Seeking opinons and knowledge on E-bay.

[Brucep]

I closed my E-bay account a couple of years ago. Too many political issues with the company for my tastes. I see a LOT of links for AS adds on E-bay leading me to wonder about the horrors some may have found dealing with Paypal-E-bay (same company).

I have two friends that have lost significant sums of money, one on E-bay motors (paypal) another on the general E-bay site (paypal again). I am very hesitant to reopen an account with E-bay, so I am looking for wisdom.


What say you about ebay and ebay motors in particular.

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by Brucep

I closed my E-bay account a couple of years ago. Too many political issues with the company for my tastes. I see a LOT of links for AS adds on E-bay leading me to wonder about the horrors some may have found dealing with Paypal-E-bay (same company).

I have two friends that have lost significant sums of money, one on E-bay motors (paypal) another on the general E-bay site (paypal again). I am very hesitant to reopen an account with E-bay, so I am looking for wisdom.


What say you about ebay and ebay motors in particular.

Feedback about e-bay from many of our customers gives e-bay a rating of 95 to 5.

95 percent e-bay won.

5 percent they won.

One out of 20 odds, for a buyer, I think, speaks (stinks) for itself.

Yes, I have been a victim of paypal fraud myself. Never again.

Andy

[Jim & Susan]

Just out of curiousity, what type of Pay-pal fraud have y'all experienced? I've never bought or sold on E-bay or used a Pay-pal account.

Jim

[SteveH]

My personal experience is good, both with EBAY and PayPal. I've not sold anything on EBAY Motors, but lots of small stuff, both bought and sold. I've also used PayPal quite a bit, both to pay for items, and to receive payment, with no problems.

I too would be interested in hearing about any problems or fraud concerning PayPal because I still have a small amount of money there.

[AirHeadsRus]

I pay with PayPal a lot and have never had any problems. A lot of folks I deal with use it and it makes things easy for me.
I have not used them for me to get paid though.

[Ag&Au]

I have had a lot experience with PayPal and Ebay. If you don't want to get bit, you have to read and understand the rules that govern buyers and sellers. Buyers think the rules favor sellers, and sellers think the rules favor buyers. If you understand the rights and obligations of both sellers and buyers, it is a very save place to do business. If you go just go into it blind, you WILL get stung sooner or later.

Regards,

Ken

[WineStream]

I've had an eBay and PayPal account for years. I've bought and sold on eBay. I'm by no means a commerical seller or anything, just found a need to sell something to a larger audience or to find something. As it stands now, I have a daily list of airstream items emailed to me so that I can keep up on things that I don't really need, but might want to buy.

You can have the same issues I think with Craigslist (probably more so!) or even the local papers. I think there's some general rules to follow when looking at something on eBay, craigslist, or anywhere else. Such as: the person's description of the item. If it's one or two sentences and they are written with poor grammar and leave you wondering what the heck the person really has for sale...stay away from it. If you contact the person by email and they write something back that is again of the same style of writing or totally don't answer your question...another red flag. For something high-cost or that requires a large amount of trust, demand a phone number. Call, talk, converse, get a feel for the seller before you plunk down $5000. Make them send you tons of pictures. If they are for real, they will comply.

On the seller side of things, you need to watch out for people that are willing to pay you your full amount no questions asked or that are just all to willing to do whatever you ask. I was recently trying to sell a pickup truck on autotrader.com and on craigslist. I remember this one guy calling me from "Florida" and telling me that he wanted to come and pay me full asking price for the truck because he was going to take it to Jamaica because he could sell it for so much more there. He was willing to come anyday, anytime. I didn't so much as give him my address. I later traced his phone no. to a cell phone out of SC. I mean really, who would buy a 20 year old truck from Ohio (salt, rust) to take to Jamaica when he's already in FL (lots of cars with no rust!). Trying to sell the same truck...another caller from NC...I couldn't even understand the guy. He told me he'd call back, then later the same day the same number called again, but a totally different voice.

Bottom line: I don't blame eBay or PayPal or craigslist or autotrader. Just like with buying something from your neighbor, you have to be aware and know how to smell a rat and keep yourself out of trouble. Buyer beware. I wouldn't hesitate to suggest getting a new eBay account. But don't expect eBay to protect you from people selling something they don't have or from people trying to buy something you have with bogus money.

[garry]

I have used PayPal at sites other than e-bay thinking it is safer than giving out CC information.
Anyone have any specific information on the danger of using PayPal instead of CC?

[Ag&Au]

Originally Posted by garry

I have used PayPal at sites other than e-bay thinking it is safer than giving out CC information.
Anyone have any specific information on the danger of using PayPal instead of CC?

I use it a lot for the reason you mentioned. One less place for your cc info to be on file. However, if you want to cancel or change an order it can become a little more complicated, but still doable.

Ken

[NJtoNC]

as a web designer, it didnt take more than 3 months of me using paypal to get defrauded. a partner of one of the companies i did some work for got in an argument w/ his partner over $$ and reported his Credit card stolen in order to get back his $5k paypal payment to me (b/c he couldnt get the $$ from his partner), 2 weeks after the work was completed. mind you, this wasn't just a $5k loss - it cost me 40+ hours of work and staying up all nite and paying out over $3500 in subcontractors. I sued them in small claims but as they were an LLC i want able to actually recover the $$. i had a 1" thick stack of papers proving my side, but paypal didnt care. they said, "read our T&C's. we dont care".

[Ag&Au]

Originally Posted by Jim & Susan

Just out of curiousity, what type of Pay-pal fraud have y'all experienced? I've never bought or sold on E-bay or used a Pay-pal account.

Jim

Here is an example:

People will bid on an item that they know they can resell. Then they will claim to have not received it. If you have not shipped it via a method that provides delivery confirmation, PayPal will take the buyers word that it was not received. If the sale price is over $250.00, the item must be shipped via a method that provides for the buyers signature on receipt.

Here is an example of an experience that happened to me selling a project car on EBay Motors.
I described the car as honestly as possible, including a multitude of pictures. I strongly recommend that the prospective buyers either inspect it or have someone inspect it. Winning buyer(several states away) bid at last second without ever attempting to contact me with any questions.

He drove all the way to pick it up with a trailer rather than having it shipped. He then started to nickle and dime things about the vehicle and attempting to get me to lower the price. He was picking at things that were clearly mentioned in the listing. When the items in the listing were pointed out to him, his response was that he didn't read it that close. I finally told him that he either take it for the price he bid or he could drive home without it and I would refund his deposit. He took the car. Just the way he conducted himself and his past bidding on EBay ( this was a few years ago when you could see who was bidding) led me to belief that this was something he probably did as a routine.

On the other hand, when I sold our SOB travel trailer a year ago on EBay, several prospective buyers called and emailed with questions including the eventual winning bidder. Four people who lived close enough came to look at it. The end result was I got several thousand dollars more that I was expecting and the winning bidder was tickled pink. He has emailed me as late as this spring to tell me how much he is enjoying it.

On the other hand, I purchased an antique car on EBay, and had it shipped to me. When it arrived I was disappointed in some of the things about it. I had talked to the seller a few times and read the listing thoroughly before bidding. However, it was obvious as I thought about it that my only problems were in the definition of some subjective adjectives. I didn't really get burnt as the car has now appreciated to way more than I paid for it just sitting in storage. The lesson I learned was never agree to buy something that is a large investment without either I or someone I have a great deal of trust in inspecting it.

Regards,

Ken

[Aviator]

I have purchased a lot of smaller items from ebay in the past. Most for the restoration of a '68 Mustang. During the process, I opened a PayPal account. I have been very happy with both. I even used PayPal to send my support payment to Airforums!

[Rawfoodgirl3]

My experience with Paypal WAS great until I was charged twice for two Skype charges which I did not make (I have never used Skype). Paypal has terrible customer service when you have a problem, and, I fear, serious internal security issues. I signed an affidavit at my bank to stop Paypal from drawing from my account for the two charges (or any other charges that I did not initiate). I was sent a letter from a collection company. I notified the collection company that I would not pay for these charges and have not heard from them since. My bank suggested opening a separate bank account for Paypal only with a minimal amount of $. Also, Ebay owns Paypal and Skype! I no longer have a Paypal account. I suggest that everyone watch their accounts closely. I did sell a van on Ebay to The Netherlands. Ebay charges $125 selling fee plus the listing fee. I was paid by wire transfer (again I opened a new bank account and when the $ was received...the $ was transfered to another account).


Ellen

[Inland RV Center, In]

I paid over $400.00 for some parts I never received.

Asking for a refund was useless.

Paypals answer, the dealer says the parts are on back order.

I have better things to do than fight with paypal. I can write it off. Regular buyers, can't do that.

Andy

[Mikethefixit]

I have used both PayPal and Ebay without problems.
MY I HUMBLEY SUGGEST. If you are looking for an AS on EBAY,PLEASE be able to reach out and touch it. Our AS was on both AIR Classifieds and Ebay. It was within a days drive,so I was able to go and inspect it first hand.
IF you cant do as I did <<<<< RUN>>>
The scammers are out there and will git ya.
There has been the same trailer advertized on CraigsList in four different corners of the country at the same time
SO BEWARE.
REMEMBER///If it sounds to good to be true /It probably isn't.
GOOD LUCK

[Brucep]

I appreciate the input. I will not re-register at ebay, the losses of my friends is in the multiple thousands, I won't take that risk.

Paypal has access to your account(s), at any time they can freeze your money and take money from your bank, it happens every day, you do not have recourse, I can't risk that type of loss.

I guess I will keep an eye on Craigslist for local AS trailers for sale. Even there I found fraud already, for a AS in Charleston WV. It is truly sad this great country has so many dishonest people in it.

[overlander63]

Originally Posted by Brucep

I guess I will keep an eye on Craigslist for local AS trailers for sale. Even there I found fraud already, for a AS in Charleston WV. It is truly sad this great country has so many dishonest people in it.

Many of the dishonest people are overseas, and take advantage of the International nature of the internet. There is even computer software available that allows you to spam (and scam) Craiglist and others.

[fotochop]

I have used both successfully but you should be super diligent. I don't think I'd buy a big-ticket item on ebay, but for selling (and buying) obscure items I think ebay is very good. I had some strobe and darkroom gear that I would have never been able to sell locally and did so on ebay for good money. I think its important, as a seller, to offer a money back guarantee to legitimate buyers.

[Ganglin]

I buy, and to a smaller extent sell, on Ebay all the time and have for years. A couple problems with parts over the years that were never delivered but Paypal refunded my money. Agree with those who say you just need to be careful. I only use Amex for my account so I have their fraud protection also. Paypal keeps wanting to link a backup CC and the bank account but we've always refused to do that.

[Jammer]

In olden times (my eBay account was registered in 1998) I sold two keyboards for around $1000 each, and was paid by wire transfer, and everything went fine. Hundreds of other smaller transactions went well too.

I have not been active on eBay since they started requiring paypal to be used for most transactions.

Paypal have a highly mechanical means of dealing with any disagreement. Both buyers and sellers can get burned. Ebay and paypal have made a conscious decision to provide no customer service, to speak of, and it is impossible to get a real person to review the specifics of a case and do something sensible.

Fraudulent listings, fraudulent bidding practices, and payment fraud are all widespread and so if you're selling something with real value or that can be readily resold you have to watch your back every minute and build in some losses to your business model.