Be careful when buying expensive things on eBay

[Ligonsker]

I am an eBay registered customer since 2012, so I am not new to this.

I knew eBay customer service is junk for a long time and so I always use it as last resort if I can't find specific items that I need on any other places. And of course only very cheap items because of their PoS customer service.

 

How I knew eBay customer service is junk you're asking? This is why: I once (a few years ago) received a DoA 100$ item and the seller did not respond and eBay/PayPal did nothing until few months of back-and-forth emails.

After that all I was buying there were cheap items like screen protectors, smartphone cases etc.

 

But yesterday was the peak: 

Last month I ordered a cheap item, 6$, a cable. The cable never arrived after one a half months (Long after the promised delivery date). I politely contacted the seller just to ask him if he knows anything or does he have any information. He replied to me that I should wait a little longer because of the situation around the world that may cause delays. I replied to him, politely, thanked him and told him that I will contact him again in a while if I still don't receive it.

The next thing happened was that yesterday I got an email from eBay saying I am an "abusive buyer". My eBay account was suspended and I can't login. Also I am no longer protected, and everything that was paid for will not be protected and I am not eligible for any refund anymore. Just like that. No warning I'm telling you. I can't go to my eBay account now and report this seller back. I still can't believe it but luckily it's only 6$ item. Imaging you bought a PS5 for 500$ and the seller decides not to ship your item, then reports you: eBay will close your account and protect the seller.

 

Edit: Part of the email I received from eBay:

Quote

Activity on your account didn't follow our Abusive buyer policy. Buyers may not misuse our feedback, returns, or buyer protection programs.
How this affects your account
- Your eBay account has been suspended.
- All your listings have been ended.  
- All fees paid or payable for listings that are ended and/or hidden from search will not be refunded or otherwise credited to your account.
- You are responsible to pay all outstanding eBay fees

 

 

I promise you, I never asked for a refund, only to ask what about the item. Also I am 100% positive feedback user and never received neutral/negative feedback.

 

Hope you will learn from my experience not to spend any large amount of money on eBay. Also for me from now on, not any amount of money there. I can't write bad words here but I really want to write many about eBay and their service, and this seller.

 

[kelvinhall05]

8 minutes ago, Ligonsker said:

eBay/PayPal did nothing until few months of back-and-forth emails.

That's because you're supposed to file a claim with them, not email them.

8 minutes ago, Ligonsker said:

The cable never arrived after one a half months

This is normal for something that I assume shipped in an epacket or something from China, especially (as the seller said) during a global pandemic.

9 minutes ago, Ligonsker said:

Imaging you bought a PS5 for 500$ and the seller decides not to ship your item, then reports you: eBay will close your account and protect the seller.

What? Fuck no. Ebay sides with the buyer so fucking often, they need concrete evidence from the seller against the buyer to even have a chance of punishing the buyer, much less closing their account.

 

 

Sounds to me like you had a handful of normal experiences and didn't handle any of them respectfully or properly (in the case of the $100 item). I'm not sure why you're making this look like Ebay's fault because it absolutely isn't.

[Ligonsker]

14 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

That's because you're supposed to file a claim with them, not email them.

As I said, I am an eBay customer since 2012, so you should assume I did everything as needed, yes, filed a claim first until it was closed. Then when no help I went to customer service and clicked "Send us Email" button.
 

14 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

This is normal for something that I assume shipped in an epacket or something from China, especially (as the seller said) during a global pandemic.

I know. But my item was shipped from the UK and from my 8 years experience on eBay, items from the UK arrive at maximum 3 weeks, and now we're talking over 6 weeks. I know the long delivery times of Chinese items, but at least they note on the delivery date that it's longer. We're talking past delivery date and from UK. All I did was to ask the seller and nothing else.

 

14 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

What? Fuck no. Ebay sides with the buyer so fucking often, they need concrete evidence from the seller against the buyer to even have a chance of punishing the buyer, much less closing their account.

Just like every thing in life, it depends: If the seller is relatively new with not much feedback then probably yes. Here I bought from a seller since 2007 with 300k feedback. So I believe it works in a different ways if they blocked my account 1 day after I opened the case. Hope you will never have to deal with eBay customer service when you really need it. But again for expensive items there probably a tracking number and tracking insurance so you needn't worry so much. But when I bought the 100$ DoA item.. there seem to be no one to contact with

 

14 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Sounds to me like you had a handful of normal experiences and didn't handle any of them respectfully or properly (in the case of the $100 item). I'm not sure why you're making this look like Ebay's fault because it absolutely isn't.

Sound to me like you're saying things you don't know because you really don't (How can you know how I handled this? beyond my knowledge. And it happened 4 years ago, so I don't know what's the point here). Ever since I never had any issues so I don't know why you relate both cases. and yes, I buy a 100$ item, eBay promise protection - they don't give it? 100% their fault. they should stand behind their promises. (I proved my item was DoA because it was DoA in a way that it's not a user caused issue)

[kelvinhall05]

2 minutes ago, Ligonsker said:

As I said, I am an eBay customer since 2012, so you should assume I did everything as needed, yes, filed a claim first until it was closed. Then when no help I went to customer service and clicked "Send us Email" button.

I suspect you still fucked up somewhere, as the one time I've had to contact Ebay I got a response and full refund in under 48 hours for a $50 keyboard that was never shipped.

3 minutes ago, Ligonsker said:

I know. But my item was shipped from the UK and from my 8 years experience on eBay, items from the UK arrive at maximum 3 weeks, and now we're talking over 6 weeks. I know the long  delivery times of Chinese items, but at least they note on the delivery date that it's longer. We're talking past delivery date and from UK. All I did was to ask the seller and nothing else.

And that excuses the global pandemic? Lmao. I've had stuff from the US that ships with methods that would usually take a couple days that show up in a couple weeks. You're just impatient.

4 minutes ago, Ligonsker said:

Hope you will never have to deal with eBay customer service when you really need it.

Read the first thing I said. I have, and it was great.

4 minutes ago, Ligonsker said:

But again for expensive items there probably a tracking number and tracking insurance so you needn't worry so much. But when I bought the 100$ DoA item.. there seem to be no one to contact with

Which is why you file a refund through PayPal and/or Ebay.

5 minutes ago, Ligonsker said:

Sound to me like you're saying things you don't know because you really don't

I've probably spent a grand on various things (mostly keyboards) in the last few months alone, and I have plenty of experience with this.

6 minutes ago, Ligonsker said:

I buy a 100$ item, eBay promise protection - they don't give it? 100% their fault. they should stand behind their promises. 

They do! You clearly fucked up somewhere

 

 

You sound like an impatient, whiny buyer who thinks a global pandemic shouldn't affect shipping times and that emailing Ebay will get you a refund instantly. Quite frankly I wouldn't sell to you either.

[Ligonsker]

Haha god some people have useless replies.

 

Just note the comment above me just wants to get to bottom line saying "You sound like an impatient, whiny buyer who thinks a global pandemic shouldn't affect shipping times and that emailing Ebay will get you a refund instantly. Quite frankly I wouldn't sell to you either."

 

*I think almost 2 months is quite patient I believe you would all agree

 

Of course the guy above me didn't read what I wrote because if he did read he would notice that I never asked for a refund, only asked for information. But he had to say his punch line. Useless. I really don't know what's the reply's point but it's useless.

 

"You fucked up somewhere" - well I did get my 100$ back then so it meant I was right and probably the seller was giving them hard time in order to avoid refund because he sent a DoA item (By the way, I offered to ship it back on my expense for a new working item but no reply whatsoever). 50$ keyboard? try something more expensive or when you fall on a bad seller that would do everything to avoid serving customers. Whiney customer? I believe that after 2 months everyone would politely (not "whinily") ask if there is any information. But again. The comment above me wants to get to funny punch lines instead of giving useful information. Guess that telling him that he dones't know some things made him angry a little bit. But that's the truth, you really don't know stuff. 

[kelvinhall05]

5 minutes ago, Ligonsker said:

*I think almost 2 months is quite patience I believe you would all agree

Not during fucking covid, lmao. You're dense, aren't you?

5 minutes ago, Ligonsker said:

I never asked for a refund

And there's your problem, idiot. The seller has no obligation to "give you information", whatever the hell that's supposed to mean.

6 minutes ago, Ligonsker said:

the seller was giving them hard time in order to avoid refund because he sent a DoA item

Assumption pulled right from your ass! All of this could've been avoided if you filed a refund request like a normal person.

7 minutes ago, Ligonsker said:

By the way, I offered to ship it back on my expense for a new working item but no reply whatsoever

Refund request.

7 minutes ago, Ligonsker said:

try something more expensive or when you fall on a bad seller that would do everything to avoid serving customers

That's why you don't buy expensive stuff from bad sellers you dingus.

7 minutes ago, Ligonsker said:

I believe that after 2 months everyone would politely (not "whinily") ask if there is any information.

It's a six fucking dollar cable. Unbelievable that you're so insistent on getting it. Again, global pandemics tend to affect shipping times.

8 minutes ago, Ligonsker said:

The comment above me wants to get to funny punch lines with instead of giving useful information. Guess that telling him that he dones't know some things made him angry a little bit. But that's the truth, you really don't know stuff. 

Instead of replying to me, you start talking to the void and pointing out "see this guy? Yeah, he's pointing out how fucking stupid I am. He's wrong!" Hilarious. Please never use Ebay again, I'm seriously glad they banned your account.

[XR6]

28 minutes ago, Ligonsker said:

I know. But my item was shipped from the UK and from my 8 years experience on eBay, items from the UK arrive at maximum 3 weeks, and now we're talking over 6 weeks. I know the long delivery times of Chinese items, but at least they note on the delivery date that it's longer. We're talking past delivery date and from UK. All I did was to ask the seller and nothing else.

This is normal now. I'm in the UK, all the items I've ordered from other countries have sat in British customs for weeks, even months. Royal Mail is a mess at the moment. Items take way longer to move than they did before.

Same goes for every parcel I've sent to other countries during this pandemic. Unfortunately the only thing you can do is wait, the seller can't make it go any faster and Royal Mail can't either (assuming the seller shipped using their services)

[Ligonsker]

9 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Refund request.

I think you need more explanation because you're mixing many things. For the 100$ item I first asked to ship it back for a replacement working item or a refund. So yes. this is called "Refund request" - I see you know some things nice

 

But for the cable there is an option to click "I didn't receive item" and press - "I want this item" instead "I want refund". so I clicked "I want this item" and you also have to leave a message to the seller so I asked him if he has any information regarding tracking the item. 2 different cases hopefully you understand things a little bit more. So yes this is called "asking for information" which is a valid thing when you pay your money for something. 6$ cable yes. But I need it and as I said, couldn't find it anywhere else. so hence the term "information". But I still don't understand the nature of your replies - please elaborate some more

8 minutes ago, XR6 said:

This is normal now. I'm located in the UK, all the items I've ordered from other countries have sat in customs for weeks, even months. Royal Mail is a mess at the moment.

Same goes for every parcel I've sent to other countries during this pandemic.

Thank you didn't know that, so I just asked the seller and that's it. Didn't even ask for a refund and got banned. 

[Shammikit]

From my personal experience, ebay has always refunded me when a seller doesnt ship an item. I have been a victim of a few fake ads myself where the seller posts an ad at a very low price, I even messaged them through ebay messages to confirm if the item in question is in working order and they reply by saying yes. once I bought the item and the transaction completes, the seller would close their ebay account. after the delivery deadline was done and as i didnt receive the item, I opened a case on ebay and ebay refunded the amount to my paypal within 2 days after their investigation. I have been refunded to my bank account too when I bought an item using my credit card.

 

As kelvinhall05 said, ebay sides with the buyer most of the time. My dad once ordered something and it didnt arrive on the deadline so he opened a case and got refunded within 24hrs. the item he bought arrived 2 weeks later. so he got it for free and didnt know how to pay back the seller.

 

when an item doesnt arrive just wait around 7 days and open a case, ebay handles the rest. 

[Ligonsker]

I did wait more than 7 days after the date. All I did was asking the seller but he probably reported me because he wanted to avoid things and he is an old seller so probably has more power. 

 

Me too got refund by nice sellers when I didn't receive certain items

[kelvinhall05]

2 minutes ago, Ligonsker said:

But for the cable there is an option to click "I didn't receive item" and press - "I want this item" instead "I want refund". so I clicked "I want this item" and you also have to leave a message to the seller so I asked him if he has any information regarding tracking the item. 2 different cases hopefully you understand things a little bit more. So yes this is called "asking for information" which is a valid thing when you pay your money for something. 6$ cable yes. But I need it and as I said, couldn't find it anywhere else. so hence the term "information". But I still don't understand the nature of your replies - please elaborate some more

If you got fucked by a seller (this is for the $100 DOA, correct? Or the worthless $6 cable you could've bought anywhere else?) then you should get a refund, leave negative feedback, and take your money elsewhere.

 

By the way, "refund request" is a catch-all term for returns, refunds, partial refunds, exchanges, etc. If you spent as much time on Ebay as you claim you do, you'd know that.

[kelvinhall05]

Just now, Ligonsker said:

I did wait more than 7 days after the date. All I did was asking the seller but he probably reported me because he wanted to avoid things and he is an old seller so probably has more power. 

 

Me too got refund by nice sellers when I didn't receive certain items

Look on r/ebay, major sellers get fucked by Ebay so often over the smallest things. It's really quite sad and has made me never want to sell on Ebay.

 

The only times I can think of when Ebay sides with the seller is when there is an obvious scam from the buyer, the seller has plenty of evidence against them, and also the seller won a diceroll with Ebay because they're that sided with the buyer.

[eeeee1]

How i knew this already:

 

[Ligonsker]

8 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

If you got fucked by a seller (this is for the $100 DOA, correct? Or the worthless $6 cable you could've bought anywhere else?) then you should get a refund, leave negative feedback, and take your money elsewhere.

 

By the way, "refund request" is a catch-all term for returns, refunds, partial refunds, exchanges, etc. If you spent as much time on Ebay as you claim you do, you'd know that.

I don't like leaving negative feedbacks because people make living from that and it can hurt them. Unless something is very wrong like that guy who didn't even reply to me after paying him 100$ .  All I want is to get what I paid for. Also one story I have about my experience with eBay: I once didn't receive an item after a long time and got a refund, after long time I got it and contacted the seller and paid him back so I don't like to steal from people

7 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Look on r/ebay, major sellers get fucked by Ebay so often over the smallest things. It's really quite sad and has made me never want to sell on Ebay.

 

The only times I can think of when Ebay sides with the seller is when there is an obvious scam from the buyer, the seller has plenty of evidence against them, and also the seller won a diceroll with Ebay because they're that sided with the buyer.

I would not sell on eBay because of that and stories I heard as well. Just saying I'm not like that and the fact I never got any bad feedback since 2012 can show that

[Ligonsker]

2 minutes ago, eeeee1 said:

How i knew this already:

 

Haha I remember that one

[Blademaster91]

9 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Look on r/ebay, major sellers get fucked by Ebay so often over the smallest things. It's really quite sad and has made me never want to sell on Ebay.

 

The only times I can think of when Ebay sides with the seller is when there is an obvious scam from the buyer, the seller has plenty of evidence against them, and also the seller won a diceroll with Ebay because they're that sided with the buyer.

The only times i'll sell on ebay is selling hardware I don't need or want to upgrade, taking plenty of pictures and describing the item well is important but even then it's still not great as you could get some buyer that could break the item then abuse return system.

I almost lost a diceroll with ebay once, bought a $400 graphics card, the seller listed it as new, card in the pics looked new, but I got a card that was clearly used and covered in dust, Some might think i'm just being picky but I paid for a new GPU, I would much rather have a new GPU. I filed a return request and ebay sided with the buyer, I called ebay support, they said i'd get a refund but I didn't, called back again and luckily I got escalated to a manager and they  approved for me to send the card back. Sometimes ebay  can be total crap for the buyer too.

I've never hear of a "bad buyer policy" but honestly that's kinda scummy for ebay to just go and ban instead of looking into the problem first.

 

[kelvinhall05]

Just now, Ligonsker said:

I don't like leaving negative feedbacks because people make living from that and it can hurt them

If they ship you a DOA item that was listed as working, they deserve the negative feedback. I can see where you're coming from, but that's just what you have to do.

1 minute ago, Ligonsker said:

Also one story I have about my experience with eBay: I once didn't receive an item after a long time and got a refund, after long time I got it and contacted the seller and paid him back so I don't like to steal from people

That's fair but unnecessary, unless they were using a method that is known to be slow and unpredictable, like basically everything from China except FedEx and DHL (or, ya know, covid).

2 minutes ago, Ligonsker said:

Just saying I'm not like that and the fact I never got any bad feedback since 2012 can show that

I've found that feedback is irrelevant on Ebay, especially in small numbers.

[kelvinhall05]

Just now, Blademaster91 said:

The only times i'll sell on ebay is selling hardware I don't need or want to upgrade, taking plenty of pictures and describing the item well is important but even then it's still not great as you could get some buyer that could break the item then abuse return system.

I almost lost a diceroll with ebay once, bought a $400 graphics card, the seller listed it as new, card in the pics looked new, but I got a card that was clearly used and covered in dust, Some might think i'm just being picky but I pad for a new GPU, I would much rather have a new GPU. I filed a return request and ebay sided with the buyer, I called ebay support, they said i'd get a refund but I didn't, called back again and luckily I got escalated to a manager and they  approved for me to send the card back. Sometimes ebay  can be total crap for the buyer too.

I've never hear of a "bad buyer policy" but honestly that's kinda scummy for ebay to just go and ban instead of looking into the problem first.

 

Personally I've never heard of a legit buyer not getting a refund when they deserved one (and filed a RR properly lel), sometimes they just have to push harder.

 

I feel like OP is leaving something out with his story, as I've never heard of Ebay banning someone for "no reason" either.

[Ligonsker]

1 minute ago, Blademaster91 said:

The only times i'll sell on ebay is selling hardware I don't need or want to upgrade, taking plenty of pictures and describing the item well is important but even then it's still not great as you could get some buyer that could break the item then abuse return system.

I almost lost a diceroll with ebay once, bought a $400 graphics card, the seller listed it as new, card in the pics looked new, but I got a card that was clearly used and covered in dust, Some might think i'm just being picky but I pad for a new GPU, I would much rather have a new GPU. I filed a return request and ebay sided with the buyer, I called ebay support, they said i'd get a refund but I didn't, called back again and luckily I got escalated to a manager and they  approved for me to send the card back. Sometimes ebay  can be total crap for the buyer too.

I've never hear of a "bad buyer policy" but honestly that's kinda scummy for ebay to just go and ban instead of looking into the problem first.

 

Yep I have no idea how it works

And I really don't do on purpose. I just really have a lot of  experience of not receiving items from eBay, and even before COVID, so I do claim for refunds sometimes. But only if it's true. I never do it for no reason

2 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

If they ship you a DOA item that was listed as working, they deserve the negative feedback. I can see where you're coming from, but that's just what you have to do.

Yes but it was a closed box item so certain things may come DoA such as motherboards and stuff so it's not always the seller's fault really, but he never replied to any solution I suggested. I mean no replies at all

[kelvinhall05]

Just now, Ligonsker said:

I mean no replies at all

Fairly normal for big sellers. They get lots of messages from people wanting to buy stuff so they don't have time to talk to people who have complaints. You should ALWAYS go through Ebay if you have a major complaint, especially with big sellers and/or expensive items.

[Ligonsker]

5 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Personally I've never heard of a legit buyer not getting a refund when they deserved one (and filed a RR properly lel), sometimes they just have to push harder.

 

I feel like OP is leaving something out with his story, as I've never heard of Ebay banning someone for "no reason" either.

I am not leaving anything. Last time I bought from eBay was before COVID, long time ago. But perhaps eBay has a counter of "bad buyer reports" if sellers just don't like you if you asked for a refund. And of course I did in the past when I did not receive the items

[Ligonsker]

2 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Fairly normal for big sellers. They get lots of messages from people wanting to buy stuff so they don't have time to talk to people who have complaints. You should ALWAYS go through Ebay if you have a major complaint, especially with big sellers and/or expensive items.

the is reasonable but the one I bought the 100$ was not a big seller so I really was on the right side there

[kelvinhall05]

1 minute ago, Ligonsker said:

the is reasonable but the one I bought the 100$ was not a big seller so I really was on the right side there

Even more reason you should've filed a refund request.

[Blademaster91]

32 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Personally I've never heard of a legit buyer not getting a refund when they deserved one (and filed a RR properly lel), sometimes they just have to push harder.

 

I feel like OP is leaving something out with his story, as I've never heard of Ebay banning someone for "no reason" either.

In my case I went through the return system, submitted pics as their return system asks to for an "not as described" item and ebay still wanted to side with the buyer, idk why a buyer would have to push harder if they'd already contacted the seller or went through the return process.

I dunno, it's ebay I wouldn't be surprised if they banned people for no reason.

30 minutes ago, Ligonsker said:

Yep I have no idea how it works

And I really don't do on purpose. I just really have a lot of  experience of not receiving items from eBay, and even before COVID, so I do claim for refunds sometimes. But only if it's true. I never do it for no reason

I'm not saying you're doing it on purpose or for no reason, I really doubt most people abuse the return system, a few people scamming the system probably ruins it for everyone.

But for something like a $6 cable I would stick to a reputable brand, ie. Anker or or Ugreen.

[Ligonsker]

9 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Even more reason you should've filed a refund request.

I did file after nothing worked and got it after quite a long time.. but at first they sided him

 

5 minutes ago, Blademaster91 said:

In my case I went through the return system, submitted pics as their return system asks to for an "not as described" item and ebay still wanted to side with the buyer, idk why a buyer would have to push harder if they'd already contacted the seller or went through the return process.

I dunno, it's ebay I wouldn't be surprised if they banned people for no reason.

I'm not saying you're doing it on purpose or for for reason, I really doubt most people abuse the return system, a few people scamming the system probably ruins it everyone.

But for something like a $6 cable I would stick to a reputable brand, ie. Anker or or Ugreen.

Yep that's what I do but this type of cable is not a regular cable and I found it only from this seller. I think I will get my cable after all, it will take time, but still all I did was to understand why it's so long. 

 

I just think about what if it was something for hundreds of $ and eBay suddenly decides to ban you. I mean imagine you have completely no access to your account and no 1 to contact with if you are banned after paying so much. For me it's a 6$ cable I really couldn't care less just wanted you to think twice before buying something with more value