Bogus Sellers

[kens08]

  I've noticed over the past few years, and especially when purchasing items from international sellers, that there is a more than 50% chance that when you purchase an item from one of these sellers, all of a sudden the shipping time to receive it doubles or triples. So after waiting month(s) for the item you never receive it. Now the fun begins.......you try and contact the seller, no response from them......now you have to go through the process of filing a claim with ebay, and that takes time and resources, especially on ebay's part. 

  My question is; why does ebay allow these sellers to continue to sell on their site......it totally ruins the fun it used to be to buy and sell......I just don't get it!

  Also, a good majority of these bogus sellers have a higher negative feedback score than a positive one.........doesn't ebay care anymore about the quality of its sellers? Why can't the execs at ebay put a reasonable neg/pos feedback ratio standard for their sellers to meet and if not met, they are excluded from selling. Also, put a cap or limit on reasonable shipping times that a seller ‘must’ meet or adhere to.

  It seems reasonable to me, that by enacting/setting these standards, it would lower ebays operating overhead expenses, meaning a better bottom line for them, and make it more enjoyable to shop on ebay like it used to be.

[mistwomandancing]

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@ted_200wrote:

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You won't believe this, but my useless Buyer Requirement to block buyers with a negative feedback score actually blocked someone last year! 

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Really?   lol      I always knew it was theoretically possible, just never heard of it actually happening.  

[ted_200]

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@mistwomandancingwrote:

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@timemachine777wrote:

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It's because Chinese sellers on eBay took over the term to sell toxic junk metal that looks like silver. Theirs have arsenic  in it and loads of lead. Real Tibetan Silver which is harder to find is still only a small amount of silver and doesn't have arsenic in it, nor a high level of lead. More copper and nickel. 

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Yes!   Some amazing and beautiful old pieces of true Tibetan Silver.   I love the old *ethnic* jewelry especially.   I have a few very nice pieces.   I don't have any bowls, vases, or other decor items though.   Could never afford any of the pieces I really liked.

I'm completely irked by today's cheap nasty quality being called Tibetan Silver to try and pass it off for the real deal to the unsuspecting or unknowing.  

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We had a similar lengthy discussion over on the Coin Board several years ago about "Miao Silver".  This too is apparently a legitimate group of people selling variable fineness silver artwork, but the name has been appropriated by Chinese criminals selling fake coins and other goods that are made from the leftovers out of the soldering pot in Chinese electronics factories that is full of cadmium, arsenic, chromium, lead, and other not so fine heavy metals - and not a speck of actual silver. 

[mistwomandancing]

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@ted_200

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Hadn't heard of this one, but truly sad.  

[timemachine777]

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@ted_200wrote:

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@timemachine777wrote:

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@ted_200wrote:

My question is...Why are buyers such gluttons for punishment. Buyers see the all the bad FB and still buy items from the seller when they know that the odds are not always in their favor for an smooth and timely transaction. The chances of them getting the item that they think they are getting is also a big gamble.

Just buy from sellers with better FB, and in the US (less time in shipping).

Well, I pretty much buy nothing but Auction listings, and a seller with really sorry feedback often ends up selling Auctions for pennies on the dollar... I'm a bottom feeder!  But I know what I'm getting into when I do this, so it's no shock when it doesn't always end well.

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Ok everyone...You heard it here. Ted's one of those bottom feeders you guy's are alway's going on about.

All fun aside. So you take the good with the bad and I assume it balances out for you in the end, and you get a good deal.

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I even did that in the "old days".   And yeah, I got smoked on a couple of things from some sketchy sellers who would only make things a little more right (less wrong)... learned a few things from the "school of hard knocks" (the hard way) I guess you could say... the six miles of text with "item is similar to the pictures" scam.  I had one who didn't just fail to picture the damage - he photoshopped it out!  

But I got some other great deals from not-too-bright sellers that way more than covered my losses.  I had a list of saved sellers who wrote awful listings and were marginal sellers, I won many many items from them... one who used stolen postage and shipping supplies from their day job, one who sent 8 Oz. of coins loose in an envelope with a single letter stamp, another who constantly mixed up pictures and loaded pictures for another listing to the one I won, stuff like that...  They all got DSR'd off the site several years ago, because they were slow shippers, improperly described stuff, got hostile when called on their failings, etc., it really has cut down on my spend on eBay.

And oh yeah, I am a bottom feeder, there's no denying it.  My .99 auction obsession as a seller is designed to appeal to cheap-skates just like me.  Thankfully, a lot of people don't know to stop while they're still on the bottom! 

I even bought 250 boxes of bubble mailers at .99 auction... I'd watch listings for several weeks just to beat the sellers out of $2 or $3 on them below their BIN price!  

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Do you tend to hoard this stuff also? I hate it when sellers use stock photos to sell used items. Time is money, so wouldn't be just as cost effective for you to buy them BIN at a few bucks more?

[ted_200]

Do you tend to hoard this stuff also? I hate it when sellers use stock photos to sell used items. Time is money, so wouldn't be just as cost effective for you to buy them BIN at a few bucks more?

Probably, with the mailers.  But it doesn't take that long to put a bunch of mailer auctions on my watch list, then I just check the watch list for about to end items and bid if it's still below the best BIN price - I'm checking the list for coin auctions and other items anyhow.  I only bought them when I needed them, but obviously I started looking weeks in advance of me actually running out...

I don't do that anymore, I end up with a monthly Store every now and then (for fee reduction purposes), so now I'm hoarding those "free" mailers I get from eBay. 

[timemachine777]

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@mistwomandancingwrote:

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@timemachine777wrote:

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It's because Chinese sellers on eBay took over the term to sell toxic junk metal that looks like silver. Theirs have arsenic  in it and loads of lead. Real Tibetan Silver which is harder to find is still only a small amount of silver and doesn't have arsenic in it, nor a high level of lead. More copper and nickel. 

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Yes!   Some amazing and beautiful old pieces of true Tibetan Silver.   I love the old *ethnic* jewelry especially.   I have a few very nice pieces.   I don't have any bowls, vases, or other decor items though.   Could never afford any of the pieces I really liked.

I'm completely irked by today's cheap nasty quality being called Tibetan Silver to try and pass it off for the real deal to the unsuspecting or unknowing.  

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I acquired some really nice pieces back in the 90's that I had to research. The guy's estate that I got them from was loaded with Asian pieces. His grandfather spent over twenty years in Nepal and Tibet during the turn of the century. His family got some big bucks for a lot of the pieces of Asian art they had.

[mistwomandancing]

Makes my heart go pitter-pat to read of true art treasures like you describe.   Must have been lovely to examine and handle those pieces.   I'd have been terribly tempted to keep them. 

[kens08]

Duly noted.......Rockstar.....thanks!

[timemachine777]

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@mistwomandancingwrote:

Makes my heart go pitter-pat to read of true art treasures like you describe.   Must have been lovely to examine and handle those pieces.   I'd have been terribly tempted to keep them. 

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Trust me...I did my share of drooling when I got a rare peek at just a small amount of the stuff they had. I'm also pretty sure that they had stuff that would never have been allowed to leave the country if it were be acquired today. Out of all the buyers I probably had the least deep pockets at the time.

I got this Buddha with a Pekingese from them.

[mistwomandancing]

What a fun experience to be part of.. even without the really deep pockets!  

[timemachine777]

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@mistwomandancingwrote:

What a fun experience to be part of.. even without the really deep pockets!  

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One thing I rarely see in this state is really nice collections of art. I'll see stuff here and there, where most people have no clue what they have. These people knew what they had for the most part, because they were drowning in it. I collect antique kung fu weapons which is what got me interested in some Asian metal art. 

[richards*rock*collection]

I really don't care about the feedback, I see something, its described well, I want instant gratification, I don't have the time to look at sellers feedback, once I buy, that's it, why should I worry? eBay says "get the item you ordered or your money back" end of story. It is not my job to do eBay's work, when they get tired of making refunds on a sellers behalf then they act accordingly and suspend that account.

[ted_200]

I really don't care about the feedback, I see something, its described well, I want instant gratification, I don't have the time to look at sellers feedback, once I buy, that's it, why should I worry?

Yeah, at this point, I'm pretty much with you... I still don't want to do business with people who sell counterfeits, but otherwise... if eBay is going to cover it, I'll take plenty of risk.  I'm less "instant gratification" and more "instant bargain" though... I won a nice designer piece of clothing for under $3 w/ Free Shipping a couple of months ago (I'll buy anything "if The Price is Right").  They had a couple of non-performance neg.s already, and picked up 5 more after I won their item... and as you can guess, they never sent me anything, never responded to any messages, and I had to file on them. 

[castlemagicmemories]

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@richards*rock*collectionwrote:
I really don't care about the feedback, I see something, its described well, I want instant gratification, I don't have the time to look at sellers feedback, once I buy, that's it, why should I worry? eBay says "get the item you ordered or your money back" end of story. It is not my job to do eBay's work, when they get tired of making refunds on a sellers behalf then they act accordingly and suspend that account.

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Sorry, rougheye, but you should worry because they eliminate your buyer protection if you open too many cases.    Buyers have come to the Board complaining about this when they lose their buyer protection, and they said the same thing you did, why should I vet the seller?  I have the MBG!  But the MBG does not absolve you of the responsibility of making wise buying decision and vetting the seller and the listing. 

If you lose your MBG coverage, you can still buy, you just can't open any cases.  Ebay expects you to do your buyer's due diligence, that is what feedback is there for.  If you decide to forego doing that, Ebay will no longer back your buying decisions.  Sorry.

Caveat Emptor.

[richards*rock*collection]

I don't buy that much with this account or my other accounts, but when I do, if I see the >get the item you ordered or your money back" logo, I would expect just that, and nothing less, you can say what ever you want, but I know ebay will always protect me as a buyer, I don't have to worry, I think I have only had to have them step in one time in ten years, but thanks castle