For Those Who Buy On Ebay...

[JayKay3000]

I never ship overseas. Safer.

[praxim]

Do you mean that you never buy from overseas, or literally that you never ship overseas anything that you sell? If the latter, what is the relevance?

[inkstainedruth]

Probably gives JayKay3000 protection from a buyer claiming something bogus. Plus dealing with overseas shipping/customs etc. just in general.

Sadly, the dispute I had to file was with a seller here in the good old US of A. Maybe if the seller hadn't been such an a-hole about "Oh, sorry, you didn't know that the refill was in the BP? Send the order back...." Instead of saying "Oh, sorry, we'll get that right out to you...." (Oh, and for the record, a "set" kinda implies that the FP and BP might actually have the same date code -- they were Parker pens, after all.... (Instead I got two random pens that just happened to be the same color....)

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Aysedasi]

I've been buying and selling on eBay for a long time now. I buy a lot more than I sell, and I've only been sold a handful of pups in that time, the majority of which were probably my fault in not properly looking at what I was bidding on. I've only been ripped off once by a claim from India that a parcel hadn't arrived. I now rarely buy from outside the EU for fear of being mugged by my own government's moneygrabbing import duties. But I may have been lucky, I guess. Most sellers I have found very good, reliable and helpful. As far as I'm concerned, if I sell a pen (here or on eBay) my offer to refund is near unconditonal (I just don't expect to have to refund if you just don't like it...... ).

Edited September 26, 2018 by Aysedasi

[Aysedasi]

Reading back through the posts reminds me that I did have a bizarre issue a few weeks back. I bought some items (non-FP) from within the UK. A jiffy bag arrived and I knew it couldn't be my items as it was so small and light. The bag was..... completely empty. Despite my photographing the bag within moments of opening it, the seller swore blind that he had put the items in the bag himself. I eventually had to open a dispute and eBay gave me my money back. But they described this as being done 'as a matter of courtesy' after hearing from the seller. I was furious and complained - I got no response. OK, I got my money back but the implication was that I had been dishonest rather than the seller made a silly mistake. The items only cost a fiver, so I was hardly going to rip them off. And then I was prevented from leaving feedback..... But if I'm honest I find selling on FPN rather soul destroying as most of the pens being sold are humungously expensive and when I try and sell my lesser-priced offerings most buyers seem to want them for a song.... So I'll still keep buying and selling on eBay.....

[Morphling27]

  On 9/25/2018 at 8:52 PM, Cordovian said:

They print a shipping label through Ebay and then change the address on it to something close to your address. To Ebay, and USPS, it looks like it went to your address but the carrier leaves it at a different address. That's what a scammer did to me but fortunately I had already caught on to him and reported it before it was delivered.

Ah, well that may be so. Those scammers are crafty folk.

 

I went into the actual post office and had them print up the (wrong) zip code it was delivered to - which is what helped me win my case. It's possible online it did show delivered to my address, but the actual day and delivery place was different. Per the lady, some church - I bet they were happy to receive an empty envelop.

[KellyMcJ]

  On 6/13/2018 at 6:18 PM, inkstainedruth said:

 

Unfortunately that strategy is not 100% foolproof. The one actual dispute I filed was with a seller who fit your criteria: literally thousands of sales, and feedback in the mid-90s. And because the dispute was judged in my favor I was NOT allowed to provide feedback -- so I have no idea how many other people were in the same boat as me....

That particular seller is now pretty much at the top of my "Do not do business with those *ssholes in future!" list (the only seller who might be higher on the list is the one I now refer to as "that third-rate pawnbroker" who sold me the $30 Arnold -- which was worth $10 -- and then put what sounded like the IDENTICAL pen back up on eBay -- non-Arnold nib and all -- for $100 dropped to $45.... :-( It was a BiN deal, not an auction and I wanted to contact anyone who jumped on that pen and say "RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY VERY FAST! I bought the last one he had up and it's NOT worth the $30 (down from $100) that I paid....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

I had this happen before- what I found out is this particular seller (bought new, common item. Drop shipped from Amazon Prime, marked as gift, which you're not supposed to do. Amazon lost the item (it was "delivered"...somewhere. Where? Amazon Logistics is a real circus in my area.) The seller was incredibly unhelpful, so I went to Amazon...Amazon CS actually called me back to confirm that the item was NOT a gift - violated Amazon TOS, lost their Prime account I suspect. Then went to eBay and got my money back too!) This seller had a 5 star Top Seller rating!

 

What I found out is twofold. 1) sellers will occasionally wait for someone to place an order, then order the thing from Amazon and have it shipped to the buyer marked as "gift", taking advantage of Prime's free shipping and saving themselves the need to hold stock. Shady, violation of Amazon's TOS but often turns out fine. 2) Shifty sellers have "feedback farms" where they generate hundreds of good feedbacks to hide the bad ones. I was able to leave negative feedback for this transaction (I think eBay has changed the rules since then) and within a day, my negative feedback was buried in multiple pages of positive feedback. They just swamp it with fake positive feedback.

[inkstainedruth]

Yeah. This is why I tend (especially on Amazon) to take the reviews -- except for ones I've put up myself -- with a grain of salt. For eBay, anymore, I tend to read the NEGATIVE reviews first (which is why I don't deal with some sellers at ALL). And for some sellers (especially for pens) who are overseas -- I will see what people on HERE say about those sellers.

Overall, my experience on eBay has been pretty good. But I don't tend to buy really expensive things like Montblancs (okay I don't buy MBs in general ) for the most part. And if I've had a good experience (such as with Rolf Thiel at Missing Pens, or the guy in the Netherlands I've bought some Parker Vectors from) -- I will not only leave positive feedback but also happily order from those sellers again. The guy who lied about the crack in the cap on a Vac Shadow Wave, or the "third rate pawnbroker", or the high-volume seller I filed the dispute on? Not so much....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Morphling27]

  On 9/26/2018 at 5:34 PM, Aysedasi said:

Reading back through the posts reminds me that I did have a bizarre issue a few weeks back. I bought some items (non-FP) from within the UK. A jiffy bag arrived and I knew it couldn't be my items as it was so small and light. The bag was..... completely empty. Despite my photographing the bag within moments of opening it, the seller swore blind that he had put the items in the bag himself. I eventually had to open a dispute and eBay gave me my money back. But they described this as being done 'as a matter of courtesy' after hearing from the seller. I was furious and complained - I got no response. OK, I got my money back but the implication was that I had been dishonest rather than the seller made a silly mistake. The items only cost a fiver, so I was hardly going to rip them off. And then I was prevented from leaving feedback..... But if I'm honest I find selling on FPN rather soul destroying as most of the pens being sold are humungously expensive and when I try and sell my lesser-priced offerings most buyers seem to want them for a song.... So I'll still keep buying and selling on eBay.....

 

I agree - I've encountered many sellers on FPN that were good and reasonable. Most aren't flexible on pricing at all and I've moved on to eBay or just not purchased at all. My wallet isn't sad for those occasions. Also, I've had a couple on here act like the classifieds are some cut-throat auction house. I was interested in a Japanese pen and the seller stated in the listing they were unfamiliar with most Japanese brands - which is fine. I had some questions and sent a PM, dude was snarky and like I DON'T KNOW MUCH and USE EMAIL!!!!! So I emailed within an hour and he was like "SOLD, person offered money". I'm glad someone else got it with limited information and pictures, but it was such a rude and jarring experience.

 

And on your eBay story too - they are so condescending on disputes. I've just given up directly with eBay and just dispute with paypal or my CC. It's easier and I've never had a problem and no snark to go with it. Or 'you didn't understand our vague dispute terms, sorry'. The credit companies get it - you used it and money was fronted on your behalf and you didn't get what you were told. Very simple.

 

Also - Inkstainedruth - you only trust your own Amazon reviews? I'm dying, that sounds exactly like me! I've even gone back on a page and read my review forgetting I wrote it and love it.

Edited September 27, 2018 by Morphling27

[WLSpec]

I've worried about this sort of thing happening before, so thanks for this post. I will be more careful from now on.