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Negative Ebay Experience

endustry

By endustry
in Customer Forum

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endustry

endustry

Posted
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Just wanted to share a negative experience I just had.

 

A seller claiming to be based in St. Louis with the username 'jeleeteresa' sells "brand new condition" Konica 50mm f/1.2 m-mount Hexanon lenses on the site. After selling my M8, I had a little money to play with so I went for it. Well, turns out the guy is based in Korea and sells used lenses marketed as new. Mine arrived today with a dirty rear element, missing accessories and a a display case with stains on it.

 

He and I had been discussing the deal all week (I had been wondering why it was taking over a week to deliver a $2000+ lens from St. Louis to New York without tracking and found out today when it arrived from Korea.) He proved to be a pretty stubborn guy refusing to admit any wrongdoing whatsoever. After the lens arrived I decided I would give him "neutral" feedback as a warning which he replied to with more indignation. He also claimed the lens he was selling to me was his last copy and then posted another ad for another copy a few days later which was also apparently his "last." This ad had an identical description and also featured 3 of the same pictures he claimed were photos of the lens that he sold me!

 

In our final exchange, I suggested he stop describing used product as being in "brand new condition" and he responded to this by editing the ad for his current 50 1.2 and putting the word "new" in all caps.

 

I'm not a very vindictive person but this was a truly shady deal and simply want to share my experience with others. Make what you will of my side of the story.

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wattsy

wattsy

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I'm not a very vindictive person but this was a truly shady deal and simply want to share my experience with others. Make what you will of my side of the story.

 

I'm not sure why you gave neutral feedback if you were unhappy with the deal. Isn't that the whole point of having the option of negative feedback?

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JT07

JT07

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So sorry to hear of your frustration and bad experience.

 

As someone who is a power seller on ebay, it really bothers me when people like your seller give the market place a poor name. I've sold dozens of M's over the years and more lenses then I can remember and never once disappointed a customer. It's a shame someone gives the whole community a bad name.

 

Did you pay for it via paypal? If so, I wonder if paypal has some kind of seller protection available. Did you check there? I hope they have some recourse to help you.

 

I'm glad you "outed him" here, I hope everyone reads your post and ignores this seller.

 

JT

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JT07

JT07

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I just found this on paypal....

 

Did you pay him with paypal I hope? Good luck, JT

 

  1. 13.1 Buyer Protection Programs. If you buy an item using PayPal and either do not receive the item or receive an item that you believe is Significantly Not as Described by the seller, we encourage you to open a Dispute with the seller in our Resolution Center. By doing so, you will initiate our Online Dispute Resolution Process—a step-by-step system designed to facilitate communication between you and the seller in order to get resolution of the issue. If your dialogue with the seller fails to produce a satisfactory result, you can then escalate the Dispute into a Claim that we will evaluate for reimbursement under one of the following programs:

    2. PayPal Buyer Complaint Policy - Our best efforts program to reimburse Users for losses only to the extent we are able to recover the funds from sellers.
    3. PayPal Buyer Protection Policy - Our program to reimburse Users for losses for up to (i) $2,000.00 USD (Top Tier Coverage Amount) for eligible items purchased on eBay and (ii) up to $200.00 USD (Basic Tier Coverage Amount) for all other eligible items purchased on eBay and for eligible items purchased on eBay. Please see section 13.9 to determine whether Top Tier Coverage Amount or Basic Tier Coverage Amount applies to your eBay purchase.
    4. Buyer Protection for eBay Express - Our program to reimburse Users for the full amount of losses for items purchased on eBay Express.
    5. Extended Buyer Protection with PayPal Credit - Our program to reimburse Users for the full transactional amount of the items purchased using PayPal Credit.

These programs only cover payments for tangible, physical goods. All other payments, such as payments for intangibles, services, airline flight tickets, Classified Ads on eBay or licenses and other access to digital content are not covered by any Buyer Protection Program that we offer (but may be covered by Chargeback rights).

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abrewer

abrewer

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I was going to mention the PayPal protection of $2K but it's plain to see above

 

You definitely should copy and paste your post here into an email to eBay, and to PayPal (even though they're the same company now)

 

Finally, put up a blurb on the list at Photo.net:

Postings by Merchant

 

The link to post a new note is at the bottom of this long, long list (Ctl-End for the PC user)

 

:cool:

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JHAG

JHAG

Posted
Posted

If you paid through Paypal, you're definitely protected.

I had a (rare) similar misgiving with a seller which sent

me a dirty and pretty dented smartphone after misrepresenting

it as "mint".

1. I sent him one mail of warning, to which he replied in a

tone I wouldn't dare to reproduce here

2. Complaint to Paypal

3. Paypal obliged and proposed me a (partial) refund (80%).

 

My take on that (and I bought a lot of photo material on eBay,

even a Noctilux and an APO 180 from perfect dealer, is we

(the buyers) have to do our own police and clean up eBay

as far as possible from these scoundrels.

Any form of eCommerce requires an extra honesty from both

parts, as we can't physically assess the product.

:mad:

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budrichard

budrichard

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If you feel an item has been mislabeled or whatever, the procedure is to file a 'Dispute' through eBay. You have to be specific in what you want i.e refund, some money back or whatever. The Seller has to answer the 'Dispute'. If not satisfied, you file a 'Claim', again stating what you want and eBay/PayPal investigates and makes a decision. After all this, you should then give Feedback. Ebay does not allow negative Feedback anymore for Buyers. The final word that you have is that if you have paid thourgh a Credit Card, you can then file a claim with that card.

All the above is time consuming and alittle combersome but it does work and I have used it a few times for recalcitrant sellers.

Again, a little homework upfront about a Seller, especially with a $2K purchase is worth a lot of aggravation after the sale. Usually at that level i insist on a telephone call before bidding.-Dick

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cmatter

cmatter

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Or... even better...if you had used a major credit card to pay thru PayPal.. you could have your bank (not PayPal) institute a chargeback. I only accept credit cards thru my commercial PayPal account. I had never heard of a chargeback until a year or so ago when a psychotic customer pulled one on me. Your issuing bank reverses the charge, and the funds are pulled from his PayPal account.. like *poof* with hardly even an explanation. If he can prove that your claim is in error.. the funds are replaced... eventually. If not.. they aren't. The funds are apparently held in some kind of escrow until it's resolved. Banks side very heavily with their card holders... and, either way... it takes a long time to resolve.

In my case, I was completely in the right, and... in fact.. I had already issued her a full refund via certified check (just to get rid of her). After she cashed the check, she went ahead and did a chargeback anyway... and her bank did it without question (as they will usually do). With PayPal in the middle, it gets really bizarre because he wouldn't even get to deal with your bank.. only PayPal would; and they apparently have no recourse (so they say) except to go along with it.

After it was eventually resolved I did some research. Turns out that chargebacks are a major headache for merchants .. especially online. Probably 60-70 % of the time they're fraudulent; but they are also useful. If I'm buying anything, especially on E-Bay, I always use a credit card to pay thru PayPal, rather than just have the funds deducted from my PayPal account.

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endustry

endustry

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I thought about returning it but the seller claimed the box would be coming from his "secretary" in Los Angeles (a little closer to St. Louis but definitely not in Missouri) and then it arrived from Korea. My main concern considering all of this geographic musical chairs is the lens getting "lost" in the mail on the way back and then I'd be out my money *and* the lens. As is, the lens does work and I do want it. If I had known he would pile on more insult to injury following a neutral feedback, I definitely would have just left a negative.

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poynterama

poynterama

Posted
Posted

It's always unnerving to hear of negative eBay experiences :(

 

I've only had one issue- I bought what was described as a 3-cam Summicron 50 for my R4 only to discover on arrival that it was actually a 2-cam lens :mad: I wasn't impressed and received no apology from the seller but it's not too much effort to use stop-down metering with it and it's in mint condition.

 

I received an Elmarit 35 that I purchased 'accidentally' (I usually use Auctionsniper and placed an unrealistically low maximum bid for it which ended up winning!) yesterday from a seller in Germany and was very happy with it. He only posted one photo of the lens and while the barrel is more worn than I was expecting, the glass is flawless and he was even decent enough to include caps, a hood and a circular polarising filter that he didn't mention in the description :D :D

 

It's a risky market though and I will never buy big ticket items (say >$250 US)...

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fWord

fWord

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Posted

Hearing experiences like these makes me fearful sometimes, which is a good thing because Ebay has been highly addictive. I couldn't get Leica lenses for a reasonable price in my hometown (Singapore) and now that I'm in Australia it's worse...can't even find a source to trade with.

 

While I haven't had it nearly as bad as most people, I've had a number of nasty surprises as well when opening a lens. To be honest, I don't think I've had a trouble-free lens deal to date. One arrived with scratches on the front element that weren't mentioned in description, another had massive fungus on the internal element, plus now I have a 35-70mm f/4 that just wouldn't focus to infinity. In most of these cases I've managed to get a partial refund of some sort (or the seller offered a full refund without argument), so overall it was still a positive experience.

 

At least I'm more a user than a collector, so I'm usually willing to live with the scratches, get a partial refund and keep the lens.

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earleygallery

earleygallery

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Posted

The trouble is everyones idea of 'good' condition is different. Some people will call something that really is no better than good, mint. So if you buy a 'mint' item exepecting it to be as new (as it should) and find its bascially OK but marked here and there you are going to be very disappointed. I have even seen items on this forum described as mint which clearly are not from the photos.

 

If I buy from e bay I set my expectations on the low side and that way I'm usually pleased when I received the item! I recently bought a Summaron which arrived very well packed, with its original box and is in excellent condition.

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jacksparrow

jacksparrow

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Sorry to hear about your trouble. These posts are keeping me away from eBay, although I am sure most of the sellers are honest, I'm afraid I'll end up dealing with a bad apple. By the way, the guy deserved a negative feedback.

 

Anyway, this reminded me of an episode of a show called "The Big Bang Theory",

 

Rajesh: Hey, look, I found an iPod.

Howard: It's smashed, beyond repair. What do you gonna do with it?

Rajesh: What else, sell it on eBay as "slightly used".

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iShutterbug

iShutterbug

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Posted

I'm sorry to hear of the negative e-Bay experiences here. I've had very good luck in the past few months adding to my user collection and purchasing LTM bodies, lenses, and accessories. I picked up a user iiig and a mint ii at low prices. Which reminds me, in my attempts to purchase cases for them I got a couple of nice ones (that aren't falling apart) but they have the 3/8" tripod lugs and all my bodies are 1/4". Does anybody here know of anyone who has a iiig, iiif, or ii 3/8" hole baseplate they'd want to sell or trade? And does anyone know of someone who restitches cases, or can switch the 3/8" for a 1/4" tripod screw?

Thanks,

Don

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