Socalgal:
If he leaves a Neg. feedback, then he's screwed. as far as Ebay is concered that will end the mater right then and there. you have 90 days to leave fedback, don't rush it. Head on over to
Trust and safty { safe harbor } and ask for advice from them, Basestealer is one heck of a great guy there.. they have thier own Troll hunters..
I wish you Luck..
Madfish
Advice For Buyers
1. Your bid is a contract. Bidding is not a game. If you do not intend to buy, don't bid.
2. Do not bid on the first item you see. Do a little research. Someone else might have it listed for less or with a lower BIN. However, if you DO bid on the first item you see, keep in mind that retracting a bid because you found it cheaper elsewhere is against Ebay's rules.
3. Do not trust the picture. Read the description carefully. Make sure it does not say "design may vary." Check for size and color. Make sure if it's new or used. Look to see if the description says the item will be drop shipped, which means the seller does not have the merchandise in stock. Look for descriptions of flaws, imperfections and/or damage.
4. Read the terms. Do not assume you can combine shipping or dictate your own shipping preferences. Find out which forms of payment are accepted and that you qualify for them. Many sellers do not take checks from buyers with a low feedback rating. Make sure you are eligible to bid on this auction. Some sellers will not take bids from someone with no feedback or minus rating. Some sellers will not ship Internationally. Find out how much the seller charges for shipping and if the item will be shipped immediately.
5. Check the seller's feedback. Do not buy big ticket items from sellers with excessive negatives or who have no feedback. Check the feedback for an overall pattern. Do a lot of the complaints say the same thing? For instance, if a seller has a lot of complaints about the quality of his packaging, you might want to purchase insurance. Remember, a lot of sellers get retaliation feedback from deadbeats, so be sure to keep that in mind and look for patterns.
6. Contact the seller within three days. Most sellers will contact you, but if they don't, send an e-mail to them through Ebay's "Ask Seller A Question" feature.
7. Read the seller's confirmation e-mail. Even experienced buyers are guilty of not doing this one. Do not assume that every confirmation e-mail is alike. Sellers usually include information that is necessary for you to complete the transaction. A lot of times they also ask for some information from you. Don't just send your payment with PayPal and ignore the confirmation e-mail. That's how a lot of problems get started.
8. Buy insurance. Too many buyers spend $160 on an item, but won't cough up the extra $3 to insure it. Believe me, you will kick yourself if something happens. If you're not sure if you want insurance, ask yourself this question. "Will I be upset if this item arrives damaged or doesn't get here at all?" If your answer is yes, BUY insurance. If the seller does not offer it, ask for it.
9. Be patient. The mail system has slowed down in many areas since the terrible events of 9/11. It may take longer than you expect for your payment to reach your seller. If you are paying by check, that means it will take longer for your check to be deposited before the standard ten day clearance wait can begin. Also, the holiday mail slow down is upon us. It's going to take your merchandise longer to get where it's going.
10. Ask, do not threaten. If you want to check on the status of your order, send a polite e-mail to your seller asking for the information you need. Do not send ten e-mails over a weekend and then get angry when you get no reply. Many people do not work on weekends, so your mail will not be read until Monday. Do not threaten your seller with negative feedback if they do not respond as quickly as you would like them to.
11. If there is a problem, stay calm and friendly. Most sellers are not brick and morter stores, but individual people working from home. They have not been trained to deal with angry customers and will likely become angry themselves and unwilling to work with you. Again, do not threaten negative feedback if things are not worked out .
12. Leave appropriate feedback. Do not blame the seller for something that was outside of his control. It's unfair to give him a negative, because he would not combine shipping when his listing says he won't combine shipping.
13. Avoid misleading feedback. A positive that states something took a long time to get to you (when the postmark clearly proves the item was shipped immediately) is misleading, and therefore not really a positive. It's not the seller's fault it took a long time to get to you.
14. Do not use feedback to warn customers about mistakes that were your fault. For instance, do not leave a neutral telling people to get insurance even on low cost or supposedly unbreakable items. Yes, people should buy insurance, but if they don't, that's not the seller's fault and his feedback should not reflect your personal regrets at your own short sightedness.
16. Do not be afraid of retaliation feedback. Sellers investigate feedback. They know when someone has left you a negative out of revenge, and they will not hold it against you. Feedback is the primary means of protecting buyers from fraudulent (or just bad) sellers. If you withhold a neg out of fear, you've allowed that seller to get away with it, not just to you, but to the next guy that wasn't warned off by your feedback.
---==== Important Tips ====------
1) Do NOT buy anything from anyone who:
- has less than 150 or so feedbacks
- has a bid that has "participants" with less than 20 or so feedbacks (these are almost always shill accounts set up by ripoff sellers to artificially inflate prices)
- Again, do Not participate in an auction that involved user id's with less than 20-40 feedbacks
- avoid anyone with sunglasses, low feedback rating etc.
- I would never buy anything over $300-$400 from some stranger on the internet, especially since they aren't taking credit cards, you have virtually no protection
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
the..hobbit (0) (view author's auctions)
8:07am December 16, 2001 (#39 of 42)
do not put to much stock in the above post.
1) you don`t have to wait till someone has 150 + feedback to bid on their auctions. just check all their feedback and bid according to what you find there. if it`s a new user who is selling a lot of high priced items then you may want to pass but their is no need to wait till they have 150 if you do your homework. if that were the case then you wouldn`t even bid on that posters auctions who wrote that post.
2) there are many new users on ebay all the time specially at this time of year, not all of them are crooks. again do your homework. if they have only been bidding on just one sellers items then you may want to take a closer look but even then they may have found a seller they like and are staying with them. many sellers have users who but a lot of items from them. if you think something is wrong report it to ebay using this form
http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/select-RS.html or come here and ask questions. also read the thread just above this one (the very first one on this board) for more tips. everyone has to start somewhere and I`m sure the above poster didn`t start with more then 20 - 40 feedbacks when they joined ebay.
3) sunglasses don`t always mean a user is new! they could have just changed their user id. in that case they will get sunglasses as well. you my look at my id right now and I have sunglasses, do I sound like a new user? I`m not I have been on ebay for over 3 years!! this is just an id I just made up for posting on the message boards, to see why thats a good idea, again read the first thread on this board.
4) buying something over $300 or $400, again I must say do your homework! if it`s from a seller who has say 500 + feedback and very few negitives with a history of selling the types of items your looking at then go through their feedback to look at the neg. and go from there. heck there are hundreds, if not thousands, of ebay auctions that go without a hitch for that kind of money and more! BUT DO YOUR HOMEWORK!!!!!
Hobbits Ebay Help Page
This is from Ebay's Trust & Safety (Safe Harbor) Board
Linear Mode
