I hate E-bay

[coyote Mak]

I have to go with the thinking that its mostly to do with Cali laws and federal laws. if you read there rules of does and dont's, It is spelled out quite clearly that they basically don't want to deal with big brother. 95% of the items sold on eBay are non gun items and a big portion of that is on old collectibles or garage sale junk. I have sold 4 sets of Makarov grips and a mak holster, along with 3 sets of S&W grips and 2 gunsmithing books. the only time i was Questioned was the first set of Makarov grips. they wanted to now if they had anything to do with assault weapons. when i explained to them what they were, a set grips for a 8 round Russian made handgun, they said no problem and thanked me for clearing it up. If you use it for what its meant for, it works just great. If you need to sell something gun related that big brother has a law on, then its better to come to a gun board and conduct business.

 

[JMag]

E-bay is its own worst enemy...

 

[vis35]

It is a love hate relationship

I had E-bay yank an auction of mine for an AK-47 sling.

Yes, it is their house; they set the rules, yada, yada, yada.

Have you ever been cheated by one of their sellers? Ever try to get help from E-bay?

They will not do a thing for you; in fact they will suspend you if you try to complain about the person. The feedback system is a joke; I will not bid on an Item if the seller has less than a 99% rating. Nobody wants to post bad feedback and E-bay doesn’t care if you are cheated, or how many others the person has swindled before you.

 

[coyote Mak]

vis35
sounds like you got the royal shaft. what did you buy that the seller ripped you off on?. I have heard a lot of storys of bait and switch deals going on. I wonder if thats what happend to you.

 

[vis35]

I have had two deals go bad, and one that is in the process of going bad right now.

Listed as a Japanese Papa Nambu holster, actually was a French Mle 1892 revolver holster. Eventually got a refund, no help from E-bay, but Mail Fraud statutes are quite useful and at least the Postal Inspectors are on your side.

A singed movie poster, the seller was in Canada, she provided a non-working e-mail and a bad address for snail mail. I had sent her payment of an International Postal Money Order and sent it by International Express Mail. Then she starts threatening me with bad feedback when she has not received payment or contact (remember, bad addresses both, she used E-bay’s contact system, not a direct e-mail). From the tracking number I could see that delivery had been attempted twice and it looked like it was being returned, so I immediately sent payment by PayPal (apparently what she wanted from the start) even though she had re-listed the poster. Eventually we got the poster, slightly damaged.

The deal going bad right now is on another poster (a friend of mine collects these, I have been bidding for him), the seller had bad feedback (96%, that is bad in my view) but we took a chance and bid anyhow, got it for his starting price, 99 cents + $5 shipping. Sent payment immediately, but I suspect that he doesn’t want to let it go for that, 10 days and no poster or contact. Just sent him an e-mail this morning, we shall see.

Basically, E-bay will yank your chain if you violate any of their rules to protect E-bay, but if someone cheats you they will do nothing for you. So when I see anyone listing anything against the rules or cheating E-bay (side deals, ECT) I just cheer them on.

Sorry if I went a bit long, but it is good for the soul to vent!

 

[ocabj]

The feedback system is a joke; I will not bid on an Item if the seller has less than a 99% rating. Nobody wants to post bad feedback and E-bay doesn’t care if you are cheated, or how many others the person has swindled before you.

It looks like you'll never buy anything from me. I have a 98.8% rating at this point in time (163 pos and 2 neg out of 165)...

You think the feedback system is a joke, yet you base your item selection on the feedback of the person selling it?

I believe the feedback system works, but people put too much emphasis on having a perfect rating and this is what causes people to get into negative feedback threats/wars. I hate how sellers won't leave positive feedback after receiving a payment and will only leave feedback until after the buyer leaves positive feedback for them just to retaliate against the buyer if the buyer leaves negative feedback. Whenever I sell something and I receive payment, I'll leave positive feedback because as far as I'm concerned, they held up their part of the deal by paying.

I don't like some of the 'Disney'-like policies on ebay, either, but who am I to tell someone how to run their business? We all hate ebay's attitude towards firearms related sales, but you all know deep down inside that most of us will still use ebay to buy/sell random stuff.

 

[71Commander]

I got my first negative this week. Have 1550 + feedbacks. Buyer didn't like me sending a 2nd payment notice after two weeks of waiting. For 19.99 and her blessing, Ebay will take it off. I'll stay with 99.9

 

[vis35]

It looks like you'll never buy anything from me. I have a 98.8% rating at this point in time (163 pos and 2 neg out of 165)...

Actually, if the negs were old, I would buy from you. I realize you just can not make all the people happy all the time. It is a judgment call. The poster I bid, on the guy had 96%, and two of the recent feedbacks were negs, not surprised I am having problems with him.

You think the feedback system is a joke, yet you base your item selection on the feedback of the person selling it?

There is nothing else to use.

I believe the feedback system works, but people put too much emphasis on having a perfect rating and this is what causes people to get into negative feedback threats/wars.

I think it doesn’t work, but I agree completely with the second half of your sentence. Perhaps a better way for E-bay to run their feedback would be to change it to a rating of the transaction from 1 to 10 and just show the average of the total transactions, 6.5, 8.9, ECT. The current “all or nothing” system doesn’t allow folks to state that they were less than 100% satisfied.

I hate how sellers won't leave positive feedback after receiving a payment and will only leave feedback until after the buyer leaves positive feedback for them just to retaliate against the buyer if the buyer leaves negative feedback. Whenever I sell something and I receive payment, I'll leave positive feedback because as far as I'm concerned, they held up their part of the deal by paying.

I agree completely! But as a buyer (I both buy and sell there) I have noticed that trend and I will not leave feedback on those sellers. So again the feedback system doesn’t work.

I don't like some of the 'Disney'-like policies on ebay, either, but who am I to tell someone how to run their business?

I am their customer that is why. Without myself, and millions like me they would not have a business.

We all hate ebay's attitude towards firearms related sales, but you all know deep down inside that most of us will still use ebay to buy/sell random stuff.

Yes, you are right again, and until something better comes along, we are stuck with them. All other auction sites get a tiny fraction of their traffic. Auction Arms and Gunbroker only exist because E-bay will not allow the sale of firearms.

 

[coyote Mak]

I have to agree with all that has been said as far as there feed back system goes. i think to many people put to much stock in getting or judging by the feedback. right now they are the only game in town that has the ability to get your items out there were people can see them and buy them.
for better or worse I will stick with them until something better comes along that proves its up to the same level of exposure as eBay.
One thing though, they have some of the silliest rules there are as far as selling non gun Items.
But right now with no way of making a income because of a very bad back and not eligible for any kind of finical help from big brother, its the only Way for me to make money to help pay the bills and buy a few toys now and then, like a new gun. there are ways to beat them at there own game, you just have to be clever about it and out think the twits that monitor the auctions.
as for Bad deals, your going to run across people like that all the time. you just have to develop a sense of knowing when things just aren't right and stay away form them.
a lot of people that sell on eBay start there auctions out at .99 to get the lowest listing fee. but it backfires on them when people don't bid on there auction and there forced to sell at there list price. well to bad so sad, they need to learn to set there list price at there minimum price they want for there item.

 

[thorn726]

blame Ebay? get over it.

Ebay is jsut trying to avoid problems.
they are one of the best services ever invented, for millions of items. millions.
there are so many people making money on ebay from things you could not easily sell ever before. you cna find so many things that used to take for ever to search out
complain about laws, not about ebay

 

[armedcitizen]

I love ebay!

I sold off a bunch of my childhood toys (GI Joe, Tonka, Hot Wheels, etc.) and made enough to buy a new Smith and Wesson revolver and a Bushmaster rifle, hundreds of rounds of ammo, several 30 rd. mags, with several hundred bucks left over. They may allow the sale of some firearm accessories but in my case, they definitely supported the purchase of two new firearms.

 

[thorn726]

HA! hey Armed Cit!

Armed citizen, what's yer ebay name?
i wonder if i got any of your gijoes!!!!
heheh

 

[logical]

You can't go through life writting off every single company that choses not to deal in firearms. It's a business decision.

Ebay is the greatest invention since smokeless powder.

 

[armedcitizen]

Armed citizen, what's yer ebay name

Thorn,

On ebay I am jvm22187.

As far as feedback goes, I don't know how reliable it is. I recently got my first negative. Someone bought a textbook that I was selling for my brother in law and never paid. I contacted him several times and finally opened an unpaid item dispute on it. He responds with negative feedback. So now I have a - and I didn't do anything wrong.

 

[coyote Mak]

armed c
I now what you mean, you try and treat them like you want to be treated and they bitch about it. we had someone buy a solid walnut desk set of in and out trays(the executive type) for 10.00 and they cost right around 70.00+ new. they were in very nice condition and the person who bought them put a neg. on us because one had a little scratch and a very small dent. well we responded and buy the end of the day the husband had emailed us several times and agreed to a mutual withdrawal. seems his wife expected something for nothing and it was her first time buying on ebay. until something better comes along it is the best game in town and reaches the whole planet. one persons junk is another's treasure. we have sold to people in Canada,France and Australia. without ebays services my wife and i would probably be living out of our car, so I am not going to bit the hand that helps feed me and just play buy there rules and when it comes to gun stuff i will go to the appropriate web sites to do my gun business.