Don't you guys hate it when the seller isn't quite honest?

[Evian]

Nowadays, it seems to be harder to find honest sellers on Ebay. I have gone through hell recently with a few. One guy sold me a vintage jacket from the 40s which he claimed was a size 46. He shipped the jacket to me from Germany. I got it and I couldn't for the life of me put it on. It was actually a size 40. Apparently, being shipped from Germany it lost a few inches on it way to my house. I had another guy on Ebay sell me a vintage jacket from the 30s which he claimed was in mint condition. The photos were breathtaking. When it arrived it didn't even look like the jacket I had ordered. It came with a nice 7 inch rip in the leather clearly visible from 10 feet away. The photos showed a jacket with a beautiful patina this jacket looked like someone used a brillo pad on it. Luckily for me I used Paypal to pay for all these nightmares. I almost lost my money with the jacket from Germany. I was told my Paypal to ship the jacket back to the seller and get a tracking number. I went to the USPS and shipped it back. I asked them to give me the tracking number. I was told by the agent there that the number on the receipt was the tracking number (not true it was the custom number). Paypal refused to reimburse me for the jacket because USPS had given me a custom number. Even when the seller sent me an email stating that he had the jacket back Paypal refused to credit me my money. Luckily for me the seller was somewhat honest. He offered me my money back but not the shipping costs that I had incurred originally. Paypal knows that USPS does this (gives custom numbers not tracking numbers) but it doesn't warn it customers not to use USPS. If they would have warned me ahead of time I would have shipped it FedEx. In the end (3 months later) I got my money back. How about you guys any problems with sellers?

 

[yar]

One guy sold me a vintage jacket from the 40s which he claimed was a size 46. He shipped the jacket to me from Germany. I got it and I couldn't for the life of me put it on. It was actually a size 40. Apparently, being shipped from Germany it lost a few inches on it way to my house.

Maybe the german seller was honest or it was just a misunderstanding between you and him, the german 46 jacket size is approximately the american/uk 36 I think thats not a coincidence. Here is a converter: http://www.asknumbers.com/ClothingMensConversion.aspx

 

[Forrest]

Ebay can be a real roll of the dice. I accept that going into any purchase. It is a little like gambling. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. I've won big on ebay, but I have also lost big too. It is the nature of the beast. That said, some sellers are far better than others. The good ones should be easy to spot, as they tend to be experts on whatever niche items they are offering, have very good photographs of the actual items for sale, have excellent feedback, and tend to command higher prices. If you are buying from a relatively new seller who doesn't quite know what he or she has, whose photos are crap, and who has little feedback to look at, well, you are taking a chance. Sometimes you can really score, and other times you get burned. Part of the excitement, I guess.

 

[ButteMT61]

Ebay can be a real roll of the dice. I accept that going into any purchase. It is a little like gambling. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. I've won big on ebay, but I have also lost big too. It is the nature of the beast. That said, some sellers are far better than others. The good ones should be easy to spot, as they tend to be experts on whatever niche items they are offering, have very good photographs of the actual items for sale, have excellent feedback, and tend to command higher prices. If you are buying from a relatively new seller who doesn't quite know what he or she has, whose photos are crap, and who has little feedback to look at, well, you are taking a chance. Sometimes you can really score, and other times you get burned. Part of the excitement, I guess.

I've been on eBay since 1999. Same with my wife. Together we have ~1000 transactions. Doing due diligence, we've only had 2-3 issues in all that time. Emails, feedback, etc. are all good ways to fish out bad sellers. Also, using paypal, we got refunded when we did have an issue. It's very much in favor of buyers now.
Did the OP even try to communicate with hte seller? I bet it was indeed a Euro vs US sizing issue. Not a lie. Just my 2 cents.

 

[deluxestyling]

Like just about everybody here I buy and occasionally sell on ebay so you get to see both sides of the coin as well as the good and the bad in people...

The biggest problem is communication. As a seller you have to be right on the ball and make sure every little detail is spelled out so there's no misunderstandings. Likewise as a buyer you have to have a good look at the description and pictures to try and work out if there's anything the seller has left out to try and reduce the chances of getting caught out.

Just last week I had this experience buying on ebay. Bought a nice Tanker jacket from a seller in Thailand, great item, 100% happy except for the postage cost. They charged $37 turned out the actual cost was $21.76 that's $15.24 too much! I emailed saying thanks for the great item but did they make a mistake with the postage costs. They said they'd refund no problem and $10 was offered then $12. I wasn't bartering I simply replied please refund whatever you think is right mentioning the over charge is $15.24. I said that if they had extra expenses with postage that's fine just say so but they never said they did. In the end a $12 refund was given. I'm sure the language barrier didn't help but they did have good written English and the replies were quick and courteous. Alls well that ends well I guess!

 

[andy richards]

I am very sorry to hear about your bad experience on ebay, Evian.
For almost one decade I am on the ebay and never had any negative experience. Whenever I buy or sell on ebay, I contact the buyer/seller and ask or provide as much information as I can. Also I ask always for a confirmed Paypal adress and full name.
Cheers and good luck,
Andy

 

[Mr Badger]

Yep, it drives me mad. Recently, I got stiffed for a really knackered and stinky vintage varsity jacket (see FL thread here) and only ended up getting half my money back. Even though the Ebay refund thing is slanted more in favour of the buyer, you still have to jump thru hoops. In the end, I weighed up the whole rigmarole of posting the jacket back and decided to settle for it costing me $30 to find out that the seller was an idiot. I've bought absolutely tons of things off Ebay over the years and this is only the third thing I've had a problem with...

 

[brspiritus]

I've been on E-bay since before they went public, in that time I've had 2 bad transactions, one which eventually involved the FBI (mail fraud). Of the 6 items I've purchased in the last month all were perfectly described and shipping charges were in line with actual cost.

 

[apba1166]

I've had issues. It's a gamble, but as others have said a small one. Over a couple hundred purchases, everything from work equipment to car parts to clothes, I've had four or five bad ones. Two involved fraud sellers (lists an item too good to be true, item never shows, got money back after 2 months of ebay procedures), the other similar. The other instances were just misrepresentation, two I sent back, got full refund w/postage and the other I kept and took 75% refund (one was a fake, the other two just terribly misrepresented). I've found the best way now is to ask several questions about the item, this also leaves a paper trail for ebay in case there are problems later. Mark

 

[ace12]

I have been an ebay buyer for a little over 5 years and only recently I ran into a dishonest
seller. He seemed to be very responsive until I sent my payment . No matter how many emails i sent, the seller would not respond! I knew there was nothing I could do but to keep my fingers crossed, hopefully the postman would knock on my door! During this slow, painful period I was constantly checking on the seller's feedback looking for any clues that would lead me to further actions - until one day, i saw the first -ve feedback left by other buyer, the second the next day and the third until 6 -ve feedback in total! Luckily I had paypal covered and was able to claim 100%. Just a gentle reminder to you all, apparantly the seller has opened a new account under the name aarfai86 right now, selling a perfecto 613 (which was the same item i paid for) for a buy it now price of $399. Beware and good luck to all the genuine buyers and sellers of ebay!

 

[scottyrocks]

Ive been using ebay for years. In all that time, the hugely overwhelming majority of transactions have been positive. A couple were could be termed 'honest' mistakes, and a couple were out and out misrepresentations.

Dont just look at a seller's feedback rating. Set the feedbacks at 200/page and scroll through about 10 pages of feedbacks, stopping to read the red dot negatives. Sometimes the buyers are wrong. And sometimes they form a pattern where the seller keeps repeating a bad business practice. Those are the ones where my red flags go up and I stay away.

 

[Edward]

I've been on eBay since 2002, with very few problems. Most people out there are honest. The difficulties I find are less often dishonesty and more often outright ignorance. The number of sellers who genuinely think that because a jacket measures 42" round the chest it is a size 42 is unbelievable. Makes me wonder whether they're all wandering around with jackets in which they cannot move, or if they're all two sizes smaller than they think!!

Maybe the german seller was honest or it was just a misunderstanding between you and him, the german 46 jacket size is approximately the american/uk 36 I think thats not a coincidence. Here is a converter: http://www.asknumbers.com/ClothingMensConversion.aspx

Sounds right. I've learned to be careful with this one.

 

[Fletch]

Probably more than one kind of ignorance operating at a time. Much of the military-related stuff is in the hands of reenactors, who have a well-established tradition of stuffing themselves into clothes several sizes too small.

 

[ButteMT61]

Probably more than one kind of ignorance operating at a time. Much of the military-related stuff is in the hands of reenactors, who have a well-established tradition of stuffing themselves into clothes several sizes too small.

The clothing is fine, it's the reenactors that are 2-5 sizes too large!