Check out the Dell Store on CNET
Community weekly poll: Poll: Do you use eBay? If so, how often? If not, why not
- 9/21/07 1:03 PM
Four words of advice to prospective ebay shoppers
by john3347 - 9/21/07 8:51 PM In reply to: Poll: Do you use eBay? If so, how often? If not, why not by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER !!!!!!!
I know personally of a few horror stories and have heard of many more. I refuse to open a Paypal account because they require open access to your checking account and, in so doing, they will have the upper hand in a payment dispute. Ain't gonna happen! Most ebay merchants now require Paypal as their only form of payment (probably for the reason just described). I am chomping at the bits for a certain discontinued model cell phone that I have found on Ebay and nowhere else. I would be willing to deal with the merchants on a direct basis, but I just will not force myself to jump through the necessary hoops to buy from Ebay merchants.
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER !!!!!!!
Poll???
by Gary Haugen - 9/21/07 9:18 PM In reply to: Poll: Do you use eBay? If so, how often? If not, why not by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The answers to the POLL question are all way to long!!!
I buy on e-Bay every day I'm a collector.
My answer would have been.
First what did the guy give for an answer to the question of where is it????
Believe me if you can talk to the guy, he is honst!!
Most, the only way to contact the seller is by the e-Bay mail!!
8 months is a bit long. It must be lost!!!
I have waited 3 months because of customs.
I think its lost!!
Did the guy get insurance or have PayPal protect it??
Gary
Yes it is lost i think
by kathylovespogo - 9/22/07 11:18 AM In reply to: Poll??? by Gary HaugenIt was suppose to be insured. Her husband who left her was handling the mail. Its OK I take it as a loss. She is trying hard to make it. My daughter who really paid for the doll said to let it go , My daughter is a nurse and her husband is a ace mechanic. They are fine financially they hate the loss but they will make it and this other lady has a lot of problems and our hearts went out to her. Ebay was released from thier obligation when 45 days goes by. That is hard when because of 911 it takes along time to get things through customs and we do like that being safer and all. Ebay really should think about extending that limit for things coming from out of the country. The doll was coming from Germany. We have to work together to help make our country safer it would be patriotic of ebay to let out of country sales have a longer grace period for filing a non reciept.
Only two bad experiences (so far...knock on wood)
by shuai-jan - 9/21/07 9:33 PM In reply to: Poll: Do you use eBay? If so, how often? If not, why not by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The only two bad experiences that I've had are as follows:
1.) I had a inexpensive item that a buyer won, but never paid for it. So I didn't ship it. End of story.
2.) I bought a item from a seller. The seller tacked on about $10 in "handling fees" to the shipping charges. The item didn't meet the description. The seller offered to take the item back for a refund of the purchase price only. SO the seller gets to pocket $10 and get the item back? Yeah right; I told him I wanted the "handling fees" back as well. He, of course, told me to take a hike so I just kept the item and left negative feedback. Of course he reciprocated the negative feedback and so now I have one negative feedback that isn't exactly my fault, but oh well I guess that's the breaks. The lesson learned is to not bid on items with jacked up "handling fees".
Every experience I have had with eBay has been negative
by chillmog - 9/21/07 10:13 PM In reply to: Poll: Do you use eBay? If so, how often? If not, why not by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I am definitely not an eBay addict. I've never had any luck with buying or selling anything there. It seems to me that the whole process is geared to experienced users. Novices are pretty well shut out.
My last experience with them was last winter when I has some parts stolen from my '49 MG in storage. I thought the parts were gone for good so I wrote to the MG email list looking for some replacements. One of the members wrote back almost immediately that he saw what looked like my parts on eBay! I checked the listing and it was definitely my stuff. To keep this short, parts for a '49 MG are somewhat unique and these were in need of repair enough to make them readily identifiable - and I have pictures of them on the car. Anyway, eBay doesn't have any way to easily report suspected stolen items for sale. I finally did figure out how to report them. I finally got a response from them 2 days later saying to report it to my local police department. I, of course, had already done that and they had already tracked down the culprit before I got eBay's response. Thanks to them, I got my stuff back. Sorry to say that since this was in municipal court he only got a hefty fine and no jail time. And as for eBay, the last time I checked, he is still listed as a seller with 100% positive feed back.
ebay use
by lahamada - 9/21/07 11:17 PM In reply to: Poll: Do you use eBay? If so, how often? If not, why not by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I tend to use eBay quite regularly most because prices in Malta are still expensive. Ex I bought a Dell inspirion E1705 laptop from the US via ebay and this came to 1970 dollars including UPS express shipping. From Malta, same laptop would have cost me around 4000 dollars.
But I would suggest the following: Always pay with paypal.
Avoid Far East buying, mostly its all junk.
I try to buy mostly from eBay Germany were prices are sometimes lower than that of the UK and sellers are very professional.
Also if you have paid for an item with a major credit card and you never received the item, most banks will claim your money back buy opening 'A service not rendered claim'. You will have to provide all documentation such as all e-mails passed between you and the seller. This will take about a month, but at the end you will get your money back.
One last tip, always communicate with sellers via eBay's contact seller, and never directly to the seller's private email.
Also avoid sellers with a feedback of less then 99.8%.
As regards paypal, I have found their service extremly good and the two eBay dispute that I have had so far were both resolved in my favor and all my money was credited directly to my visa account.
Rgds
lahamada
Bad experience on EBAY
by k9king73 - 9/22/07 12:11 AM In reply to: Poll: Do you use eBay? If so, how often? If not, why not by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I used to both buy and sell on ebay, now I will NEVER do either again. First I was suspended for being associated with someone having a problem with EBAY AND PAYPAL (THEY ARE ONE COMPANY)The person was my son.
Secound A person bought some sports cards on EBAY at a REAL cheap price. He sent his money and I sent merchandise. First he claimed they never arrived, I had conformation of delivery. Then he told pay pal the cards were not as discribed. I told him to return murchandise for FULL refund, he never did. Pay Pal decided to refund his money and let him keep the merchandise too!
Third, the SAME person using a different name bought from my son and pulled the EXACT same scam. Even though it was PROOVEN to both EBAY, and Pay Pal he still STEALS on their site WITH EBAY AND PAY PAL'S help on a regular basses. I know it to be the same person based on bank records and on the fact that the address and name were exact.
Will I ever use E bay or Pay Pal again? NO, NOT EVEN IF IT COULD SAVE MY LIFE they stole from my family THREE times. THEY WILL NEVER GET THE CHANCE AGAIN!
I have 550 under my belt in ebay
by kathylovespogo - 9/22/07 1:31 AM In reply to: Poll: Do you use eBay? If so, how often? If not, why not by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
My family member use my ebay every few days. I have had good buys but at times I forgot to check shipping cost for example yesterday my daughter got a memory card real cheap 4.99 for cell phone. Shipping for this itsy bitsy item was almost 20.00. But ebay makes thier money off of sales not from shipping. But on the other hand ebay makes away for shipping labels to be made so we can not see what the actual shipping cost is. OK lets get to my last very bad experience and what I learned. I bought a doll( well my daughter did through me) I bid the 300.00 dollars for her. Problem was I had her on my favorite sellers list because her work is the best I have ever seen. but it took me straight to her ebay page. Oh did I mention it is in Germany. LOL Turned out to cost $649.00. I like the other person that commented knows most people are honest. I trusted her even when it got lost in the mail. She found it and said it was being reshipped with alittle extra gift.This doll maker had a 100% possitive rating and we were talking just like ebays says to do. Try to work it out. I (my daughter)bought the doll may 29th paid 2 days later. All emails stopped no doll, no money. I contacted ebay. What I read says you can file with in 45 days ( I thought if you wanted too) It did not say in that part you MUST file within 45 days. There is a mile of difference between can and Must LOL. so I had used my bank instead of my credit card. I had to because my daughter put the money in my bank . Anyway. I just heard from her. She had surgeries,her dad got cancer, her husband left her and she had several kids. She does not know where the doll is and has no way of tracking it. I told her it was insured. Anyway we told her to forget about it. It is the truth about her problems and I only wanted to hear from her I would understand and my daughter would. She is a nurse and has a wonderful husband and can afford the loss, I did learn you have to file with in 45 days and use a credit card next time. But on the other hand she would be in more trouble than she all ready is. We wouldn't want that. Christians are the only warriors that kill off thier own wounded and she is wounded.
Stay away from Paypal
by dragonlen - 9/22/07 5:12 AM In reply to: Poll: Do you use eBay? If so, how often? If not, why not by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I used to use E-Bay to purchase items but found the biggest draw back is Paypal. I always found 90 percent of complaints filed thru paypal are not settled to the satisfaction of either the buyer or seller.
I have had my own previous problems with paypal so decided to close my accounts. I had 2 accounts 1 with Canadian funds and 1 with U.S. funds. So I transferred all my canadian funds to my bank account, no problem right, WRONG! There are a myriad of fees attached to transferring all of your funds. The U.S. account I tried to turn into Canadian funds then transfer to my account but guess what you must have more than $20.00 balance before they will transfer the funds. So mistake no.1 was changing the funds to canadian and letting the balance drop below the minimum and trying to transfer from that account. Basically paypal will not let you transfer or change funds unless you have the minimum but every time you try to move the money the trans action page says you must maintain a minimum and cancels the transaction. It's one vicious circle. So I have a paypal account that I cannot cancel or move the funds unless I deposit more funds which when I try to repeat the process will cancel it because I don't have the minimum.
All I have to say is Do not under any circumstances use paypal. If you do have a paypal account tied to your bank account put a stop payment order thru with paypals name on it so they cannot pull funds from your account. I have heard of this happening during a dispute where the buyer was being ripped off and refused to pay so paypal drew funds from the buyers bank account because thier paypal account was almost empty. Use a credit card always.
BUYING FROM EBAY
by tribal68 - 9/22/07 6:14 AM In reply to: Poll: Do you use eBay? If so, how often? If not, why not by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I HAVE SPENT A LOT OF MONEY ON EBAY WITH ONLY ONE SLIGHTLY BAD EXPERIENCE AND THAT WAS NON DELIVERY OF GOODS PAID FOR. AS SOON AS I CONTACTED PAYPAL THEY STARTED THEIR INVESTIGATION AND WITHIN 3 WEEKS I RECEIVED A FULL REFUND SO I SAY WELL DONE TO PAYPAL BUT PHEWE U SUCK TO THE SELLER
Why didn't I use Ebay more often?
by dcarlo - 9/22/07 7:07 AM In reply to: Poll: Do you use eBay? If so, how often? If not, why not by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
It did not fit my needs. When I used it it was fine. I checked back occasionally and did not find anything I wanted.
PayPal ONLY!
by Tom Pilcher - 9/22/07 8:29 AM In reply to: Poll: Do you use eBay? If so, how often? If not, why not by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
As long as you are going to purchase on e-Bay, you can feel good about making your purchases using PayPal. Of course, just like dealing with a regular retailer, you must read all the rules and details of what you are purchasing and from whom before committing to any purchase.
I have only made one purchase outside of PayPal on e-Bay, and although it wasn't a really bad experience, it was certainly frought with more patience on my part. Sellers using PayPal are more likely to have your satisfaction in mind, since that will reflect on their scores, which everyone can see...
Read everything before making ANY purchase, especially those over the Internet.
E-Bay? Never again
by aleron0 - 9/22/07 8:36 AM In reply to: Poll: Do you use eBay? If so, how often? If not, why not by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I was new to e-bay. Tried it a few times, but got a feeling of uneasyness. Then one day my son put $40.00 in my account to use for a Fathers day gift. Before I get a chance to spend it..Poof! Its gone.
Turns out..ebay took my $40.00 out my account and I never got the Fathers day gift.
A $40.00 dollar lesson well learned here. Let my expereance be your expereance.
eBay Addict!
by vickyvalle - 9/22/07 8:54 AM In reply to: Poll: Do you use eBay? If so, how often? If not, why not by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I live in a tiny town in Texas, and to say my shopping options are limited is an understatement. I love using eBay, but I had to cut my teeth just like everyone else. I took the time to learn the ropes, and now I shop very confidently and don't have any problems.
A few of the things I use to stay on top of the game:
1) CHECK FEEDBACK - If I click an auction and the seller's feedback is 98.6% or less, I hit the back button, no matter how much I want the item. For 'Power Sellers' I raise the bar to 99%. Read their negative ratings; look for patterns. One website that will really help when researching a seller is www.toolhaus.org which you can use to pull all the sellers, negative, neutral, and mutually withdrawn feedback so that you don't have to scan page after page looking for them.
2) BID SMART - The rule of thumb for bidding is, 'bid once, bid high, bid late'. Don't get into bidding wars! The only winner will be the seller. I NEVER bid on an auction until the very last minute; this way no one has the chance to bid after me. I bid the absolute highest I would be willing to pay, and if someone bids higher than me, it just means they were willing to pay more than me.
3) USE PAYPAL - The safest way to pay for an auction, bar none. I won't even bid on auctions where sellers won't accept PayPal. This is your best chance of recovering your money in case of a dispute.
4) BE SENSIBLE - As much as I love eBay, and as savvy as I believe I am, there are some things I simply will not buy there. If there is a high risk of fraud, counterfeiting, or scamming, I stay away. I personally would never buy high-end electronics there; I'd rather pay a few dollars more and buy from an authorized dealer to insure a valid warranty. It amazes me when you see people in the Help Center crying because, "I bought an HP laptop that was supposed to be new in the box; I paid $200 and when it arrived it didn't work." D'UH! If the deal is too good to be real, chances are it isn't. Also, the are lots of manufacturers who will not warranty an item purchased on eBay. Be aware of this.
5) READ THE FINE PRINT - Make sure that yoiu read the auction from top to bottom. If the return policy and shipping charges aren't clearly stated, ask. Request more pictures of the item you you need a better look. Know exactly what you're buying before you put in a bid!
eBay has good and bad sellers just like most other internet venues. All in all, I think that if you shop smart, everyone comes out a winner.
Sellers: One Thing To Remember
by hi_dream96720 - 9/22/07 9:29 AM In reply to: Poll: Do you use eBay? If so, how often? If not, why not by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
eBay makes money on ALL sellers. Don't get hooked by ONE sale. I tried selling on eBay, and one sale hooked me to keep my store on eBay open for BIG losses in capital. Try to sell what other people are not selling (or not many people) would probably be the best advice.
| Forum legend: | |
 |
Locked thread |
 |
Moderator |
 |
CNET staff |
 |
Samsung staff |
 |
Norton Authorized Support team |
 |
AVG staff |
 |
Windows Outreach team |
 |
Dell staff |
 |
Intel staff |
