Time for the weekly eBay rant!

Jamauk · 26 Sep 2017 at 09:25

Once before I sold a Tag McLaren AV amp that a neighbour of mine who operates a business in repairing hi-fi had fixed and checked over before I sold it. The buyer was in France which wasn't a problem, I sent him the postage quote and he paid. Sent the amp off and then he claimed it wouldn't work, so I gave him the option of sending it directly back to me, or to my neighbour who could fix it and return it to him. He just wanted a refund and so a return label was sent and I got it back. I asked my neighbour if he could have a look at it when I got it back so I could re-sell it ASAP, and I explained the situation and where the buyer was, he then asked "that wouldn't happen to be "Mr Frenchie would it?", and it was. It turned out he was sending my neighbour an identical amp with the same fault - a blatant eBay scammer. Anyway I got the same amp back which was working just fine. My neighbour just added the fees I lost out on to this guys bill and gave me the cash!

Energize · 26 Sep 2017 at 10:46

I can only echo the comment about using eBay for £3 phones, you're better off throwing them in the trash.

LEK-89 · 26 Sep 2017 at 11:27

LeeUK said:
Reminds me of when I sold a mobile phone a couple of years ago on eBay to what turned out to be one of those shady back street phone repair type shops. No less than 10 minutes after the phone had been confirmed as delivered by the courier, they lodged a claim saying it wasn't described without even contacting me first.

I did some digging, that's how I found out it some dodgy phone shop, phoned them up directly and asked what the problem was and offered to swing round to collect and refund them. They weren't expecting that and promptly dropped the claim.

The next obstacle after selling something of high value on eBay is then the lottery of PayPal putting a "temporary hold" on the payment for up to a fortnight until the buyer is happy. I understand this is due to anti-fraud & the purpose of the seller keeping on top with the delivery tracking / feedback but my goodness these temporary holds are incredibly frustrating... especially if you offered free insured P&P on the expensive item and rely on part of the full payment for postage.

Liam.

Jono8 · 26 Sep 2017 at 11:34

Jamauk said:
Once before I sold a Tag McLaren AV amp that a neighbour of mine who operates a business in repairing hi-fi had fixed and checked over before I sold it. The buyer was in France which wasn't a problem, I sent him the postage quote and he paid. Sent the amp off and then he claimed it wouldn't work, so I gave him the option of sending it directly back to me, or to my neighbour who could fix it and return it to him. He just wanted a refund and so a return label was sent and I got it back. I asked my neighbour if he could have a look at it when I got it back so I could re-sell it ASAP, and I explained the situation and where the buyer was, he then asked "that wouldn't happen to be "Mr Frenchie would it?", and it was. It turned out he was sending my neighbour an identical amp with the same fault - a blatant eBay scammer. Anyway I got the same amp back which was working just fine. My neighbour just added the fees I lost out on to this guys bill and gave me the cash!

It may be because I need another coffee but I'm not following the scam this guy is pulling here.

Jamauk · 26 Sep 2017 at 14:32

Jono8 said:
It may be because I need another coffee but I'm not following the scam this guy is pulling here.

I see it as a scam because the amp he sent to my neighbour for repair had the fault he claimed the one I sold had. The one I sold him was in perfect working order, I've heard about this sort of scam so many times before where someone buys something to replace their own faulty item and returns the faulty item to the seller claiming it was the one they had.

LeeUK · 26 Sep 2017 at 14:50

LEK-89 said:
The next obstacle after selling something of high value on eBay is then the lottery of PayPal putting a "temporary hold" on the payment for up to a fortnight until the buyer is happy. I understand this is due to anti-fraud & the purpose of the seller keeping on top with the delivery tracking / feedback but my goodness these temporary holds are incredibly frustrating... especially if you offered free insured P&P on the expensive item and rely on part of the full payment for postage.

Liam.

Luckily I had no restrictions on my PayPal account so was able to withdraw the cash to my bank account straight away which is what I always do anyway. Never leave a PayPal balance.

I never sell anything on eBay now, everything I sell goes on Gumtree and the local Facebook selling groups. No fees, cash in hand, no fuss. Now I only use eBay for buying the odd low value item.