"GROUP BUYS": A Cautionary Tale.... (1 Viewer)

[Phil A]

Most of the transactions will go without a hitch, perhaps 95% of them. One needs to understand though that when you deal with an EBay and have a problem you are on your own. I canceled my BillPoint Account with Ebay and I have bought one item in the past 6 mos. and hopefully the few items I buy will be without a hitch and will definitely be of much smaller dollars. I use it when I search or a used LD title via a seatch engine and that is the only place that pops up.

 

[kevitra]

Paypal was less than helpful for me.

I purchased a new Coach purse from a 'reputable' person online. I paid via paypal. The person's vendor stopped getting shipments, and he said he was out of money, but would get me my money. He continually emailed me saying he would get me it, but I did not trust him.

I contacted paypal about this. The investigated and basically said 'too bad'. There was nothing they could do (he had closed his account and removed all of his money).

Lucky for me a month later he sent me my money.

This was my 1st of probably 100 online transactions that went semi-bad. It made me realize that paypal is *not* secure, even though they sort-of claim it is.

 

[Kevin. W]

Finally after 4 weeks I was able to get a one on one conversation with my ebay seller last night. Turns out that he just got out of hospital or so he says. When the movies are in my hands then I'll feel better.

Kevin

 

[Phil A]

Kevin, hope you get your stuff and that the seller is on the level, but a couple of friends of mine got that same story from sellers and never got their stuff. It really is unfortunate that such sites don't value good customers. I've found Audiogon and Audioweb much better. While fraud can happen anywhere, there are more people into the hobby and I think less of that happens. Audiogon allows a search by zip code which is nice so you can deal with someone locally. I just got a multi-channel SACD player (Sony 777ES) and would never consider a purchase like that from a slime ball site.

 

[BobJ]

It went like this: I paid via Pay Pal upfront. Vendor accepted payment. Told me 49TX would be arriving to him within a couple weeks, then shipped out to me. Never happened. Each time I was able to get a hold of him (very rare occurrence) he basically said "still waiting" or "I'm supposed to get it in next week.." As this went on, I re-consulted with customers who had dealt with him. All said that receiving items from him can be very, very slow, with many customers waiting months for gear, but he always came through or gave the money back when asked. That's why it stretched out for months. But as it became clear that he was upping the BS quotient considerably ("I'll Pay Pal you $500 for your troubles..." which of course never came) I'd decided enough was enough...just as I read on the Internet that his business had collapsed. He's gone AWOL on his final customers (who are owed some REALLY pricey gear), and filed for bankruptcy.

About Pay Pal: Well, first of all I'd passed the month deadline for any Pay Pal action (so says Pay Pal).
So they won't do a thing.

Sorry for your loss. Unfortunately, this is exactly how these guys work. They try and stretch things out so that it it's too late to dispute it with either Pay Pal or your credit card company.

 

[Michael Lomker]

If the guy actually did file bankrupcty then you don't have any legal recourse.

 

[Joe e h]

Craig

So you are the one who got the Cinepro 2K5 amp. that was a good deal. I have a frined who was bidding and messed up his bookmark. He was bummed he missed it.

Enjoy
Joe

 

[DanaA]

I too regret what happened Rich. I buy a lot of stuff online, but, knock on wood, haven't been burned yet. I did come close once though. I bought my Hsu sub, new and in the box, on Ebay. The guy insisted on money order only and wanted it immediately sent to a P.O. Box. Well, I did send it off that day, but he was very slow in getting the sub to me. It took about three weeks and constant emailing before I got the tracking number sent to me. He always sounded strange, even paranoid at times, in his return emails. Something to the effect of keeping my lips shut if other ebayers tried to contact me regarding his whereabouts as they only were trying to rip off the place where he stored his goods. Then, I started to get emails from other people who said they had purchased things from him off of ebay and he wasn't sending their paid for goods. This included another Hsu sub and several Sony minicams. Unfortunately, I couldn't help them as they already had the same information that I did. I have a very strong feeling that I just dodged a bullet on that transaction. Since then, on high dollar goods, I pretty much just use information I find on the internet as bargaining power when I go into a brick and mortar type place. Recently, my wife wanted a minicamera and, even though it supposedly was below their cost, Sears matched, with a smile, the price quoted on the internet site. In customer reviews of the internet site itself, many considered it a scam as they wouldn't sell the products unless the buyer also purchased a lot of accessories that were way overpriced.

 

[Chu Gai]

Well if you want to post his name and you're concerned about legal ramifications on websites, I'd toss a post over at the rec.audio.* newsgroups. Sorry to hear about your misfortune and I hope you get your money back and get that receiver!