DBrown9383

I kinda like the fluffy toy. Do you want to sell it?

vol

Yes. Send me $40 first, and it will be mailed to you.

zacster

Since this thread was revived anyway, I'll say that a feedback rating of 97-98% is NOT a good rating. It is actually really bad. I won't buy from a seller with less than a 99.5% rating, and actually prefer higher. Yes, there are mistakes that are made, but that shouldn't affect your rating if it is fixed. When one in fifty has a bad enough experience to leave a bad rating, you know they aren't really looking to satisfy the customer. I usually allow a little slack from the Chinese sellers only because shipping can be a nightmare and outside their control. I'll look at the negatives and adjust if there are complaints about that.

DBrown9383

I don't want to be scammed. How do I know you won't send me a bike light instead?

ItsJustMe

I rarely even look at the seller's rating. I buy off eBay probably 100 times a year or so (twice a week on average) and have since the first year they were in business, and I've never been scammed even a little. I just went and checked and over half of the people I've bought from in the last year have been < 99.5%, one down around 98%.

Just looking at the ratings, it looks to me like a lower rating is mainly indicative of someone selling the sort of stuff that idiots buy (often used) with high hopes and expectations. They buy something "as is" then rate the seller low when they get it and it doesn't work, or they buy something clearly not suited to their purpose and gripe that they didn't read the description. I see the same thing on Amazon ratings - one star because the idiot is complaining that something that clearly says in the description "not Mac compatible" turned out to be not Mac compatible. Or they rate an item one star because UPS ran over it.

dwmckee

A crafty scammer will do whatever it takes to build a credible persona - long time account, positive feedback, etc. to make the take easier when he goes for it, He has built trust so the scam is easier. He may have had dozens of accounts estabished years ago to pull off his scams.

vol

I am sorry and a bit ashamed to report that I didn't learn my lesson and seem to have fallen victim again. Paid for two flashlights separately, seemingly two different sellers, but both sellers are now shown to be no longer registered users. They were probably the same person(s): both sellers had about 200 feedback, and they opened the account within 2 days from each other (July 9 and July 11, 2014).

The pattern is the same as the last time I saw fraud: multiple frauds around the same time.

This time, they didn't even send me a fluffy toy.

vol

I found another suspicious ebay seller selling similar items, so I checked their "member since...." date. Guess what? Exactly the same date as the scammer that had disappeared from ebay after scamming me and others! This one also has some 200 feedback. I bet with reasonable confidence that it's the same person/group. I think their pattern is, register mulltiple accounts on the same day (or within a span of few days), have some legitimate sales to get positive feedbacks, then after a year or so, abruptly disappear into thin air after many buyers paid for their winning bids. Apparently they are in China.

ItsJustMe

Man, I don't know how you people find these scammers. I buy from eBay, often China vendors, 1 to 5 times a week, have for years, don't even particularly look at the seller's rating, have never been scammed.

Crewchief911

I have used ebay a lot when buying fencing equipment for the place I teach, and for students. I have never had a problem, other than a seller who didn't know anything about fencing, and was selling a jacket from a storage auction she won. It was a women's jacket, but the picture showed a men's jacket. She apologized and offered to take it back and refund my money, but we have young women who take lessons, too, so it worked out.

Falchoon

Some customers have unreal expecatations too. Some expect gold or diamonds for just a few dollars and get upset when the item doesn't arrive from overseas in their postbox two days after ordering. Or it's the wrong shade of blue, slightly lighter or slightly darker than what was shown in the listing photo.

vol

Ordered two bike lights 2 weeks ago. The same day after placing the order, the seller sent me a message:

"Dear valued customer.

We have arranged a small gift to appreciate your order.
The gift and the product you bought were shipped by two separate packages,so it's possible that you receive one package earlier than the other.
Please feel free to contact us via eBay Message or reply to this email directly if any concern,we will be happy to offer help.
Thanks for being one of our customers.

Best Regards."

Yesterday I received a small flat envelope with some plastic pouches. The package has the exact same tracking number as my order, and on the envelope in the "Description of Contents" field is the name of the bike light, with "Qty 2". As a result, in my ebay account, the order status has become "Delivered". I promptly emailed the seller. Their reply:

"Sorry,we sent a free gift to you,the item you bought is sent in another parcel,could you kindly wait it till 25 Dec?"

What kind of seller would voluntarily send a free gift in a separate package from China, and using the tracking number for the supposed package for the actually ordered items so the actual order has no tracking info?

From the seller profile, they've opened the account for exactly 2 years, while most feedback is positive, some negative feedback comments mentioned similar issues. Looks like they use scams sporadically so that they would not be caught.

Sal Bandini

Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.

vol

As said above, the overall rating of this seller is positive, there are some 50,000 feedback, so this looks like a more skilled scammer who only scams every once in a while, in small dollar amounts.

Seller information
99.5% Positive feedback
Member since: Dec-04-15 in China

Some of the negative feedback:

Skipjacks

This is a scam. You're not getting the other package. The feedback they have is almost certainly fake. It's pretty easy to fake seller feedback.

Or you will and it won't be what you ordered, but it will be past the 30 day buyer protection window by then so when you open a dispute they can claim it's been too long since the package was delivered fro you to dispute it.

Open a dispute now saying the item you received was not as described or was the wrong order. If the right item shows up in a few days and you're happy with it...fine. Close the dispute. Otherwise you'll still have opened the dispute during the disputable period.

Sellers are required to ship with tracking. The item you ordered didn't have tracking so the seller is SOL. They've already put in writing that the tracking number was for the wrong item and the right item is untracked.

With eBay, if it smells even a little bit wrong, it's probably a scam.

faulker479

So it's been 4 years and you still don't have lights? LOL.

vol

Totally agree. In fact the seller sent me a new message:

Another 15-45 days! I told them I'll report the fraud practice (quoted to them the previous buyer comments) if they don't refund within 24 hours.

vol

After this most recent scam, I figured out why they send fake items or sometimes an empty envelope: they use the tracking number on the envelope. So when it's delivered, the order status would be updated to "Delivered". If the buyer files a case, the scammer seller will use the tracking info to show the order was delivered. Instead of filing the case under "Never received", the victim buyer should file under "Item not as described".

Fake item: see attached picture.

Been riding in the dark for 4 years... Seriously, between then and now I've had many lights. Most of the ebay orders did go well. I didn't encounter other scams other than the ones mentioned here.

Skipjacks

Just file dispute now.

Make sure you say "item not as described". It's like the cheat code to eBay customer service. And it's accurate. The item you got is not what was described in the listing.

If they offer to send you another whatever you ordered, say no or the scam will reset itself. And it's REALLY hard to file a second dispute when they pull the same stunt again. That scam is that they say they'll send you another if you close the dispute. So you do, and then they send you another empty package that costs them next to nothing because for some odd reason the USPS gives special insanely discounted postage rates to Chinese merchants, making this scam easy and cheap for the scammers. Now your dispute is closed and there will be another 'package delivered' tracking notice. And it's near impossible to reopen a closed dispute.

Don't bother arguing with the scammer. Screw them. They know all the tricks to delay this. Open the dispute. Get eBay to refund you. Leave negative feedback. Walk away.

The seller's account will get shut down after too many of those, then they'll open a brand new one with a few thousand fake feedbacks.

vol

OK...God may exist after all .................

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The bike lights were delivered to me today...... Postmarked in the Netherland. Mailed in November.

I am truly baffled by this seller's psychology. 1. Why would they offer a free gift, not to mention the gift item has zero relevance to the ordered items (the pouches seem to be for keeping remote control handset clean); 2. Why would they mail the free gift separately from the order ("gift" was mailed from China); 3. Why would they send the free gift in an envelope with the tracking number that is for the order, and send the actual order by un-trackable regular mail; 4. Given the previous buyers's comments accusing the seller of committing fraud because of the free gift, why would they continue this dumb practice.

unterhausen

that's pretty interesting. I recently took a chance with an ebay order. For some reason, most of the sellers of the knock-off item I wanted actually charge more than the original, guaranteed not to burn your house down item. But a couple of sellers are selling the knock-off for 1/8 the price of the original. So I took a chance with one of them. No tracking, the box is a little large for that. They sent me a message urging me not to worry if it gets here in 45 days. Not sure about that.

a1penguin

Wow. I don't think I'll be buying from Chinese sellers on ebay! I agree that for sellers with large volue (tens of thousands of sales) 97 or 98 percent gives me pause and it's worth reading some of the complaints.

Anything that says will ship in 45 days and they charge your CC right away is past the 30 days you have to complain. I've only had one bad experience on ebay and I got a refund pretty easily. I've sold a few things on ebay I only had one incident where a package didn't arrive and I was able to resolve the issue with the buyer by providing a different iteam and I tossed in an extra item that was of low enough value to not really be sellable on ebay.

Falchoon

May of been drop shipping ie sent directly from the wholesaler/manufacturer rather than the eBay seller. That way the eBay seller doesn't have to keep any stock. They probably just send the "free gift" as a sweetener hoping to smooth things over.

I've bought stuff from asian sellers on eBay and other asian websites and I've had only one issue with part not arriving (filed a complaint with PP and got my money back withing a few weeks, was <$10 so I wasn't overly worried).

However I did get scammed by 2 different American eBay sellers on bike frames. First one, before the auction ended I contacted him and asked if he would ship it to Australia and how much this would cost. $50 was the answer so I bid and won it, then paid the money including $50 shipping. Then I get a message from him saying the courier company now wants $500 to ship the frame, they made an error with the original quote. The seller apologised and offered me a refund if I wanted but I had my heart set on the frame so sucked it up and paid the extra freight. I thought $50 sounded cheap but I thought maybe the seller had connections in the freight industry and so was getting a good deal and was passing on the cheap price to me.

Number 2 rip-off was another guy selling a different frame. He said he was coming to Australia for some triathlon event in a couple of months and he could bring it with him then if I wanted to wait. Except he was coming to a city in another state, 350km away. I agreed to wait and exchanged a few emails regarding when and where we were going to meet. Meetup was going to be at the hotel he was allegedly staying at. I got there at the agreed time and dcouldn't see him anywhere so asked at the reception desk what room he was staying in (he might have slept in #jetlag). They had no listing of anyone with that name staying there. I was devastated. Didn't know what to do so I hug around for a while in the faint hope he might turn up. After about 15-20 mins he did and had the bike frame with him. I didn't ask why the hotel had no record of him, I just wanted the frame and to go. I quickly checked the frame and it looked to be match the description from eBay so I took it and left (can't recall if I had pre-paid or not, I think I did). Anyway got home and at that stage I was still a few components short to build the bike so it wasn't until a couple of months later when I finally had all the bits and took them all around to my mechanic to get it built when he noticed a crack in frame, where the seatpost clamp is (it was a proprietary one, part of the frame). Looks like someone had overtightened the clamp. I took the frame to several carbon repair places but none of them could fix it and because of the time factor between buying it and finding the crack I could no longer file a dispute with eBay or PP. I emailed the guy seller about it but never heard a response from him (no surprise after the original hotel fiasco) so I was stuck with an expensive and large CF paperweight. It wasn't a huge crack, barely bigger than a hairline so the seller may not of known about it...

I ended up reselling it to a mate for $100 (I paid $550 from memory) after full disclosure and showing him the frame and he built it up and rode it. The frame wan't going to suddenly catastrophically snap in half, worst that would happen is the seatpost would slide down because it couldn't be tightened enough.

unterhausen

I don't know if that is really a rip-off, shipping a frame to Australia really does cost $500. And ebay does a horrible job at estimating shipping. I'm really reluctant to ship anything out of the U.S. unless it's through ebay's global program. I'm sure I'm losing out on some sales, but I know someone who sold something for $400 and ended up paying more than that extra after the fact. So he would have come out ahead to throw it away. Little known bug in the system.

I think I may have bought something from an ebay scammer. Probably have to wait a few more weeks to know for sure. $25 lost is not that big of a deal, but now I'm starting to regret taking a chance.

vol

You can go to Resolution Center to file a claim and get refund if that's the case.