Warning about eBay

I know everyone is buying Christmas presents but I want to warn you about eBay. I purchased something on there and paid for it but never received the item. I contacted eBay and they refused to refund my money. So be careful.

Ebay goes by the tracking number. If a package is indicated that it was delivered there will be no refund.

Correct. I've been an eBay user since 2007(?) never had any issues with eBay directly. Sellers yes, not ebay.

My wife has a small business on Ebay and is quite familiar with the shipping aspect. She also buys on Ebay and never really had any issues with the seller, the post office, or the site itself. It is possible that the package in the OP was in fact stolen.

Across the last year we(me and wife) have ordered a compost tumbler, a led light and a few other things but when we followed the tracking # we received things other than what we ordered. The compost tumbler we followed with the tracking # but when it arrived the package(with the c-post tumbler's tracking #) contained 3 n95 mask instead. We always use p-pal because of buyer protection and so filed it as "product not as described" and it was reimbursed by p-pal. We also did the same with the light and it was reimbursed.

If I look for things on Ebay I always check the boxes "item location US only","free shipping" ect. and this seems to have helped a lot. I had not experienced problems like this until the last year or so and each time it said it was in the US but took months to receive because it was coming from overseas instead of here in the US. I suppose they have set up offices here to so they can say it's a US location,I don't know.

It strikes me like they are sell something, putting the money in the bank(or somewhere) to draw interest then refunding the sale but keeping the interest the money made over 90 days(took that long for the refund). The buyer protection with ppal was to me the best way to avoid the many different scams. If you google "ebay received different item than I ordered"(or change the wording a little) the www has many complaints about ordering something and receiving n-95 mask ect. instead of what was ordered.

I have a store there.
Did you contact the seller directly?
How did you pay for it? Don't tell me just asking if you've considered that aspect. File a complaint with your debit card issuer. If you used PayPal, contact them. If you used a bank debit card contact your bank and file a complaint. Be specific with details like date of purchase, amount. They'll usually ask you if you've contacted the seller, which is why I suggest doing that first.

Ebay isn't responsible for bad sellers. They can't refund your money because they didn't take it.
I hope it all works out for you.

I find that story hard to believe.

I've personally had a number of issues with eBay auctions. In every case they've been resolved to my satisfaction.

You need to follow through.

that's me, hollering from the choir loft...

its an issue with the seller not ebay, you dont buy from ebay you buy from individual sellers on ebay.
if you had something delivered you have to make sure you are there to accept delivery. If you werent there to sign for it would probably still be with the couriers, so check with them first.

Not sure why you are posting this on a news forum!
I would just advise shoppers to be smart, and check out the goods before you decide to buy. Thats why online shopping isnt always what its cracked up to be.

That's 1 of the main reasons why i don't mess around with buying from ebay with expensive stuff.
At least with amazon i can give them specific instructions on a 1 day shipping while watching them like a hawk as they pull up to drop packages off. Believe it or not some of the people shipping stuff will legit post a picture of them doing a drop off, then they will just pick it back up again and put it back on the truck. Also some of the people shipping are lazy and they just leave it in the truck and take packages right back to the post office.

Also i never buy Christmas presents online in the month of September- December. Thiefs know your doing shopping especially during covid times because online shopping is booming right now... Some people actually follow around shipping trucks so that they can box snatch. If you want to shop this late i would recommend doing it in person in an actual store building. Or if you want, get that Amazon prime and shop on that 1 day shipping, and watch your items on the tracking thing they have on the site,
and make sure your at home to receive it.

If the tracking went through and it says that it went to your address either someone came around and stole it off the porch,
or the shipping truck person stole it or was just too lazy and brought it back to the post office.

I'm trying to warn people so they aren't ripped off. Money has always come hard to me - I never had a cushy job. Ebay has gone .downhill from others I've talked to. I now only shop Target, Walmart, etc - places that I know will stand behind their sale.

That's a new one - take a picture then steal it? We had a huge box of food stolen. They said they delivered it and they didn't. Either the person doing the delivery stole it or someone in our neighborhood, or someone driving around. I think it's going to get worse especially if the government checks stop.

They supposedly have a guarantee - and that's how I learned the hard way that they don't hold to their guarantee. They referred me to PayPal who - the MULTIMILLIONAIRE who runs it also refused to refund my money. That's how they get rich I guess. Ruthlessness.

Well for whatever faults I have lying isn't one of them. I followed through for months. I had heard that eBay went downhill and they have. It was actually the 2nd issue I had with them. I ordered a toothpowder that arrived in a filthy baggy. I tried to get my money back and they refused on that also. The seller refused to give me a refund and eBay didn't stand behind the sale a 2nd time. One item I never received and they didn't refund my money and the second item arrived in an unsanitary container and they refused to stand behind their "guarantee."

It's a word of warning that their guarantee is useless. You may think you're protected and you're not.

At least there is a feedback system. If someone is 99.8% positive filter the feedback and just read the negative and make a decision based on that. Sometimes feedback is fraudulent (maybe a lot of the time) but no business is going to give itself negative feedback so that is almost always from a real person.

Same thing with reviews on the net (though off topic). Review stuffing at 5 stars to balance out negative reviews from actual user reviews is common. Usually these are one-liners and from accounts made for this purpose.

On ebay though... If the negative feedback looks unreasonable (package arrived and was packed well but I didn't like the item and overspent but they wouldn't refund my money after a year of using the product!!!) then I ignore it...but enough of a consensus or anything that looks sort of shady, I am disinclined to purchase from a person.

I guess I didn't add this to the edit fast enough.


I didn't want to go in depth past what I said, but there are many things to look out for depending on what item you are buying. Fakes are almost always from overseas. Scams are "usually" from new accounts. This doesn't mean every new account is a scam, but there is a reason why their items sell "typically" lower than a longtime active member.

Low-detail listings can either be someone being shady or a business cutting costs/time. Putting the max pictures and listing every tiny dent or ding in something (slight smudge here if you care) is a LOT of work. Pictures can tell you most everything "If" a user is willing to go through the effort but it is a lot extra for less yield.

There are more than a few businesses who would rather deal with the handful of the people angry enough to return than correct a problem that saves them a lot of money. I've seen this and I think it's dishonest.

Like if they are scamming you out of $3. Is it really worth the hours and hours of time to get that $3 back? Not to most. Very few will consider it a matter of principle when dealing with that amount of work. Some businesses take advantage of this and operate dishonestly.

There is further dishonesty in many things that the "look" good to the public, but I'm about to fall into a rant so I'll stop and leave it here I think.

There is a place that you can pay called "Reputation Management" that gives positive reviews. You have to be careful. I always rate doctors to let others know about them. I think some of the reviews are real. I tend to trust the negative reviews more than the positive glowing ones - I knew a lawyer who used a fake review service.

Agreed, especially if the glowing ones are just variations with no real way to pinpoint if it's accurate (unlike the negative ones)

Like if I were reviewing a positive about a store/business...you'd think I'd include a person's name at least and some identifying information that would be helpful to other readers instead of "My experience was great" or "if I could leave 6 stars I would, they were awesome".

If someone is going to take the time to leave a review and only the negative one's seem like they've even sampled the product/business, it looks suspicious.

Granted I've seen some people leave 3 stars to avoid the companies "filter" for putting out another 5 star or people putting 5 stars in order to leave a negative review that actually gets read by readers.

It's pretty grimy. I get that a place with no reviews is bad for business (since most don't review) but businesses can incentivize reviewing with discounts "more" honestly. It is true that most people when they receive a discount or some perk are less inclined to be "as" scathing, but it's still better than outright dishonesty.

There's certainly more for me to know in this area and grow in but those are my thoughts at present.

type-in 'Porch Thieves', or something related to the topic,
on u-tube,
and you will be amazed at the brazenness of the people
going around ripping-off people's delivered boxes -

they don't seem to even care about the fact that so
many people have cameras, and yes, some of them
do show cars following the delivery trucks around,
and what some of the delivery-people do to the
packages -
I wouldn't be surprised if some of the deliverers
weren't in cohoots with the theives...
anyway, it's a nasty business, just another door
for corruption to step through...

mm ok
I think being a smart shopper starts with...do I really need this item?
a lot of people buy things they dont really need online. the hassles of delivery, returns and faulty items are sometimes too much to bother with.

at least going to a store and picking it yourself you can be sure youve got the goods after youve paid for them. You can inspect them for quality, and if youve got the receipt you can exchange it if you change your mind within 28 days (for most things) if its still in saleable condition.

If things are REALLY bad and you feel like youve been ripped off go to the consumer act if you have it in your country and get it settled in a tribunal. A show like Fair Go in nz often deals with cowboys and sharks. The ruined reputation of a business means people wont go there if they do nothing to salvage it.

I think with ebay sometimes what you see is what you get, as they deal with secondhand goods and a lot of its not going to come with a guarantee. There is a feedback review system, make use of it and communicate.

I bought something on Ebay with warranty, didn't work. Today I received the check with my refund.