Plantie

As in title....

Never bought through Ebay before.... Can you generally trust a seller to send goods once money has been taken?

stubarru

I've used Ebay quite a few times and never had a problem. The most I've ever spent though is just under £100. I've heard a lot of horror stories though of people spending thousands and then never seeing what they have bought. For me though so far so good.

rallycol

iTrader: (4)

Same as Stu, anything of any value ,picked it up ,my brother deals alot abroad mainly europe,with no problems ,but check previous history.

neilbbb

i've bought stuff off ebay and only had one problem which was resolved...

base your decision on seller's feedback and take your chance i guess

ScoobyK

Same as has been said above....have bought approx 50 items over last few years, and not had one problem. That said, I only deal with people who have at least 50 feedbacks, or if UK based, not so worried as can call them / talk with them etc.

Just be sensible

brickboy

As above -- never had a problem with UK or US sellers when buying. Have had only two problems when selling stuff -- the successful bidders didn't send the cash.

Speaking to mates who Ebay a lot, this is the only problem they've encountered, I don't know anyone who has not received the goods they won at auction.

S55 HOT

As already said really....look at the feedback - you can also see the items the feedback refers to which is useful for highrt value stuff - you can build up feedback through a few £1 purchases that go well, so you want someone who has reliably done transactions at the value you are thinking of.

Personally, I would only ever buy from / ship to the UK. The major danger signs seem to be african/asian/eastern european sellers who want to use Western Union money transfer.

I wouldn't buy from somone with no (or negative) feedback unless it was either relatively low value or we could meet physically.

I've had absolutely no problems so far !

The standard practice is that the seller ships on cleared funds - the risk is therefore with the buyer.

I generally send things straight out for < £20ish, but wait for cheques to clear above that.

There are some pretty trusting people out there - a couple of weeks ago I was sent over £400 in cash - OK it was sent using Royal Mail Special Delivery, so insured & signed for - but very hard to settle any dispute on the amount in the envelope ! Apparently the guy was in a hurry and wanted the DVD player the next day - I did check the notes carefully though ! (He got the DVD the next day and is very happy with it.)

Al

SPJ

I've used it for buying and selling a fair bit.Never had a problem so far, other than a couple of relatively long waits for delivery of stuff.Far east, particularly.

I always ship on cleared funds, so as to avoid the risk of losing out, even through paypal, etc.

I'd just suggest going with your gut feeling on a transaction.If you read the feedback and get a bad feeling, don't do it.

Having read some of the feedback, I get the feeling with some types of stuff though that maybe a seller will have a hit once in a while to offset low prices attained at previous auctions.You may be the unlucky one, who knows!

Steve

apples24

iTrader: (1)

had a lot of deals on ebay, some expensive cars latley too around 8k, but i only sell to bidders with feedback, also trace them with ebay services, id history and other bids on items they have made etc.

i have taken a gamble on couple of 0 feedback bidders as there mail seemed polite and no probs so far, sold a c class merc yesterday actually to a 0 feedback bidder, he collected cash.


when buying however i only go for people with feedback, i dont trust no one.. sorry but better safe than sorry, or i buy somin reasonably close and collect it personally.

ADP

I use ebay all the time, never had any probs, the only thing Ive had recently is someone buying something from me but failing to tell me they were in Germany, as it was they sent enuff cash to cover it!

The user rating system is there to help with this

paulr

Selling.definately,always get the money first.Also you can get really good prices on some items.

Buying,.not so sure.Feedback and location are important.Also i find some stuff aint that cheap.People get carried away in the bidding process(great for sellers though)

JoeyDeacon

As someone who has bought a lot of computer bits and pieces off ebay in the last 2 weeks I feel I can be of some use to you.

Firstly I got carried away a bit at first thinking I could get myself a few bargains. I have come to the conclusion that there are very few real bargains on ebay and most of the time you could get better brand new stuff for the same price, especially when you take into consideration the stupidly high postage and packing a lot of people seem to want. It does get very addictive, a couple of times I have bought things and realised I have paid too much or really don't want it anymore.

I ordered about 15 things and I am still waiting for 3 of those, even though I paid for them over a week ago. Typical that 2 of them are the most expensive things I ordered. I emailed the sellers and one of them hasn't even bothered to reply and the other guy swears he sent it over a week ago....

If i could go back I would have just ordered the whole lot from dabs and would have ended up with far better equipment and would have saved myself lots of money and hassle.

If you are selling stuff then I would recommend it 100% as people definitely get carried away bidding and hence pay way over the odds for things. A lot of companies that deal in second hand computer equipment now only sell over ebay as they know they are going to get much higher prices than if they sold them at computer fairs etc.

paulr

I once sold two books i bought for £75 each for £2,100.Two guys got into a bidding war.
Just a note,when selling presentation is everything.I also always included my home email address and mobile number to try and create confidence.Remember,all the buyer has is an advert and feedback.

grottbags2

Partner tried to buy a PDA from a supplier on Ebay with very good feedback and praise about how quick they were at sending stuff out.

Partner sent the money (I think via paypal, not sure) and waited for the goods to arrive. And waited. And waited.

The so called "Gold" supplier disappeared from the USA back home to Turkey (they think) leaving around 100 people with no goods after the money had been sent. FBI and Interpol are involved in it now.

Just one take on someone who had words like "trustworthy" and "reliable" in some of the feedback about them, several hundred people had written all this positive feedback too.

JoeyDeacon

Just to add the out of the two people I am having trouble with, one has 167 comments and the other has 85 comments.

Strangely enough the best response I have had is from people with relatively few or no comments at all.....

Sith

I have used ebay for almost 300 items. From the USA and UK. So far I have had no major problems. The feedback is there for a reason.

There are safeguards and any problems can be dealt with in conjunction with ebay.

RE bargins, depends on how well you look and how many other people are interested in what you want. I have managed to get a lot of bargins. You need to do your research.

TBMeech

Using Ebay doesnt bother me, at first I was totally paranoid, i've probably bought over 100 items, never been fleeced apart from when some dubious bastid wanted me to send a mobile to yup Indionesia , tho i wouldnt ship anything unless I had cleared funds, feedback is there, I'd still a little worried buying 'expensive' stuff off new users tho.

JoeyDeacon

Another thing, if I were selling things on ebay whats to stop me setting up another user account to bid on things I am selling to push the price up?

I could easily setup another email address here at work to do this. Even if I won my own auctions it wouldn't be a problem as I could just resell the thing a few days later.

Oh and here is the reply I got from one seller about something I paid for nearly two weeks ago....

"Yes most definitely they have been posted.Your cheque arrived on the Friday I think and I posted on the Saturday morning,over a week ago now.I will look out the post receipt and confirm,as I am at work now."

Wish I had never decided to use ebay as I could well do without all this hassle. I would definitely consider using it to sell things, especially if I created another account to help push up the price of things I was selling.

DanTheMan

Dunno about those "buy cheaper elsewhere" comments, I have bought loads of stuff brand new on EBAY that was 1/2 the price of the shop prices.
Anyway I believe EBAY cover you for about £100 if things go wrong, and your credit card also cover you if you don't get the goods (if its over £100).
Some shops also sell dodgy stuff, so no-where is really safe but use a bit of common sense and you will be ok.

My mate has just ordered one of those tiny wireless CCTV cameras from Hong Kong for approx £60 inc insured delivery so we will have to see it its genuine....watch this space

Shark

Seems simple to me.

Don't part with cash you can't afford to write off.

David

Tiggs

i have sold plenty of audio/electrical gear on there that has gone for nearly new or as new money when compared to places like richer sounds........moral is, dont assume that just cause its on ebay it will be cheap! all my gear went on cheap but a few punters afetr a deal soon bid themselves beyond a fair price! tough for them, good for you if you are the seller!

ChristianR

iTrader: (1)

I have bought about 15things of ebay - mostly under £50.

However, I did get ripped off for £750 on some mobile phones that never turned up

I personally think ebay is fine for cheap stuff, but I am not sure I would trust sending big bucks again. One of my work colleagues also got ripped off for about £600 on a computer that never turned up.

Remember with ebay, you only have upto 3months to claim back - after that they wont pay up. You may think that is a long time, but it isn't - especially when you are hoping for things to turn up, and the bloke keeps on saying he has sent it... oh well.

spider

iTrader: (1)

Wotcher Neil!

I haven't bought or sold anything through E-bay yet, but since M got me the subaru Scalextric set for my birthday I've been having a look to see how prices go as a couple of mates told me there were bargains to be had.

I'd echo the caution a couple of others have already mentioned about not getting caught up in the 'thrill' if you're buying. There are loads of items on there where folk advertise them as 'hard to find' or 'limited edition' and price them up accordingly and get buyers into a bidding war, yet I've spent a little time phoning suppliers and managed to find the same items at least 50 percent cheaper than on E-bay!!

OK, these have been fairly cheap items - under £100 - but it just shows that you need to know what the real state of the market is before bidding madly.

Of course, if you're selling, then it's 'let the buyer beware' I guess!

Happy shopping mate.

Cheers,
Steve

Turbo_Six

they "Buy it now" items are good like that. Fixed price option, take it or leave it.

I've sold two cars, and bought ICE gear and birthday/christmas presents, CDs, DVDs etc, quite a lot of stuff - best of all, two five-point harnesses and an aircraft headset, all as good as new and a lot cheaper.

I've had perhaps two or three wrong 'uns throughout the whole process, overall the system works very well.

Good luck - Al (AKA "King_Pug")

ukhuskynox

Bought some bike stuff from ebay and had no problems, this includes meeting the guy in a service station with a wad of cash
Just be careful!

andyjd...waiting for another carbon bike bit to be delivered