Re: Caveat eBay Emptor
- From: brucegb@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Bruce Burden)
- Date: 8 Apr 2006 03:51:57 GMT
The Old Man <Braungart@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
: I ran across this on a Yahoo Blog. What do you guys think of it?
:
: The real eBayer in our family is our eldest daughter, a
: college student on a tight budget with a heightened interest in getting
: the best deal on everything.
:
: It all started when I tried to buy a handbag for my wife's
: birthday. She wanted a particular "Prada" one, but since the
: designer has no store in northern California, we took a look on eBay.
: I've since realized that even used handbags with this marque cost
: upwards of a thousand dollars, but I naively assumed that a $300
: handbag (palpitations!) on eBay was pricey enough to be legitimate.
:
Since when has ebay been anything other than Caveat Emptor?
Certainly the daughter should have made that clear.
And, what is that phrase? Hmmm..., something about things
being too good to be false, or something like that.
:
: So we bid on a bag.
:
Not stated, but careful reading would indicate that they
entered a proxy bid.
:
: The next morning I was surprised to find an official email from
: eBay informing me that although I had lost the auction, the winner had
: backed out and I now had a "Second Chance" to buy the bag for my
: bid "limit" amount. I was a bit nonplussed that what I had thought
: was a private amount was now being publicly revealed, and I wondered
: how the buyer could have decided to back out between Sunday night and
: Monday morning when the email was sent to me, but no matter.
:
Obviouly this person never checked the "bids" button, since
all losing bids are revealed after the auction ends, and you
_may_ be able to infer the winners max bid - if it is less than
the minimum increment, then that was the max bid. Else, it was
somewhat more.
Tempest in a teapot time.
:
: It wasn't until the handbag arrived a week later that things
: started to come unraveled. While the bag was well made, and was of
: genuine leather, the handle was a mishmash , didn't match the rest of
: the bag and signaled a high quality knock?off.
:
The person who blogged this has a different definition
of "high quality" than I do. A high-quality knock off to me
is one that is indistinguishable from the original, but I
digress.
:
: My wife claimed that
: she knew all along that it was going to be a copy-I was reeling at
: the price for a fake and wasn't so easily mollified-and that if the
: handle had matched she would have kept it. We returned it.
:
Here, I think is the real problem: "I was suckered, and now
I am pissed. And my wife knows I screwed up".
:
: The Second Chance idea is simply a way for sellers to smoke out
: your maximum bid, then offer to sell you the item at your limit.
:
: The profusion of resellers of fake luxury goods makes eBay more
: like a Chinese side street market than an American flea market.
:
: There is massive collusion among sellers.
:
: The "feedback" ratings are meaningless.
:
Since when has an American flea market been better than a
Chinese side street market? Cheap crap abounds at the ones I
have quickly scanned. But, again, I digress. The daughter must
not be much of an ebayer, or the father didn't bother to check
with here first, since she should have been able to tell him
all this from the first.
:
: PayPal, while providing some assurance that a completely
: fraudulent transaction can be rescinded, is playing the "float" in
: a way that might be expected from an old-line bank, not from a
: new-generation Internet financial institution. Within minutes of my
: agreement to take the Second Chance offer, I noticed that the money was
: electronically sucked out of my bank account. However, the transaction
: was not officially completed (i.e. money credited to the seller as
: evidenced by an email) for two days, or 48 hours. PayPal charged me a
: fee, and used my money for 48 hours. Nothing illegal about this, just
: another example of a customer-last attitude that augurs danger for the
: future of eBay.
:
I have not had PayPal "immediately" debit my account, but
I suppose it could happen. Usually it takes them around 24
hours to do so.
Fees from PayPal? For a payment? New one to me. Charge the
seller a credit card fee, sure. Not provide a good exchange
rate? Yeah.
Not notify the seller that payment was sent, when using an
electronic payment, with CC backup? Nope. My sellers have often
notified me that my package was/will be shipped that day. Must
mean they received payment, yes?
:
: So, enough of this screed. Many of you are probably whispering
: "Caveat Emptor" under your breath. I agree. And I'll be much more
: caveat in the future.
:
If the item was shipped via USPS (probably not) you MUST
keep the original shipping material, as proof it was sent via
USPS, and arrange the seller to talk to US Postal Inspectors.
If the seller ships via UPS/DHL/FedEx/courier snail, you can
use a USPS Money Order, and arrange a visit from the friendly
Postal Inspectors once again.
Even if the package was NOT sent via the USPS, it probably
has a return address on it, yes? Talk to the company that
deals with the original. They may have some small interest
in talking to people who are selling (need I say "cheap"?)
knockoffs of their products. Probably more satisfying, too.
Bruce
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I like bad!" Bruce Burden Austin, TX.
- Thuganlitha
The Power and the Prophet
Robert Don Hughes
.
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