Even Have Buyers' Remorse On eBay?

[jyl]

Yaay - errr - ouch! I just won a IBM Thinkpad X41 Tablet on eBay and am suffering buyers' remorse. The price seems good ($1,301) but the fact that the winning bid was exactly my "snipe" figure makes me feel like I left money on the table.

Anyone else even have buyers' remorse on eBay?

[singpilot]

John, the secret to sniping is putting the max amount you'd pay as the snipe and still feel like you got a deal.

The next bid could have been 1300. and your slightly over bid was exactly what it took to win.

I get disappointed at having to go all in, but if the bid was following rule #1, I still got what I wanted at a price I'd pay.

[nostatic]

the remorse is that you didn't buy a Mac

[Hugh R]

Too many scams. Bought an Aston Martin poster for $20 bucks and it turned out to be a cut out ad from an old Motor Trend mazagine. Don't do ebay too much.

[Tervuren]

Did the auction have a reserve price?

[epbrown]

That's a pretty good price on an X41! I still prefer the X30 series, myself; the X41 isn't small enough to justifiy the price premium, imo.

[jyl]

I checked the bid history. The next highest bid was in fact $1300, and a string of bids at $1105, $1052, $1002, and so on. So I feel better. Here's to the trick of never setting your snipe at a round number (instead of $500, use $501).

Yes, I was willing to pay $1300 for the machine. I was originally looking for a X40 which go for around $800-1000 on eBay (a higher-spec version w/ Bluetooth, 8-cell battery, etc). But the Windows Tablet XP features of the X41 Tablet are nice, and they go for $1600-1800, so I figured I'd offer a few hundered extra and see what happened.

No, no reserve price.

Todd, my next purchase will be 1 or 2 Apple iBooks for the home, but I'm waiting for the Intel iBooks (which I guess won't be called "iBook"?). This X41 is strictly for work.

[JavaBrewer]

Holy Harpo hair - Todd changed his avitar... (edited cause the BBS stripped my colorful language)

No buyers remorse yet and I just had delivered the second car purchased by description/pictures only (no PPI). Of course I did engage in a bit of email/phone chat for more details. Call me a gambler...

I only bid right before (15 seconds or less) auction close with a max amount I would be happy to pay. Never used any sniping software other than the EBay max bid dealeo.

[HardDrive]

No regrets thus far, and I bought my 911 off E-bay.

I am VERY cautious. I ask lots of questions about the item, and the answers I get back don't jive, I move on.

[jyl]

I've not been screwed as a buyer, yet. Been buying on eBay since 1996 or so. Mildly disappointed, occasionally, not screwed.

I've been screwed as a seller, by PayPal who decided because their crummy security allowed someone's PayPal account to be hijacked, I as the seller should pay for it (credit reversed, no way to recover goods). I'll never accept PayPal again. Three months of trying and I couldn't even get a human-generated email. Utter bastards.

[VaSteve]

Originally posted by dmoolenaar
Holy Harpo hair - Todd changed his avitar... (edited cause the BBS stripped my colorful language)

It's hard to keep up when people have had thos avatars a long time....

[singpilot]

John, My beef is also with PayPal. This is the latest scam..... sanctioned by PayPal.

Seller failed to deliver goods. I file for refund within the 45 days of close. An 'Official Investigation' starts with a demand / inquiry letter to the seller. The seller replies that all 3 of his sisters and a favourite dog died in a tragic catering truck explosion, and he is swamped with trying to find a new dog. He will get the stuff shipped. Meaning the ultimate put off. PayPal sends me a sweet letter that says the seller is a nice guy. That perhaps I should cut him some slack for the remaining 45 days of the inquiry period. I do. On the very last day of the inquiry period (3 months later) the seller sends me a panic email asking 'What was it I bought from him???' I reply with the auction numbers. Silence for a week.

Then a "Congratulations" letter from PayPal. They have proudly exclaimed that they are refunding $49. of my $97. payment. The money should be put in my PayPal account in a week or so. Of course, they are only refunding 60% of my payment (minus a $25. processing fee).

Fack. I figure WTH. It's something. Then it gets better.

Panic email from seller. He found my parts, and please verify the shipping address. I do. He says he ships, and sends PayPal a reply that he has shipped the stuff, and here is the tracking number (number is bogus). PayPal forwards this reply to me asking for input. I give it, in your face style.

2 weeks go by. PayPal emails and says I need to send refunded amount to seller in order for shipment to proceed. Get this. The refunded amount is the $49. (not yet funded to my PayPal), PLUS the $25. processing fee deducted from my unfunded 'award'.

I do the math. ASSuMing I get the $49. refund, I think I am only out the $25. and send the $49 plus the $25. cashiers' check to seller, of course (because the sellers' PayPal is suspended). 3 days later, parts arrive frieght C.O.D. PayPal sends a email saying they were unable to retrieve the $49. from the seller, so 'so solly, no refund'. Hmmmmm. No way to leave bad feedback because his eBay id is a goner.

Basically, I paid twice for the parts. Now, no more direct payments from my checking. Everything gets paid thru PayPal with a credit card. The credit card has protections that would have prevented this.

3 weeks later, this seller is back on eBay with an ID that is one letter different from the bogus one. No new id notice, clean feedback on the new id because it is not related to the old id.

[cashflyer]

Originally posted by jyl
Anyone else even have buyers' remorse on eBay?

Only every time I use them.

Actually, I do not use them any more. It used to be that I could get some good parts on there for my aging vehicles, but about two years ago everything started turning to poo. I started winning items that would arrive "not as pictured" and "not as described". And every time I have made a complaint to eBay, I get canned replies and lots of inaction.

Top it all off with Paypal, which is now owned by eBay. Again, ineffective buyer protections and fees that rape your wallet.

Why should Sing have paid a $25 processing fee, when it was HE who was ripped off by a sellers BS??

Ebay allows itself to be a scammers paradise, and even facilitates the scams with their indifference.

IMHO, 1% = the percentage of honest ebayers.

[jdlowery]

I thought everyone knew not to attach PayPal to your bank account. Only use your credit card just in case something strange happens and you need a full refund. I don't accept PayPal as payment either. I specify US Postal Money Orders only. When I receive payment I take the package to the post office and cash in the money order. If the money order is a fake the post office tells me immediately. When the PO gives me the cash I know it's the real deal and send the package. This approach does limit me from international orders but that's OK with me.

[bryanthompson]

Aren't the PayPal offices in Omaha? Maybe Kyle and I could go knock down some doors for you guys?

[widebody911]

I got burned on ebay a few months ago; I got stiffed on an auction for a Porsche transformers car. Seems like the guy did a few legit transactions, and then scammed a bunch of people and skipped town. A couple years prior, I was ripped off trying to buy a set of FRS radios. Both times, eBay and PayPal were useless.

I'm seriously re-considering whether or not I want to continue using PayPal. The 3% fee on cash transactions is federal pound-me-in-the-ass robbery. And ebay's new policy is that if a seller accepts PayPal, he can't refuse credit cards; thank you sir, may I have another? And who knows what fun will transpire once PayPal starts reporting your transactions to the IRS.

The market seems ripe for a competitor.

[Schrup]

I've never really had a problem with ebay. I've bought all my golf gear there & saved hundreds of dollars. I always scour the sellers feedback & usually don't bid till the final minute with my max price. There are great deals to be had if your patient & careful.

I've bought over 50 items & only had one that was bad. I had to throw the $20 item in the trash because I couldn't get the cigarette stench out of it. I still left positive feedback, but made note of the stench to give future buyers something to think about.

If the item I'm buying costs more than $50, I use my Visa linked to Pay Pal in case there is a problem, & usually buy from large well established vendors.

[911S Targa]

Ive bought around 90 items off of eBay over the last 6 months, and havent ran into any problems so far. A couple of items took a little longer to arrive then thought.,.,but received everything I bought, and all items were as listed. Been sniped a couple of times on a few items, but all is fair when I have sniped a few items from others. I'm about to start the other side of eBay, selling items. Books, ham radio stuff,, etc, so we will see how that goes.

[cashflyer]

Originally posted by widebody911
The market seems ripe for a competitor.

Paypal was the competitor.

Ebay had a program they called Billpoint, which I had heard was pretty usurious. Paypal was the cheaper, friendlier alternative, and as such had a much stronger user base. Ebay bought out Paypal in 2002 and scrapped their Billpoint system in January of 2003.

There was also another competitor called Bidpay, but they went belly-up in Dec 2005. Another company has bought the rights and hopes to return to the market this summer.

Of note is that Ebay has no control over who's payment services are used. That is strictly between the buyer and seller. If Joe wanted to starts Joes Taxidermy and Auction Payment Emporium, LTD. then it's success would be solely determined by buyers and sellers willingness to use it.

I believe that there is a fortune to be made off of the thousands of disillusioned sellers who accept Paypal and are tired of paying Paypal a % fee (that goes into Ebay's pocket) when they are also already paying Ebay's seller fees.

Wasn't somebody on here looking for a niche business to get into? Here's you chance....

[scottmandue]

I'm not a big fan of ebay but I have to say most of what I have bought off there has been exactly as described... biggest remorse is finding out after scanning the Internet that I didn't get the screaming deal I thought I was getting i.e. I saved five or ten dollars instead of"hundreds".