Be careful what you buy off eBay

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Just something I thought I’d share.

I’m a beekeeper. My wife bought me a bee suit from an “eBay store” last August. It was $12. Not a bad price, considering every other bee suit I had seen was at least $100.

I used when I harvested honey in September '06.

First time I went out, bees were getting into the suit and stinging me. I went back and had my wife duct tape every opening in the suit.

I went out again. Bees were getting into the suit and stinging me again. :mad:

I am *really * pissed at this point. It was hot, I was sweating like a dog, the bees were now swarming around the house, and I was beginning to look like a tomato.

My wife added more duct tape to the suit. I went out again. Bees were stinging me again. :mad: But they weren’t getting into the suit. Turns out they never were. They were stinging through the suit. :mad: :mad:

I am ***furious ** *at this point. So I ran back to the house, put on a heavily insulated, one-piece snowsuit and went back out. I finally managed to harvest the honey. But I think I lost 20 lbs in sweat in the process.

When I finally got back to the house and stripped down, I took a closer look at the !@#$% bee suit. The tag on the back of the suit said “Clean room.”

I shit you not. The tag on the back said “Clean room.” It was a clean room suit. The bastard was selling clean room suits as bee suits. The material for clean room suits is apparently too thin for use as a bee suit. :mad: :mad: :mad:

It was a bad day, to say the least.

2

Heh. I’m sorry. Excuse me for giggling at your plight.
That must have really sucked. How many times did you get stung?

3

So ditch the bees, and build a chip foundry in your basement. You’ll be all set for suits!

4

Caveat emptor applies doubly on eBay. Still, if one is patient, knowledgeable about his/her items and most of all does the homework on the seller, there are some great buys on eBay.

Sorry for your bad experience, but really, are you brand new to the bee business? It seems like an experienced beekeeper would instantly recognize material that is not protective.

There are about a gazillion beehives on this place right now, but I don’t mess with 'em. Bubba the Beeman does all of that and gives me a couple of quarts of honey every year as rent. Riding past the hives on horseback is about as close as I get to the little bastards.

5

Have you filed a complaint? Misrepresentation of an item is against the seller guidelines on ebay. At the very least, you can get your money back.

6

And is there some reason you didn’t question that?

Seriously… in what world can you reasonably expect to get a quality item from an anonymous person for one tenth of it’s retail price? Would you have bought it out of someone’s trunk? Then why would you buy it off ebay?

That said, sorry for your pain.

7

What is a clean room suit please? Is that an apian term or just a clothing term?

And was the suit homemade or was it manufactured?

8

Cleanroom suit

9

Also known as a “Bunny Suit” these are Dr. Denton’s made out of Tyvek (The stuff FedEx packs are made from). They are used in Semiconductor cleanrooms because they don’t shed fibers (they are not woven).

10

That article is weird. Not all suits are all in one. The ones we supply at work have three pieces: boots, suits, and hoods. Disposable gloves and face masks are worn, along with safety glasses.

As for the OP, I can’t imagine wearing one of those and walking into bees. For as thin as it is, it would have to be magic to keep the bees off.

11

I would think that you’d at least carefully examine such a fabulous bargain as soon as you received it, during which you might have seen the clean room label.

12

Did anyone else think he was going to a fancy dress party as the Mexican character from The Simpsons?

13

No, bee suit!

14

Would tyvec coveralls work?

Very cheap. I think you could get a size that fits, and then get a size xxxl and wear both.

15

Is this something new? I was sold pirated software once, filed a complaint, and the seller marked ME with negative feedback which was almost impossible to get eBay to remove from my record. I never saw my money.

16

Yes, you can file a Significantly Not As Described complaint. It’s newish.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/tp/inr-snad-process.html

17

I have to wonder if they sent the bee suit to a nuclear power plant instead.

18

And the nuclear isolation suit to the semiconductor factory. It’s going to be a bad feedback week for that seller.

19

Can the bees sting through the duct tape? If they can’t, I just think you’re a half-a-roll away from that bee suit you wanted.

20

Shipping Address:
Springfield Nuclear Power Plant
C/O Montgomery Burns
100 Industrial Way
Springfield, ------------------