# eBay horror stories!



## themacko (Jun 20, 2002)

I am so relieved, that I just had to share this with all who care to read.  As some of you know I sold my iBook on eBay back in April in preperation of getting a new iMac (woohoo!).  Well, let me tell how NOT to conduct a trade.

I sold the iBook to someone who used the 'Buy It Now!' feature on eBay.  Basically, I set the price to $1200, and this guy choose to buy it.  Fine.  He sent me the money via PayPal and that was great.  The next day I had a problem arise where I had to move, so I couldn't ship the iBook.  I sent this guy an email and told him it would be about a week late and I was sorry.  I didn't get a response.

A week later on the exact day I shipped the iBook, I get an email from the guy telling me that he has contacted the FBI, FICC, eBay, PayPal and local authorities to my acts of fraud.   I send him an email back and let him know that I did ship the iBook and it was on it's way.

Next day, I get an email from a company called SquareTrade which claims this guy opened an account with them in order to expediate my shipping of the iBook.  I respond to them with the FedEx shipping number.

For the next 2 weeks I hear nothing from this guy or from SquareTrade.  So I email him twice in the next month asking if he recieved the iBook okay.  Nothing.  The SquareTrade case closes due to him no longer participating and I forget about it.

Last week I get an email from PayPal claiming my account was -$1200.  This fool had reversed his payment!  I then email this guy (being more of an ass now) telling him that he needs to contact PayPal and un-reverse the $1200.  He writes back to me telling me that if I want to see my money, I need to call him and re-negotiate the price.  He tells me that if I do not call him _that day_ he will contact PayPal and request the $1200 refund be sent directly to his account.

What a joke!  Luckily, I saved all my receipts, emails and was able to enter the tracking number back into FedEx's website, where I then printed out a copy of his signature on the delivery record.  So it looks like this a-hole gets nowhere and I get my $1200 back.

We'll see .. I'm still a bit scared about the whole ordeal, but can you believe the balls of this guy?  He's basically holding my $1200 for ransom!  If I wasn't organized I would potentially be screwed.  I just can't believe how dishonest some people are....  

Sorry that took so long to explain, but I'd love to hear any eBay (or other online merchant) horror stories you may have personally had.


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## xaqintosh (Jun 20, 2002)

people like that shouldn't be allowed on ebay, they disgrace the whole system


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## edX (Jun 20, 2002)

sounds like a rough deal indeed. but i have to admit i can partially see his side. If he was willing to pay full price to 'buy it now', he may have had a reason for wanting to get it asap. when you failed to deliver on that, his needs weren't met and so it would have been reasonable for him to be upset at paying that much.

I think it is also fair to say that he took his inconvience to an extreme that was not called for. He could have simply cancelled the transaction with you after you let him know it would be late. that is the big problem with ebay and other online classifieds - most times you have no idea who you are dealing with or their level of rational thinking/actions.

hope it all works out Scott!!

oh, and while it hasn't happened to me - the most common horror stories i hear from friends is about buying airline tickets thru these online auctions and discounters - they constantly screw people over, mostly by not having clear instructions as to how the services work.


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## voice- (Jun 20, 2002)

I'd be screwed, I'm not organized at all. I hope he got into a huge deal of trouble over that episode...


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## uoba (Jun 20, 2002)

You're only at most 5 hours away from going to the guys front door, and sorting him out (if ya know what I mean )

I suppose if I got an e-mail saying thanx for the payment, I'm moving now, you'll get your iBook soon, honest, I'd not be too happy. But yeh, the guy has turned into a a-hole.

The worst I've has on ebay was buying a router (seemingly 1st hand), well advertised, for £40 (great  deal). Only for the most important info to be ommitted, it needed a USA power supply (another £30).

But that is small compared to you problem! If  this guy like sthe fed/law route, do the same, you have his signature!

(I luv reading bad scores against people on ebay! )


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## rinse (Jun 20, 2002)

check this out:

Back in October, I won an auction for a Dual 533 G4. THe price was great, I was psyched...  

I sent my money via PayPal and got a notifcation from the seller via Paypal message stating that everything was in order.

2 weeks went by.  

I was freaking furious. I contact them via email. No answer. I wait 2-3 days and repeat. No answer for another week. 

I start to look on Ebay for recourse steps. Basically you have to wait 30 days before it is actually "fraud". I contact them again and notify them that they have a week to get me my machine.   

It never comes. I manage to put all the pieces of identity from ebay and paypal together and send out emails to about 4-5 addresses that were linked to this seller via white page lookups based on info in his profile areas. Finally a day later i get an email back from a person claiming to not have any idea what i was talking about, and saying that i was the second person to have said such a thing happened to them due to a seller on ebay acting to be him in the last 2 months.  

He and i contact ebay and paypal and present this info to them. Paypal is only willing to refund roughly 75% of the transaction. They put the money in my account.  

My CC company contacts me asking if I got my refund... I say I got partial credit, but PayPal was unwilling to give 100%. They assumed I was satisfied (WTF?!) and closed the case.  My temporary refund from the CC was removed and I get a statemdn from them for a crazy amount of $!  

After having some words with the customer service I managed to get my money, but I lost so much time in this whole ordeal, I cant believe it!

I will never buy anything on ebay over $100 or so now. Screw that. Its not worth the hassle.


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## themacko (Jun 20, 2002)

I know that it may sound hokey here, but when I originally emailed him telling him it would be late, I basically asked him if he wanted it shipped that day w/o the original box or late, and I gave him my phone number and (new) address.  He shouldn't have felt screwed, and if he did he could have easily emailed me telling me so.

rinse:  you REALLY did get screwed, luckily you got some money back but still .. i'm guessing you lost a hundy or two.  and I'm with you, I'm not buying/selling anything else on eBay that's over $100.


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## jbromer (Jun 20, 2002)

I also agree with the dollar limit restraint.  I might consider selling/buying a computer or something big through a local auction though, where the money and goods can change hands in person...

There is a running article on macintouch.com right now on internet fraud, that has some ebay horror stories:

http://www.macintouch.com/fraudreports.html

One thing suggested was to only make/receive payments through postal money orders.  That way if there is any funny business, it constitutes MAIL FRAUD and gets a federal investigation as a felony.  I thought that was cool.


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## xaqintosh (Jun 20, 2002)

1. I bought a webcam by logitech over ebay. They said it was refurbished, had USB and worked on mac. When I got it, it on ly worked on Windows and had some kind of serial port instead of USB. Luckily I got my money back 

2. I bought an RCA Cable Modem. It was too refurbished, and didn't come with drivers or instructions or a Power Adapter. Knowing all this, I ordered it buy it now. Anyways, after I get it, I look around for where to get a power adapter. It turns out they are like $50, and I got the modem for 60. So I was upset but bought one. I guess I should've looked to see how much the powert adapters were before ordering the modem.


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## themacko (Jun 20, 2002)

I've actually been a big fan of eBay .. this was my 10th auction I believe.  I had bought my digital camera, DV camcorder, a tent and even sold some minor things over the past 3 years on eBay without incident.  I'm sure everything works out fine if you just use common sense and keep your actions well documented.  It's just a bit frightening when you chance loosing a $1200 laptop to some scrub in Indiana.  Just be careful.


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## xoot (Jun 20, 2002)

A horror story from one of the people who sold something to kilo. If he doesn't receive it in a long time, he goes ape sh*t.



> "What is that smell?"
> "It smells like ape sh*t!"
> "Let's look where the ape sh*t is..."
> *1 min later*
> ...


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## dixonbm (Jun 20, 2002)

I actually know someone who bought a Mercedes on ebay.  He's had the car for a year and a half and it's running great.  Then again he actually flew out to texas and checked the car out and had it inspected etc.

I myself have had all good experiences on ebay except for a monitor I ordered.  Two weeks went buy after the first email from the guy and payment was sent over paypal.  I was irked, no monitor so I tried to cancel and ordered another monitor.  It showed up a week later and then a week after that the original monitor showed up.  That's my worst story.


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## ScottW (Jun 21, 2002)

It's not eBay, it's the people, and it's PayPal.

I had an issue where I purchased a monitor on eBay for $350.00. Not $1200, but still, its money. So, I get the montior and the case is cracked. I email the guy and send digital pictures of the damages. I paid via PayPal. He basically, said it sold it w/o warranty and it was my issue if it was screwed up in shipping. I told him that the "SENDER" must deal with all damaged shipping issues, and I wanted my money back. He could deal with UPS. Well, he refused and I didn't hear anything for a couple weeks. About 28 days into the mess, I contacted PayPal about the issue and wanted my money back... to start the dispute. At some point after that, PayPal removed the $350 from his account, and he emailed me saying he wasn't going to send me the money now that they had did that. Of course, they money wasn't in my hands.

It seemed like months, but I finally got the $350, and I think the guy finally got a claim in and go this money as well. I just wished the guy would have handled it differently. All I know is I am not using PayPal for physical merchandise anymore, especially as many have said, items over $100.

I will continue to use eBay (I rarely us it) but sometimes, it's the only way to get something sold. 

Always remember, take pictures, take pictures of it in the box, maybe even take pictures of you shipping the box at FedEx/UPS... do what it takes to prove that you shipped it in good condition. Whether its to satisfy the buyer, or to satisfy the insurance claims adjuster.

Admin


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## yoshi (Jun 21, 2002)

Hmm I have had generally good ebay experiences but one thing holds my conscience at bay.. and I feel horrid about it:

I was bidding on things about 3 days before I had to leave for greece and as my usual practice I was bidding on things that would end within an hour or so. So I find the items I wanted and placed my bid and won (of course ). I immediatly sent out the two emails letting the sellers know I won and for the final price and mailing address for a cash payment (i was too lazy to go out and get a money order and it was all under like $50). I get one email back and I called the guy to make sure that cash was cool blah blah etc and I send out payment and all is rosey. The second item's seller contacts me through my root address on my server (dbesade@machowto.com) and I don't check that address more than 1 time a week. I don't receive a reply from the email address I emailed HIM from so I figure that the guy didn't want his $13.50 and I forget about it. Then I check my root email and his email is there with all sorts of info, of course I am reading it in an internet cafe in greece while completely eh.. in loss of my mental functions due to intaking of eh nevermind..  and there is nothing I can do. 

Flash forward a week

I am back in the us suffering severe hangovers (kidding) and I check my email.. no reply from the guy on what the address is on my @mac.com. Turns out the idiot never emailed my @mac.com account and I now have his address and all but have yet to send payment. the funny thing is He gave me a positive rating on ebay and what not while I was expecting to get reamed. Ah well I guess I will send payment tomorrow or something.


wow long message..

~Yoshi


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## BlingBling 3k12 (Jun 23, 2002)

ebay.. i won my $13.75 auction and it got here in about 10 days... i won my $9 auction and i'm gonna pay for it Monday (since i had to wait for my paycheck)

so far so good...


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## Trip (Jun 24, 2002)

I really have no clue how anybody here gets enough money to buy stuff over $50 at eBay! lol, if I could get a miniDV Canon zr15 camera for $5 at eBay then I'd let you guys know.


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## xoot (Jun 24, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Trip _
> *lol, if I could get a miniDV Canon zr15 camera for $5 at eBay then I'd let you guys know.  *



Don't let us know when the auction is still in progress... we'll bump up the price to $50.


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## Trip (Jun 24, 2002)

lol...Anybody have any money lying around that they can send to me? I'm willing to work for it!!!


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## Captain Code (Jun 24, 2002)

This isn't a "horror" story, but the guy still lied to me and didn't return my emails.

I bought a Power Mac 9500 to use as my email server.

So, anyways, I send the money via PayPal, and get an email saying "let me know when you recieve your PowerMac.  i'm going to give you positive feedback and would appreciate the same from you".

So I say, "ok I'll give you the feedback when I recieve the computer and I know that it works etc.."

I get it and give the guy positive feedback.  I check what he left for me, and there's nothing.  So, I email him asking when he's going to leave the feedback, many, many times, and recieve no responses, so I just gave up with the jerk.

The computer is great and never crashes, but the guy still lied, and that was annoying  

Good luck to themacko in getting his mess resolved


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## themacko (Jul 11, 2002)

*Update*

And the plot thickens...  Well PayPal did indeed put the $1200 back into my account, so everything's cool as far as I am concerned.  I sent the other guy an email saying that even though it was pretty clear he was trying to extort money out of me, I haven't and will not be taking any actions and I concidered the matter closed.

Apparantly he does not see it this way.  He sends me another email on the 4th of July telling me, and I quote:



> I expect that you will send me a check for $200 immediately or you will here from my attourney and your local Arizona State Police.



Yes, he did use the wrong form of 'hear' and mis-spelt 'attorney' but I won't hold that against him.  Nor will I make any comments about there being a 'local Arizona State Police' but, whatever.  Not all of us have common sense.

I know what you're thinking .. "just ingore him already" or "why are you making a big deal out of this now?"  Well, yesterday I recieve in my mailbox, a case file from the Attorney General's office of the state this dude's from.  He is continuing to claim he never recieved the iBook and has filed an action against me for $1200.  I'm starting to wonder if he is dillusional or something.

Now I'm not sure what to do.  I'll obviously send the proof back to the Attorney General's office that I did indeed ship the iBook and this guy did indeed recieve and sign for it.  But what I do about him wanting $200 from me?  Why does is want it and why can't he use proper grammar in his attempts of extortion?

Absolute craziness I tell you!


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## edX (Jul 11, 2002)

i'm no legal expert, but i would think that his attempt to press some sort of action against you when yu have proof of his receiving the goods would constitute some sort of fraud in its own right. he may regret the day he decided to push the issue.
and never rule out the idea of being delusional.


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## Macartist (Feb 11, 2008)

I can see that there are whackos around and hope to avoid them. That's why I LOVE eBay. I have bought 2 lovely mac laptops with excellent service all round. I also bought an iMac 2 years ago and when it arrived the CD drive didn't work. i had paid with PayPal.The seller was furious and very hotheaded and didn't believe me. i told him I'd had it checked with a certified apple tech. After many harangues but only over a few days i used the dispute service on eBay and they froze his account. Now That's what saved the day! We finally settled, he gave me some money back and I bought and had installed a new drive. Then i looked in the old drive out of curiosity and a piece of paper fell out. Oh no! We were both right. I felt really badly for both of us. But I won't buy anywhere else because i feel I have protection. It doesn't prevent a hassle but I think it's a great way to get a great deal. But, yes indeed, keep all records!


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## g/re/p (Feb 11, 2008)

Hey Macartist - welcome to MacOSX.com!


(btw - you replied to a thread that is 6 years old)


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## littlelizlittle (Feb 11, 2011)

I'm actually attempting to sell enough stuff on eBay to purchase a Macbook Pro. One item I already sold was my Macbook. The ridiculous stories of some of the people who bought my stuff are insane, and not to mention pretty funny!

I had this idiot girl buy a broken macbook battery, and didn't realize that it didn't work, even though the descriptions said it was for parts. the emails she sent back and forth to me are hilarious- I don't know how anyone could be sooo dumb! But also, what a headache for $2.75... not worth it!

Can't wait to experience more idiots on eBay over the next few weeks here while I try to raise enough money to buy that MacBook Pro!


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