lotek 

Ok, So I've been buying stuff off of e-bay.
I know I should really support LBS, but I can get
a pair of tires for the same price as one at the LBS.
Service is an issue.
I bought Black Vittoria Rubino pro tires, received
red/black rubino pro tires. I e-mailed seller
and got no response for 3 days, I began to think
how bad would they look on the various bikes.
I received e-mail yesterday evening stating that
1) seller was away for weekend, apologized for not
responding quicker.
2) Seller is shipping new tires today (black ones at that).
3) I can keep the red/black ones as today is my lucky day.

Now I don't know about you, but for me this exemplifies
why I just love Bike people. I am seriously impressed
with this guys commitment to customer satisfaction.
Would I buy from him again? you bettcha.

Marty

digger

Who was this guy? I would love to have a good and trustworthy internet contact for bike stuff. ya know, just to keep my options open......

lotek 

Seller is Euromike.
He is really big into selling tires etc.
as I said, I'm really impressed with him.

Marty

nikos

Ive purchased from this seller, great guy.

VegasCyclist

Ebay can equally be a scary situation as well as a good situation. I bought a specialized frame (2001 rockhopper) for $100 brand new from a guy, I recieved an e-mail about payment, and I used paypal. for the next 5 days I heard nothing (even though I sent 2 e-mails confirming payment) luckily I did recieve a frame, but it was getting a bit scary as he would not return my e-mails. oh well

WoodyUpstate

I have consumated several hundred eBay transactions over the last 5 years, and every single one ended satisfactorily.

The most difficult situation was a rear wheel I bought, paid for and two months later never arrived. I complained to the seller who assured me he shipped the wheel timely. Finally I threatened negative feedback, so he refunded me my money. I bought another wheel. A few days later I found the first wheel in the service elevator of my office building. Apparently the delivery man was too lazy to walk the box to me, so he just stuck it in the elevator and no one had gone in the elevator for weeks. I really had egg on my face. I emailed the original seller explaining the situation and sent the payment to him with an additional $20 for his troubles.

I've sold camera equipment (I'm an amateur photographer, too) to Japan, Singapore, Iceland, Norway and all over the US. I've bought photography equipment, bikes, bike components, power tools, and assorted other stuff via eBay. While I've heard eBay disaster stories, I've never experienced one.

Guillermo

I love eBay! Every component I've purchased for the Zurich I have been building has been off eBay. I had even invested in eBay for a while - one of the few solid internet stocks. I have been lucky enough to never have a bad experience, but a friend of mine recently had a hard time with a laptop purchase.

He paid, and never received the computer, he was able to get paypal to lock the guy's account, and somehow the guy figured out how to unlock it! He then called the IFC to report the incident, and found out that this guy was actually under investigation and probation! Long story short, he got his money back, and the guy might be going to jail!

Inkwolf

I love E-Bay.

I have had a few bad experiences:

I bought a second-hand computer, and it turned out that the L2 chip was bad (which the repair shop didn't discover for some time, since they thought it was a bad hard disk and replaced that first!) The computer was sold with no guarantee and I had already posted good feedback. :/

I bought a book once from an absentee seller, too--I paid by paypal, and a month later I hadn't recieved the book or any response to e-mails. I filed a complaint with both Ebay and PayPal. The book finally turned up a couple months later, with no explanation.

I bought a used expansion card, and the seller shipped it loose in a cardboard box, no padding or anything. It still worked, though.

Apart from that, everything's been great, and everyone's been good to me! And I've had around 130 transactions, most buying and some selling.

gabiker

I buy a lot from e-bay and have never had a problem. You do need to check the sellers feedback thought because that usually takes care of the bad ones.

I really think the bulk of the bad folks selling on e-bay are computer related especially systems.

I bought a set of wheels for my mountain bike and after the sale the guy e-mailed me and told me he had new set of Michelin Jet S tires he would mount with tubes for $15 each. These tires are like $36 each on Nashbar so I told him to do it. When I got the package there was 2 extra tubes in it and a note saying that he through them at no extra charge.

Gotta love it...

Bokkie

I tried ebay once and managed to end up emailing one-on-one with the seller in a remote town in Texas. I confirmed the money order was on it's way, and the goods arrived the next day! He'd sent them ahead of me posting the check to minimise the delay. I was sure impressed.

What he did advise me about ebay, is that emails are 'cheap' and its easy to set up shop, get closed down, move on, get another name and so on. He advised against too much emphasis on negative feedback but did emphasise that you get to know the regular sellers.

I for one, have negative feeback as a buyer. That was simply down to the problem that the seller never returned any calls or emails so that I could arrange to deposit funds and so on. It was not my fault, but is it fair that I'm branded a slime-ball because of that?

What do you think?

Richard D

2-300 transactions so far and no real problems. I had to return two items that didn't match descriptions, but was refunded on both occasions.

Keep an eye out for negative feedback (don't worry too much about one or two out of a few hundred), but also carefully read neutral feedback if there is a fair bit of it, it's sometimes more negative than you realise.

Inkwolf

Sounds like a bum rap. Bad e-mail connection between you two, perhaps? In any case, you are allowed to post a response to your bad feedback and explain what happened.

I, for one, will never buy from the kind of bad-attitude e-bay seller who posts stuff like "If you give me a negative feedback, I will post one for you, too!" If they're so scared their buyers will post bad things about them that they threaten retaliation, there is probably a reason.

There are some losers out there, even if they don't have negatives. :/

Bokkie

I thought I'd reregister as my proper name. My user id in ebay is peterhamiltonscott.

As you see it's got diddleysquat.

I went a step further as I thought I'd try to sell my wife's old bike, a cr*p Ridgeback. Ebay want me to register as a seller, and want to know my debit card details, my bank account details.

Sh*t! Why don't I just put an advert giving the same details to the Nigerian Government Daily Scam Edition.

Is this stuff safe to give out? I have visions of this spotty-faced little tosser having a great day out at my expense.

gabiker

If someone has 50 positive feedbacks and 1 negative I don't think anyone would think of it. On the other hand if the have a total of 10 and 3 or 4 are bad I would steer clear of them.

I have been doing business on e-bay since they started and have never been cheated. I did buy something one time that had the serial number ground off. Gee I wonder if it was stolen. :confused:

Inkwolf

Wellllll, I had one time when $571 was taken from my charge account, apparently by E-Bay. It was replaced a few days later. I called their customer service and mentioned that I hadn't appreciated making the unannounced 'loan.' They said they had no record of that transaction. So I donlt know if they were hacked, or someone screwed up then covered up.

John E

I have bought almost 30 bicycle components on eBay, with very satisfactory results. As with any other transaction, pay close attention to what you are doing, and learn as much as you can about the people with whom you are dealing.

usnagent007

nothing but great experiences. I'll post a short listing of my better dealings soon.

LittleBigMan

Maybe this thread should be called, "E-bay purchased bike parts experience." As has been noted, cyclists can be a specially cool bunch to deal with.

My wife bought my Disney-on-the-brain son a Mickey Mouse necktie through E-bay. He was wearing it one day when I said, "Oh, neat! Can I see it?"

He takes it off and hands it to me. It was red with little Mickey Mouse characters printed all over it, with the small words, "Mickey Mouse" written underneath...wait a minute! That doesn't say, "Mickey Mouse!" It says, "Michael Mouse!"