I have to admit that sometimes I get taken on eBay. The great thing about eBay is that if you are a smart buyer it all works out in the end for you anyway. I have probably spent about $25,000 on eBay over the years, and never lost money. In previous posts I discussed the VOIP equipment, the home theater PC, and Tivo upgrade gear that I bought on eBay.
On three occasions I did have to take the time to file disputes and follow through on the resolution process. When I buy on eBay I have learned to take the time to detect obvious red flags and move on. In particular, I avoid:
- Sellers who don't take Paypal
- Sellers outside the US (possibly Australia, Canada or UK for unique items)
- Feedback scores lower than 100
- Feedback positive % lower than 98%
- Feedback that doesn't pass the smell test: all recent, all feedback on very low dollar items, lots of feedback from the same person, lots of feedback that sounds like it was written by the same person, etc.
But that isn't always enough. Once I bought an Emeco bar stool on eBay and received a very cheap knockoff. After the due diligence with paypal I received my refund, and Emeco gave me a great discount on the real thing when I told them my story. By alerting them to someone who was pirating the Emeco brand, I did them a service and they happily returned the favor.
Always pay by Paypal. If a seller doesn't take Paypal, it is because they don't want to be bound by Paypal buyer protection rules, which is either cluelessness, a sign of bad history with chargebacks, or a potential scam. All of these reasons signal a seller that you should avoid. Please don't ever wire money, send a check, or give your credit card details to anyone on eBay. Also do not ever send someone money after they send it back to you. This is a confidence trick - they send money back to get you to trust them so that you send a paypal direct transfer (which doesn't carry buyer protection), or another payment mechanism you wouldn't ordinarily use.
Be mindful of the 30 day deadline for disputing a transaction in Paypal. Some sellers will try to trick you into waiting past the 30 day window, so file a dispute as soon as day 29 arrives if you don't have your item yet, no matter how nice the seller sounds. You can always close the dispute later if the seller delivers, without much time or trouble to either you or the seller. Don't feel guilty; the seller doesn't deserve your money yet if you still don't have the product 30 days after paying for it. If the seller complains, tell them you will close the dispute and leave positive feedback as soon as you receive your item.
Take notice of the Paypal protection threshold, it can be either $200 or $2000, depending upon the seller. The eBay listing will show the level of protection under the payment section. The $2000 threshold is only offered for sellers with established positive feedback and verified Paypal seller accounts.
I would also encourage you to fund paypal using your credit card instead of a checking account debit if you are unsure you will be able to file a dispute within the required 30 days or if the amount of the transaction exceeds the Paypal protection threshold. If Paypal won't give you your money back, you can take it up with your credit card company and get the charges reversed.
Always ask questions if a listing is ambiguous, even if you think it is obvious, because it may be left unsaid to mislead you. For example, accessories you "know" come with something probably will not be supplied if the listing doesn't mention them. When a seller wants you to know the item is complete as shipped from the manufacturer, they usually say "factory sealed" or "NIB" (meaning new in box). When a seller says they are unable to test something, it probably means it doesn't work but they're hoping you will take a chance on it.
Always ask your questions on eBay using the "ask the seller a question" link so that you have proof of their answers, since direct email doesn't leave an audit trail that eBay or Paypal can rely on. Even if you are buying something "as is", the statements they make in the listing or in response to your questions must be true, thereby limiting the scope of the "as is" disclaimer. If the seller doesn't answer your question, this is a bad sign and you should not bid at all.
Just this week I was defrauded by a seller offering Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection. The seller said they hadn't registered the software in response to my question, they accepted Paypal, and had positive feedback. It was a great deal, and I bought it.
After I paid, I noticed they had a different name on their emails than the name on the Paypal statement. This raised my suspicions, but could be innocent. Next, I saw the originating city on the Federal Express tracking screen was different than their eBay user information. While this could also be explainable, it raised my suspicions still further. After that my suspicions were confirmed when the seller wrote to me and said "I am having trouble with my Paypal account (I really wish there were an alternative to it!) So I am going to issue you a refund. Once I do, could you resend payment to name.changed@mailnull.com?" The mailnull is a nice touch, because it is a mail forwarding service, being used by the seller to try to cover their tracks.
Now that I knew the seller was a fraud, I decided to get the refund by playing along. This way neither Paypal nor I would have any inconvenience in recovering the money. "Sure, I don't see why not" I replied. Later I wrote back to say I hadn't sent the money yet because I didn't see the refund process on Paypal yet. In the meantime, the package arrived and the CDs were clearly bootleg. I called Adobe with the serial number, and they confirmed it was an invalid serial number.
The seller refunded the money on Paypal and sent a Paypal payment request. As soon as I confirmed the refund, I alerted eBay, Paypal, and Adobe. I never even tried to install the software; I just sent the disks to Adobe as evidence in the case their anti-piracy department is pursuing against the seller.
No comments:
Post a Comment