Been ripped off when buying on eBay?

+Chimpy+

Have you had a bad experience or been ripped off buying goods on an internet auction website such as eBay, eBid, Tazbar or CQout? Maybe you’ve tried to buy something that turned out to be faulty, the item wasn’t what you expected, or didn’t arrive at all.

How much money did you lose? How did you react? What did you try to do about it?

If you’ve had a bad buying experience, TheSite.org is looking for someone to interview for an audio podcast on buying rights when using internet auction websites.

If interested, please send me a private message with a contact email and a short description of your bad experiences.

Many thanks,
Chris Chapman.

Former Member

Plenty.

Refurbished mouse. Cost £17 (RRP £35 so thought I was saving a few quid), postage £10. Arrived, very very obviously broken, it was rattling inside and it would not connect to the PC citing corrupt device. Sent back (for £3), only received a partial refund as they claimed there was a restocking fee and did not refund the postage either way. I ended up around £15 out of pocket.

Former Member

I bought (in my naivety) a "MAC" eyeshadow pallette from eBay for about £15-20 (bargain, I thought, since their eyeshadows RRP at £10 each). Since found out it was fake, because it was crappy crappy quality. Bought what I think is a fake pigment from there too but I can't remember how much it cost, and it's not terrible so I can deal with it.

Former Member

In year 2002, I bought several trading cards from an eBay auction in the States that didn't turn up. My loss was £8.24 including p&p so it wasn't a big deal for me. I did use the "ask the seller a question" feature. I got a prompt response saying that an identical set of items will be re-shipped, again, not turning up. When I asked the seller for a second time, it turned out that their eBay account got closed, so they probably got reported by other unlucky buyers.

Other than that, I rate eBay and I've been using it since year 2001.

Former Member

Monserrat wrote: »

In year 2002, I bought several trading cards from an eBay auction in the States that didn't turn up. My loss was £8.24 including p&p so it wasn't a big deal for me. I did use the "ask the seller a question" feature. I got a prompt response saying that an identical set of items will be re-shipped, again, not turning up. When I asked the seller for a second time, it turned out that their eBay account got closed, so they probably got reported by other unlucky buyers.

Other than that, I rate eBay and I've been using it since year 2001.

Ooooh, I had a seller have their account closed on an item I'd won as well. Fortunately I hadn't paid for them yet but it was still annoying .

Former Member

I've had a seller who only took cheque. I sent him a cheque for about £80 and then he disappeared. Never saw my money or heard from him again . And he ripped off about 4 other people too cos i started messaging people who'd won his items

Former Member

paid £35 to a US seller for a pair of converse and then never heard from him, emailed him twice too.

Former Member

Didn't you do a dispute to eBay/PayPal (If you payed with PP)?
I've only ever bought one thing of eBay, that was a pack of 50 tounge bars and 5 flashy vibrating ones :P I thought I was being ripped off, because it was about 2 weeks after the date I should have received it.

Former Member

I'm famous!

http://www.thesite.org/homelawandmoney/money/budgetandbuy/internetauctionbuying

Download the audio and listen to my very camp sounding voice.

Former Member

I bought a DVD which never arrived, so I went through the dispute thing and they got closed down and I got my money back :yippe: That was probably about 4 years ago.