller was somewhere in California, it was looking like it was being held up by Customs.

I guess I should have been more suspicious than I was that the shipping tracking number wasn’t valid. However, the seller had very poor written English, so it was easy to assume he or she had not carefully copied it.

Cutting this short, I never realized that both eBay and PayPal had limitations on when it’s possible to dispute a fraudulent transaction. This seller lulled me just past that three-month point. The eBay site no longer recognized the item number for me to lodge a complaint, so I couldn’t even contact them.

All I was left with was sending what I had to the U.S Postal Service fraud section in Chicago (I believe it was). They acknowledged receipt of what I’d sent, but I never heard anything more. I’d at least managed to acquire the possible name of the seller, and her general location in California. I also had her AOL E-mail address. If the post office was determined enough, I’m sure they could have gotten her true adress through AOL.

Initially, I do believe that the seller was legitimate. She had a large body of positive feedback on eBay. But I think that as the weeks went by, she decided that locating the camera she may well have sent was getting to be more bother than she wanted, so she just decided to drop involvement with it and keep my money. She had said that the package was insured, and she’d look into that as an option for me.

I suggested to the post office when I sent in my complaint that she may not have defrauded just me, but she may even have laid claim to the insurance for the lost camera. If she did, then in essence she was robbing them and me again, for it was my payment that paid for the insurance that had been placed upon the camera package. Thus, any insurance money paid out for the lost package should have been mine., The seller had lost nothing, after all — she had alrerady been paid by me.

I learned a lesson. But it left me with an aversion for eBay or PayPal to such degree that I can’t see myself ever buying a thing on eBay any longer. And if ever left with a choice on some other kind of on-line purchase, I would not have a transaction that involved PayPal. I have actually NOT made a purchase since then because it needed to be done via PayPal.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:56:27 +0000

I tried to post the Paypal terms, but your auto response says it’s spam with no way to fix it. Great system.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:55:02 +0000

I hope you provide a followup on this newsletter’s amateurish approach to ebay shopping. Judith handled the Paypal complaint incorrectly. The reason Paypal turned her down is it appears as double dipping by filing with Paypal as well as the card issuer to get funds back. If Paypal can’t get your money back, you contact the card issuer AFTER Paypal fails, not both at the same time. She also wasted a bunch of return mailing costs on certified w/return recipt. For under $250 total purchase, delivery confirmation was fine and would have provided the online viewable proof of return needed even if the seller refused delivery. Paypal also covers you if your card issuer says you waited too long.

By: Lois Mueller

Lois Mueller — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:20:26 +0000

We purchased a vintage VW on eBay. We drove 150 to pick her up. All seemed okay until we were about 50 miles from home. A piece of the engine mount came loose and flew across the freeway. We took the car to a mechanic and it took a month to get the parts.
The eBay seller claimed that we were “taken” by the repair shop and that nothing was wrong with the car. We found out about the eBay Auto Protection Program and filed a complaint. We were told that it had been over a month since the purchase of the car and that our complaint could not be considered.

About 2 months later we purchased another VW from another eBay seller. This time the seller would not give us a title. The
state of CA would not give us the title. So, again we contacted
the Auto Protection Program. This time we were told that we
could not file a complaint because we had filed one already in
the past six months………….

Forget trying to get help or service from eBay. If you are high
bidder you won it!

By: Mary Penn Hubbard Ohio

Mary Penn Hubbard Ohio — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:16:47 +0000

I sell on eBay and I take it seriously. I go out of my way to be fair in my prices and ship within two days.
If their is a complaint, I take care of the issue and resolve it.
So far, in my purchasing on eBay I have not had any problems.
My suggestion is to deal with a seller who has a good reputation, it is listed on the listing, be sure and check. You can also read feedback by others to see how they are viewed.
Mary