8mm Forum: ebay .... grrrrrr

This is topic ebay .... grrrrrr in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on October 31, 2017, 12:01 PM:

Here I have my first ever return of an item coming to me ...

That Ciro splicer.

First off, the return should have never been allowed, as the person who bought it even stated that he had even altered the item, (adjusted screws and such for "better splice") and even stated that the unit in fact splices, (though not to his liking, hence the adjusting), and according to ebay return rules, it should have not been allowed to be returned, but this buyer wrote such incredily LONG ebay messages to me that the person doing the return case probably got lazy and decided to allow the return ...

... but now i find out that ebay has already returned his money ...

... and I haven't even recived the item, and since they have already returned his money, i can no longer even look up ther tracking number. It's gone, as ebay has assumed that the item has been returned.

It's not in my hands, it's not at my door, and I can only hope that it's "out for delivery" (which is what tracking usually shows on the day of delivery), but I can't verify that as it's not here!

I'm going to be smart, however.

I'm going to watch like a hawk for the postal truck (which luckily, shows up at our house within a 15 minute radius of time in the afternoon), with my flip video camera to actuallt catch me receiving the item back and opening the item right there, as, this buyer had asked repeatedly if he might mail back just the splicer and keep the two in package CIRO splicing tapes, (which I said no to as, if you're returning an auction, you return the WHOLE auction ... the nerve of the guy!).

... that way, if this person has screwed me over, I'll have that video that I can "march" over to ebay with and show them, "Hey! He screwed both you and me!". If I don't film the actual return arriving to me, right from the postman, then the buyer and ebay could say, "Well you opened the package earlier, resealed it and made it look like he didn't send everything back.

Just a little thought there for all you sellers on how to protect yourselves when it comes to potentially bad buyers. [Smile]

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on October 31, 2017, 12:15 PM:

I'm beginning to lose faith in anything eBay. How it's all changed.
Hope it works out for you, Osi.

Posted by Daniel D. Teoli Jr. (Member # 6043) on October 31, 2017, 10:00 PM:

Sometimes thing just don't work out on eBay. 99.9% of my trans are fine...but every once in a while...

Just got a suck it up and move on.

Posted by Jason Smith (Member # 5055) on October 31, 2017, 11:18 PM:

While it's not done on this forum, on some other forums, there are special sub-forums where people share their info about their eBay transactions that have gone wrong and also ones that have gone good.

They also share the auction IDs of dead beat bidders/sellers. It would be nice if we had a sub-forum for this or a dedicated thread.

If it were me, I would share the ebay ID and also post on other forums telling Ebay sellers to block this buyer on eBay.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on November 01, 2017, 10:41 AM:

I agree.
Name and shame.
It would help other buyers/sellers.

Posted by Alan Rik (Member # 73) on November 01, 2017, 10:53 AM:

Thats a tough call. Once a member here purchased a projector from me that was in 100% perfect running condition. They returned it saying "Item not as described" and i had to pay for return shipping back to me as well as initial shipping.
I shot a video of the projector before I packed it up and it was threading and running great. I told the buyer this and told them to make sure they use the trimmer for the leader as it is needed (Elmo Machine) they said it wasn't quite running right and they wanted a refund.
When I received it I tried to thread it up and it jammed! I couldn't figure out why till I took a really close look and there was a piece of film stuck right before the gate. So the buyer tried to thread a film through it, and I could tell they didn't use the trimmer because I could see the piece that caused the jam, and it jammed in the gate. Then they tried another film and it wouldn't go through.
Every time I see the member post I cringe because their dishonesty or incompetence cost me $70. I could name them but mine seems to be an isolated incident so I just moved on.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on November 01, 2017, 11:05 AM:

It didn't come yesterday either. If it doesn't come today, I'll update further. [Smile]

Hoping for the best

Posted by Michael O'Regan (Member # 938) on November 01, 2017, 12:18 PM:

What was actually wrong with the splicer, Osi? I didn't quite get that part.

Posted by Terry Sills (Member # 3309) on November 01, 2017, 01:24 PM:

A lot of the problem is that buyers of our 'stuff' have no experience or know how of the proper use. They are mostly used to modern 'plug and play' machines that are idiot proof. Ther are also some nasty buyers who know they can take advantage of eBay buyer protection rules to their advantage. Sellers are very disadvantaged which is very unfair. Luckily I have not suffered too badly as yet.

Posted by Jason Smith (Member # 5055) on November 01, 2017, 09:07 PM:

quote:
Thats a tough call. Once a member here purchased a projector from me that was in 100% perfect running condition. They returned it saying "Item not as described" and i had to pay for return shipping back to me as well as initial shipping.

I agree with you Alan. I have seen examples much like your own where a buyer bought a machine that they did not know how to care for and then publicly shamed the seller asking for their money back. The fault was really with the buyer but the seller suffered. Sometime's it's hard to know who is at fault as a outside observer. I still think that bringing these things out in the open helps in the end.

Chances are that the buyer you dealt with has and will continue to cause trouble for other sellers in the future. It's a small community though so I understand not wanting to rock the boat. I have done the same. I have received films from sellers here that were not exactly as described and have held my tongue more than once.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on November 02, 2017, 12:00 PM:

I don't get it either, Micheal ...

The person i sold it for said that he used it the very night before shipping it to me and said that it worked perfectly. I wonder if the fellow just didn't know how to use it, but it DID come complete with the original manual as to how to work it ...

but now, here is the totally BIZZARE part folks ...

as well as a cautionary tale for you all ...

Yesterday night I called ebay as it again didn't arrive, the nice lady at ebay told me that it did arrive, but at a wrong address, (it was some store in mountain home, strange, it makes it all the way here, but doesn't make it to my door).

Since it didn't make it to me, ebay reversed it's decision (at least on my end of things) and gave me full credit for the auction ... the selling price and shipping. So, I'm not out any money, thankfully.

this got me to thinking after the call, so today, when I went to my ebay, I decided to look up the address on my account for returns and otherwise. It wasn't my address! So I changed my address to what it's supposed to be.

so, back to the cautionary part ...

anybody who is on ebay, buying or selling, please verify you're address info on you're ebay, as there was obviously some kind of glitch in the system, and you're address could potentially be wrong. If my address was wrong, (and it was), yours might be too and even if you don't sell anything, you'd hate to not get you're buys that you have made.

I must state that this must be a fairly recent glitch, as I got a package in the mail about two weeks ago, a buy off of ebay, but nothing else since. I was kind of curious as to why the lady on the phone was so quick to issue me a refund on the return and I'm betting that it's because they know interally at ebay that something went screwy. That's just my theory, however ...

So ebay folks, check you're mailing address. [Smile]

Posted by Barry Fritz (Member # 1865) on November 02, 2017, 08:44 PM:

So, what happened to the splicer? Did you retrieve it from the store it was delivered to?

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on November 03, 2017, 12:15 PM:

No, I thought about that after I wrote what I did yesterday. I was so pissed off with that other address on my account that I deleted it without copying down the address ...

... so, my only hope is that the person who got the splicer, might know who the heck I am and give me a call and I could retrieve it.

... or, they might just throw it away. [Frown]

Posted by Barry Fritz (Member # 1865) on November 03, 2017, 01:44 PM:

Yikes! That is bad luck. I don't know how many stores are in Mt. Home, but if it were me, I'd consider calling them and asking about it.

Posted by Michael O'Regan (Member # 938) on November 03, 2017, 01:46 PM:

Is it just me?

Surely, you could have just picked up the returned splicer from the other address and that would've been the end of it.

How did someone else's address find it's way into your account details on ebay? Did ebay venture any explanation for this, because it seems like a serious security issue to me?

What did the seller say was wrong with the splicer?

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on November 04, 2017, 11:38 AM:

Micheal ...

as I stated earlier, I didn't write the address down before I deleted it and corrected it with my own address. Without the address I couldn't retrieve it. It's fairly sad as, who knows what has happened to it, though I just had the idea (while typing this) of heading to the local pawn shops. I have actually seen the occasional old 16MM projector in our local pawn shop, so there is a chance that it could be there. Or, there is always the chance that the business that received it just threw it away. Now me, if I had received a package that wasn't mine, I'd simply return it to the post office, (if I wasn't able to give it right back to the postman at the time, but I'm not always there right when the postman rolls by).

The person who bought/won the ebay auction stated that while it did splice, it wasn't what he was looking for in a splice and so he messed with the screws on the splicer to try to get the splice that he wanted, but couldn't in the end. I kind of doubt that, the person i sold it for said that he had never had an issue with the splicer and that it had worked just fine.

Oh, that last question. I asked her (it was a "her"), as to why my shipping address had changed and she had no answer, but she would pass on the question to her supervisors, but I bet that it was a known issue.

Posted by Michael O'Regan (Member # 938) on November 05, 2017, 07:57 AM:

Yes, I realise that you had mentioned having deleted the address. I guess I'm just expressing my surprise that your first thought wouldn't have been to retrieve the item, particularly as you were out of pocket at that point because of the refund. Even a phone call to the store would have secured it until you had the time to go pick it up.

Assuming that eBay will now claim the cost from the buyer again, it seems that the buyer will be out of pocket and does not have a splicer, while the splicer is fairly easily retrievable by you - it is at a store in your (relatively small) town. Surely one would be able to recall the name of a store which had unexpectedly turned up as ones own address on a website. It's not something easily forgotten [Smile]

Do let us know how you get on.

It does concern me that someone else's address showed up on Osi's account though. Has anybody else had this happen with eBay?

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on November 06, 2017, 01:02 PM:

Well, I never said i was perfect. I goof up occasionally. [Frown]

I'm betting that they didn't take away the funds from the buyer, as I'm sure that I would have heard back from him in my ebay messages, and he did mail it off so he did what he was supposed to do, so I'm betting that he was allowed to keep his refund.

Oh, the lady in the call to ebay only said that it was left at a store front, but didn't give the name. If she had, that would have been an easy task to go to the store itself, and I'm betting that if it listed the stores name on the tracking, (because she looked up the tracking number), she no doubt would have told me. Once the the package was delivered, all that info, (tracking number included), disappeared from my ebay.

Posted by Michael O'Regan (Member # 938) on November 06, 2017, 01:10 PM:

Sorry...my mistake. I was under the impression that the address of the store had been on your account before you deleted it.

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