Libertine: On the Prowl

Vidi, vici, veni -- I saw, I conquered, I came. _______________________________________________________________

Burned

01:29, 2008-Sep-19 .. Posted in rants .. 6 comments .. Link

I've been using Ebay for eight years now, since the fall of 2000. In all that time, I've never had any problems with the purchases I've made.

Until now.

About three weeks ago, I bought two books from two different sellers. I got an automated response from both sellers acknowledging my order and that the payment had gone through. The first seller also contacted me personally to thank me for my order, advising me of when the order would be sent. The second seller never contacted me personally, but using Ebay's tracking system I saw that my order had been marked as "shipped".

The first order arrived promptly within a week. Great -- another smooth transaction completed. The days, then weeks, dragged by, and the second order never arrived. Every day I'd check my mailbox, to find nothing but ordinary mail in there.

I went back to the seller's page to read their feedback again and found that new negative feedback had been left for them -- the customer never received their book and the seller never responded to the buyer's emails. I began to get a bit nervous, but considering that this was the seller's first negative feedback, I hunkered down to wait it out.

When I reached the last day of the estimated shipping times for the book, I contacted the seller, in accordance with Ebay policy, and waited the required 48 hours for a reply. Unsurprisingly, the seller ignored my email, just as they had with the previous customer. I left scathing, negative feedback for the seller, warning other potential customers away. I've filed a claim and now I'm waiting for it to be resolved. I don't really want money back -- I just want the damned book I ordered!

Have any of you been burned on Ebay or another site, and how did it eventually turn out for you?

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Untitled Comment

01:57, 2008-Sep-19 .. Posted by sarai
I have had nothing but good experiences on Ebay(and the sister site Half.com) both as a buyer and a seller.
However my Mother has had problems with non-paying bidders and she says that ebay's conflict resolution is a joke and not to be relied upon, but then again they were selling some big items(a classic car) so the fees for listing and inserting it are rather large.

EclectaComment

03:09, 2008-Sep-19 .. Posted by Eclectablog
I bought a new DVD burner for my laptop from Yahoo Auctions. It came. I used it to back up my system and burn some cds as well. The cds worked but I never actually checked the DVD since it was a backup and not something I needed right then.

My harddrive fried about 4 months after that and, assuming I was okay, I went to restore things from my backup only to discover that the DVD burner was not functional and burned the DVD improperly. No back up and no ability to actually burn DVDs at all. Of course by then it was too late to do anything about it. $70 down the toilet.

Untitled Comment

06:10, 2008-Sep-19 .. Posted by slayerbarbie
I used Amazon.com Marketplace and the person never sent my things. I tried to contact the seller and they didn't reply, so I let Amazon know, they didn't get a reply from the person and they debited that person's account and gave me back my money.

I had a person on ebay selling items under immediate payment and then I found out that person had a fraudulent account set up under their roommate's name. Ebay refunded my money.

Untitled Comment

07:09, 2008-Sep-19 .. Posted by LauriesAsylum
It's funny you posted this right now. I have a feeling I'm in the process of being ripped off right now. I ordered something for another blogger here for my gift meme. I had several emails back and forth with this seller about this item. She was very nice and seemed happy that I was so excited to find this item after looking everywhere for something like it. I wanted to use a money order because of the horrible experience my son had with paypal. This seller told me sure, and I sent payment.

I waited, and waited. Nothing. I finally tried to contact them on ebay only to find out their account has been deleted, either by them or by ebay. I have their address, so sent them a note asking where my item was and what the problem was. That was two weeks ago and have heard nothing and received nothing. I think I'm screwed, lol.

Untitled Comment

09:56, 2008-Sep-19 .. Posted by littleMissConfused
I have had good luck with e-bay. I have not bought anything in the past year so I don't know if anything changed. I have a few things I want to sell on there again. I hope I don't have problems.

Untitled Comment

12:17, 2008-Sep-20 .. Posted by Aielman
I don't buy from anyone who's not a powerseller. Thus far I haven't been burned.