Saturday, April 5, 2008
Member since:
October 2007
October 2007
Does anyone else go for these bigger-ticket incredibly suspicious sellers/items? I have many times over the last 5 years or so, and only got ripped off twice (no product). I've lost about $1,200 net after partial Paypal reimbursement, but saved several times that amount in taking chances that did miraculously work out.
Case in point: I'm in the market for a new "consumer class" digital still camera, and was considering the new Nikon D300 body even though it would mean investing in new lenses (I have Pentax and Canon lenses for my current cameras). Since the prospect of spending another $5,000 over the next year in lenses kinda led to some negative wife pressure, my choices were narrowed down to a Canon EOS 40D.
Since this camera wasn't my first choice, I figured if I can snag a body only on eBay for under $1k, I'll live with it. Course I've lost every auction with my $999 bid limit over the last few weeks. 2 days ago a new eBay member without any selling history had an auction for a new 40D with two lenses, and I got out-bid @ $927 yesterday. Figuring I could sell the 2 crappy lenses after for about $300, I was ready to raise my high price, but upon refreshing the page I noticed the same seller had a new listing just posted seconds ago with the same camera and two lenses for a "Buy it now" price of $849.95 with a quantity of 11. So of course I jumped on it. I refreshed the listing a little later and the other 10 were sold already! I used "contact this seller" to test them a little about shipping, and to my surprise I found a reply this morning that said it was packed up and ready to go, and that I would receive a tracking number on Monday when they take it to the post office.
Meanwhile, the original bid auction from the same seller for the same item with the exact same description just ended with the winner paying $2,247.00.
Apparently everything is new, never opened, with Canon's Canadian warranty. It will be a miracle if this isn't a ripoff.
Case in point: I'm in the market for a new "consumer class" digital still camera, and was considering the new Nikon D300 body even though it would mean investing in new lenses (I have Pentax and Canon lenses for my current cameras). Since the prospect of spending another $5,000 over the next year in lenses kinda led to some negative wife pressure, my choices were narrowed down to a Canon EOS 40D.
Since this camera wasn't my first choice, I figured if I can snag a body only on eBay for under $1k, I'll live with it. Course I've lost every auction with my $999 bid limit over the last few weeks. 2 days ago a new eBay member without any selling history had an auction for a new 40D with two lenses, and I got out-bid @ $927 yesterday. Figuring I could sell the 2 crappy lenses after for about $300, I was ready to raise my high price, but upon refreshing the page I noticed the same seller had a new listing just posted seconds ago with the same camera and two lenses for a "Buy it now" price of $849.95 with a quantity of 11. So of course I jumped on it. I refreshed the listing a little later and the other 10 were sold already! I used "contact this seller" to test them a little about shipping, and to my surprise I found a reply this morning that said it was packed up and ready to go, and that I would receive a tracking number on Monday when they take it to the post office.
Meanwhile, the original bid auction from the same seller for the same item with the exact same description just ended with the winner paying $2,247.00.
Apparently everything is new, never opened, with Canon's Canadian warranty. It will be a miracle if this isn't a ripoff.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Member since:
September 2007
September 2007
i dont know about all that.... but im sure alot of ebay stuff is stolen. thats another reason why is cheap.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Member since:
October 2007
October 2007
Good point. I feel like I'm buying stuff out of a car trunk in a parking lot sometimes when I get stuff on eBay. It definitely makes you wonder...
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Member since:
December 2007
December 2007
Well you always have to check out the sellers creds... I just bought a Brown Zune for about 120 bucks. Good deal in my opinion. It's open boxed but everything is there. So.. We'll see what turns up next week.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Member since:
October 2007
October 2007
Well here's the latest update:
Tracking number was not emailed to me as promised Monday. So I contacted the seller early today asking where the heck it was, and no reply yet.
Meanwhile, the same guy was selling Samsung computer monitors back in early March, and I contacted two buyers (both bought around March 3rd). They both gave me the same story, that the seller told them he had mistakenly sent the monitors to someone else - but both were refunded after some pain. Neither had left negative feedback as a result (you know how scared we all are to give negative feedback when the dorks will just return it and ruin our 100% rating).
If I don't get a tracking number by next Monday, I'll do the paypal thing and retrieve at least $300 eventually of the $900 I wasted doing this. Unfortunately, my wife isn't too happy with me losing $600 when I was very suspicious of this guy to begin with...
[Post edited by Skyhawk on Apr 9, 2008]
Tracking number was not emailed to me as promised Monday. So I contacted the seller early today asking where the heck it was, and no reply yet.
Meanwhile, the same guy was selling Samsung computer monitors back in early March, and I contacted two buyers (both bought around March 3rd). They both gave me the same story, that the seller told them he had mistakenly sent the monitors to someone else - but both were refunded after some pain. Neither had left negative feedback as a result (you know how scared we all are to give negative feedback when the dorks will just return it and ruin our 100% rating).
If I don't get a tracking number by next Monday, I'll do the paypal thing and retrieve at least $300 eventually of the $900 I wasted doing this. Unfortunately, my wife isn't too happy with me losing $600 when I was very suspicious of this guy to begin with...
[Post edited by Skyhawk on Apr 9, 2008]
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Member since:
March 2002
March 2002
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Member since:
October 2007
October 2007
Latest Update:
From my Paypal dispute I filed THIS MORNING!:
That was fast.
In my Paypal claim message, I indicated that I would be calling the RCMP to investigate along with 6 other people I've been in contact with (so far). And this is true. Today I was exchanging emails and plans with 4 other buyers ripped off by this dork, and we were planning on how to escalate this to a criminal matter. And we're still doing it, and in the process of contacting everyone else (about 75 people in total). No one we've been able to contact so far has ever received anything.
eBay needs cleaning up badly, and if everyone organizes together to do their little part, things will get better.
Edit: BTW, today I decided to buy another Canon EOS 40d camera - this time from a "power seller" - Henrys.com (which is a real camera store chain with retail outlets in our area but sells these about $200 online on eBay). Of course though, I paid about $1,200 for the camera body only, compared to $850 + shipping from the scam artist. I thought that price was a bit too good to be true!
[Post edited by Skyhawk on Apr 10, 2008]
From my Paypal dispute I filed THIS MORNING!:
Quote:
We have concluded our investigation into your claim.
You have received a refund via PayPal in the amount of $884.95 CAD.
Sincerely,
Protection Services Department
That was fast.
In my Paypal claim message, I indicated that I would be calling the RCMP to investigate along with 6 other people I've been in contact with (so far). And this is true. Today I was exchanging emails and plans with 4 other buyers ripped off by this dork, and we were planning on how to escalate this to a criminal matter. And we're still doing it, and in the process of contacting everyone else (about 75 people in total). No one we've been able to contact so far has ever received anything.
eBay needs cleaning up badly, and if everyone organizes together to do their little part, things will get better.
Edit: BTW, today I decided to buy another Canon EOS 40d camera - this time from a "power seller" - Henrys.com (which is a real camera store chain with retail outlets in our area but sells these about $200 online on eBay). Of course though, I paid about $1,200 for the camera body only, compared to $850 + shipping from the scam artist. I thought that price was a bit too good to be true!
[Post edited by Skyhawk on Apr 10, 2008]
