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View Full Version : e-bay - what do you think?



Ojibwa
06-Mar-05, 22:22
Hi i've just registered on e-bay and just wondered what other people think about it- is it a good site to use? Happy Mother's Day to all the mum's doing the most amazing job in the world!!

bobbyjoeufb
06-Mar-05, 22:41
I have both bought and sold items on Ebay.

I think it is really good and there are some good bargains to be found. For example I bought a 256MB MP3 player for £25.00. It took about 2 weeks to be delivered from Hong Kong. I also checked the prices in the uk and was looking about £50 - £70 for the same spec.

There is as always some rouge traders, I did buy a DVD but when it came through it was DVD-R copy of the orginal disk, which is against ebay policy to sell. Emailed the seller and he gave me a full refund.

So ebay can be a bit of a gamble, but read the safe trading guide at ebay and use a bit of common sense and you should be okay.

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/ebayexplained/tradesafely/index.html

EDDIE
06-Mar-05, 23:44
I like using ebay as well i have bought a few items of it with no problems at all and have sold a few as well a great way of getting rid of things u dont need anymore.

When ever I bid for something and win it I never buy anything expensive of it in case you get a twisted person whos at it.
I only bid on items that are not so dear eg less than £50 so if the person rips me off at least i can write the money of were as if it was in the hundreds i would be spewing and all the hasstle that goes with it trying to get your money back

ktb50
07-Mar-05, 00:12
I love e-bay, never had any hassles from it at all as far as buying anything, never sold any items through it.

I recently bought an Olympus 5050z camera, to get on new in Aberdeen was going to cost £550, I got one, brand new on e-bay for £280, including postage. I was so pleased.

There are bargins to be had but like Eddie and bobbyjoe said, some common sense is maybe a good idea.

Kate

macc
07-Mar-05, 08:52
Just to back up what everyone else has said, its a great site for bargains. I've bought a lot of games and consoles for the kids for a fraction of the price in the shops, all boxed and full instructions. As everyone has said common sense and read the descriptions well, and try not to get bidding fever. I tend to leave my bidding to the last minutes of the sale.

katarina
07-Mar-05, 09:47
I have only have positive experiences from ebay. But word of warning, always pay by paypal. do not send money straight to the seller. I know some one who did that and never got the goods.

Julia
07-Mar-05, 11:02
I've had nearly 1000 transactions on ebay over the past three years, I've had very few problems, maybe only 1 or 2 buyers who did not pay, the one problem I have had the most is the Royal Mail losing my parcels, best to always get a certificate of posting and then it's quite easy to claim compensation.

If are unlucky enough to pay for something which does not arrive (and seller is of no help) then ebay will refund you your payment minus the first £15.

mike.mckenzie
07-Mar-05, 12:38
bought a lot of my xmas presents for the kids and my girlfriend off ebay and saved a lot of money, which meant they got more!

Also bought some excellent guitar effects which have saved me loads, so I'm going to get more. The only downer I had was with a small digital credit card size camera, it was fo rmy son. Didn't work.

jjc
07-Mar-05, 14:02
But word of warning, always pay by paypal. do not send money straight to the seller. I know some one who did that and never got the goods.
Thank God I'm not alone!

I 'bought' a camera lens on E-Bay for £90ish and, convinced by the seller's positive feedback and the speed with which he answered all of my emails, sent the money by direct bank transfer.

Never saw the lens and never heard from the seller again.

Worse, once I gave him negative feedback I was contacted by at least four other people who'd also been ripped off by him (one to the tune of £500) but who hadn't thought to leave negative feedback themselves… cheers fellas!

This was four months ago now and I still haven't received a reply (except the confirmation email) from Ebay about my complaint.

I did track the bloke down – a little googling gave me his name, address, the name and address of his business, the names and email addresses of all his buddies down at his alumni rugby club, the name of his website designer (who also happens to play rugby with him), his home telephone number and the fact that his wife had just left him [Let that be a lesson to anybody who thinks it's okay to give out personal details over the web [para]]!

Took all of that, along with his bank account details (which matched his business), down to the police station. They had no clue whatsoever how to handle theft over the Internet and kept me waiting in the lobby for almost an hour whilst they discussed it…

Anyway, I very much doubt that the police are about to kick in this guy's door for my camera lens so (after triple checking that the emails/bank details do match the guy I tracked down) I sent an email to all of his friends, telling them the story of my missing £90 and asking them if they'd mind passing on the message that I'd really like it back.

No response as yet ;)

Anyway, I've stuck to paypal since then and haven't had any more problems... I should have had more sense.

golach
07-Mar-05, 15:37
jjc,
Trading Standards are the next road you should go down, seen them on TV recently handling this sort of thing.
Good Luck

Donnie
07-Mar-05, 16:14
I really like it, i've bought and sold heaps of stuff on it. I also only ever use Paypal.

Little Miss Naughty
07-Mar-05, 16:36
Hi

I have also bought quite a bit from E-Bay and had no problems. Well thats not true, I did have one and that was a person who charged X amount for postage and then when I received the item that I won, the postage was a fraction of what she charged me. I did send here an E-mail to complain about the postage, but she was very abusive, so I just reported her to E-bay and I haven't seen her selling stuff since. But that doesn't mean she isn't trading, as she could quite easily be under another name. [disgust]

But over-all I am very happy with E-bay and I like browsing through it to see what is for sale. :Razz :Razz :Razz [/b]

jjc
07-Mar-05, 17:12
I did have one and that was a person who charged X amount for postage and then when I received the item that I won, the postage was a fraction of what she charged me. [/b]
That is something I come across quite frequently. It's amazing how often something that you know can be posted in a Jiffy Bag for £1 is being sold with P&P of £8 or more!

I got a surprise 'free' gift through the post the other day… a Jiffy Bag arrived with a PS2 game in it. It was addressed to some bloke in London but he hadn't collected it so Royal Mail had returned it to me… turned out that he'd bought it off somebody I sold a game to the month before. That person had re-used my Jiffy Bag (just sticking a bit of paper over their address) but hadn't noticed that my return address was still on the back.

I was amazed to see that they'd charged in the region of £5 for P&P for this. The postage on the envelope was less than £1.50 and the envelope was paid for by me!

I sent it back to them with a letter enclosed telling them I thought it a little immoral to ramp up the profit by overcharging for P&P… my little rant made me feel better – shelling out the £1.50 to post it back to them didn't! :(

Tristan
07-Mar-05, 18:49
Chalk up another one for E-Bay! What a lifesaver for people who live 100 miles away from the closest mall...

I love the low prices and the fact that, just like buses, if you miss out on this particular deal another one is sure to come along.
I love that I can buy things from anywhere in the world (if I want to pay the postage).
I love the extra-special bargains you can get when the British Pound is strong, and the American dollar is weeeaaaakkk!!!
If you know what you are looking for, you can really pinpoint the bargains.
I also use Paypal mostly (cuz I'm impatient) but have also sent cheques for people who don't use paypal, and have never had a problem. Once they've cashed the cheque you can prove they've received the money (always a problem when you've sent cash) and you can use the bank record to go after them if need be.

I hate...being outbid at the last minute, waiting til the last minute to bid only to have my server connection break up, and sellers who take forever to answer your questions.

Another good thing is that I've ordered stuff that when I received it, didn't quite suit; never had a problem sending it back (might have to pay postage, but that's fair enough).

Worst problem I ever had was a guy I was buying a large number of books from. He had printed the cost of postage to the UK in his ad, but wanted to charge me double cuz the package weighed 18 kg. I went onto the handy Royal Mail website, and saw that the cost of shipping a package between 11-20 kgs was 11.81 or thereabouts, when he wanted to charge me over £20. Turns out he wanted to split the package into two, and then send it 2 x 9.90, which was the cost for an under 10kg package. Threatened him with negative feedback and he eventually sent it under the original agreement, but not until he'd called me a cheapskate Scot.

Just be careful, and don't loose your head!

ajr
07-Mar-05, 21:09
it's fantastic as long as you pay by paypal or something similar and don't be fooled by spoof emails asking you to click on a button and give all your private details. EBay will never ask you to do this so don't be fooled by it. I would say as a golden rule that I follow - If you can't afford to lose it don't buy it on ebay.

KEEP_ON_TRUCKIN
07-Mar-05, 23:02
Hi

, I did have one and that was a person who charged X amount for postage and then when I received the item that I won, the postage was a fraction of what she charged me. sale. :Razz :Razz :Razz [/b]

Yeah but you can see clearly what folk want for P&P you should take that into account when bidding and just guage your bidding on that - after all they are trying their luck with P&P but it should come as no surprise. ..... just use a bit of logic

Brizer2k2
07-Mar-05, 23:31
WARNING

Ebay can become addictive and watch your bank account disapear !!!

badger
08-Mar-05, 18:45
Agree with Brian - it can be seriously addictive and the only cure I know is just not to go near the site for a bit. Did all my original shopping by cheque and never had a problem but now use Paypal as it's so much easier, as well as safer. Always check feedback. One thing no-one has mentioned is that it's a good idea to check other online prices for newish items before getting carried away bidding. It amazes me how many people pay more, especially if you include postage, just because it's ebay so they think it must be a bargain. I saw one item recently where the seller said the RRP was £15 and bids plus postage had gone over that, which makeds no sense. Great way to shop and good fun.