jdawginsc 

Just thought with all of the bad stories about ebay sellers I thought I'd share a good one. A set of Campagnolo Atlanta/Shimano 7400/cassette (8 speed) wheels came up (I sort of wanted to get some Dura Ace wheels for the Peugeot Super Competition I will eventually build up with 7400 stuff), and I thought I'd watch it for a few days with the bid starting at $1.00. Expected a flurry, so put a snipe of $51.78 for them never expecting to sniff the end result (I am on a moratorium after all). One hour left and they were at $6.50, so thought maybe they might go for the $50.00ish I set it. Nope, they sold to me at $7.50 plus $50 for shipping.

Where the good stuff comes in is that the seller not only honored the bid (he could have made an excuse to pull it as a few sellers have done before). Nope, he sent a message saying "congratulations! I will get these out in the next day or so". I replied I "felt bad at the price", that he would lose money and was thinking that I could send a bit more so he didn't lose money after fees. Instead he responded that he was just glad someone might be able to use them.

Honorable guy. Good story among many I have had on ebay, including a bundle with European purchases.

The wheels arrived today.. Likely will replace the tires though they look in good shape.

SurferRosa

I don't understand the "fleabay" criticism. Moreover, I find all the thoughtless, ungrateful remarks kind of disgusting. Although I generally purchase from buy-it-now listings, I don't think I've run into a single shady seller. After bikeforums C&V, eBay is probably the best one-stop bike shop on the planet.

jdawginsc 

Seller even threw in a double Roval wheelbag...unreal.

Hondo6

I wish I could say the same about never running into a shady eBay vendor. Unfortunately, I've personally had one really bad experience with eBay.

How bad? Well, I had a vendor who not only failed to honor an auction where I was the high bidder, but who also then (1) baldfaced lied to me about eBay's then-current payment policies; (2) tried to sell me the same item outside of eBay based on that lie (apparently to avoid eBay's sales fee) - and was actually stupid enough to do that in an eBay internal message; (3) threatened to report me to eBay for harassment when I politely pointed out to them that an auction sale was technically a binding contract they were required to honor as an eBay vendor, and that I was considering taking the matter to eBay's complaint resolution process; and then (4) dragged their feet on processing a refund after agreeing to do so (I'd paid for the item immediately after being notified I was the winning bidder).

I ended up having to go thru eBay's complaint process to get a refund. I'm pretty sure it was eBay, not the vendor, who actually did the refund.

I'm reasonably sure that vendor no longer does business on eBay, at least not under their former user ID. Hopefully eBay banned the individual permanently.

I've done quite a bit of business on eBay. In my experience, the overwhelming majority of eBay vendors are indeed honest. But unfortunately there are a few shady ones out there.

Andy_K 

Great story, and a fantastic price for some cool wheels.

Schweinhund

There is a way to deal with non shipping sellers.
It's mean, but I've done it before and I will probably have to again.
When someone lists something for sale on ebay, they have made a contract that when that Item sells it ships.
If they don't ship, they committed fraud.
Nothing like a sellers local PD calling them or paying a visit. It works.

John E

I have had very few negative experiences as a buyer on eBay, and never with a bicycle-related item, including rims, a frame, pedals, derailleurs, chainrings, freewheels, cogs, chains, brake pads, etc. I do look at a seller's review rating before ordering.

Andy_K 

My wife bought her 1991 Harley Davidson Fat Boy on eBay. She was the only bidder. It was a local pickup deal, and she drove down to California to get it. The seller grumbled about the selling price being too low, but he honored the agreement.

I think most sellers understand the way things work and set their starting bid accordingly. I haven't seen any items with a reserve lately. Did they stop doing that or did sellers just realize that everyone hates it?

WT160

I have those wheels. How do you like them?

icemilkcoffee 

Sounds like you had a good experience on Ebay then

jdawginsc 

They have not been used yet. Just got them today! Will certainly let you know but I have heard they are stiff and a bit heavy, but solid.

Kabuki12

I have a similar story. A few years back I saw these wheels with tires on eBay with an opening bid of $23. I was looking for a set of wheels for my ItalVega that I was finishing up so I put a max bid of $150. I was shocked to get the notice that I won for…..$23! The shipping was $50. The wheels, I believe, were take offs from an old Schwinn Paramount as they matched the description of the wheels that were offered for a 1973 P-13 even down to the spokes. I cleaned them up and the ugly tires (Clement Serra) came up like new , no cracking. The hubs and everything else was almost NOS , except for some marks on the FW from a bad removal attempt, the FW was not tight when I got it. I pumped the tires up to 60 lbs and they held for a couple of weeks only losing a very minor amount of air. The tires looked like they had never seen the road. The Regina Oro FW had the original gearing of the racing versionParamount. I decided that they should go back on a Paramount so I traded them to a BF member for a similar set of clinchers ( thank you pastorbob)to keep the Karma straight.

Hondo6

You might consider it such, but I do not. Even though I didn't lose any money the aggravation and waste of my time was irksome. I don't like being hassled and I also don't like having my time wasted.

I also don't consider being lied to a "good experience". Nor do I consider being solicited to violate eBay's terms of service via an "off the books" sale of an item listed on eBay - which would technically make me a participant in fraud against eBay by helping the seller avoid paying eBay their sales fee - a "good thing", either.

A good eBay experience would have been getting the product I contracted to buy at the agreed on price. In the case in question, that simply didn't happen.

I've had some other cases where there were issues with an eBay transaction - e.g., vendor error, incomplete or defective item, erroneous or misleading listing, etc . . . ; those others were all sorted out amicably. This one wasn't.

Hondo6

That can work if you can determine the seller's name and address in order to give it to their local PD. As far as I can tell that info is not always readily available to eBay buyers.

Schweinhund

It's harder since ebay decided to man in the middle the money., but you can still use your local PD and the auction number. they can get the details for you.

Hondo6

Possibly. But that also meant adding additional cost in terms of wasted time/effort/aggravation to what I'd already "sunk". And in most cases I'm guessing that the first thing the PD will ask is, "Did you try to get your money back from eBay?"

Had I not gotten a refund, that was a possible next step.

Here, eBay's complaint process produced an acceptable result - a refund. Not what I'd really wanted, but acceptable.

One could also go to Federal LE if the vendor is in another state (which was the case in my bad experience). But unless there's serious money involved, "good luck with that". From what I've seen Federal LE doesn't seem to want to do anything much about small-dollar-value economic crimes (even if they're Federal offenses), except maybe to use them as "add-ons" for a pending case for more serious crimes. Plus, that would involve even more lost time/effort/aggravation than going to local LE. And they're also almost certainly going to ask the same question about trying to get a refund.

Bottom line: got my money back, and the questionable seller no longer is on eBay. (My complaint may or may not have been part of the reason, but I did have written documentation of the "off the books" offer of a sale of a listed Item - and shortly afterwards so did eBay.) End result wasn't perfect, but I could live with it.

Aardwolf

I've never actually been ripped off (so far), I think most vendors are trying to be honest.

Case in point: bought some Mafac Racer (long) from somewhere in mid-south France a few weeks back.
I normally buy from UK only, in case of hassle, but I figure there's got to more Mafac brakes in France.

First day of delivery window Ebay says it's been delivered, I check everywhere, no sign of it.
Wait a couple of days and check again, nothing anywhere.
Work out how the tracking reference works and the TNT tracking says it was delivered to Murarrie, Australia.

To trigger the Ebay non-delivery process I would need a login to Ebay france, so I just message the vendor
suggesting they got the tracking number wrong. No reply.

Decide to write it off as a learning experience.

A week later package from France UK customs had delayed it a bit and it was exactly as advertised.
Even better it fits my 1961 Cyclone perfectly.

Left the vendor a good review but a few points down on communication.
Seems fair, my French isn't great, and maybe they don't speak English.

Hondo6

I agree that the overwhelming majority of eBay vendors do appear to be honest, and care about their reputations.

I've ordered a few things on eBay from non-English speaking locations.

If I need to make an inquiry or otherwise contact the vendor, in such a case I'll typically write my message in English, then use Google translate to translate it to the local language. I then send both versions in one message, local language first.

Since Google translate is good but not perfect, I also preface the message with something along the lines of, "This message has been machine-translated; please excuse any unusual wording."

Hondo6

eBay auctions with reserve prices still pop up on eBay occasionally for bikes/parts, but from what I've seen they appear to be pretty rare.

I've never understood why anyone would put an item up for auction on eBay with a reserve price. As I understand it (and I've read their policies, even though I'm not an eBay seller), on a reserve auction the seller gets "dinged" with a sales fee regardless of whether or not the item sells. I want to say that the no-sale fee for an auction with reserve price is smaller than the fee for a sale - but as I recall, it's not zero; it's a percentage of the reserve price.

I've actually seen the same item (Ti time-trial frame) listed repeatedly with a low minimum bid and what was apparently a much higher reserve price. (Stopped following it after a bit, so I don't know if it ever sold or not.) As I understand eBay's sales agreement, the seller would have been dinged for a fee each time it was listed with a reserve price whether or not it sold. IMO that is not a "good deal".

Seems to me a seller can accomplish exactly the same thing (minimum sale price) by simply setting a minimum bid price the lowest price they're willing to accept. (If they're willing to negotiate, they can also enable "Make Offer".) If I understand eBay policies correctly, a seller gets X of that type of listing at zero additional cost per month (X can vary depending on type of account). With a regular listing, also as I understand it eBay gets their sales fee only if/when the item sells. No sale, no fee - it just "burns" one of the available listings for that month.

iab

I'll preface that I have around 800 transactions on ebay. All have been fine, knock on wood. A couple things got lost in the mail, got a refund, no big deal. One item did arrive a couple months later, sent the payment back to the seller, don't even care if they got reimbursed by the shipping company. I go t what I wanted and I pay for what I want.

But in the end, we all make mistakes, I won't throw the first stone.

smd4

Couldn't agree more, especially since I'm usually buying vintage stuff.

Had two bad transactions--both not bike-related, and both from China. Since no tracking numbers were provided after some weeks, after complaints to eBay they simply and without question refunded my money.

jdawginsc 

Patience usually solves the issue. I had a frame from Italy that took a very interesting pathway to get to me, but it was not like I needed it right then at that moment. I laughed about it, the seller and I were trying to find what country it was in, and in the end we had a laugh in Google Italian/English.

Things work out given time and a smile.

Schweinhund

Contacting ebay is always the first step, contacting the PD is the last. It was presented as an option

There's also ICE. I've run across some money laundering on ebay and they are always interested.

Schweinhund

My ebay account is coming up on 25 years old and that may gain me a bit of deference too.
me


Someone is testing the waters so to speak. A high reserve It's a cheap way to get a value on something.

If you see a cheap little item with seemingly stupid shipping fees, thats a flag for laundering.

Stupid fees but not money laundering.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/284290160292?

Hondo6

Doesn't seem particularly cheap to me.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Ask-a-.../td-p/32814200

According to that link, the current eBay fee for listing something with a reserve price is the greater of $5.00 or 7.5% of the reserve price. And if I'm reading their policy correctly, it's due each time the item is listed with a reserve price - whether it sells or not.

For an item with a reserve price of (say) $400, that's a fee of $30 - due each time the item is listed with that reserve price.

For the Ti frame I referenced above I'm pretty sure that the reserve price had to be $300, and possibly significantly more; I believe I recall seeing a bid of $275 or so that didn't meet reserve. I stopped following that auction after the third time it was listed.