I’m looking to possibly buy a used home equalizer (cheap) and have looked at ebay a little. I’ve registered for both ebay and PayPal and linked the two. Other than that I have just looked around a bit and read some of the help info.
There are a few questions I still have. Hope you can help.
My main question is about the product “condition”. It seems as if there should be a category of condition “Unknown, As Is”. From the condition definitions, if an item isn’t new or refurburbished then something is either “Used” or “For parts or not working”.
Most of the items I have looked at are listed as “Used” and pictures are provided. Here is the ebay definition for “Used”.
Ebay guarantees that what you receive from the seller meets the “description” of the item. Some sellers include detailed descriptions of the product, but others do not. What is being guaranteed if the description for a used item is “See photos” or “As Is” or “Turned on and lights lit up” and it turns out to not function properly? The definition of “Used” says the item “is fully operational and functions as intended”.
As I read the guarantee, you would likely be able to get a refund of the price plus shipping. Is that right? But the buyer would then have to ship the product back and pay for the return shipping? That’s a deal breaker for me.
But perhaps I worry needlessly since most of the sellers I look at all have ratings of 100%. :dubious: Are those ratings legit? I’m already suspicious that the regular sellers are buying and selling amongst themselves in a big circle jerk just waiting for unsuspecting outsiders to come in and get preyed upon. Just reassure me it’s more or less on the up and up.
What about changes to descriptions and extending auction end times? This can be done by the seller at any time?
I don’t think I’ve seen a single question or answer posted for a listed item. Why not? That seems very odd.
When it comes to disputes, they’re evaluated on a case by case basis. If the buyer feels ripped off and files a complaint, eBay investigates and both parties have a chance to try to convince them.
If the item doesn’t meet the description, the seller is supposed to pay the return shipping cost. eBay Customer Service
As for ratings, they CAN be “padded” (that’s eBay lingo for people who get their friends or computer programs to buy their fake shit and leave fake reviews). Next to each username is a number; that’s the number of feedback points they got. Click on it and you can see the latest few purchases and reviews; use your best judgment to determine if they’re legit. If a seller has 47240 reviews from people all over the world for different products, it’s unlikely that those reviews were all fake. If a seller has 12 feedback, all for items costing $1-$2 from buyers with fake-sounding names, it’s likely a scam.
I was really skeptical of eBay at first, too, but they invited me to their HQ to be a part of a focus group. They explained how it all worked to me, then I started using it. 11 years and 70 transactions later, I’ve never had a problem. I just follow some simple rules: Always buy from high-feedback sellers, read their histories, read every line of a product description, and always buy with a credit card instead of a checking account (so I can file a chargeback if necessary, but I haven’t had to yet).
As for what they can and cannot edit, it depends on how long the listing has been up and whether it got any bids already: Revise a listing | eBay
It’s up to the seller to post Q&As. When you don’t see any, either nobody has asked or the seller just didn’t feel like making any of the questions public.
For what it’s worth, if it’s a product with a UPC code, I find it a lot easier to buy it used on Amazon. They have similar protections for buyers, but items are listed in one of five categories (New, Like New, Good, etc.) and item descriptions are limited to about 20 words, which makes it a lot easier to compare prices and conditions across a lot of sellers. If you find an item that’s “Fulfilled from Amazon”, it comes straight from one of their warehouses and they handle the returns directly if you’re not satisfied, making it somewhat easier to deal with than sellers.
The downside is that Amazon’s used market isn’t quite as big as eBay’s unless it’s a mass-produced item that can be easily listed under one listing. It’s worth a shot if you want specific model XXYYZZ, but not if you just want ANY ol’ cheap equalizer.
Excellent advice, with the possible exception of the last bit. I buy almost everything using Paypal, as it has become the most widely accepted and most convenient method of payment, by far. I’ve never had to resort to disputing anything via Paypal, but I don’t know for sure how much protection you get by using a credit card. Otherwise, I would suggest paying close attention to feedback. While feedback can be manipulated to a degree, a seller with 99%+ positive feedback and more than a handful of sales is likely legit. If I see more than a couple of negatives within the past couple of months, I get very nervous.
If you have questions about an item, you can send that question to the seller. This is another way to help judge the legitimacy and responsiveness of sellers. You should get a reply back in a reasonable time, though you should also remember that ebay isn’t a business for everyone and they may be working, out of town, etc. But I always feel better when I get a response, especially if it isn’t a boilerplate standard response.
As quoted above, read every word of a listing. I got screwed recently by missing the small print on an item I bought.
Overall, I’ve had pretty good success with ebay, though the deals are certainly a lot harder to find than they were several years ago.
I tried Amazon, but surprisingly didn’t have much luck finding anything there.
I’ve just sent a query to the seller, so I’ll wait and see if I get a response. That’s also a good point about using a credit card instead of checking account with PayPal.
As a long time seller (and buyer) of products on eBay, I can tell you that a buyer almost always has things go in their favor in the event of a dispute. Sellers want to maintain a high rating and have 100% satisfaction, which can actually result in buyers holding them hostage at times.
While not specifically an example of that, I once sold several of my wife’s old camera lenses for her on our account, and due to some problematic foreign transactions in the past (where a buyer expects you to know what their local postage rules and laws are, or worse, wants you to break the law for them and say their purchase is a ‘gift’ on customs forms) I always do ‘US only’ auctions. As often occurs, I had a foreign bidder in Malaysia who wanted to bid and asked if I would accept their bid with revised shipping for them. I reluctantly agreed, and provided options with and without insurance. They specifically opted for ‘without’ to keep the costs down, and when the lens arrived, they claimed it was broken and opened a dispute. I figured I was in the clear since I had e-mails proving the Malaysian guy agreed to no insurance but they still found in his favor and made me refund his money and the shipping costs. Naturally he didn’t have to return it. Shortly after that, I received messages from other sellers who had similar problems with the same buyer who claimed their camera equipment never arrived or arrived broken and had also been forced to pay back the money, so either this guy has the world’s shittiest mail service in Malaysia, or more likely, he was scamming eBay sellers, and they were letting him. And now, lesson learned, I ALWAYS adhere to my US only auction rules unless there are really usual circumstances, like a buyer with a high and perfect rating contacting be from abroad.
And now the seller has ended the auction (it had 0 bids) and I feel bad that my caution caused him to end the auction. BTW, I only asked about the condition of the item, not to have the auction ended (there was still a day or two left).
I originally was intending to make just a single bid to start getting the “feel” of ebay. I’ve followed a few auctions where most of the bids come in the last few hours so I’m sure I wouldn’t have won anyway. IOW, I’m just trying to make a few “practice” bids that do not affect the outcome just so my bid count isn’t zero. I’ve seen at least one auction that excluded buyers with low bid counts, or number of wins, or something. (Does ebay allow such restrictions?) Of course, I would only make bids that I would honor if I happened to win.
I know that you’re not supposed to negotiate with the seller outside of an ebay auction, but now that it’s been temporarily ended is it OK to make a direct offer?
I have used eBay both as a seller and a buyer for quite a while now, and recently discovered something that I should have been aware of. I was looking at a product for which there were many sellers. Most had 100% ratings. When I explored the ratings, I discovered that they were all as buyers. I therefore had no idea of their proficiency as sellers. So 100% rating may be not all it seems.
Yes. If you click on a seller’s feedback number, you come to a page with the feedback details. There are tabs for “feedback as a seller”, “feedback as a buyer”, “all feedback”, and “feedback left for others”. It’s easy to see what someone’s feedback is as a seller.
eBay leans heavily towards satisfying the buyer in any dispute. All the buyer needs to say is that the item didn’t work when he received it in the mail and they will refund the buyer and have him ship it back to the seller. As for who pays the shipping, it is dependent upon who paid the original shipping. Maybe I sound bitter but I sold a perfectly good RikoMagic card to an iffy buyer who asked a lot of dumb questions and still bought it, only to have him claim that it didn’t work when he received. The one I received back works fine but.
As Si Amigo has said Ebay is more on the buyers side then the seller one of the reasons I quit selling and even buying of Ebay. You have to pay the postage to return the item but some sellers will refund half as for feedback yes as far as I’ve known its legit. If you have doubts about the product email the seller, but not all answer though
