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"smadge1 wrote: But fortunately, most sellers and most buyers are honest. Yes most are, always research the seller.Plus you have 12or 24hrs to make payment. Personally the only problem so ..."
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Bad feedback
Marc Carter bought a ‘buy it now’ scooter from an eBay store for his daughter’s birthday, after he was unable to find it in retailers. Despite assurances from the store, his daughter’s birthday came and went with no scooter. The company didn’t respond to emails until a couple of weeks later; Marc was finally given a full refund.
But it didn’t end there; Marc got an invoice saying he hadn’t paid for the scooter, then increasingly irate emails chasing payment, and finally, a complaint from eBay saying that he hadn’t paid for the goods.
“I filled out the forms saying what had happened, and eBay said it was resolved. Then – the icing on the cake – I got negative feedback and a complaint as a non-payer,” says Marc, “As it was done as a complaint I had no right to reply and leave feedback myself!” The ongoing problems meant that Marc's bids were cancelled by sellers when he tried to buy Christmas presents on eBay.
Marc says he could register a new account but can’t be bothered: “eBay has had its day and is now so full of scams and bad sellers that it will drown in its own mess, and good riddance.”
Mickey Mouse tickets
Jodi Hansen purchased Mickey’s Toon Town Madness tickets for Disneyland on eBay prior to flying to the US in November 2007. “The tickets were from a seller in the US and I knew that they wouldn’t arrive in time, so I asked for them to be sent to a friend in the US,” says Jodi.
“With 2 weeks to go until to my Disneyland visit, I discovered that my friend had refused an unidentified parcel that did not cover the correct postage,” Jodi told us, “The post office told him it was a parcel and he was expecting my tickets to be a simple letter.”
Jodi had to take a one hour bus ride out from her holiday so that she could get online and contact the seller. The seller reposted the tickets to the Disneyland Hotel where Jodi and her family would be staying.
“We arrived at Disneyland to find the tickets still had not arrived. Finally, we had only one day left to use the tickets, and still no sign of them. I was disappointed and felt annoyed at myself for having spent $60 on nothing.”
As luck would have it, Jodi was offered three tickets to Mickey’s Toon Town Madness by someone who was going home early the next morning. “It was amazing that the very thing that I had purchased and not received actually ended up coming my way in the end. We had a great time at Toon Town, and wouldn’t you know it, the eBay tickets arrived that day, too late to use.”
Wholesale prices
Rob Kettle contacted us to let us know about scammers, “I can’t remember the last time I listed an electrical item and didn’t get contacted multiple times per item from fake scammers wanting to sell me electrical goods at supposed ‘wholesale’ prices."
Rob has also found that as a seller, eBay’s ability to suspend users accounts instantaneously has been a problem. “I’ve had a couple of buyers win an auction, then find that eBay has suspended their account,” he told us. Unsure what to do, his emails to eBay asking if he could receive payment and send the item out received no response. It left Rob in limbo: “All I could do was just wait and see whether the users account became active again. Luckily both users become active and they honoured the sale by sending payment.”
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