eBay sometimes...

[Trevanion]

I bought some spindle moulder cutters off an eBay seller at the start of December who was retiring/downsizing their business, in total it was about £240 for 5 or so different cutter blocks which was a decent price for what they were so I was happy enough. The 20KG+ box arrived and instantly I could tell something was wrong just purely the feel of the box and the rattling inside, the seller had used NO PACKING MATERIAL whatsoever to stop the cutter blocks from banging up against each other. Carbide tipped tooling absolutely wrecked, gouges out of other blocks and on top of that they sent me a wrong block that I didn't order and the one I wanted wasn't in the box. They initally wanted me to keep the mistaken block and they would send out the missing block to off-set the damage to everything else but the damage was more than the extra block was worth. So I initiated a return for the irreparable stuff and the wrong block and sent them back no problem at all, I got a message saying "You didn't send X and X part which were included with the original box." and after explaining to them that I simply did not have these pieces they were talking about they practically called me a liar and a thief and would take it to eBay.

Today I received my refund after about a month of waiting, what a bloody palaver.

On the bright side, I bought something off someone here and it arrived in outstanding time and the packaging was top-notch, you know who you are

 

[Yojevol]

I hope you gave a -ve feedback

 

[Trevanion]

I hope you gave a -ve feedback

Unfortunately, I couldn't because of the returns :evil:

 

[TFrench]

I bought a vice for one of my milling machines last year, the numpty packed it in oasis. Yes, the stuff you put flowers in. Unsurprisingly the VERY HEAVY vice turned it to dust which then meant I had to completely disassemble and clean every component of the vice to get the gritty green dust out of every orifice. What a moron.


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[thetyreman]

I have some nightmare stories from ebay, yeah when it goes wrong it can be soul destroying :roll:

 

[Trevanion]

I can really see now why people have shifted towards Gumtree / Facebook Marketplace for both selling and buying some stuff, cash in hand in person. As is said about many social sites now, anonymity brings out the worst in people.

 

[TFrench]

I buy and sell a lot of stuff, the trouble with Facebook is that everyone thinks they can get away with paying you half what you've got it listed for. eBay is still the largest market out there, and you have much better protection as a buyer. You just have to be savvy about listing your items on £1 max selling fee weekends on eBay, then you don't get hit with too much in the way of charges.

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[flh801978]

Surely you can leave -ve feedback if wanted
A claim via eBay or refund doesn’t preclude this

Ian

 

[transatlantic]

I buy and sell a lot of stuff, the trouble with Facebook is that everyone thinks they can get away with paying you half what you've got it listed for. eBay is still the largest market out there, and you have much better protection as a buyer. You just have to be savvy about listing your items on £1 max selling fee weekends on eBay, then you don't get hit with too much in the way of charges.

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I have trouble with people actually turning up!

People just don't care these days. If they have arranged a date to collect, and they find something better or change their minds, they don't even bother to message you. I've learnt my lesson now, I won't change my plans, they have to fit in with when I am avaliable.

 

[Nigel Burden]

Same with us. We now won't hold an item unless they pay a returnable deposit via bank transfer as we've had so many that don't turn up and have missed a sale. If it's not what they want when they turn up then the deposit is refunded.

Nigel.

 

[RogerS]

I hope you gave a -ve feedback

Unfortunately, I couldn't because of the returns :evil:

Ah but you can if you leave feedback immediately after you initiate the return. I bought a couple of small solar panels from the same supplier but on different occasions.

A cursory measurement suggested it was faulty at a measly 3.5v. Contacted the supplier to say I thought it was faulty and would do more tests.

"Send us some pictures"
"OK...what would you like a picture of ?" No reply.

Did more tests the next day. Two panels side-by-side. Measured the light level on both to be the same. Panel 1 - 13.5v. Panel 2 - 3.5 v. So took photos of the meter reading and panel etc. and sent them to the supplier.

"Hello, we can refund 3 pounds, can you keep it?
"Absolutely not. I'm surprised you are even suggesting that. Why would I waste £8+ for something that doesn't work ? I am opening a return with eBay."
"Hello, we are willing to refund 6 pounds, can you keep it and take it repaired?"

Having heard nothing from them for two days, I went and left some negative feedback. That prodded them into a response....

"Hello, we are willing to resend a new one, can you help revise your negative feedback for us?" !
"No thank you. As I'd not heard anything from you, I have ordered from another supplier. Please organise the return"
"Hello, we can refund 9 pounds and you needn't send it back, will you agree?" WTF !
"No. It is your responsibility to send me a returns label if the item is faulty"

Really wanted to tell them that I had a job for them involving *** and travel.

Spoke to eBay and all has become clear. The company is Chinese. They don't have any address in the UK. But eBay rules say that they are supposed to provide a UK return address and label. Which they can't...which explains why they try every which way to avoid the return. They really have only the one option. Refund and tell me to bin it.

 

[RogerS]

Surely you can leave -ve feedback if wanted
A claim via eBay or refund doesn’t preclude this

Ian

It does if the return has actually concluded.

 

[Yojevol]

It does if the return has actually concluded.

I put in a neutral feedback after refund about 12 months ago.

 

[user22161]

ebay are really winding me up at the moment. Ordered a battery for e cigarette. Message from seller, we can't dispatch until your age is verified at 18 or over, please copy this link into your smartphone with camera.

I replied, I'm 73 and don't have a smartphone how else can I do it? They replied with same message as before - copy to smartphone etc.

My phone is so old, I think it was chucked overboard from the Ark. I don't want a smartphone or social media, Facebook etc. Why can't they just accept a scanned driving license by email? Told them to cancel the order and I'll buy locally.

 

[Trevanion]

I replied, I'm 73 and don't have a smartphone how else can I do it? They replied with same message as before - copy to smartphone etc.

Unfortunately, it's probably only going to get worse. But surely that's a horrendous system as any 10-year-old can take a photo of mum or dad and use that, granted I don't think many 10-year-olds will be buying stuff online.

On the subject, there's a group of kids maybe aged 12-15 that pass the house sometime's with most of them on E-cigs, and you just wonder "Why?" as I assume most of them haven't even smoked proper ****. I suppose it's probably better than **** but I just don't understand it at all.

I guess kids'll be kids and they'll burn down your local wildlife huts, vandalise artwork, smash up fences, push over gravestones and smoke e-cigs

 

[ColeyS1]

My 12 year old niece was able to order 2 e cigs and 14 bottles of vape juice. 2 bottles of champagne and a couple tiddly vodka bottles. She also ordered scalpels. All this from Amazon so guess they arent that bothered about age verification!

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[Lonsdale73]

I can really see now why people have shifted towards Gumtree / Facebook Marketplace for both selling and buying some stuff, cash in hand in person. As is said about many social sites now, anonymity brings out the worst in people.

Facebook is even worse. If it's not ignorant barstewards failing to turn up and lacking the decency to let you know they weren't coming or had changed their mind it's facebook themselves, randomly withdrawing items that *may be in breach of house rules" - it's a coat FFS! I find this happens with any item as soon as someone enquires about it. And I hate the pointless "Is this still available?". I know many users are thick enough to click on the button 'accidentally' but are they so thick they wouldn't think to ask the question for themselves if there wasn't a button? And those that do so that can't say "Sorry, didn't mean to do that" preferably before but even after time is wasted confirming it is - which should be obvious if it's visible ten seconds after being listed!

I miss the BBC Rant thread, forum's gone deathly quiet since it was removed!

 

[user22161]

I hate the pointless "Is this still available?".

That happens here as well. An item is posted for sale and there have been several replies/enquiries which indicates it may be sold but, quite often the ad hasn't been edited as SOLD.

 

[transatlantic]

You can mark it as 'pending sale' or something to that effect.

 

[Lonsdale73]

I hate the pointless "Is this still available?".

That happens here as well. An item is posted for sale and there have been several replies/enquiries which indicates it may be sold but, quite often the ad hasn't been edited as SOLD.

Yes, that annoys the hell out of me too.

The "Is this still available" issue though is slightly different. A lot of the time it is people clicking on it in error. That I don't mind but some seem to ask just for the sake of asking and never get back to you. Similar - and even more annoying - is the "Where are you?", especially with regards to facebook and often ebay too, where it is stated exactly where one is! I was asked by one guy who was barely five minutes walk away and he committed that other irritating facebook thing of sending a thumbs up emoji-thingy. What on earth is that supposed to tell me? That I live in a great postcode? That they're genuinely interested and are on their way to pick it up? Or they would if they could get their own thumb out of some orifice or other?