CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[Phil Smith]

As most of you know I buy and sell musical instruments on ebay for a living. I received 6 shipments from auctions I had won this week, but had a busy week selling on ebay and was unable to open them until today. 6 out of 6 was in some way a disappointment, 3 of them complete disasters. None of them came close to being in the condition the seller claimed. Well one was close, but it's still disheartening when something that's advertised as perfect turns out not to be. Two clarinets had mixed parts from other models/brands of clarinets. That amounts to a totally unplayable, worthless piece of junk.

I don't bid on this stuff making it in my mind better than it really is. All I ask is that the instrument be in the described condition. I can make appropriate bids if the sellers just tell the truth. That seems to be asking way too much.

Rough day at the office! At this moment I think all people are sh*t.

[CRT_Ben]

Sorry to hear that Phil!

I assume you paid via credit card, through Paypal or otherwise? If I got stuck with that crap I would be doing chargebacks like no tomorrow

[CZ Eddie]

Dang, Phil. Sorry to hear this.
I'm sure you'll leave appropriate feedback, only to have them return the favor without good reason.

[Phil Smith]

Thanks guys! No I didn't pay with a credit card, but that hasn't been a problem--until recently.

I've had good luck disputing problems via PayPal. They've always backed me up and things have always turned out ok.

But I recently returned a $305 item to the seller. I'm sure you've noticed PayPal only guarantees payment up to $200 for some lower feedback sellers. Well that was the case with this guy. He didn't have the funds to cover the $305 in his account, so all PayPal eventually gets back is $200. I had already returned the merchandise, so I end up getting stiffed for $105! It really doesn't appear that PayPal even tried to get that $105 back. They were obligated to refund me $200, so that's all they tried to get back.

That didn't really bother me too bad. That was a $105 lesson. I no longer bid more than $200 on sellers that are covered for that amount. And it did make me realize I need to be paying for this stuff with a credit card, as Ben mentioned! I'm going to get that set up soon.

I'm sure I'll eventually get all of today's problems straightened out, but it will be a lot of work and time consuming. I've gone from receiving this stuff and having high hopes of someday making some money off of it, to working my ass off to get my money back. THAT'S what really disappointing!

PS: Thanks for not being mad at me anymore Eddie! I appreciate the kind words!

[CZ Eddie]

Phil, I can't stay mad at you for longer than 24 hours at a time. I've tried. It doesn't work.

[oliverg]

Phil, firstly, I'm very sorry to hear of your ebay woes. I understand how you feel.

Just a point, if you do any chargeback with your c/c company, you will lose your paypal account and it is difficult to start another. In my case, I wouldn't do a chargeback unless it was a huge purchase (eg, the $3200 G90 I bought). - but for say, the $320 - it might not be worth it.

There are some PayPal alternatives out there - although trying to convice others to use them is difficult. I've been thinking of using Escrow.com but I don't know enough about it yet.

Anyway, good luck with it all.

PS I heard ebay were changing the feedback system - so you can't see what has been left for you until you've left feedback yourself - to stop retaliatory feedback - this would be great.

[ecrabb]