ebay scams...

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Have any of you ever sold anything on ebay, and then had the buyer come back and complain that there was something wrong with the item when you knew for a fact that there wasn’t ?.. 99% of the time, they don’t want to send the item back, but want you to refund part of their money - or else they’ll give you negative feedback.
Any time you come across someone like this, there’s a very good chance they’re trying to scam you…
And if you tell them to return the item and you’ll refund their money, they may have broken it or traded it out with their duplicate junk.
Feedback is a good thing, but it can also be used against you unfairly.
I now plainly state in my listings that ALL SALES ARE FINAL!, and NO REFUNDS OR PARTIAL REFUNDS!..

Anyone else ever had any of these problems ?.

Tracklayer

2

I have never sold anything on eBay. I have had a problem where a seller promised a “bonus railroad book” with each item. I did get the Item I ordered, but the bonus book never showed up, and the seller would not answer any of my communications. A neutral feed back was left instead of a positive.

3

Yes, it was just 4 weeks ago on a sale I made with some older Athearn powered chassis. I sold these items to a ebay member who won 2 of the powered chassis actions I had, took for ever to get paid from him too about 3 weeks. I packed them up really nice in bubble rap and foam peanuts. Charged him $8 for shipping on the Prioriy Flat rate, which cost $7.70 total. I made sure both these units run and cleaned and lubed them. Auction stated they are sold for parts and as is with no returns.

I guess this guy did not read the description, he got the items and started complaining about they did no run and he wanted his money and shipping back. I tried to work with him with email after email, never heard nothing from him. He then sent me an email with a picture of the chassis stating they were dummy units not powered units! LOLOL!!!I thought to myself, ok pal you want to play games, he only had a total score of 8 on his feedback, so I told him he was trying to scam me out of money and parts he needed. Soon as I told him that I was going to file NEG feedback he backed away then.

I only put up about 15 auctions a week so its easy to manage, but it always seems like I get one person a week who likes to play games after the auctions end. It could be non paying, unisured items, shipping cost, or the old “I never got it”. I use the USPS tracking, money orders and Paypal, and I pack nice and offer INS if requested. I only ship to the US too. The USPS tracking can make a liar out of someone really quick too!

For some reason or another people don’t read the items description and terms, its like feed back I always leave it after I get the $$. About a third of them you never get any feedback at all from them, or even here from them, and thats just rude in my book.
From here on out I am not doing feedback until mine is done, hate to be like that but, whats the use of trying to keep up a good rating if no one else leaves you anything at all. I have never ever left a neg for anyone, I alway

4

BUYER BEWARE…or maybe SELLER BEWARE

5

[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by ICRR1964

Yes, it was just 4 weeks ago on a sale I made with some older Athearn powered chassis. I sold these items to a ebay member who won 2 of the powered chassis actions I had, took for ever to get paid from him too about 3 weeks. I packed them up really nice in bubble rap and foam peanuts. Charged him $8 for shipping on the Prioriy Flat rate, which cost $7.70 total. I made sure both these units run and cleaned and lubed them. Auction stated they are sold for parts and as is with no returns.

I guess this guy did not read the description, he got the items and started complaining about they did no run and he wanted his money and shipping back. I tried to work with him with email after email, never heard nothing from him. He then sent me an email with a picture of the chassis stating they were dummy units not powered units! LOLOL!!!I thought to myself, ok pal you want to play games, he only had a total score of 8 on his feedback, so I told him he was trying to scam me out of money and parts he needed. Soon as I told him that I was going to file NEG feedback he backed away then.

I only put up about 15 auctions a week so its easy to manage, but it always seems like I get one person a week who likes to play games after the auctions end. It could be non paying, unisured items, shipping cost, or the old “I never got it”. I use the USPS tracking, money orders and Paypal, and I pack nice and offer INS if requested. I only ship to the US too. The USPS tracking can make a liar out of someone really quick too!

For some reason or another people don’t read the items description and terms, its like feed back I always leave it after I get the $$. About a third of them you never get any feedback at all from them, or even here from them, and thats just rude in my book.
From here on out I am not doing feedback until mine is done, hate to be like that but, whats the use of trying to keep up a good rating if no one else leaves you an

6

I saw a reference a while ago for a completed eBay auction that clearly stated the cell phone was a non-working display model - and the winner paid something like $150.00 for it!! Sure would have liked to see his feedback!

And the terms - read the shipping terms! Just today I was checking out memory cards for digital cameras. One guy in Hong Kong had a really great price for a 512MB SD card, under $10.00. BUT if you read the shipping terms, they were quoted in Euros - guess he sold a lot to Europe - and it was 40 Euros, with 20 Euros for mandatory insurance, for a total of 60 Euros! This was over $80.00 in my Canadian money, somewhat less in US money! For a little memory card the size of a stamp!

Thanks but no thanks!

Bob Boudreau

7

Watch shipping and “handling” Sending a $7.00 article (a pair of sunglasses)to Canada and charging $12.80 postage,do these people not know the USPS has a site to calculate the cost of postage. I checked, the price was $2.35 to Canada, they replied that the $12.80 is what the USPS charges them. I emailed the guy and he sent me a M/O for $8.00. some of the shipping fees are outrageous,I saw one that wanted $24.00 to ship a small pocketbook.

8

Basically it boils down to reading the TOS completely. As a buyer, use PayPal so you can chargeback if needed. For your average buyer, feedback amounts to a hill of beans. First off, feedback is optional and only hurts a seller. You can use Toolhaus to drag out only the negative feedbacks from an eBay member. That way you can see what the negs were for and if there is a pattern. There are a lot of sellers on eBay that should be NARUd, but as long as they continue to pay their fees, eBay will turn the other cheek. eBay loves to hide behind statements like,“We are only a venue”.

9

I sold a laser printer only got $35 us
the guy emaild 2 week later and barked out orders he was stating it was not working
I did print with it but 1 neg is not worth $35
so I had him send it back he even tryed to get me to pay for shipping but I had it in the aution buyer pays all shipping

he was a creep
but someone wiil fix his as*

10

I sold a new loco a few years back, when the guy got it it didn’t run, so i payed for him to return it and he was right so i swapped it, he was very happy with the service he got, when i checked the faulty unit the post man must have dropped it as a clip on the brushes had popped off, i put it back on and sold it without a problem.

11

I saw this one guy selling LED’s out Hong Kong, US (have you ever heard of Hong Kong, US?) $.99 for leds. The shipping if you got 100x brightness LED shipping was $15.00.

12

I sold a brand new, never out of the box or wrapper, Athearn blue box SD40 on Ebay and
the buyer claimed that there was a mouse nest inside the shell and wanted his money back, I told him to contact Athearn. Never heard anymore from him.

13

Sellers who charge high shipping and low prices are trying to scam eBay. Since eBay takes a cut of the sale the lower the price the less the seller pays. But they can make it up on shipping.

Caveat emptor

KJ

14

I’m having a problem with Ebay right now where a 3rd party use my name to send a bunch of emails violating Ebays policies. Ebay suspended my account. I wrote them and they figured it out and said they would reactivate my account. They sent me a email with alot of security stuff to do and I did all of what they suggested but my account is still no activated. There really pi***** me off and I’m about to be finished with Ebay.

Steve

15

That’s exactly what they’re doing… My advice to anyone would be not to deal with people that do this. The rest of us have to abide by the rules and so should they. Most people are trying to find a good deal when they shop on ebay on both the item and the shipping. I’ve had overseas buyers request “slow boat shipping” for half the cost of priority just to save money even though it might take two months for them to get their item…

Tracklayer

16

Anytime I’ve offered a refund, they’ve never taken me up on it. It doesn’t happen often but the post office Does break things, crush boxes, and even tear them apart. My seller ads clearly state, AT the top, In Bold print (none of that fine print shiznit)…

  1. My obligation to you the buyer Ends when I deliver the items to the PO, pay for the shipping, and notify that items have been shipped.
  2. Refunds are not given so ASK QUESTIONS BEFORE BIDDING
  3. Feedback is left on a return basis only. If you want it, leave it.

Shipping charges are clearly stated or the calculator box is used. Insurance and tracking are optional and must be paid for by the buyer. No one is asked to bid on my auctions without having knowlage of what additional costs will follow. They know How and When I expect to be paid, and they know the earliest date it will be sent… Before they bid… If, that is, they’ve read the top of my ads.

In the listings, photos are provided, they are well lit, large enough to show every detail, and in focus… I can’t stand to see an auc

17

Lets look at this from both sides of the coin here and see how it looks from both ways!

For me buying can be a fun adventure, or a bad dream come true. You can get a nice MR item for a fair price and be happy, leave the person good feedback, and enjoy your new purchase.

The bad dream comes true when you never receive the item, and never here from the seller, or you get the insurance you think! Only to find out that the item is rolled in a paper towel with a few stamps, then sent by mule in a pack across the mountains. Then have it arrive destroyed with no insurance at all! So you contact the seller, who could care less, then you leave bad feedback which he fights, and then he creates lies to cover his butt. So you step back and spit, hoping to get the bad taste out of your mouth for what you just ate.

Now from the seller point of veiw, you can sell a decent item, describe it to the letter offer discounts, pack nice, offer insurance, anser questions and do the buyers feedback, and get good feedback from them. Everything goes as smooth as glass, I’m happy, their happy! It was a perfect auction, man this is nice isn’t it?

Bad points to selling, non paying, the old “I never got it”, you ripped me off on shipping,I changed my mind, so forget the deal! I got the item but its broke, so give me my money back and your first born son! I know the check was good when I wrote it so try it again! I thought it was new, but its not so give me my money back and you home, even though you stated it was used in the auctions! Why should I do your feed back, items nice, but I’m just to lazy to do your feedback! And so on.

What an ugly picture Ebay can be at times! I buy and sell items and have 100% feedback and try to follow everthing to the “T” as far as buying and selling, and still run into all the problems listed above. Don’t get me wrong, I love surfing around on Ebay and buying and selling. Its like a giant train show that moves everyday. But its got some problems

18

I heard a story several years ago (don’t know how true it is) where a guy won an item on ebay and got screwed around by the seller. Not playing with a full deck, he got in his car and drove over 1,300 miles, knocked on the guys door and when the guy answered, punched him in the face as hard as he could breaking his jaw. As it turned out, it wasn’t the guy that he punched who had done him wrong but the guy’s 15 year old son…

Tracklayer

19

I sell quite a bit on E-Bay, but no train stuff. I sell collectible toys and action figures. Mostly 70’s dolls and figures. So far I have had only 2 bidders not pay me. A lot of the e-bay doll community is well known and I am trying to be one of the good sellers. I’ve been lucky and had a lot of good buyers as well. I’ve only been selling since Aug '05 so I haven’t really been at it a long time. (about 120 auctions so far?) My mother-in-law doesn’t even have a ‘real’ job, all she does is sell dolls on e-bay. She has had very few problems either. She had a great one right before Christmas. She sold a Barbie with a bunch of outfits for $5800.00. (it was REALLY old) Someone copied her pictures and posted thier own auction, then sent out e-mails to the bidders of her auction offering them a second chance (saying the original buyer backed out). Luckily my mother-in-law and the buyer are both very well known and most people could see it was a scam. But e-bay did put a temporary freeze on her account while investigating it.

The jerks (buyers or sellers) are bound to be out there but hopefully you won’t get too many.

20

I’m an Ebay user and try very hard (100% success so far) to be fair with the sellers I deal with and always have been treated fairly by them also.I only have 29 completed transactions (30th on its way) but still I’ve had three “experiences” with Ebay dealings that have taught me to be more careful.Two of them were MY mistake.

A year ago,I purchased a Bachmann N scale DD40AX loco on which I had put a very low bid since I already had two of them and didn’t really mind being outbid.To my surprise,I won it,believing it was a Spectrum Series like the ones I already had.But…it was a regular Bachmann that was barely worthed what I had paid if at all.But since I hadn’t checked with the seller before bidding,so be it…no fuss…no regrets.Always check with seller when in doubt,isn’t it what they say?

The second time,I discovered an item i wanted that was about to end so quickly posted a bid.After winning it,I found the “Paypal payment only” lower on the page that I hadn’t paid attention to.Well,only one solution then…email seller and explain myself and apologize,telling I wouldn’t be upset if he wanted to cancel…Answer came in promptly…“No sweat,send your money order and it’ll work out just fine”.So it did.

The third time was an Atlas SD60 with the case saying “factory equipped decoder”.The seller stated that he had never run it,that it was brand new.So I posted a bid,pretty close to its real value,since I liked it a lot.I won it,paid promptly and shipping was just as quick.Upon receiving,I put the engine on a DCC layout only to hear it sing a DC tune.Removal of the shell confirmed my fear…decoder had been swapped!!!Otherwise,the loco was a fine runner with no wear showing…was truly new.
No panic…this “could” be a honest error though not looking so at first glance.I emailed the seller explaining the situation.His answer was that he had purchased it earlier on Ebay and since he didn’t have an N scale layout,he had never run it.He had since decided N scale was too s