The eBay BUYING advice thread

they dont oblige you to send it back either

my gf is interested in a Vuitton Noe bag, I was thinking about getting her one for our anniversary

anyone tell me if a listing like this seems legit http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272515683486 ?

I had a weird buying experience on eBay lately: the item arrived a week late because the seller (1) dispatched it on the last day of the delivery date window and (2) used USPS Media Mail even though the listing said it would ship via Priority Mail. I messaged the seller to express my disappointment, citing eBay's policy w/r/t accurately representing the shipping time/method. at first he apologized profusely, blaming the mistake on a family member and offering to refund me the shipping difference (which was the most I expected: I hadn't opened a case or asked for a refund, and I was really just hoping he'd acknowledge the mishap). but a few minutes later he promised a full refund for the price of the item plus shipping. I replied that it really wasn't necessary to go so far, but he insisted, and at that point he'd already completed the refund.

even though he was clearly in the wrong, I feel a little guilty that he ended up losing money on the transaction. I know eBay will generally side with the buyer in a dispute, but it seems a little extreme for a seller to give a full refund at the drop of the hat when the buyer didn't even request it. is the threat of negative feedback really that compelling, or was he afraid I'd report him for fraud if he didn't smooth things over asap? I've never been in this situation before, so I have no idea how common it is.

(fwiw the item was a radio, so I think he technically committed mail fraud by sending it via media mail)

Nah, not mail fraud. They'd just return it to him for not using enough postage.

Negative feedback is definitely scary to sellers who don't have a lot of feedback to keep their percentage up. I've refunded a couple of people with complaints about condition when I just didn't want to deal with a return - maybe they were scamming me or maybe it got beat up in the mail, just wasn't worth it to find out.

I guess it comes down to a cost-benefit analysis where the seller figures it's better to take a $15 loss now than to potentially lose out on multiple sales if their feedback percentage takes a hit. in my case the seller only has 1 negative feedback (vs 462 positive) for the past year, so I can see why he'd want to keep his record as clean as possible.

do you expect buyers to send you photos of the items they're complaining about? I got a defective item from another seller who didn't accept returns, and I included a bunch of photos of the defect with my refund request to (hopefully) prove that I wasn't a scammer. tbf it's possible that they would have said "fuck it" and given me a refund even if I hasn't provided receipts.

No, I don't think I've ever had someone send photos. On a high dollar item it would be appreciated.

I've been selling quite a bit for the last few years (clearing out my dad's various hobbies for my mom after his death) but return requests have been rare for me so I might just be lax about it. I can only remember one this calendar year.

I dabble in selling and had my first issue with a customer the other day. He sent three photos of a rip in the plastic of a game disc case. I offered 25% back (enough for a fresh new case at least) and he was delighted and I got positive feedback.

It's all pretty random. Of course most buyers don't leave feedback at all.

Being in Canada, I take a risk bothering with low value items at all, shipping them out pretty cheap with no tracking. You can't ship anything here with a tracking number for less than $15. It seems to be pretty common practice around here. In the absence of a tracking number, eBay will always side with a buyer who says nothing showed up. That stuff is just operating on the honour system.

Everything I've read about the accept returns setting (like on eBay forums) makes it sound like you just look sketchy for saying that you don't take them, since eBay essentially has blanket policies to protect buyers as much as possible.