Community poll forum: Poll: Do you use eBay? If so, how often? If not, why not

It's been a few years since this experience, but wanted to add this bit of information relating to Ebay scams. I bid on a digital camera that hadn't yet been put on the market, but bid on an item that the seller claimed to have a limited number for distribution. I put a down payment (acceptable for this sale) using a credit card. It wasn't very long before alerts came forth on the Ebay page about this scam (a real service to us!), and immediately contacted Card Services (available with my particular card carrier), and was assured that the transaction would be resolved (i.e. cancelled). I'm happy to report that it was successfully cancelled. I don't know what was the disposition of the case of others who were victimized, but those who dealt with cash may have been out of luck. There's no "luck" to it when one realizes the protection that the credit card offers. I'm not a big fan of credit cards in general, but they have their place in this context.

Why else would they allow the "DIGITAL DELIVERY" of new WIDESCREEN COLOR TV's over ebay for $99. All that happens is you pay your $99 to Paypal and the seller sends you a pic of your purchse "a Digitally delivered Color Tv." Of course these Buyers are ususally pensioners who cannot afford such a loss. Ebay have Police 'on the take' in all states otherwise you would see the Fraud Squad act against them. They don't they are a mob of evil crooks. They pay NO TAXES in Australia. They do not answer phone calls - do not even reply to LETTERS OR FAXES EVER. STAY RGHT AWAY - THETY ARE PLENTY OF OTHER SAFE WAYS TO BUY. Ebay is NOT ONE OF THEM. Try the Ausralian way OZTION - never had a problem with them. Jennifer Stokes - Lawrence NSW

Sad to say this to you but you are a fool. Based on your experience I would drop E-Bay in a minute. Sorry for your loss...........

I have been scammed twice. I paid for one purchase and never recieved it. When I tried to find the seller, I was told I did it the wrong way. The second time, I was told by the seller that the hard drives worked well, even though they were sold "as is". They were both bad and the seller knew before one was taken out of the computer. When I tried to post negative feedback, I was prompted not to. I had to leave neutral feedback, with a comment to beware for other buyers.

Most of this thread seems to be about buying items on e-bay. There are also dangers on the selling side. CHARGEBACKS. A buyer uses PayPal to purchase an item from a seller. Gives indications that everything is OK. Several weeks later, a chargeback shows up on the seller's account. The buyer has notified his credit card company that the charge was unauthorized.

In my case the buyer bought a $425 camera lens, waited about 6 weeks, then filed a chargeback. The money was debited from my PayPal account, and held in escrow until the 'investigation' was completed. The investigation is still on going 2 months later, I am out the lens and the money. I am covered, and have (hopefully) fulfilled all the PayPal requirements to get reimbursed. However, the chargeback is phony and fraudulent, and PayPal is left holding the bag. A chargeback can be filed at anytime and I am very reluctant to use PayPal anymore. I sent my item to the address verified by PayPal, but that won't stop the chargeback and related problems.

==NEVER pay for items with a PayPal balance on your account; instead use a credit card. Then if PayPal doesn't do you right, you can refute the charges with your credit card company. PayPal hates that!==

I believe that the terms of PayPal's service states that PayPal wants to be the ones who file a chargeback claim with the CC company. But, of course, it's your card so you can do as you wish. I believe somewhere in PayPal's terms, it used to say you had to use their dispute resolution process for all disputes. Also, that if you went to the CC company and filed a chargeback request there that your PayPal account could be closed. Since eBay has purchased PayPal, those terms may have changed. But, I believe that's what they used to be. I tried reviewing the terms, but there's just too much verbosity there for me to find that info.

Be that as it may, I generally don't like or use PayPal often. I also only pay merchants that allow me to pay without requiring a PayPal account. There are too many restrictions and silliness with PayPal's requirements for me to feel comfortable using that as a merchant payment gateway or as a personal account buyer. As a merchant, if you're going to jump through the PayPal hoops, you might as well just go get a merchant account yourself and use that as an internet payment gateway. Then, your dispute resolution paths are clear.

As far as buying from eBay. I have bought from eBay, but I generally pick sellers who have 99.9% positive feedback, are in the US, have closed more than 100 transactions and have no negatives in the last 6-12 months (or longer). That doesn't guarantee that it won't be a ripoff. Nothing can. But, it does minimize the risk. I also don't buy products valued at more than a $200 on eBay. The only way I'll do high dollar items is to use escrow.com or some other escrow service.

I do a lot of business on ebay and with paypal. For the most part, it is a pleasant experience.

here is some things to do with paypal:

No matter what, get your $$$ out of that account as soon as you can.

heres some reasons why:
first, paypal can not draw interest on the money you have there (they are a bank and banks can and do loan your money to other banks on a regular basis, its not like they don't make enough with the ripoff rates they charge.)
Second, paypal will require you to use your balance to pay for items if the balance is more than the item cost.

Always pay for items through your paypal account with a visa or mastercard, preferably a credit card, but debits are protected the same way, but more work is required to get your personal bank to do a chargeback as it would say to get capitalone to do it.

be wary of sellers that have been around for a short time and have tons of items for sale. those are usually outfits that got thier id banned and made a new one (not like that doesn't happen)

always pay for shipping insurance and if possible, pay for FedEx/ UPS shipping. Always get a shipping confirmation number.

ebay's and paypal's resolution services are not much use, unless you actually call them. otherwise it may be weeks to months before your issue gets resolved.

using a credit card and threatning to do a chargeback is usually the best and fastest way to get a refund/shipping confirmation. Most sellers would rather refund if they can't ship.

there are is occasional prick that needs more nudging, but in my experience, paypal usually isn't too bad at getting things fixed.
(they want your money tied up with the seler for the same reason they want you to have a balance: they can loan it out. . . )

And furthermore, pay close attention to the buyer protection limit when you choose to pay with your Paypal account, because even in fraud they will only guarantee that amount back to the buyer; and maybe not even that. As I understood them, when they resolve a claim in the buyer's favor, they will make a "best effort" to recoup money from the seller but only up to that guarantee. I purchased a lot of 55 sports jerseys to receive 50. Even then the claim was resolved in my favor, not because I did not receive all of the items but because one of the items was not authentic. In the case of liquidation.com, silly me bought a lot of consumer returns, thinking retail stores would not accept bashed home theater receivers with missing buttons and/or otherwise not even powering up, such as. Wrong. They must have, because I had a pallet load of them shipped across country, some not even in boxes. Then my complaint was dutifully smattered like a clay bird by the "specialist" assigned it. And I thought I was being careful when I would not buy the salvage lots.

How do you get around the privacy act? I have lost money to a person that has a common last name, lives in a large city.

I haven't read all the suggestions yet.

Thanks

I've tried it; no problems, and I'll probably try again, but I'm just a bit nervous.

== I looked for a laptop [I bid and] won one however the seller took away paypal

And then you stated you tried twice more and these other sellers also 'took away' Paypal.

Ok, now this is odd. I've never had any seller take away Paypal as an option after the deal closed (as long as it was a payment option on the page). I would be leary of this fact after the deal closed.

I would have still done the cashier's check as long as it was delivered certified mail with return receipt. That way, I knew the check was delivered and signed. If there was a problem, with not receiving the merchandise, you can still dispute the cashier's check with the bank. Don't do a money order, though, as they don't have dispute processes.

However, I can understand eBay's concern. You bid on three items, won the bid on each and then refused to pay (regardless of the circumstances). As long as the seller gave you a payment option that you could do and that you could protect yourself from fraud, you should have completed the deal. If not, then you should have contacted eBay and asked for a bid retraction on the first one. Waited for the retraction to complete before bidding on any more. This may have saved your account. Going into the second deal where it happened again, you should have emailed the seller prior to bidding to ensure the Paypal option is available. That way, if there was a problem with the deal after you won, you could send the copy of the seller's email to eBay as a complaint against the seller and also left negative or, at least, neutral feedback.

My question, though, is why would each of those sellers 'take away' the ability to use Paypal? Did they give you reasons?

All three sellers offered paypal and only took it away after I won it and i did contact eBay each time As changed terms and
I am simply not going to send some cashers check for 1900 dollars which is the same as cash and even delivered certified mail with return receipt give no guarantees as scammers have often set up drop addresses under fake names which is easier then you suspect then sell a dozen or so big ticket items and then simply close shop
for a 15 to 30k pure profit.

I kept my account at 100% it was important to me. But one seller sold me a playstation with 3 controlers and many games. When I recieved it the sony ( which are the best) were replaced with 2 generic brands. and only got 2 controlers. Also out of 40 games 14 did not work they were so scratched up the cleaning machine couldn't make them work. I called them and said I can deal with the games but I wanted that playstation because it had the sony controlers. He told me when I paid 2 days(he gave a 7 day limit)I should have paid in one day. He said , someone came in my shop and wanted sony controlers and I figured you were a non payer like others I have. I told him read my feedback by the way I am kathylovespogo on pogo. No remorse on his part and no sony controlers for me. I left negative feedback for him so others would be aware. Well it turned on me , he left negative feed back for me and ruined my ratings. I have 4 or 5 family members using my ebay and paypal account and we all have been very careful not to mess up. I asked paypal to do something about it. I paid timely and did no wrong, I called him and asked him to make it right , he refused. I have this irritating red mark on my ebay account now. I am disabled and can not go out and shop like others so ebay is important to me. It helps me make the money go further because there are fantastic buys on ebay. But on ebays side on the larger part its been a very good experience with a few times a odd ball gets in there. Paypal worked real good until I waited over the 45 days for that 649.00 doll and lost all.remember I paid through the bank. I will continue with ebay because its a good thing. Just needed to learn the rukles.

I guess you could say I'm between "occasional" and "regular" buyer. I've bought "outdated" electronics (because I won't part with Handspring) and books. I've never had a problem, actually. But then again, they've never been big-ticket items (never over $100). I've used both cashier's checks and PayPal. I do have a tendency to check feedback before dealing with someone, however.