Ebay - buyer beware

[spurley]

Hi all

I'm sure there are all sorts of ebay users on here? Those, like me (normally), who regularly buy and sell without major difficulties, right through to those who wouldn't touch it with a barge pole! I feel obliged to write this to warn you about a particular seller who may appeal to 'us' as Model Engineers. He(?) sells a variety of steam fittings and books on our subjects. The problem I recently had with this individual, I'm not prepared to name him openly on this site (just yet) but will on PMs if anyone really needs to know, is that his items are priced in dollars, even though he seems to be located in th UK. The postage charges are far from clear when one is bidding. I bought a small paperback book from him and paid with Paypal after trying to clarify the postage cost. The book arrived in a scruffy jiffy bag with 40p postage attached, the seller having charged me well over £3.00, or it's equivalent in dollars!, for this 'service'! I have written to try for a refund but, despite several emails, have not yet received a satisfactory reply. I have tried to appeal to any better nature by reminding the individual that I would have been very likely to have returned to his site and bought other items from it but now I am extremely unlikely to do so now. I recognise that this may be all my fault for 'falling for' a postage scam which is apparently clear to anyone but I wonder if a fellow ME would really feel comfortable after 'fleecing' another? Who knows?

Genuine postage and packing costs I am happy to absorb and make allowance for in my bids, I just object to blatant profiteering!

Anyway if you are a regular ebay user you may be able to identify the seller and I want to ensure you clarify a postage rate you are comfortable with, and is reasonable given the item in question, before making that final bid and ending up with a considerably higher postage charge, and consequently better profit for the seller, than you are happy with.

As the title states - BUYER BEWARE!

Cheers

Brian

[gwrfan]

Hi Brian,

Funny that you should post this as, only last night, I was about to bid for a set of cylinder drain cocks on Ebay. Teh seller had several items, all in $$$'s, and, as you say, was located in the UK. Made me wonder why he was selling dollars??

Postage on Ebay does seem to be a dodgy subject, but there again, buying anything is a risk. A few weeks ago I bid for the book: 'Great Western Locomotive Practice', but was outbid at something like £15 including p&p. And again, I was outbid. Last week I got an excellent copy for £7.50 all in!!!

I did bid for, and won, a kit lubricator, and then found out that the 'completed' one would have cost me less, hahaha!

Never mind, fore warned is fore armed, or something like that?

Regards from a wet Cornwall.

Geoff

[the_viffer]

Hi Gang

I don't think there is a middle way with defamation. Either the person is a rogue and naming him or her is not a defamation because they are or they are not a rogue in which case veiled naming of the person is still defamation if it is good enough to identify them and pointless if it is not.

I don't know who you are talking about (it is not me!). Personally I charge p&p at cost but I think you should be careful about chucking this kind of mud.

I might also say that I think it is easy to justify charging a couple of quid to post an item. Add up the time even at minimum wage it costs to package even in a scruffy "Jiffy" bag walk it down to the Post Office and get it weighed and measured up and I think you can easily justify £2.60 in service charge.

boards.fool.co.uk/Message.asp?mid=10171960&sort=postdate might well be worth a read for an overview of defamation. Maybe you'll need to sign up (for nothing) to be able to read the message. I didn't write and I don't have a financial interest in the website either.

As for bidding more than an item is worth, which is the bigger fool the buyer or the seller and where does the responsibility lie?

[greasemonkey]

HI All
Why is it that the latest trend sems to be private bids? Whats the point? In a similar vein what is the point of keeping your feedback private? If I want to know what you have been buying then a search with the advanced search feature will let me search by bidders or sellers user name and show completed items in the last 30 days.
I agree with T_V about what items are worth. A set of 24 5" gauge loco drawings sold last week for £102 plus £15 postage. Nowt wrong with that except that Blackgates list them as a set of 32 at £120 plus the VAT. By the time you have paid for the extra 8 sheets your out of pocket.

Andy

[chris vine]

Hi,

It is funny, he has sold a lot of stuff with almost all good feedback. I tend to look rather carefully at anyone with less than a full 100% positive.

I find that you have to read between the lines a bit on ebay and, certainly, to watch out for silly postage scams. (These seem prevalent on cheap items like watch batteries etc.)

Caveat Emptor Rules OK!
Chris.

[gwrfan]

Dammitt Andy! Now you tell me, and I bid for them, hahaha. Only joking!!! But, yes, you are correct and I noticed the price too.

Geoff

In Thunder and Lightning GWRland

[gwrfan]

I must admit that I always (well, usually) read feedbacks of buyers and sellers. So far everything I've bought has been ok. I bought a loco whistle a short time ago, and it never arrived. The seller had no problems in sending me another one, although I could have lied about it not arriving. I do get suspicious of those who say the item is 'listed for sale elsewhere, and may be removed from the auction early'. It just seems to me that they can close the auction early if they realise they won't get the price they expected!

Geoff

[baggo]

Hi Brian,

As a regular Ebay buyer I know the seller you are refering to although I have never actually bid on or purchased any of his items. It does seem rather odd that he lists all his items in $ when based in the UK. It is a bit naughty that he never states any actual postage prices but as Chris says, Caveat Emptor! If you are going to buy anything from this seller than you need to get a price for postage etc. before bidding on any of his items. At the end of the day by bidding on the sellers items you are agreeing to their terms of sale, whatever they may be. I have just purchased 4 off 2.5" gauge machined driving wheels for which the seller charged £8.00 p&p. The actual cost was only £2-70 but as I only paid £0.99 for the wheels I am not complaining! There are a lot of scams with sellers charging exhorbitant postage rates but you just have to give such sellers a wide berth. Ebay are supposed to be clamping down on such sellers but I'll believe that when I see it!

John

[spurley]

Hi all

I thought ths might stir up mixed emotions. I posted to try to warn of the extra postage which was added without showing during the auction. I agree with t_v that postage charges can be justified if you live far from a PO. If the postage is clearly stated then the buyer can make his own determination of value for money etc. Businesses tend to up the charges over those of private individuals to cover overheads, staff etc. All quite understandable as long as it's shown on the site. Contact the sller for details is fine if the seller chooses to reply in time for you to make the choice or if the reply is clear as to what the charge is likely to be. However my point was that secret postal charges do not endear me to ebay sellers and by the nature of this guy's products I felt a warning to the group members was appropriate.

Apologies if any offence is caused to other members here, I thought the idea of the group was to have free speech and, whilst not intending to 'defame' anyone, I felt a timely warning appropriate.

My message is entitled Buyer Beware because that is what I wanted to say, buyer beware. If the price isn't clear, ask and then it's your own choice if you choose to continue!

As an aside, apparently if a seller lists his items in dollars then the auction is promoted worldwide at no extra charge to the seller. So there may be nothing sinister in the policy of this individual other than he's found a way to work ebay!

Cheers

Brian

[ilvaporista]

E-bay has it's good point and bad points.
My only advice would be always place your bid taking into account the other charges and look at the seller's history. Also never bid any money that you are not afraid to loose. It will happen one day.

The seller you mention had a small pressure gauge in dollars but when I asked for a P&P charge to the UK it came out at $7. I do accept that it takes time to go to the post office and pack but for an item that would cost maybe £1 to post to add such a mark up is, in my opinion, excessive.

Another seller wanted £15 P&P on top of the sale price for an item the size of a hand and the weight of a tennis ball. The seller had no history and there was only a photo of the box not of the actual part. Net result no bid.

There are clues if you look for them. Like the title says beware!

[the_viffer]

According to ebay's rules if postage is not disclosed and excessive you can get out of the deal. I did that once. I looked at some other items the seller had sold. People asked how much the postage was and it wasa couple of quid. So I bid, got it for the opening price and had the bloke try and shaft me on postage. He got uppy and said that if I wouldn't complete then he'd leave feedback. I replied that if he did then I'd leave feedback too and that would include the excessive and undisclosed postage. We left it at that.

These days I always ask if postage is not explicitly disclosed.

Does our mystery vendor make a profit on exchange rates too?

One of the most notorious of the ebay scams was the selling of a packaging box from some expensive electronic thingy. Carefully read it said it was the box for sale but less carefully one might think the gizmo was included too.


Cheers!

[ron]

Hi
I'm pretty sure I've dealt with this character in the past, after refusing to pay and a bit of argument I got the postage reduced to a reasonable but still slightly dear amount, I don't really know what his idea is because I've never bought any more from him and won't in the future.
I don't mind excessive postage if it's up front, a lot of people sell cheap and load it on the postage to avoid Ebay's fees it's the total price that matters, ie a new 12mm solid carbide milling cutter at 0.99p + £3.99 postage is still a good buy.
Ron

[dscott]

Dear All,
We run 2 e-bay shops and they have become a full time job for my wife. The main shop sells paintings of excelent quality, abstract to fit in any home, and we have a room full ready for sending out in strong cardboard boxes with an account with Parcilforce. Sending to the states is around £50 with insurance as is New Zealand. The post office put the prices up with the fuel
but now Tescos have reduced it, the post office havent. Could Tesco run the post office!!!!
David Scott.
Ps its stopped raining.l

[Uzzy]

Whilst on the subject of ebay I have just been notified by my partner that I have over 100 questions and invoices for flat screen plasma tv's NO I don't sell them but I will tell you the tale so be aware.
Last week I received an email from a buyer (?) who was being verbally abusive with regards something they had supposedly purchased from myself ( I had recenlty sold a couple of items) normally I would just delete said email and forget it but it got my back up so like a fool I replied consequently 100+ ebay emails I now have my email blocked by ebay until I change my password I still don't know how they got my password but oviously there is a way.
As I said before BE AWARE

[gwrfan]

Hi Uzzy,

Not sure if I said this on here before, but I have a dedicated email address for Ebay (and others) so that my main private email account (if you like) never gets clogged up. I too have had emails from ebay customers demanding that I send them their goods, but these always come to my private email address, not the ebay one! I never reply to these, and always forward them to Ebay. Every one of them is a fake, and just someone wanting your email address. I have had several 'PayPal' requests to update my account 'or your account will be suspended, and then terminated for good' Rubbish! Do not fall for any of this. Changing passwords regularly is also a 'must'!

Regards

Geoff

[GeorgeRay]

If you use outlook to collect e-mails from customers claiming you have sold them something. Right click on the message and select options if you scroll down and the language is shown as russian you can bet its a scam to get your ebay password. The message should also be sent to your ebay name.

[Lurkio]

Hi all,

ilvaporista has echoed my own feelings on ebay. Most trades will be fine as there are a lot of honest sellers using the site, but sooner or later you'll have a bad experience.

Lurkio.