A word about ebay

[Ruthi]

Orietatt is not the only one who scours eBay for bargains. A couple of weeks ago I spotted a stitch master stand on eBay. Stands are going for ridiculously low prices this spring so I decided to speculate and bought it for £10.50 plus p&p. I figured that if I liked it I would have a bargain, and if not I could sell it in the autumn for a decent profit.

But when it arrived all the bits were rattling around in the box and one of the screws on the lamp/chart holder had broken off.

Its £15 plus p&p for a replacement part and hubby is not sure if he can get the broken screw out because its not drilled straight so I wrote to the vendor. He offered a refund for the item if I returned it but not shipping costs in either direction. I argued that I should not be out of pocket because of his poor packing and he called me a liar claiming it was wrapped in loads of bubble wrap. Maybe that was what he intended but sadly the parts hadn't even been tied in a bundle.

So I took it to a dispute and today EBay have refunded all my money and the stand is still here! If the seller had been more reasonable he would have had his item back to sell again.

But beware, you need to have right on your side! EBay simply made a decision and then took the money from his account and put it in mine.

I am pleased to have won a moral victory but uncomfortable that I still have what is by rights not my stand. And once they make a decision like this they block communication so I can't even offer to return it for the cost of shipping.

[wendywombat]

I know how you feel, difficult to accept that you still have the goods, even though they are damaged. Maybe you can get it fixed and try to forget the whole sorry episode.

I hate ebay!!
A horrible thing happened once to us.
My husband sold a mobile phone on ebay. It was in working order and undamaged. We have photos to prove it.
The buyer said it was poorly packaged, not in original box (untrue) and did not work. She complained to ebay. They investigated and looked at the original advert we'd made. They offered her a refund and asked her to send it back to us. She then said that she'd sold it to a friend!!!! Ebay found in our favour, our 'sellers status' was refunded and she was banned from ebay! So the whole thing was a Scam!

[Ruthi]

Ebay do seem to be pretty good at spotting the bad guys. With anything even mildly breakable I will be taking pictures as I pack in future.

But of course the vast majority of transactions go smoothly, and if the stand had been unbroken I would have been a happy bunny.. I must admit I looked at the feedback in this case and decided to ignore the one previous neg, which was also about postage refunds. And I know from previous experience that once a case is opened you can't leave negative feedback so made sure I did that before opening the case.

Getting a new bit would leave me with 10p profit and a nice stand. But Les will try drilling out the wonky screw first.

[Oriettait]

Yeah eBay can be very good or very bad but even if I had a couple of bad experiences myself usually all is ok. I also pay with PayPal that give extra,protection.
I am sorry your stand turned out wonky... I hope you will be able to fix it. I really enjoy using mine.

[shadyglade]

For the most part I've had very good experiences on eBay as a buyer. The one thing that stands out as negative to me was I recently bought a kit that was sold as new, but when it arrived it had a tear in the plastic. That alone wouldn't have bothered me, except for the fact that that hole allowed the kit to be water damaged. The whole thing had watermark lines and the chart/fabric smelled very moldy. Bleh. So I told the seller, she said return the kit for a refund, shipping my expense (cuz that was her normal return policy). I pointed out that since the kit was not in the condition it was promised to me (new) I should not have to pay return shipping. So I opened a case with eBay, they found in my favor, but they were going to make me pay return shipping also. So I ended up posting picture of the water damage, and finally she sent me a full refund and told me to just keep it. Whatever. But it turned out okay in the end since at least I had my money back.

[Allyn]

.... I am pleased to have won a moral victory but uncomfortable that I still have what is by rights not my stand. And once they make a decision like this they block communication so I can't even offer to return it for the cost of shipping.

Don't give it another thought. You went through the process and this is how it ended up -- you got a refund and still have the item. I had a similar experience in that I went through the dispute process and ended up with a full refund and the item -- which I threw in the trash because the item I was sold violated copyrights. You appealed to the decision-making authority so the outcome is their doing, not yours. Fix the stand if you can, throw it out if you can't.

[Ruthi]

Silly eh? But instead of gloating over my (kind of) win, I am feeling guilty!

Ebay rules about the buyer paying postage are intended to make sure the seller isn't out of pocket if the buyer doesn't like it when they see the item in the flesh. They really don't seem to have envisaged the possibility of the seller making a mistake. But at least they found in my favour.

I am sure I will get over it! Especially if OH manages to fix it without any additional cost. He took the bit off to the workshop today

[Hetty1989]

I cannot believe how that seller has treated you!! I sell a lot of stuff through eBay and I would never dream of treating buyers like that! I would be mortified if any one had any issues with my kits and I certainly would not refuse to cover the shipping costs if they ever did!

Its such a shame that sellers like this give eBay a bad reputation and spoil it for the other people.

Well done for standing your ground, I hope you go on to find some other genuine bargains!!

Heather

[Ruthi]

I buy, and sell, quite a lot on Ebay (and it will be more now you have 20 free listings/month and I don't have to wait for a free listing weekend and then miss it because the weather is good, or something else distracts me). Its a great place for trading specialist stuff that would only have got a tiny audience back in the days of local classifed ads in the paper.

It is a shame when people like that turn up, and of course nine times out of ten they get away with it, and put their victims off coming back.

Overall I think Ebay are doing an excellent job nowadays in protecting buyers from unscrupulous sellers, and sellers from unscrupulous buyers. However they wouldn't remove a negative feedback from someone who bought an ancient car from me and then tried to claim three weeks later that it broke down on his way home. Actually it broke down the day I brought it home too - hubby fixed it and it ran fine thereafter. But hey ho, it seems to have disappeared from my feedback rating now. But you do have to be careful, no antiques without handling them first, etc etc.

I do love the way the Ebay app goes Kerching!!! every time a bid is placed or an auction ends. Very satisfying!

[Fizzbw]

I'm glad that your case was sorted out, and hope that you can salvage your stand!

I bought a new hose pipe recently and it had a massive hole in it when we used it for the first time. So I asked for a refund/return and they asked for the picture but then suddenly the item was put as unlisted so I opened a case (this is what eBay said to do) and I got a full refund. And i still have a holey hosepipe.....hummmm.

Apparently eBay are taking a percentage of postal costs now, which is so not on.

Nxxx

[Rose]

I know alot of people have a negative attitude about Ebay, but alot of people use it. My husband and I have been using Ebay for over 10 years and in all that time we have only ever had 1 bad experience. Bought a book and it never arrived. We chalked it up to live and learn but we have found many things that would never have been available to us in any other way.

[Solitaire]

Years a go I sold a lot of china and glass ornaments of my late Mothers on ebay, I photographed all the items in their boxes before sealing and only 1 thing arrived broken, the buyer sent me photos and I refunded the money.

I've never had a bad experience buying but find things are not as cheap as they used to be now

[Ruthi]

Well, Hubby managed to get the broken thread out without damaging the wood.

I have written to Sewandso who carry the spare 'jaw assemblies' to ask if they can sell me just the screws, or alternatively save him doing lots of clever measuring to work out what the wierd size is.

Watch this space....

[wendywombat]

I'm watching!!!

[Rose]

We will all sit on the magic bench eating and wait for word about the repairs.

[Lizzieh]

I had a weird experience as a seller yesterday.
I put a spinning bike for sale for my ex partner and there was a huge amount of interest. It was due to finish tomorrow and then yesterday it disappeared. I had an email from ebay saying the manufacturer had got their lawyers to fill in a request to have it removed as in the photo of the bike you could see their logo, which was all over the bike. Apparently I was breaking the law as it is a trade mark!!
Very strange seeing as we bought it off ebay in the first place.
I am not a happy bunny!