eBay's Embroidery buying guide

Mostly lies about eBay support. Try contacting them with a problem or false advertising.

Try giving a vendor negative feedback and they get your accout suspended because they didn't feel like shipping you the product after you paid.

Try contacting Paypal and complaining after 30 days? Most of the vendors can't get a product across the border in less than 30 days. Then you have to contact the vendor to correct and dispute the issue. Not in 30 days.

Try getting a negative feedback dispute resolution. You can't retract feedback for any reason? If you don't answer correctly to the dispute, eBay removes your feedback. You have no rights as a buyer. eBay are crooks. Try complaining via every known email address to eBay. They don't exist and you get back a computer generated response telling you to use their online links...they can't be found and link in a cyclic fashion back to where you came from.

Don't buy it. You are on your own with eBay. Buyer beware! Nice idea..just not worth the commissions you pay to use it.

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eBay is for everybody until it goes wrong! Clearly you have little experience with the rip-offs there.

I've been a registered user since 1996, and didn't register until I began to sell. So I've had some experience with eBay. But my experience with "rip-offs" has been local, outside of eBay and outside of the Internet entirely.

Most of purchases have been quite good and without hassle. only one vendor did me in real good. This is when I discovered that eBay really has no support or enforcement of anything. They always have an excuse why you should wait some more and then say you waited too long. Paypla does the same thing as well as square Dealers and their dispute process. This, of course, is if you can get a response or a valid email adress from any of them that functions.

I finally notified the FBI and got some results from the vendor. Then he offered me anything I wanted (way over what I ordered in value) and I got the accepted the original goods I ordered. This only took about

I have tried to notify eBay of fraud on several occasions. I always got a response of use such and such link to contact us. The link has never functioned or didn't exist.

Buyer beware.

Joanne, I have usually had very good experiences both as a seller and a buyer, but one experience was similar to "John's".

I bought an electronic device from a seller with a good record. Paid using a credit card with PayPal. Waited 10 days, no contact from the seller, so I e-mailed asking for the shipping date and carrier. He wrote, "Oops, I'm on vacation in Florida, I won't be sending it until I return." More e-mails back and forth. Waited a full 30 days before seller shipped. The item arrived *extremely* poorly packaged, and the box had suffered severe damage, the unit was unusable. I immediately wrote the seller explaining that the item was damaged. He wrote saying he would contact the shipper for a refund. Another 10 days goes by, I wrote asking for a refund. Seller says, "I am a poor student, I don't have the money to make a refund, I'll send you another unit." Waited another 10 days, still nothing, then "Sorry I don't have another unit".

So I initiated an eBay dispute and a PayPal dispute. Their response was, "Sorry you have to initiate a claim within 30 days, we can't help."

I asked my credit card company for a charge back, which they allowed, but PayPal disputed because I had no proof I had returned the unit (I hadn't because the seller never asked me to.) The upshot was, my CC company disallowed half the charge-back so I paid $150 for a non-working unit. And I did everything I could to resolve the issue, but by the time I gave up on resolving it with the seller, I was too late to file a dispute with PayPal/eBay. I agree with John that eBay's/PayPal's lack of support is inexcusable.

It is indeed buyer beware, I have not bought anything fragile on eBay since.

Beverly

The site used to say "caveat emptor" on search pages. When I got ripped off here, I didn't go to the newspaper that had run the classified ads that I answered. Similarly, eBay does not verify their listings -- to do so would make it impossible to keep the fees as low as they are. You handled it appropriately by going to the correct agencies. Now, Paypal offers quite a bit of protection, which you can and should back up with your credit card company's policies. Always fund your payment with a credit card.

I have used the web form to report fraudulent listings, usually cases of account takeovers. Those and violations of the listing policies are all that eBay can really address. I doubt they have working crystal balls to see into the hearts and minds of the sellers who list. Frankly, I think they have gotten too involved in vetting listings. I don't want a nanny, just a site where I can find things I can't easily find locally.

I also like to sell on the site, since I have made a little money that way, which I have spent on "toys" such as old sewing machines, books, etc., that I would have had difficulty justifying the purchase of without that extra money.

I don't doubt that you had such an awful problem. But you did let it go on for too long, didn't you? Some unscrupulous people will play the delaying game, knowing that the clock will run out, the "statute of limitations" will kick in. You were being "nice" while the seller was being a horse's behind.

There are a number of things that I wouldn't buy on eBay simply because those categories attract too many horse rears and the potential for being ripped off is too high. Or the chances of damage in shipment are too high. UPS makes much of their insurance, but it turns out that they seldom pay on it. The USPS charges extra, but you get no argument from them when the item is produced for their inspection. But I prefer to avoid the hassles of collecting on insurance to get back the money I had before I started, when what I wanted was the item. That's a lot of trouble to get back to the beginning.

Many people just glance at the feedback number and percentage, without actually looking at comments and the number of "mutually withdrawn" entries. The higher the price, the more thoroughly I read through. I also post feedback, and try to make my message clear. If I get a very satisfactory item from a seller, but which takes two or three weeks to get to me, I might post "Worth waiting for." That's my way of saying it turned out all right, but this seller is a slow shipper. Now that there is the new star system, that may help, too.

A buyer has to be wary, no matter where he is shopping. There was a famous local case of a new automobile that turned out to be a lemon, and the dealer did nothing for the buyer. Finally the buyer returned the car. By driving it into the showroom. Through the plateglass window. I think he had some sympathy from the community.

My VISA company quoted a stute of limitations also. I was totally out of luck on my purchase.

I did, however purchase a few more items from the vendor (while the good were in transit...supposedly) and had a bit of a lver there. I gave him a negative on about 10 items and that set him responding, finally. I think the police finally showed up at his door and he started dealing with me. By that time, his complaint had caused me to lose my account with eBay and you cannot respond to negotiate the mutual agreement. eBay has no idea what their stupid web pages actually do or where their links go. I was locked into a situation with no way to corespond to correct it. I could even discontinue my account until I begged to get it back swearing I would never do whatever it was, I was supposed to have done.

In the end eBay, being so moronic in their security, it is easy to start over. Just open a new account, and change all the stats back to the original ones once approved. Just play their game. i just had a $4000 sale refused to pay from a vendor with 2500 sales history, herself. eBay wouldn't even respond except to say "Do not send email here". I just wated $55 for a sale that they won't back up. If I dispute it another 8 days has to pass before I can relist the item. Their system needs an auditor instead of an accountant.

Exactly! I did not know, before that transaction, that PayPal would refuse to look at a dispute after a certain (very short IMHO) time limit. I know now, and I'll never let that happen again.

Beverly

eBay does not use email with members anymore, and hasn't for quite a few years. They use the web-based forms which are pre-sorted in their Kana system. Your submission and your situation may be handled in Vancouver, B.C.; Salt Lake City, Utah; Dublin, Ireland; Dreilinden, Germany; or outsourced to a company in Florida. The web-forms actually speed up processing because the different queues are routed to the proper office.

If you registered a new account while your original account was NARU, or suspended, you may find yourself suspended again, and with no appeal. It's just a matter of their system detecting it, or someone pointing it out to them and them being able to confirm it.

eBay went from being a small company that used email and people got to know each other, to a huge international company with little interaction outside of narrowly limited parameters. It can be irritating to deal with them, but the real alternative is to not use eBay at all.

I have found that the links they have emailed me do not work, mostly.

You sound like an eBay employee or promoter.

There are very very few places online that are, Pogo :-/ Every parking spot Gimmebutt pulls up in he shhhhits in, leaving a huge Turd as a calling card. However, on this occasion I am of like minded opinion regarding e-Bray. It is statistically correct to say there is an inordinate proportion of losers and shysters stalking the uninitiated in those forums(?) The only use to be made of that marketplace is as a contact point for a RL interaction in trading. My experience has had some success using it that way.

That's about as far as I would go in supporting the GymmyBob/Bengi post as - as per usual - again he has scoured other postings to build his comment. $4000 indeed ! And the FBI? What a freakin LAFF. GB has not got $40 to call his own and the minute he contacted any LEA it is very likely they would LOCK HIM UP. Or at least notify the local Institute of his escape [LMAO]

... and how i s the Mother Country, Pogo.. still gloomy and dreay? Got any sand on them beaches yet ? /chuckle

lé.ÞeemÞ

You are wrong.

And *you* sound like an eBay competitor shill...

Beverly

If the links don't work for you, and they work for other people, perhaps the problem is with your computer?

Yes, I do promote eBay. I've been a member for a very long time, I've been to several eBay Lives, and I have stock in the company. I'm retired, so I'm nobody's employee -- unless you count the old man and the cats and birds -- I feed all of them.

For me, eBay was the greatest thing since pop-top cans. But it's not for everyone, I understand that.

Thanks, Beverly, but I do sing the praises of eBay. LOL! It's been a boon for me, although I also understand that John has not shared my good fortune there. There is no viable competitor. There are some good niche market sites, but no general site that's anywhere near eBay in reaching buyers and sellers.

Properly used, eBay gives the best bang for the buck for advertising. You can put a link to your website on your About Me page or your My World, and in the new Neighborhoods. List lower-priced items from your site - put the buyers on your mailing list (with their permission) and steer them directly to your site. If you do this correctly, you can build a business, or expand the one you already have.

Obviously, you want to give value for money, outstanding service, and avoid any complaints. It's ludicrous to rip somebody off for $20 when you can build a relationship that could net you hundreds or thousands over the next few years.

/engage Sybil° synth

/Sybil° synth 0ff

You did forget to add "of any kind", Pogo. My point is the "kind" I mention in my opening comment. And there are thousands of them, as thick as Reef Sharks, and about as well disguised... to the astute

It's the Internet. You can disappear tomorrow and start again... remember :-/

Your contributions have always been refreshingly honest, Pogo.. and for that alone you command a respect, Virtually. Should it come to pass we never get to share the Bench (for a natter) ever again then know that it has been fun, and educating.

You keep doing what you do and may all your Xmas' be Great !

Eire ga Brae !!

lé.ÞeemÞ