Ebay a Dangerous Place to Buy

[expert]

Once I spent a couple of months bidding in Ebay, studying and analyzing techniques. I've participated in many auctions or Buy Now Items. In 3 years of buying experience with Ebay I want to narrate the dangers lie when buying from this Mega site.

With sufficient experience now I've finally decided to avoid Ebay at all costs. I've found an alternate very trust worthy site: flipkart.com and now I buy from Ebay only if I've to.
Here are the risks:

• Ready for a rough drive for leaving negative feedback: If you ever leave a negative feedback, be ready to receive nagging and rude calls from the vendor from whom you've purchased the item. He wouldn't let you sleep until you remove the negative feedback.
  You can't complain to Ebay. If you do, you'll get a parrot reply that you need to contact your local Police authorities for this and it is out of Ebay's purview to meddle between you and the vendor. Since then I've removed my phone number from Ebay's account.
  
• Junk/waste items being sold:
  I've a strong feeling that waste items being sold in Ebay. Remember anybody can sell in Ebay. Ebay does not care about who sells the item. Ebay's responsibility ends if the item is received by you and you've received the item same as described. I purchased Uniross batteries, Sony camera battery. The all stopped working after feedback period (60 days) is over.
  As a small selfish seller you'd worry for an item till the feedback period is over and if the feedback period is over the customer can't do but only forget the seller as there are lakhs of sellers in Ebay.
  Compare this with Flipkart.com which is selling all items from it's own behalf and and poor service will affect it's overall image on the customer while in Ebay you'd be only angry with the seller and not with Ebay since it is acting only as a commission agent(Ebay charges 3-5% commission on sales).
• Same seller is selling as different name
  It is very common technique. If any seller has got not-so-good feedback( 98% or less) then what they do, they start selling in another name. They continue selling as long as feedback score is good otherwise they open a new name. So a bad seller is a bad seller as always.
• Dispute Limbo: Item not as described
  Suppose you've got the shipment with nothing in it - what will you do? In this case Ebay's decision is final, you may or may not get back your money depending on whom Ebay wants to trust.
• Items not fully described
  This is very serious and it happened with me. I was just about to order Adobe CS5 suit from USA for some Rs. 45,000. There was no mention of "Full Version software" and the feedback was all good( 99% or more). By chance I fired an email to confirm just this and I was shocked when he simply told me that it was Student license version and for such a low price one can't get full version. How could this seller thrive with selling items not fully described? There is one special rule applies for buying from US Ebay(next point).
• Buying international items
  Beware of i2c world Inc - International reseller - an arm of Ebay. If the international seller does not ship to India then this Ebay's India arm will buy and deliver it to you. But if the item is found defective or anything else and Ebay India rules against you then if you leave your feedback, it'll not be against the seller who should be punished but only against the i2c world Inc against whom you can leave feedback. Clearly it looks like Ebay wants to save its international sellers at the same time earning lot of money for bringing the item into India.
  
• Negative feedback reply
  So if you finally gave a negative feedback that you've got a broken piece. Suppose the seller refused to take it back now after your feedback the clever seller can reply below your comment that I exchanged the item for a another new one. So now he is telling lies, which other naïve readers will believe and discount your negative feedback. Very few people know that they can again reply to his comment.
• Trusting the seller
  In case of problems, you want the seller to exchange the item or give refund. Sometimes they will talk so sweetly that they've dispatched the product and you request you to change the feedback to positive. Remember you can change the feedback from negative to positive with the help of seller. But if you've given a positive feedback you can't change it nor will Ebay listen to you then.
• Limited Contest duration
  In case of having received unsatisfactory product you can raise with Ebay within a stipulated time only. Similarly once item is shipped you get only a few weeks to claim that you never received it. If you forgot to raise it with Ebay just because you were sick or busy with something else then you'll be automatically assumed to have received the item as per Ebay terms.

 

[rag_gupta]

thank you.

 

[drmohandoss]

I too had the bad experience. Find below[/size]
In the web pages of EBAY you may see a monogram saying 100% SATISFACTION, REPLACEMENT OR REFUND which is a fraudulant message to attract the customer. In the past buyer supposed to confirm the receipt of the item. Now the courier tracking is the confirmation for them. They are not bothered about the customer confirmation.I am still not clear about SATISFACTION. IS IT CUSTOMER SATISFACTION OR EBAY? Since about 6 months the services are very very poor.The customer care repeat the same message as if it is prerecorded. Even though EBAY says you can contact the supervisor which will never happens. You will get a stock answer "the supervisor will contact you within 2 hrs., or 2 days" which is not going to happen

Once I spent a couple of months bidding in Ebay, studying and analyzing techniques. I've participated in many auctions or Buy Now Items. In 3 years of buying experience with Ebay I want to narrate the dangers lie when buying from this Mega site.

With sufficient experience now I've finally decided to avoid Ebay at all costs. I've found an alternate very trust worthy site: flipkart.com and now I buy from Ebay only if I've to.
Here are the risks:

• Ready for a rough drive for leaving negative feedback: If you ever leave a negative feedback, be ready to receive nagging and rude calls from the vendor from whom you've purchased the item. He wouldn't let you sleep until you remove the negative feedback.
  You can't complain to Ebay. If you do, you'll get a parrot reply that you need to contact your local Police authorities for this and it is out of Ebay's purview to meddle between you and the vendor. Since then I've removed my phone number from Ebay's account.
  
• Junk/waste items being sold:
  I've a strong feeling that waste items being sold in Ebay. Remember anybody can sell in Ebay. Ebay does not care about who sells the item. Ebay's responsibility ends if the item is received by you and you've received the item same as described. I purchased Uniross batteries, Sony camera battery. The all stopped working after feedback period (60 days) is over.
  As a small selfish seller you'd worry for an item till the feedback period is over and if the feedback period is over the customer can't do but only forget the seller as there are lakhs of sellers in Ebay.
  Compare this with Flipkart.com which is selling all items from it's own behalf and and poor service will affect it's overall image on the customer while in Ebay you'd be only angry with the seller and not with Ebay since it is acting only as a commission agent(Ebay charges 3-5% commission on sales).
• Same seller is selling as different name
  It is very common technique. If any seller has got not-so-good feedback( 98% or less) then what they do, they start selling in another name. They continue selling as long as feedback score is good otherwise they open a new name. So a bad seller is a bad seller as always.
• Dispute Limbo: Item not as described
  Suppose you've got the shipment with nothing in it - what will you do? In this case Ebay's decision is final, you may or may not get back your money depending on whom Ebay wants to trust.
• Items not fully described
  This is very serious and it happened with me. I was just about to order Adobe CS5 suit from USA for some Rs. 45,000. There was no mention of "Full Version software" and the feedback was all good( 99% or more). By chance I fired an email to confirm just this and I was shocked when he simply told me that it was Student license version and for such a low price one can't get full version. How could this seller thrive with selling items not fully described? There is one special rule applies for buying from US Ebay(next point).
• Buying international items
  Beware of i2c world Inc - International reseller - an arm of Ebay. If the international seller does not ship to India then this Ebay's India arm will buy and deliver it to you. But if the item is found defective or anything else and Ebay India rules against you then if you leave your feedback, it'll not be against the seller who should be punished but only against the i2c world Inc against whom you can leave feedback. Clearly it looks like Ebay wants to save its international sellers at the same time earning lot of money for bringing the item into India.
  
• Negative feedback reply
  So if you finally gave a negative feedback that you've got a broken piece. Suppose the seller refused to take it back now after your feedback the clever seller can reply below your comment that I exchanged the item for a another new one. So now he is telling lies, which other naïve readers will believe and discount your negative feedback. Very few people know that they can again reply to his comment.
• Trusting the seller
  In case of problems, you want the seller to exchange the item or give refund. Sometimes they will talk so sweetly that they've dispatched the product and you request you to change the feedback to positive. Remember you can change the feedback from negative to positive with the help of seller. But if you've given a positive feedback you can't change it nor will Ebay listen to you then.
• Limited Contest duration
  In case of having received unsatisfactory product you can raise with Ebay within a stipulated time only. Similarly once item is shipped you get only a few weeks to claim that you never received it. If you forgot to raise it with Ebay just because you were sick or busy with something else then you'll be automatically assumed to have received the item as per Ebay terms.

 

[timanshu]

I am too facing an issue with ebay that my account is linked with another restricted account. Ebay CCE says that I am handling two accounts and my first account abhi.11 have unpaid amount therefore my second account koolguyy1990 is linked to first account and therefore second account cannot list any product.

But I am using only one ebay account that is koolguyy1990. First I conveyed many times on phone, and later sent a mail on May 6, 2015 that I am not using that abhi.11 account.

I got a reply that they have policy on basis of which the link account. Factors they look for are name/address of account etc.

Then I replied again on May 10, 2015 that these details can be same of multiple accounts. Also on My account address, Multiple people work and they can use any name and address they use can also be the same. And IP address will be same as we connect to same ISP and use common systems.

After few mails, they stick to the point that i am using both accounts.

I contacted many times on customer care number and many times they just disconnect the call. And when conversed, they speak only one thing that their system show my account linked so I have to solve that.

This kind of service can one expect from such a big e- commerce brand. I immediately want to get my account unlinked with other account/s. As ebay peoples can only give irrelevant reasons of account linkage.

 

[svtdv26]

eBay is very strict about creating multiple accounts, It has good system to detect such things. So please try to create just one eBay account for your goodness.