Bloody Ebay!!

T

thanatu55

Senior member
I'll cut to the chase, this is a rant to let off some steam, so most of you may want to skip straight past this one and get on with your day/night.

So I just made my first ever sale on ebay... well, I thought I did.

I had my old facelift bumper for sale. It's been up in the buy and sell section here, on Facebook and on Ebay. First of all I got a very quick offer on Facebook, £300 pending a viewing that week. Not bad, I was ecstatic. So sure in fact was I that the viewing wouldn't be an issue, after all the bumper is in great nick and comes with all the extra's, that I rather hastily assumed the sale and put off other potential suitors. Rooky mistake, the buyer never turned up.

So I get to the last day of the listing on ebay, and to my surprise there is a hefty bidding war breaking out, culminating in £601. Six hunderd and one bloody pounds!!! I was ecstatic at £300, imagine what I'm feeling now. So I sent a cheerful message to the winning bidder thanking them for their business and asking whether they planned to collect or would require me to arrange a courier. No reply came.

I left it to simmer, no point pestering the poor guy, it's your first sale Jay don't look too eager. The guy will reply in his own time, just keep thinking what those six hundred can do for you. Three days it took! Three days to recieve a one line answer "I'll be in the UK for Easter, could pick it up then". Sorry what now? Easter? It's the second week of February, the bumper sold three days ago... Easter?

So I said politely to the guy, whom I naively expected to have been in the UK anyway, Easter is in April, it's February... I'll happily hold on to the bumper for you until then if you want, but I can't wait that long for payment. Again I was met with a wall of silence. Another two days go by and I'm getting agitated now, but not to be too disrespectful I sent another quick message 'Can you advise on payment please?'. Straight away I got a reply this time, "I'll pay cash on collection". No! Who the hell is this guy? No discussion or anything, I'm being dictated to and not even in great detail. Who's to say this guy will even turn up in a month and a half's time? Meanwhile I've turned away even more potential suitors, sure this time that I have a sale. Now was time to set out my stall, the end of the lot was this time, the sale was this time, payment is due at this time... Well now we're back to silence.

That initial rush of pure elation from the point of that sale to the sniveling snarling Mr Hyde that I have become this very minute!

I'm looking for a way to contact ebay, no email address, no phone number... nothing. Just some set options to click through safe in the knowledge that nothing will be done. I can report the buyer, ok done. I can open an unpaid item case, ok done. Then I see that chat symbol in the bottom corner of the page, and somehow I get through to a real life ebay person! What do they advise? Report the buyer and open an unpaid item case.

Thanks. For. That.

What sweet injustice is this? I want blood! I want his co-ordinates and a big red button! I want the names of his wife and children!

But for now all I can do is sit, head in hands. Staring at that stupid bloody bumper. :headbang:
 
I never bother with eBay anymore, it's too expensive to advertise, the PayPal fees will rob you and to top it off as you've unfortunately found out people are out to simply waste your time or want something for nothing.

Tim.
 
I've used eBay hundreds of times and I think it's really good. I've also had encounters with idiots but it's only been a very small percentage.

Now you've opened a case you won't get charged any fees. Get the bumper relisted straight away and get it sold mate :thumbsup:
 
plus you can cancel the transaction - resist and ban that particular bidder. I think you can also ban non UK bidders too.

its not always that bad, I've had mostly good experiences but bought some junk and suffered ghost buyers occasionally
 
You have 2 options...

You can select “Second chance” in My ebay - Sold - Listing drop down menu which will sell your bumper to the second highest bidder.

Or

Re-list as Buy It Now / Best Offer listing. I would advertise at £600 if that’s the price it reached at auction.

When you receive offers check out the buyers location & recent buyer feedback before accepting or counter-offering.

GLWS
 
Very rarely sell on eBay these days but when I do I always stipulate that I will only deal with UK addresses and that payment must be made within 3 working days otherwise I will report and re list.

I don’t even email winning bidders anymore as it’s a waste of time.
 
Have bought and sold thousands of items on ebay, you will get the idiots and all the above advice is good. Now when selling abroad, you send your item to a UK address and from there, it is dispatched abroad, so much easier now.
Block the buyer and carry on Jay :thumbsup:
 
I'm sure you can still message ebay and request a call back - I did this last year and got a real person on the phone in under five minutes.

I've only had non payers on Clio and Focus parts - say no more!
 
Crazy Harry said:
I'm sure you can still message ebay and request a call back - I did this last year and got a real person on the phone in under five minutes.

I've only had non payers on Clio and Focus parts - say no more!
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You can also live chat with them, this is handy and I have sorted a few issues. I was given negative feedback (1st ever) from a right tosser of a buyer who totally dicked me around.
Through live chat, the negative feedback was removed and he was banned..result :thumbsup:
 
I never sell anything on ebay anymore. Buying is fine. You have a lot more protection as a buyer on there nowadays, especially when using paypal.

I bought some suspension on the 1st February from Demon Tweeks on ebay. 12 days later, they still hadn't turned up. I Messaged Demon Tweeks through ebay and didn't receive any reply. Bit odd for such a big name.

I then opened up a case through ebay stating i hadn't received the item and received a full refund within 2 days.

Shame Demon Tweeks didn't even have the decency to reply to my message. It seems they hadn't even bothered sending the parcel out, so they can't hide behind the ''lost in the post'' excuse.
 
Don’t despair on a first sale experience.
Remember greed got you too. The bumper is not worth £600, so the bidder was never going to pay it and you’re a zero sale feedback so you look like a fraudster to buyer too. Not being personal that’s the way it is
I have purchased/sold at least 750 items in a decade and perhaps a dozen have been an issue. eBay always step in and refund directly as I use PayPal. I get access to the whole country and can buy things I’d never find locally
Fantastic business model and service
 
I've found Psitonheads or even Guntree alot better, e-bay just seems to attract complete idiots, I think these people deliberately bid and not pay as they get a kick out of it and then create another account and carry on making peoples life a misery. All depends if you have the time to open disputes and go through the arsing about.

I remember trying to sell some AC Schnitzer alloys for 900 quid and I think I sold them twice over and opened disputes, the third time a chap offered me 400 then 300 and said he coud come there and then to collect, when I explained the lowest I would take was 800 I received a few days of bullying e-mail abuse. Eventually sold them on Pistonheads to a really nice chap with a 3 series touring who travelled 250 miles to collect them on a snowy day.

Only ever buy bits and bobs off ebay now or if car related from franchised dealers.

Tim.
 
I've bought on ebay for years but never sold on it before. I have 100% positive feedback as a buyer, I even have 100% positive feedback as a seller now since this joker has written on mine as received in good condition and marked the item as paid.

I checked the guy's feedback since he only had four, and he had 100% positive feedback. However his feedback read as 'SCAMMER!', 'Time Waster' and a few expletives that I will leave to the imagination. Apparently sellers can't leave negative feedback, so despite warnings from previous sellers they are masked as positive experiences.

I have offered the second bidder a second chance offer but no reply there either, so my guess is both profiles were in it together for the laugh. Sure the bumper is definitely not worth £600, even I was shouting at the screen urging them to stop bidding. But it would have been nice not to have been messed about first time round. Ebay says I can relist the item after five days or something so it will be going back up again soon. Fingers crossed this time!
 
I did want to say something when I saw you mention it on Mos’ bumper sale thread but I didn’t want to piss on your party. I could foresee a non-payer as the price had gone a bit too high.

It’s very frustrating, wastes an 2 weeks readvertising and you risk being messed about again.

Maybe best putting a buy it now ad up at a price you are happy with and use that as a negotiation point. It’s too easy for someone to just bid and not buy.
 
Agree re the ‘buy now’ option as a good way to go

Think of a price for something you’d be happy at, or above if you’re not fussed or rushed to sell
People who need something will buy and pay in hours and collect it have it mailed pronto. If higher they can make offers and negotiate.
I also like to buy with buy now prices as I don’t have to wait for days to see what something goes for. In fact I only esnipe these days so no need to wait and bid
 
cj10jeeper said:
Agree re the ‘buy now’ option as a good way to go

Think of a price for something you’d be happy at, or above if you’re not fussed or rushed to sell
People who need something will buy and pay in hours and collect it have it mailed pronto. If higher they can make offers and negotiate.
I also like to buy with buy now prices as I don’t have to wait for days to see what something goes for. In fact I only esnipe these days so no need to wait and bid
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I'm in complete agreement with this, I only ever 'Buy Now' or at the last second. I don't quite get the whole ebay concept, why bid a week before the item sells? Surely all you're doing is putting the price up a week too early? Seems like a fundamental flaw in the business model. Great for the seller, completely pointless for the buyer. If I bid 20 seconds before an item ends I'm pretty much guaranteed to get the item at the price I bid for it unless someone has put a buffer on their bid to go as high as a pre-determined figure.

Some might call it underhand, I just think it's logical. :|
 
Likewise, I always place my one and only (max) bid about 3 seconds before the end, usually does the trick. Regarding the bumper, was the 2nd highest bidder at a more "realistic" price? If so, as above, I'd send a second chance offer.

Mike
 
Ducklakeview said:
Likewise, I always place my one and only (max) bid about 3 seconds before the end, usually does the trick. Regarding the bumper, was the 2nd highest bidder at a more "realistic" price? If so, as above, I'd send a second chance offer.

Mike
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Second highest bidder was over the £500 mark. I sent a second chance offer but no reply there either, my guess is they were both in it together to get the price as high as possible. I wanted around £300 and had plenty of interest at that figure but these two have cost me a probable sale at a realistic figure. I think as suggested I'll just sell it as a Buy it Now at £300.
 
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