General Cycling Discussion - Have you ever had a bad experience on Ebay

I am sure alot of members buy bikes or parts on ebay. Anyone have a bad experience?
I own a store on ebay selling cycling goods and in my spare time I search Ebay for good deals. It seems to me I see alot of fraud auctions for high end bikes. Any stories to tell? :eek:

I have bought about 60 items on ebay and never had a problem. I think you just have to make sure that you save some money on each purchase so when the eventual fraud comes you are up at the end of the day. If the item is high value use ebay escrow and do not be diverted by any crap from the seller.

I only had 1 bad experience, bid on a bike that was advertised as "French wheelset with Unknown bike" @ a $5.00 opening bid. Since it had a Huret Jubile derailleurs & shifters with Modolo brakes on a lugged frame, I bid $40.00. I was the only bidder & won @ $5.00. I then recd an autogenerated e-mail to send $35.00 payment, money order or cashiers check only, no paypal or credit cards. About 8 days later the seller began sending e-mails asking me for confirmation of my mailing address, asking if it was ok to ship UPS & other inane questions. After 2 wks, when I didn't receive the bike & e-mails went unanswered, I started the complaint process with e-bay, & got his phone #. Spoke politely with him a couple times & he made excuses about being busy. During this time, I checked his previously flawless feedback & found a number of negatives with some people complaining of no shipment & others saying they had received junk parts instead of their purchased item. I went to e-bay to add my own negative feedback & found the seller was suspended/removed from e-bay. Serves me right for expecting to get a good bike so cheap. That only happens at yard sales & thrift stores. All my other buys have been satisfactory. Don

I have seen people selling pictures of items and trying to pass them off as real products.

But on the end of the product description it says in tiny letters "This auction is for a photo, not an actual <insert product here>"

you can get very good deals on eBay.
You must remember a few rules:
- Do research and decide what you will pay for an item, and stick to it!
- check the feedback of a seller
- READ READ READ the description. Some sellers play with words, put small print statements etc.
- Make sure you know how much is shipping and handling BEFORE you bid
- bid the maximum price you ready to pay, at the last moment!

I've been watching this one posting. It's for a 'complet' Cannondale R1000 that someone is selling - all sizes. They post for a few hours, then pull the page and wait a few days and then it comes back. I emailed to ask a question, and they try to sell it off of ebay. When they come back, it's with a different seller name. The bikes are supposedly in Spain. Too suspicious for my taste!

I always send the seller a very complete question if I sense any thing is not clearly understood by me. As a poster implied, study very carefully what is said and what is NOT said. Most tell the truth, but only if asked.
BTW- Why do you think in a trial the witness is asked to tell
- the truth
- the whole truth
- and nothing but the truth
these are 3 different situations and I have found that most ebay deals gone bad involve a forth truth, that being 'subjective truth'.

I have been dealing with ebay since it started and make some great deals (biking and photography stuff mainly). So far one bad deal but a costly one on a camera lens ($1000). I made the mistake of dealing off ebay after the item didn't sell during the auction time. I sent a check that was cashed but never received the lens. All further registered mails where returned back with a change of address and unknown new address.
Ebay is great but it is so popular now that some crooks are taking advantages of it.
Rule #1: Check the seller Feedback data.
Rule #2: Pay via Paypal through your credit card so you can involve PayPal and the credit card company if a fraud happens.

Well hopefully my bike win turns out for the up and up...if not I guess I'll have to go through this. This was quite a good deal though.

If the auction is for more than $400, I get very hard on the seller...I want comfirmation of home and work numbers and addresses...I also want to know what exact location the package is being dropped off to , and what time. If they want some comfort, I'll give them the privvy of comfirming mine too. If they balk at it, it's off. $400 is serious money, and if they can't respect that I don't know them and am willing to pay them that much, that I need to know some things first.