Ebay

[slimwilly]

So whats the deal with Ebay?




if someone over bids you then retracts the bid when they find your highest bid




or a seller messages you "sorry mate ,i wanted more than that for it,,focc off"




or a buyer does not turn up or dissappears ?


is there no policing ?


is it hard luck ?

[hairnet]

if you bid and no reserve and they wont sell it - they cant do that they have to sell it

[slimwilly]

I have had that one and he replied, "no way you are having it for that price"


i left it,, i dont think there is any police as to say,,just good will,,so i guess we are all at the peril of "good will"

[Hedgetrimmer]

Dunno, I never buy anything off ebay. Too many scammers and chancers from everything I hear about it. I think disputes can be settled through ebay itself though? But from what I hear, they usually support the buyer, unless the seller is very convincing over his side of the story.

[noggythenog]

But you can give bad feedback which is a killer for sellers so they can only get away with stuff like that for a very short time.......they could open a new account i suppose but again if you buy you look for someone with a long established account with a good feedback rating plus you can view the individual feedback so i think slim you could feedback "seller didnt uphold the sale and backed out illegally" and everyone can see that....usually a sniff of bad feedback and a seller will decide to play ball.

[lew600fazer]

Is there not something about if you do it by PayPAL you have more protection both as a seller and buyer??

[adeejaysdelight]

if you bid and no reserve and they wont sell it - they cant do that they have to sell it

This is the sort of misconception that seems to be the norm these days. Unfortunately... you can NOT make someone sell you something, regardless of their reasons. The item belongs to them and what happens to it is their call. Although this may be immoral, it is not illegal. When you list something on eBay, you are entering in to an AGREEMENT, NOT A CONTRACT. Those are two very different things and an agreement is not upheld by the law. Distance selling regulations only come in to play after the sale, whereupon the seller and buyer enter into a contract upon the exchange of the agreed selling price.


That is how it is. Not always fair, but neither is life. I hope that helps mate.

[darrsi]

Is there not something about if you do it by PayPAL you have more protection both as a seller and buyer??

Yep, they are VERY good at looking after you, I can vouch for that, although it takes a few weeks but they are reliable.

[adeejaysdelight]

Is there not something about if you do it by PayPAL you have more protection both as a seller and buyer??

Yep, they are VERY good at looking after you, I can vouch for that, although it takes a few weeks but they are reliable.

Paypal do a worse job of something VISA have been doing for eons. Has everyone forgotten? I would always rather pay by VISA. If you buy, say, a £4000 motorcycle and pay only £1 by VISA, they will insure your entire purchase. Try getting Paypal to do that.


Anyway, you have to enter in to a CONTRACT before either of them are valid 

[Skippernick]

Is there not something about if you do it by PayPAL you have more protection both as a seller and buyer??

Yep, they are VERY good at looking after you, I can vouch for that, although it takes a few weeks but they are reliable.

Paypal do a worse job of something VISA have been doing for eons. Has everyone forgotten? I would always rather pay by VISA. If you buy, say, a £4000 motorcycle and pay only £1 by VISA, they will insure your entire purchase. Try getting Paypal to do that.


Anyway, you have to enter in to a CONTRACT before either of them are valid 

Thats the same with any credit card and you need to spend £100 or more on the purchase to activate the insurance policies.

[darrsi]

I had some American bar steward nab £2500 out of my PayPal account one day, when PayPal phoned me asking if i'd just spent all these dollars early one Sunday morning on World Of Warcraft tokens?
I didn't have a clue what they were on about?
Even had some young scrote emailing me at work calling me all sorts of names 'cos he never received his tokens, the sad little foccer, he was one of four people who got stung.
Anyway they recognised it didn't look right and after a few phone calls they totally reimbursed me about four days later, with minimal fuss, they even told me that i didn't even need to tell my credit card company, even though i obviously did.
Aside from that whenever i've had grief buying or selling i've always found them very cooperative, albeit a little long winded, but i appreciate it's now a massive business so things will take time.

[Phil]

So whats the deal with Ebay?

if someone over bids you then retracts the bid when they find your highest bid

or a seller messages you "sorry mate ,i wanted more than that for it,,focc off"

or a buyer does not turn up or dissappears ?

is there no policing ?

is it hard luck ?

I don't do much buying or selling over EBay but have done a bit. I 'sold' something to someone in London and they didn't pay. I did chase them a few times and they did ring me giving all sorts of excuses. In the end I cancelled their bid, and put it up again but it sold for a bit less. I offered it to the 2nd highest bidder but he didn't reply. It is only an offer to them, they don't have to buy it as they might have bought something else in the meantime. 
Once you open a case with EBay the buyer has 4 days to pay up.  EBay refunded the difference in selling fees between what they originally charged me for the first bidder and what it actually went for. I was quite happy with EBay's polices and what they did.

[Arfa]

Been using ebay since around 2000, got a good feedback of over 500 100% positive. Had a few up and downs with numpties, been through their resolution centre thing a few times, but in the main all sorted out reasonably well.

Ebay will offer a reasonable amount of protection. Ditto PayPal - but only for transactions outside of Ebay. If it's an ebay sale, PayPal will insist you go through the ebay protection scheme. Remember this if you negotiate a sale outside of ebay...

If you're buying something and seller won't sell. You complain to ebay, after a 2-3 instances they'll get kicked off.
If you're selling something and buyer won't pay, you go down the non-paying bidder route, takes a few weeks, but eventually ebay will refund you the final sale fees. They do this more than a couple of time and they'll be kicked off.
Always post stuff with insurance and proof of postage, signed for. Only post to a PayPal confirmed address, not some random other place the buyer requests. If the buyer claims it doesn't turn up, ebay will want to see proof it was posted and signed for. Especially true for buyer collects! Always accept cash only in this instance.
If something is trashed in the post, it's up to the seller to provide a refund and claim on the postal insurance used. However they can insist on the the buyer returning the item first for inspection.

Agreed, the protection is biased somewhat to buyers, and ebay/PayPal will take a hefty sum in fees, but ultimately stuff does sell better and for more money on there. So long as you play their game, it is still generally the best way to go with flogging stuff.

[dvdbedford]

I sold a Dianese leather jacket on Ebay, got about £50 for it which was fine, relatively rare small ladies jacked in a lightweight punched leather.
Posted it to buyer, a few days later he claimed it had not arrived/been sent, post office said they thought it was but delivery was not tracked. After the usual dispute resolution stuff, Ebay took £50 off me and gave it back to him.
You're one step ahead......
A couple of months later, the same purchaser listed on Ebay a small ladies punched leather Dianese jacket.

I did email both him and Ebay expressing my surprise and admiration that he'd managed to find an identical one, my lesson from this was to always post relatively expensive items using a tracked delivery.

[Doddsie]

Ebay is one of those things that seems to be fashionable to slag off. I use it quite a bit and have never had a problem. (963 with 100% feedback). Ive heard people moaning that its a rip off, which I dont understand, you bid what you want to bid, if you pay too much its kinda your own fault. Use a bit of common sense and you should be ok. There is always gonna be the odd one or two that get caught but when you look at the millions of items that get sold every day, it cant be that bad.

[Arfa]

Exactly. Ebay's fees to sellers have increased a lot over the years, but ultimately it's still better than the alternatives.
Where else are you going to flog stuff?
Gumtree - no protection what so ever, so expect loads of con artists and generally limited to folk who are local to you, so only a small audience (especially outside of the big cities).
Amazon - Now they really take a big cut & don't offer much for postage. Faff if the item you want to sell is not  already on there and not much cop for off beat stuff or not current.
Forum Classifieds - No fees, but again you'll only get a couple hundred people seeing your ad at best, so it better be super desirable/sought  after to sell.
Preloved - wanna-be Gumtree, but no ones heard of them or visits them.
QXL - the  auction site ebay left in the dust in the '90s, but are somehow still going albeit a ghost town.
Local paper small ads - hassle, takes time, and small local audience only.

Compare that lot to ebay, where you'll get thousands of viewers to your ad (UK and abroad), stuff generally does sell, there's some payment protection, a reasonable system to judge trust and super handy apps etc for listing stuff.

[chaz]

I use Ebay quite a lot. 99% of the time it's fine, had one item go astray in the post out off a hundred or so only £10 so wasn't sent tracked, but got proof of posting so sent it off to royal mail as you're covered up to £20 and guess what they said they weren't paying up because I didn't have proof of posting, well no cos you've got it now?
Just another point I don't think you're covered on motor vehicals or property even if you pay with paypal?

[darrsi]

Ordered a can of chain grease one day from Ebay and got sent a piece of model railway track instead by mistake.

Contacted the fella and told him to give me a forwarding address and I'd post it to the right person for him and he was so grateful he sent me two cans of chain grease instead as a thank you.

Top fella, bearing in mind they were about £12 each. 

[YamFazFan]

If you are restoring an old bike for which the parts are long since unobtainable from the dealers, Ebay is invaluable. All the best N.O.S is on there. Autojumbles, which were a good source pre-Ebay, are now a bit of a disappointment .

[noggythenog]

Ebay is one of those things that seems to be fashionable to slag off. I use it quite a bit and have never had a problem. (963 with 100% feedback). Ive heard people moaning that its a rip off, which I dont understand, you bid what you want to bid, if you pay too much its kinda your own fault. Use a bit of common sense and you should be ok. There is always gonna be the odd one or two that get caught but when you look at the millions of items that get sold every day, it cant be that bad.

What Doddsie said.

[Grahamm]

I did email both him and Ebay expressing my surprise and admiration that he'd managed to find an identical one, my lesson from this was to always post relatively expensive items using a tracked delivery.

You should have bought it and then claimed it didn't arrive...

[Doddsie]

.