102 replies to this topic

[j4play]

is it easier to create accounts on ebay in other countries?  how to the nigerian scammers do it?  they seem to have no shortage of accounts.

this site is also useful for checking sellers negative feedback
http://toolhaus.org/
good for when sellers have very heaps of feedback.   also can check for mutual feedback between users to check where they've bought multiple items from each other to push their feedback up.

Edited by j4play, 18 September 2007 - 02:51 PM.

[Foggy]

Thanks for the excellent link to the site j4play.

I need to do a significant edit of the first post and will add your link as well as some of the other info into it.

[Anabolic]

Foggy, on Sep 18 2007, 03:01 PM, said:

Thanks for the excellent link to the site j4play.

I need to do a significant edit of the first post and will add your link as well as some of the other info into it.

That is an excellent tool. You can actually see what the sold item was even if it was marked as private.

Foggy this completely falsifies your comments regarding a particular seller, which you claim relabels the feedback as something else using additional comments. You are completely wrong there. Have a look for yourself. The feedback comments clearly match what was sold.
There is also no evidence of feedback buying as far as i can see, as all the buyers have plenty of feedback themselves and are not the same people buying again and again.

Edited by Anabolic, 18 September 2007 - 03:26 PM.

[Foggy]

Anabolic, on Sep 18 2007, 03:17 PM, said:

That is an excellent tool. You can actually see what the sold item was even if it was marked as private.

Foggy this completely falsifies your comments regarding a particular seller, which you claim relabels the feedback as something else using additional comments. You are completely wrong there. Have a look for yourself.
There is also no evidence of feedback buying as far as i can see mate.

I'm not sure if I'm missing something Anabolic, but I certainly can't see the actual prices for Private Auctions on any of the searches on that site.

[Anabolic]

Foggy, on Sep 18 2007, 03:25 PM, said:

I'm not sure if I'm missing something Anabolic, but I certainly can't see the actual prices for Private Auctions on any of the searches on that site.

enter the usename in the "Item-FB" field and when it comes up with the feedback list, on the right there is a "view item" link for each item recently sold as well as the price. Even if the item is marked as private on ebay it will show up.

Edited by Anabolic, 18 September 2007 - 03:34 PM.

[Foggy]

Anabolic, on Sep 18 2007, 03:29 PM, said:

enter the usename in the "Item-FB" field and when it comes up with the feedback list on the right there is a "view item" link =

That link only shows for non-Private auctions. Scroll down a little further and you'll see lots of private auctions without the link.

[Anabolic]

Foggy, on Sep 18 2007, 03:32 PM, said:

That link only shows for non-Private auctions. Scroll down a little further and you'll see lots of private auctions without the link.

No its not. ebay removes listings older than 90 days. that is why the dont show up. But you can still see upto the last 3 months.

eBay States and i copy and paste " Note: Listings that have ended more than 90 days ago will no longer appear on eBay."

Looking at ebay the same feedbacks come up as private. But using the tool posted above the come up and are fully viewable. You only have to look at the very top feedback to see what i mean. and they all match up to the comments written by the seller.

Edited by Anabolic, 18 September 2007 - 03:57 PM.

[Foggy]

hmmm.... that's unfortunate really. It would make sense that the use of such tactics would be more likely to occur early on when trying to establish credibility.

[Anabolic]

Foggy, on Sep 18 2007, 03:56 PM, said:

hmmm.... that's unfortunate really. It would make sense that the use of such tactics would be more likely to occur early on when trying to establish credibility.

even if it did happen early on and there is no evidence to suggest it did, it aint happening now.

Edited by Anabolic, 18 September 2007 - 04:07 PM.

[Foggy]

Actually, I think your 90 day theory is incorrect.

I just did a comparison for a product purchased by buyer xxxxxxx on Sep 12, 2007. It was a private auction, and there is no "View Item" link on the toolhaus site.

It still looks as though private auctions are not visible to toolhaus, so we're back to square 1.

EDIT: Buyer name obfuscated to remove any clues about the seller in question

Edited by Foggy, 18 September 2007 - 04:28 PM.

[Anabolic]

Yes i see now. It seems that all the above tool does is group the visible non-private feedbacks at the top and the rest further down. So it looked like the newer feedbacks were in fact visible. I appologise for the mixup.

[Platinum]

i'd rather buy from ebay than buy a product from panasonic

[(ツ)]

I'd rather not buy from E-BAY because as other users have said, when things do go wrong,
the advertised "back up" doesn't happen.

I had a mate that got burned by an unscrupulous seller, ie: money paid, no goods. I advised again'st the sale and I was right. It was too good to be true. I called my mate a dill for falling for it, So Why do I Blame E-BAY?

Because they took NO steps to prevent it from happening again, or to someone else...they weren't interested.

That particular sale had 20 bidders on it, any one of those 20 would have fallen for it. And it will happen again......

[abk_in_bris]

Online buying is always a risk and one has to do their homework before being 'sucked in' by unscrupulous operators.  I'm certainly not defending eBay, as I've had both positive and negative experiences, however, of late, I did deal with a well known vendor of cables on eBay and had a very pleasant experience. So I say, if you can save, and you are willing to take the risk then go for it. After all the person that clicks the BUY button is ultimately doing it out of FREE WILL. Research and then click.... and this forum has certainly been an invaluable resource for me personally.

[VISUAL AID]

Foogy you really need to be more factual,  you tend to make overstatements and exaggerate. I can understand why sellers would feel they needed to react to your statements.

Quote

1. By Foogy :
For example, I know that the National Sales
Manager for an Australian projector distributor
anonymously called a particular ebay seller to
ask if the projector was sourced from the Australian
distributor, and was told that it was. He then went to
view the unit in the showroom and was again told it was
Australian sourced. He noted the serial number and went
back to his office and confirmed that it had not come
through the Australian distributor.

Now ideally, the distributor should have taken action
to shut him down, but my point is that projector distributors
can't be expected to police eBay for this sort of thing

Does anybody here really believe an “Australian National Sale Manager Projector Distributor ”
would visit an eBay seller, check a serial number, then ask the seller information concerning  warranty ? Then after all this he leaves and does nothing ??  Think Logically. How extremely busy he would be. Wait maybe he could not get the low price at work and wanted to buy the item . That is just as believable.

Quote

2. By Foogy   Create multiple (possibly hundreds of) accounts to gain feedback.
Then By Foogy : I used the words "possibly hundreds of".... which I agree could be misleading in this particular case, so I'm happy to edit that.

Exaggerating

Quote

3. •  The seller then comes back and leaves an additional "comment" on the feedback to pretend it was a big ticket item…. for example:
Reply by dodgyseller (13-Sep-07 12:34)
PANASONIC PT-AX100 PT-AX100E PROJECTOR
•  Because the auction was private, you don't see the true price, nor the link to the actual auction, so most people assume that this is what was actually sold!

Go to  any ebay seller’s product list page. Click on the completed listings box on the left of the page. I have taken a look and shock horror mainly high priced items sold, and plenty of the above item    (Sold items prices becomes green once sold) Surely you will admit this. The seller has now decided to add  item numbers to the feedback reply due to your inaccurate statements.
Also remember the date above is when the buyer had left the feedback, it is not the date of the sale.
I am also aware of a member from this forum that bought a Benq 8720 projector. His name is BEN.  He bought a benq 8720 like the one you have Foogy. Remember. You went on and on to say that he was told there was Direct  Australian warranty by the seller but there was none? Wrong again! I have done some checking with one of the Australian distributor for Benq and once again he is a registered reseller for Benq projectors as well as other projector brands that this Auth distributor carries . Anybody who by now really cares PM for details to validate this truth.

Foogy  I respect your knowledge on projectors and setups. Thank you for your informative threads.
But you do need to understand that Accuracy is important  on forums.  No one is disputing that the seller would not honor any third party warranty claims on some items not sources directly . Unlike other sellers he does have these.


1.ABN/ACN
2 Land Line
3. Shop/showroom/ business address.
4. Selling on eBay for many years
5. Staff members
6. Call and speak with the owner of the business. (Ask about the warranty terms and be frank)
7. Pick up ok.
8. 100s to 1000s of feedback at 98% and above

If you get the item cheap and still have warranty covered direct or Back to Base  thats great.  

Edited by VISUAL AID, 21 September 2007 - 03:44 AM.

[Mr.Bitey]

I believe Foggy.

Why wouldnt the aust distributor want to assist - its good market R&D and good risk management - if theres a lot of grey imports being sold under the false pretence that theres an Aust warranty for which the aust distributor would otherwise have to tell purchsers 'sorry - youve got no warranty' - potentially leading to damaging the brand and or distributors reputation?? from a research perspective if grey imports are flooding the market and the distributor and its retailers are loosing marketshare then they can use this market intelligence to develop new sales policies, issue statements such as Topfield AUS did regarding grey-import PVR's. Who knows the guy might have been using the info for an internal report to cover his ass why he wasnt making his quota this month. The point is, goods were and are being sold in a misleading manner via a system that doesnt seem to concerned about it.

Foggy makes some excellent points and is good advice to assist people weighing up the risks of purchasing an item from ebay.

Who would really want the hassle and additional time of needing to send an item back to an ebay seller (overseas) for a warranty claim where theyve been mislead to believe its an 'australian warranty' - implying you can take it to an australian service agent for warranty claims? OR where you need to ship it back to the Australian based EBAY seller, whom then needs to ship it overseas for a warranty claim of which may be at your cost and for which you have no direct relationship with the service-agent should there be a dispute?

Cheers,
Bitey

[Foggy]

VISUAL AID, on Sep 21 2007, 03:01 AM, said:

Does anybody here really believe an "Australian National Sale Manager Projector Distributor "
would visit an eBay seller, check a serial number, then ask the seller information concerning  warranty ? Then after all this he leaves and does nothing ??  Think Logically. How extremely busy he would be. Wait maybe he could not get the low price at work and wanted to buy the item . That is just as believable.

I can assure you that this story is true.
I don't know his reasons for not following it up, perhaps it wasn't worth the trouble given that the claims weren't  made in writing, but on the phone.

VISUAL AID, on Sep 21 2007, 03:01 AM, said:

Go to  any ebay seller's product list page. Click on the completed listings box on the left of the page. I have taken a look and shock horror mainly high priced items sold, and plenty of the above item    (Sold items prices becomes green once sold) Surely you will admit this. The seller has now decided to add  item numbers to the feedback reply due to your inaccurate statements.

Well that's all well and good, but you can't see prices or the item when the seller uses Private Auctions!

VISUAL AID, on Sep 21 2007, 03:01 AM, said:

I am also aware of a member from this forum that bought a Benq 8720 projector. His name is BEN.  He bought a benq 8720 like the one you have Foogy. Remember. You went on and on to say that he was told there was Direct  Australian warranty by the seller but there was none? Wrong again! I have done some checking with one of the Australian distributor for Benq and once again he is a registered reseller for Benq projectors as well as other projector brands that this Auth distributor carries . Anybody who by now really cares PM for details to validate this truth.

This is getting interesting, you seem to know a lot of detail about this incident.... much of which I haven't even posted. The member's name wasn't Ben by the way, but it does begin with B.

I haven't heard from the member since the incident, but I do remember that when he called BenQ at the time of that incident, the seller was not an authorised reseller for that projector.

VISUAL AID, on Sep 21 2007, 03:01 AM, said:

Foogy  I respect your knowledge on projectors and setups. Thank you for your informative threads.
But you do need to understand that Accuracy is important  on forums.  No one is disputing that the seller would not honor any third party warranty claims on some items not sources directly . Unlike other sellers he does have these.

1.ABN/ACN
2 Land Line
3. Shop/showroom/ business address.
4. Selling on eBay for many years
5. Staff members
6. Call and speak with the owner of the business. (Ask about the warranty terms and be frank)
7. Pick up ok.
8. 100s to 1000s of feedback at 98% and above

If you get the item cheap and still have warranty covered direct or Back to Base  thats great.  

It's great that you have all these things, but this thread is not about that, it's about the elusive and ambiguous claims that are sometimes being made, and what people should look out for and ask. I'm not saying don't buy on ebay, there are many bargains to be had, but you need to know what to look out for.

All in all, I don't think that I've been too inaccurate, and I've acknowledged where I have been. If one of the sellers in question has taken steps to improve things, then that is good for everyone involved, including the seller.

[Mr.Bitey]

Seems someones taking things a bit personally for some reason Foggy...

Cheers,
Bitey

[Foggy]

mr.bitey, on Sep 21 2007, 11:11 AM, said:

Seems someones taking things a bit personally for some reason Foggy...

Cheers,
Bitey

Whether that's the case or not, at least it's a calm and considered argument, hopefully the discussion will remain that way and we don't get a repeat of the "manphibian" approach that's since been deleted.

I said in my first post, that I may have been wrong about some aspects, and welcome any input from others.

[quijibo]

I haven't read all of this thread and I apologise if this has already been said, but although you cannot change the feedback you have already left, you can leave follow up feedback. It may not change their rating, but it can still be read by others.

[VISUAL AID]

Quote

Foogy : I haven't heard from the member since the incident, but I do remember that when he called BenQ at the time of that incident, the seller was not an authorised reseller for that projector.

Records will show that the company did have an authorised resellers acount for Benq Projectors  that was set up way well before the sale took process.
The company will call the member and comfirm this.  As you like to get the facts let it me proved.
PM to comfirm.

Quote

Foogy : All in all, I don't think that I've been too inaccurate, and I've acknowledged where I have been. If one of the sellers in question has taken steps to improve things, then that is good for everyone involved, including the seller.

Improvements are always made to better a business this the only way to grow. Unfortunately along the way some people bring forth good points (that you improve on) and also points that are completely untrue and unfounded that damage. In business you learn to deal with it but you never fully except it. Still giving an open invitation for you Foogy and i mean this in a warm way. Cheers.

Edited by VISUAL AID, 21 September 2007 - 12:40 PM.

[SkadollaX]

I purchased a HDMI 1.3 swicth box 3 weeks ago.
I paid for the item and the seller advised the item had been shipped the following day with a please provide feedback now and I will do so for you.

3 weeks later and I've now begun chasing up the item. The seller now states they do not have any in stock and will ship one to me when it becomes available. But hang on he said it had been shipped 3 weeks ago.

The seller has a 98.8% rating.

I spent alot of time looking for someone with good ratings and now based on my experience and threads such as these I'm less than confident in using EBAY for anything other than selling stuff. WHY? I can be trusted, others cannot!

[Mr.Bitey]

VISUAL AID, on Sep 21 2007, 12:03 PM, said:

Records will show that the company did have an authorised resellers acount for Benq Projectors  that was set up way well before the sale took process.
The company will call the member and comfirm this.  As you like to get the facts let it me proved.
PM to comfirm.

Put the proof up then Visual Aid, put it in a new thread and provide a link to it here. A signed statement in PDF form from the company, showing the ABN would do the trick, phone calls are so intrusive and offer no evidentary proof.

Quote

Improvments are always made to better a busiiness this the only way to grow. Unfortunaly along the way some people bring forth good points (that you improve on) and also points that are completely untrue and unfounded that damage. In business you learn to deal with it but you never fully except it. Still giving an open invitation for you foogy and i mean this in a warm way. Cheers

Its actually you who is obsessed about specifics and facts in a very defensive and suspicious manner. Foggy's is GENERAL advice and his personal opinion and concern over unscrupulous behaviour of SOME  :ph34r: ebay sellers.

Your baiting of Foggy to name names in a public forum so you can have this thread closed or worse, is becomming tiring and i mean that in a warm way.

Cheers,
Bitey

[Foggy]

The last I heard from the buyer was that it was registered for warranty as a Joybee Notebook because the BenQ Australia site wouldn't accept it's serial number.

I did try to visit your showroom, and was in fact half way there one Saturday. I rang ahead while I was on the road, and was told that they had to close the showroom early to attend to a problem at a customer's home. Unfortunately, it's a long way from my home, so I haven't had the opportunity on my day off to head back there.

[VISUAL AID]

SkadollaX, on Sep 21 2007, 12:40 PM, said:

I purchased a HDMI 1.3 swicth box 3 weeks ago.
I paid for the item and the seller advised the item had been shipped the following day with a please provide feedback now and I will do so for you.

3 weeks later and I've now begun chasing up the item. The seller now states they do not have any in stock and will ship one to me when it becomes available. But hang on he said it had been shipped 3 weeks ago.

The seller has a 98.8% rating.

I spent alot of time looking for someone with good ratings and now based on my experience and threads such as these I'm less than confident in using EBAY for anything other than selling stuff. WHY? I can be trusted, others cannot!

Hi Skadollax
Did you pay using Paypal? You can claim the money back. Stock can sometimes run low, but the seller should have let you know this from the first day you purchased.  Ask for a refund if it was a direct bank deposit. Most seller will do this straight away if you ask. Hopefully apart from the inconvenience you will get a refund and buy  somewhere else.