eBay = Evil Bay

kshapero · 03-25-2012

Today is the second time a buyer has literally threatened me in the last 3 weeks over a return. The last time eBay took their side. No offense to all my international friends, but both sales were off shore. Good bye eBay.

hatidua · 03-25-2012

I ship CONUS only, just to many games being played elsewhere.

MikeAUS · 03-25-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by hatidua

I ship CONUS only, just to many games being played elsewhere.

I have won lots of Ebay things from the USA and Canada, UK, Japan with no problems with it arriving safe in Australia. I have also sold lots of things to UK and USA with no problems. However I had one problem with a recent sale to Spain where the goods were 'lost' in transit which meant I footed the bill - so no more shipping to the 'PIGS' for me ...

Paul T. · 03-26-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeAUS

I had one problem with a recent sale to Spain where the goods were 'lost' in transit which meant I footed the bill - so no more shipping to the 'PIGS' for me ...

This insularity, and willingness to label others is weird.

AS for people (and they often seem to be in the US) who won't ship abroad - fine, but don't boast about the fact that you're limiting your own sales. Most competent sellers know to state shipping charges for tracked delivery upfront, in which case there's only a small chance of problems.

As one poster noted before, eBay is like real life. Lots of good people, and a few time-wasters. Overall, it's a fantastic addition to our options.

My son sells his old computer games and models, and uses the cash to buy rare Warhammer figures he collects - when I was a kid, I was forced to buy that kind of thing from magazine ads, with weeks of delays and often much highter shipping charges, or accept the lousy choice at my local store. Although I hate the sellers' charges, eBay has allowed me to raise the money for my Leica camera and lenses, my GF1 and other stuff, it means my cupboards are slightly less crammed than they would be otherwise... and complaining about it is like complaining about the weather.

N.delaRua · 03-25-2012

.... the seller fees are insane....

Steve M. · 03-25-2012

I feel your pain. Lord knows I've spent a lot of time typing my horrible experiences w/ that company. I used to worry about negative feedback, but now I could care less.

Recently I sold a really, really nice Nikon N90s for the princely sum of $45 there. I always take lots of photos of items, and give detailed descriptions. The buyer complained and complained about some scratches near the strap lugs! They even sent high rez photos to my email. I told them if they didn't like the camera they could send it back for a full refund, but I wasn't going to do a partial refund of even one thin dime because my description was accurate. I also told them I wished there was a way to weed out amateurs from knowledgeable photographers so I wouldn't have to be bothered by this sort of idiocy. More emails followed from the buyer, I deleted them unread, and they finally gave up. I don't think they wanted to risk a claim with eBay, as my photos clearly showed the camera's cosmetic condition.

Some people are just trouble w/ a capital T. If they had left negative feedback, I would have simply added my reply to it. Life is way too short to be worried over what some jerk says.

Snacks · 03-25-2012

Coming from the other side, I recently bought a flash listed as 'mint, used once' and found it covered in scratches and scuff marks and with the remnants of adhesive tape on the side. There is no means of recourse that isn't time consuming, frustrating and/or expensive. At least with Craigslist you can inspect the goods.

Keith · 03-25-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve M.

I feel your pain. Lord knows I've spent a lot of time typing my horrible experiences w/ that company. I used to worry about negative feedback, but now I could care less.

Recently I sold a really, really nice Nikon N90s for the princely sum of $45 there. I always take lots of photos of items, and give detailed descriptions. The buyer complained and complained about some scratches near the strap lugs! They even sent high rez photos to my email. I told them if they didn't like the camera they could send it back for a full refund, but I wasn't going to do a partial refund of even one thin dime because my description was accurate. More emails followed from the buyer, I deleted them unread, and they finally gave up.

Some people are just trouble w/ a capital T. If they had left negative feedback, I would have simply added my reply to it. Life is way too short to be worried over what some jerk says.

I can't comprehend why someone would complain about a few scratches on a $45.00 N90s .... it pretty well sums up the sort of d***heads you encounter on eBay a lot of the time these days.

And the system (eBay) protects these pratts in the long run!

Atto · 03-25-2012

I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
+35 100% positive feedback buying from Germany, USA, Canada, Thailand, Japan, China/HK, Spain, France, UK, Italy, Malaysia. Except once from CA, USA, all the stuff arrived in perfect working order. I've also shipped a lens to NY arriving well. I keep trusting on eBay.

JOLILLO · 03-25-2012

Hi, MikeAUS, I am Spanish, "no more shipping to the 'PIGS' for me". I am proud to be honest in all my transactions. I have bought many times in Ebay and sometimes here and I have had also problems with people from the States sending me unfunctional bricks saying they were working cameras, please don't insult a complete country, everywhere you can find PIGS.

MikeAUS · 03-25-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by JOLILLO

Hi, MikeAUS, I am Spanish, "no more shipping to the 'PIGS' for me". I am proud to be honest in all my transactions. I have bought many times in Ebay and sometimes here and I have had also problems with people from the States sending me unfunctional bricks saying they were working cameras, please don't insult a complete country, everywhere you can find PIGS.

By 'PIGS' I was referring to the commonly used acronym for those countries in very poor financial state - ie. Portugal/Italy-Ireland/Greece/Spain. So I guess I was insulting 5 countries ...

rxmd · 03-25-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeAUS

By 'PIGS' I was referring to the commonly used acronym for those countries in very poor financial state - ie. Portugal/Italy-Ireland/Greece/Spain. So I guess I was insulting 5 countries ...

I don't think that the fact that it refers to countries rather than people makes it less offensive. I've worked a fair bit in Spain recently and people there quite disliked the PIIGS branding for their country.

Pablito · 03-26-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeAUS

By 'PIGS' I was referring to the commonly used acronym for those countries in very poor financial state - ie. Portugal/Italy-Ireland/Greece/Spain. So I guess I was insulting 5 countries ...

And that is supposed to make it less offensive?

kshapero · 03-26-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pablito

And that is supposed to make it less offensive?

No way around it. It is offensive.

redisburning · 03-26-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pablito

And that is supposed to make it less offensive?

do you have another way to arange G, I, P and S into an acronym that is close to an actual English word?

I mean, it's perfectly fair to group those four countries together when talking about the financial situation of the Eurozone, so if you have some other acronym that is remotely memorable in English by all means let's hear it.

George Bonanno · 03-26-2012

Fees, risks, losses, etc. are all part of doing business.

rxmd · 03-26-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by redisburning

do you have another way to arange G, I, P and S into an acronym that is close to an actual English word?

I mean, it's perfectly fair to group those four countries together when talking about the financial situation of the Eurozone, so if you have some other acronym that is remotely memorable in English by all means let's hear it.

(1) it may or may not be fair to group those four (five actually, Ireland goes in too) countries together when talking about the financial situation of the Eurozone, but this is not what we're talking about at all, we're talking about buyers of photo gear

(2) there's no intrinsic need to use an acronym in the first place, nor does an acronym have to be close to an English word.

(3) if you choose an acronym, choosing one that is deliberately offensive and then claiming it's just because it's the only one close to an English word (i.e. it's not your fault that this word happens to be offensive

) seems like a pretty weak argument and one in bad style.

250swb · 03-26-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by redisburning

do you have another way to arange G, I, P and S into an acronym that is close to an actual English word?

I mean, it's perfectly fair to group those four countries together when talking about the financial situation of the Eurozone, so if you have some other acronym that is remotely memorable in English by all means let's hear it.

It is clearly an acronym that is meant to be abusive whether it is memorable or not. And while those particular countries may each have a very wobbly economy, they were still chugging along balanced on the edge until the USA dropped them in the **** with the sub prime debacle and its worldwide impact. I wonder what people in those countries have as an acronym for the USA?

Steve

randomm · 03-25-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by JOLILLO

Hi, MikeAUS, I am Spanish, "no more shipping to the 'PIGS' for me". I am proud to be honest in all my transactions. I have bought many times in Ebay and sometimes here and I have had also problems with people from the States sending me unfunctional bricks saying they were working cameras, please don't insult a complete country, everywhere you can find PIGS.

I would tend to agree. Completely unnecessary to start listing countries who's people one has had a bad online encounter with. Pretty soon the list would include all of them.

250swb · 03-25-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by randomm

I would tend to agree. Completely unnecessary to start listing countries who's people one has had a bad online encounter with. Pretty soon the list would include all of them.

It just goes to show the insularity of some people in some countries. Foreigner = evil *******.

The worst thing I have bought on Ebay was from the USA, the best thing I bought on Ebay was from the USA. So I guess that means 50% are evil?

Steve

filmtwit · 03-25-2012

As a buyer, I've had great luck with various places outside of the USA.
But have been burnt too many times with international.

Ya, shipping costs are super high, how else am I gonna get insurance and delivery confirmation? What you're fine with neither insurance or delivery confirmation? Oh so 2 weeks from now you can claim to have never received the item? Ya, um DELETED WORDS.

celluloidprop · 03-25-2012

I've only had one bad experience, with a $50 digicam. Let the guy pay with a money order, it took a while to arrive, he started to claim I was ripping him off - so when it finally arrived, I mailed him the camera and his money order and told him to never bid on my items again. Had another guy buy a knife, decide he didn't like it and wanted a return - told him fine, send it back and I'd refund his money, but he didn't when I said I wasn't paying for return shipping.

I won't ship out of the country (too much can go wrong, and I almost always ship Priority Mail so that it arrives in a couple of days and any problems come up immediately), and have all the other buyer requirements set at their maximum restriction.

Lflex · 03-25-2012

Guys; have you ever worked in a retail shop? Some people are just plain weird or will complain endlessly over nothing or will try to rip you off or steal your inventory - yet if you want to survive, you must consider your customer as King. eBay is no different.

kokoshawnuff · 03-25-2012

I only offer international shipping on expensive items, and in attempt to dissuade international bids I typically state $75+ shipping and handling.

mfunnell · 03-25-2012

The only time I've ever been ripped off in an online transaction was by a US-based seller - in a transaction through the RFF classifieds, not on the auction site. It was with a member previously in good standing who took money from a whole bunch of us at the same time, on his way out the door.

You can find dishonesty anywhere, even where you least expect it. Most people, thankfully, are honest. Regardless of location, in my experience.

...Mike