Having come across a few posts once in a while covering eBay it seems the consumer is sidestepped more and more as the time goes by which have let me a bit wary in case of more expensive purchases.
I for one have had mostly good experiences with eBay, but I haven't used it for a few years so thought I would ask the members what's the best practice these days, in particular if one is looking for buying some more expensive commodities such as measuring instruments.
Is it so that the sellers have to provide for a trackable delivery in order for the buyer to be covered in some way, well, what's your advices on best practice buyers protection on eBay?
I for one have had mostly good experiences with eBay, but I haven't used it for a few years so thought I would ask the members what's the best practice these days, in particular if one is looking for buying some more expensive commodities such as measuring instruments.
Is it so that the sellers have to provide for a trackable delivery in order for the buyer to be covered in some way, well, what's your advices on best practice buyers protection on eBay?
A) For high priced items avoid sellers with less than 300 feedback.If you buy a high priced item from a seller with <100 you are really chancing it. Any seller with this low of feedback with even just a single neutral or negative strike should be avoided like the plague. Even if you DO pay with paypal its still risky.
B) Buy locally as close as possible to where you live.
C) Find a store with a gimmick or storefront, even if rudimentary, your chances of a good purchase are markedly improved if the seller has a customized banner with their buisness name in the logo. For example audiosavings on eBay
D) Use paypal, if the seller offers to pay outside of ebay using bank transfer then avoid. Unless its a car in which case cash in person on pickup is fine. Otherwise use paypal.
E) Take pictures of the item and any issues and attach them to any resolution form both on ebay and paypal dispute resolution sections. Use youtube as part of the dispute resolution process and upload a video of the operation of an item if you think that its faulty somehow.
F) If a seller specialises in selling in ex the item that you are after, for ex lab equipment AND they know what the item is, provide specifications and recent testing data, chances are high that you'll have a good experience. The more verbose their description the better.
For cheap HK stuff:
#1
A seller with a high amount of positive feedback and a high amount of neutral and negative feedback is good.
If you see a seller with say:
>200,000 positive
>100 neutral
>100 negative
is a good seller, the reason being is that he ships a lot of product, despite there being tons of whingers in the negative and neutral feedback sections complaining that they've got an item that doesn't fit. Also don't be afraid of sellers with "item never arrived" comments in the negative feedback section, but DO adhere to the next rule.
#2
A seller with a very low amount of neutral feedback but a high amount of negative and positive feedback is a bad seller that doesn't ship out the items.
So say he has:
>200,000 positive
<100 neutral
<100 negative
And the comments are filled with "item never arrived" (or other), is a bad seller and should be avoided.
B) Buy locally as close as possible to where you live.
C) Find a store with a gimmick or storefront, even if rudimentary, your chances of a good purchase are markedly improved if the seller has a customized banner with their buisness name in the logo. For example audiosavings on eBay
D) Use paypal, if the seller offers to pay outside of ebay using bank transfer then avoid. Unless its a car in which case cash in person on pickup is fine. Otherwise use paypal.
E) Take pictures of the item and any issues and attach them to any resolution form both on ebay and paypal dispute resolution sections. Use youtube as part of the dispute resolution process and upload a video of the operation of an item if you think that its faulty somehow.
F) If a seller specialises in selling in ex the item that you are after, for ex lab equipment AND they know what the item is, provide specifications and recent testing data, chances are high that you'll have a good experience. The more verbose their description the better.
For cheap HK stuff:
#1
A seller with a high amount of positive feedback and a high amount of neutral and negative feedback is good.
If you see a seller with say:
>200,000 positive
>100 neutral
>100 negative
is a good seller, the reason being is that he ships a lot of product, despite there being tons of whingers in the negative and neutral feedback sections complaining that they've got an item that doesn't fit. Also don't be afraid of sellers with "item never arrived" comments in the negative feedback section, but DO adhere to the next rule.
#2
A seller with a very low amount of neutral feedback but a high amount of negative and positive feedback is a bad seller that doesn't ship out the items.
So say he has:
>200,000 positive
<100 neutral
<100 negative
And the comments are filled with "item never arrived" (or other), is a bad seller and should be avoided.
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Thanks VF!
I have used eBay on and off for roughly ten years, bought a few "expensive" stuff mostly from USA which all went well, one from UK whom I had to drag to the resolution center because he didn't want to send the package and acted "ill" but got very agile on the last day before the due day when I finally escalated the complaint to eBay.
China/HK stuff have been a hit and miss, maybe the largest scam was the bunch of AA and AAA Ni-Mh batteries I bought, the battery brand is BTY and has been sold a lot on eBay by several sellers for years and the scam still continuous to this date (just search on eBay "BTY battery"), and has also received tons of complaints from the customers, the AA's were marked 2500, but mind you, the maker from China omitted the "mAh" after the figure on the battery case itself (although the eBay seller would rewrite it as "2500mAh"), so the "2500" could mean just about anything, rather "uAh" I would say, complete junk, buyers beware!
All in all I have lost only small amount of money on eBay and they were all from China/HK sellers.
Also it's my feeling the feedback rates given in percentage should be interpreted something like...
>99% = 90+%
>98% = 80+%
>97% = 70+%
>96%.... etc etc..
Anyhow, I managed to get out of my cognitive gridlock (it's my health that affects me negatively) and get myself to google around and found some links regarding the buyer protection, so here are a few links, hopefully it's of value for someone.
eBay Money Back Guarantee | eBay
Payment Security: PayPal's Buyer Protection Help's You Buy Safely - PayPal Australia
eBay Customer Service
How eBay's Buyer Protection Program Works
Solved: Seller won't provide tracking number. scam? - The eBay Community
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping-Returns/No-tracking-number/qaq-p/25771820?nobounce
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping-Returns/do-you-have-to-provide-tracking/qaq-p/22446137
I have used eBay on and off for roughly ten years, bought a few "expensive" stuff mostly from USA which all went well, one from UK whom I had to drag to the resolution center because he didn't want to send the package and acted "ill" but got very agile on the last day before the due day when I finally escalated the complaint to eBay.
China/HK stuff have been a hit and miss, maybe the largest scam was the bunch of AA and AAA Ni-Mh batteries I bought, the battery brand is BTY and has been sold a lot on eBay by several sellers for years and the scam still continuous to this date (just search on eBay "BTY battery"), and has also received tons of complaints from the customers, the AA's were marked 2500, but mind you, the maker from China omitted the "mAh" after the figure on the battery case itself (although the eBay seller would rewrite it as "2500mAh"), so the "2500" could mean just about anything, rather "uAh" I would say, complete junk, buyers beware!
All in all I have lost only small amount of money on eBay and they were all from China/HK sellers.
Also it's my feeling the feedback rates given in percentage should be interpreted something like...
>99% = 90+%
>98% = 80+%
>97% = 70+%
>96%.... etc etc..
Anyhow, I managed to get out of my cognitive gridlock (it's my health that affects me negatively) and get myself to google around and found some links regarding the buyer protection, so here are a few links, hopefully it's of value for someone.
eBay Money Back Guarantee | eBay
Payment Security: PayPal's Buyer Protection Help's You Buy Safely - PayPal Australia
eBay Customer Service
How eBay's Buyer Protection Program Works
Solved: Seller won't provide tracking number. scam? - The eBay Community
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping-Returns/No-tracking-number/qaq-p/25771820?nobounce
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping-Returns/do-you-have-to-provide-tracking/qaq-p/22446137
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Seller Protection
Could also add something regarding selling stuff on eBay, scary stuff!
International Buyer Scam - eBay Seller Protection ... - The eBay Community
Could also add something regarding selling stuff on eBay, scary stuff!
International Buyer Scam - eBay Seller Protection ... - The eBay Community
As time goes by there seems to be more scams on ebay.
I used to send stuff out untracked and got quite a few lost items.
Now I send out tracked I haven't lost a single item !
I wouldn't sell anything expensive on ebay unless it is collect only.
There have been quite a few sellers complaining about people saying item isn't not as described to get a partial refund.
Also quite a few complaints of people buying expensive phones, say it is not as described then sending back a light bulb ! Then ebay says it "happens" !
I sold a couple of amplifier modules for £50.
Buyer decided he didn't want them and sent back a lump of wood with nails in it !
He got refunded, kept items and left a neg.
I used to send stuff out untracked and got quite a few lost items.
Now I send out tracked I haven't lost a single item !
I wouldn't sell anything expensive on ebay unless it is collect only.
There have been quite a few sellers complaining about people saying item isn't not as described to get a partial refund.
Also quite a few complaints of people buying expensive phones, say it is not as described then sending back a light bulb ! Then ebay says it "happens" !
I sold a couple of amplifier modules for £50.
Buyer decided he didn't want them and sent back a lump of wood with nails in it !
He got refunded, kept items and left a neg.
It's my opinion too things have become worse.
Check my previous post, there's a pitfall regarding tracked shipping too, follow the link and read what the original poster has to say!
There at a lot of fake semiconductors on ebay.
I bought some irfb4227's and they blew up so easily.
I bought some genuine parts from RS Components and they worked fine.
I then thought I had just been unlucky so bought a IRFP9240.
The amp powered up fine but when I unplugged my soldering iron the amp blew up.
So I bought in a RS Components replacement part and it has been fine since despite unplugging things profusely to try and blow it up !
you bought semiconductors on ebay? I thought everyone knew that rule. 
Unless its an obscure out of date IF IC from a 1980s black and white television and is marked as "used" and the seller is selling all sorts of stuff that are similar, and the seller isn't from HK, and they don't come at a price of 10 for $2. then the chances are (100% of the time) that its going to be a fake.
I agree with you, the only place to get genuine parts is from rs components or the like.
Another place to get NOS parts is at hamfests or from ham radio operators with 50 of them in a drawer.
Unless its an obscure out of date IF IC from a 1980s black and white television and is marked as "used" and the seller is selling all sorts of stuff that are similar, and the seller isn't from HK, and they don't come at a price of 10 for $2. then the chances are (100% of the time) that its going to be a fake.I agree with you, the only place to get genuine parts is from rs components or the like.
Another place to get NOS parts is at hamfests or from ham radio operators with 50 of them in a drawer.
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There are lots of good sellers of surplus Russian military tubes, transistors and passives on eBay, they are mostly located in countries formerly in the Soviet sphere. I have never been burned by one of these sellers. I have been burned by one seller in HK.
I rarely sell on eBay now, there are just too many stories of transactions gone wrong. (Nigel's story being one example)
I rarely sell on eBay now, there are just too many stories of transactions gone wrong. (Nigel's story being one example)
I've just had a buyer complain that their neon lamps flicker. Initiated return and refund immediately without saying a word.
Then messages to tell me there is a video of their operation.
I asked for operating conditions, to check the neons weren't implemented wrongly.
Strangely no response.
Buyers looking for freebies everywhere!
(Previosuly no issues with any of the 100 I've already tested and sold....)
Then messages to tell me there is a video of their operation.
I asked for operating conditions, to check the neons weren't implemented wrongly.
Strangely no response.
Buyers looking for freebies everywhere!
(Previosuly no issues with any of the 100 I've already tested and sold....)
I made a few USB oscilloscopes and decided to sell them on ebay.
Sold a couple then they stopped selling.
I did a search for cheapest usb scopes and a new seller had come selling one a few pounds cheaper than me but a much better scope with 10x bandwidth of mine.
Ok fair enough alls fair in love and business.
So I kept an eye on his listing and he sold about 317 in a few weeks.
Then all of a sudden it all came crashing down with neg and neg for item not received.
Then he disappeared altogether.
I thought great I can sell again.
But another one appeared with same item but cheaper still !
Same routine again sold hundreds then negs started and then he disappeared.
I just made a few scopes as part of a research and development exercise.
Hopefully, now the ones I don't need will get sold off.
Sold a couple then they stopped selling.
I did a search for cheapest usb scopes and a new seller had come selling one a few pounds cheaper than me but a much better scope with 10x bandwidth of mine.
Ok fair enough alls fair in love and business.
So I kept an eye on his listing and he sold about 317 in a few weeks.
Then all of a sudden it all came crashing down with neg and neg for item not received.
Then he disappeared altogether.
I thought great I can sell again.
But another one appeared with same item but cheaper still !
Same routine again sold hundreds then negs started and then he disappeared.
I just made a few scopes as part of a research and development exercise.
Hopefully, now the ones I don't need will get sold off.
I had an ebay seller do something nice for me recently. I had bought a used part for a very old washer at my rental house. I continued to try and troubleshoot the washer after I ordered it, and realized the appliance was probably a lost cause, and went out and bought a replacement washer. When the package came I returned it without ever opening it. The seller was worried that I was being polite about a faulty used part, and reimbursed my full cost including the shipping amount. Canadians, eh?
That's overly nice (read paranoid of repercussions)
I've had some amazing buyers, when I've contacted then to refund postage (usually because I messed up sending 2nd instead of 1st class or similar), the buyer has said "dont worry about it" and given 1st rate feedback.
As with most in life, the idiots really are a minority (even though it doesnt always feel that way)
I've had some amazing buyers, when I've contacted then to refund postage (usually because I messed up sending 2nd instead of 1st class or similar), the buyer has said "dont worry about it" and given 1st rate feedback.
As with most in life, the idiots really are a minority (even though it doesnt always feel that way)
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