Ebay:trust worthy?

[its.sid]

I have heard a lot of cases of fraud while shopping from ebay like delivery never taking place and the material being delivered which is quite different from the one shown in the auction. Is Ebay really worthy to risk hard earned money?

[Mom2one]

The majority of users on Ebay are genuine sellers or buyers who just want to sell their goods. It is the small minority who are out to scam who get the bad name for all.

There are ways that you can protect yourself. If you pay through paypal, you can file a dispute if something goes wrong. Paying with a credit card offers similar protection, and whilst you might not get your money back, it can and will be made very hard for the scammer to continue selling that way. Once their account is frozen by ebay, and or paypal, they cannot access it to remove their bank account details, and you cannot add the same details to two different accounts (unless you remove the first). So they have to set up new bank accounts, or have others already.

I realise that is little consolation, but the protection offered does sometimes work.

[Princess Pea]

I've already bought around 200 items from Ebay. One seller didn't send an item to me and I immediately filed a dispute. Paypal gave me back my money and the seller sent me a freebie.

[luigi-di-violini]

My short answer to the question: Ebay:trust worthy?
No

The long answer:

I have recently decided to stop using eBay altogether as a venue for buying or selling for the following reasons:

- The eBay/PayPal company has proved that it does not care one bit for its customers whether they be buyers or sellers (though they tend to favor buyers over sellers in disputes to keep them buying, whereas they seem to think sellers have no choice but to put up with their injustices). Their customer service department is merely there as a formality, and their representatives do not read your communications. I have never once received a helpful email when I have written to their customer service for assistance. They merely search for a keyword in your communications and dash off a form letter assigned to that keyword, but which is completely irrelevant to your inquiry.

- As most items being sold are owned by individuals, the majority of items arrive never exactly as described. A book described as "new", "like new", "excellent", "very good", etc. often arrives with creases, dented corners, and in a couple of cases from my own experience, with water damage, mildewed pages, and completely bent covers. DVDs listed as "new" or "excellent condition" often arrive in dented cases. I have purchased lots (auctions for an assortment/multiple quantities of items), which arrived incomplete. Despite always thoroughly reviewing a seller's feedback before buying, and the fact that the sellers does "deliver", the quality is just never the same as purchasing from a formal, established business.

- Many eBay sellers ship things in envelopes instead of boxes to save on postage costs and your purchase may very well arrive smashed.

- On several occasions, my purchases listed as "in brand new condition" have arrived reeking of cigarette smoke. Honest sellers state in their listings that their items come from a smoking environment, but in my experience, many sellers who smoke do not list it, probably fearing that their items will not sell.

- In many cases, it's just not worth the trouble or the return postage to return an item for a reduced refund (the majority of sellers will not refund original shipping costs or pay for return shipping).

- If you pay with PayPal and a seller sends you a damaged, defective, not-as-described item, but shipped it within 7 days, to a "confirmed address", and delivery confirmation proves that you received it, regardless of the veracity of your complaint and any dishonesty on the seller's part, they are "protected" by PayPal's Seller Protection Policy and you may not get your money back. It will not matter what you say in your dispute, your statements will not be read by PayPal's representatives. Their main objective is to make and keep money, and not to be fair.

My family has now turned to Amazon for most of our online purchasing. Their prices are competitive with eBay's but without the hassle of bidding and having to make payments separately, the inconsistency in quality (I always try to buy directly from Amazon and not from a marketplace seller so the products really are "new"), I have always received prompt and helpful emails from their customer service, and my experience in a return/exchange was smooth and didn't cost me additional money. Also, most things sold by Amazon qualify for free shipping on orders over $25 and you often end up saving a lot of money because exorbitant shipping costs is just another of the evils of eBay.