I just LOVE ebay! But, some ruin it for the rest of us.

I love ebay! But, one must admit that ebay has a bad reputation sometimes. Recently FedEx lost my brother's ipod. He was staying with me for 6 weeks and had forgotten it at home out of state, so he had his friend ship it to him. We chose FedEx overnight thinking that it would be the most reliable. Well, it wasn't. It never showed up. So, we filed a claim and got some money from FedEx. He didn't want the new video nano ipod, he wanted the old one, just the regular ipod nano that he had before. Well, they no longer sell them in stores, so where do you think we could find what he wanted....hmmmm.....EBAY.

So, we go online and of course there are thousands of them for sale on ebay. He rarely uses ebay and has been burned so he is very worried about this. So, I volunteered to help. Just about every listing that we pulled up had something questionable about it. It took me, an ebay junkie, over an hour to find one that I believed wasn't a scam.

Over and over I found ipods that were listed with all the details then way down buried in their fine print in very small font tells that it is refurbished.

I don't have a problem with a refurbished product, what I have a problem with is the seller who tries to mislead someone.

I also found several that clearly were meant to look and sound like it was an ipod but if you read into the listing and read through their purposefully misleading text, you'll find it is for a CASE or a pair of headphones and not the ipod itself!

I realize that some products have a higher rate of fraud than others, and I'm sure that there are many many ipod sellers out there that are wonderful. But it sure is annoying to have to dig through to find the good ones.

There have been times that I was researching my competition and have run across a listing for a new with tags product in a brand that I carry that is listed for below the wholesale cost. When I find that, I switch to my buyer ID and bid right away. My competition is probably trying to use the low priced auction to drive eyes to their store, I do it too. So, if figure I'll take the gamble and if I win, great, I'll sell it for a profit later. If I don't win, that is ok, I've just driven up the price of their auction, in turn driving up the market value of a brand that I sell. Win-win. However, sometimes it is a loss.
Not everyone is honest. I've gotten things that were CLEARLY used, reeking of perfume and smoke. I've gotten things that were factory seconds with crooked seams, I've gotten things that were ripped, damaged and discolored. I've dealt with sellers that were rude. I've dealt with sellers that took a month after taking my money to put my item in the mail. I've dealt with sellers that charged me $8.00 for UPS shipping and then sent USPS parcel post. I've dealt with sellers who only sent me the top half of a bathing suit and half the money back without ever contacting me first. (Now what good is half a suit?)
Well, my point being, if I wasn't already an ebay junkie who made my living off of this, I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't shop at ebay anymore after experiences like these. I've boycotted brick and mortar stores for much smaller offenses.
To those out there that ruin it for the rest of us: Please, be honest. If it is a factory second and has a missing seam, just state that. If you take a month to get around to shipping something, just state that. And if you run into a problem like loosing half the merchandise, email them first letting them know before sending half of it. Please, either shape up your business or sell somewhere else.... you are ruining it for the rest of us!
Ebay's marketplace is huge and there are buyers out there for everything. I personally have purchased ripped or damaged things before on purpose (I am a seamstress and I was going to cut it to pieces anyway). I've purchased things that I didn't need until a month later so it wouldn't have mattered if you told me that I'd have to wait. Just don't lie!
And, as proof. All but one of those damaged, missing or otherwise items that I've written about here were sold by me on ebay later, for a profit! I took good pictures of the damage, stated clearly what the deal was and have a good reputation to back it up. You can do this too.