I wonder what other’s experiences were using e-bay. Whenever I have bought something it has always arrived but it has usually been a fake, not the size stipulated or fallen to bits when I have washed it. Some of my colleagues insist they get real bargains though?

Im an avid eBayer Maria.......I have been really pleased with pretty much all of my purchases (excluding a dodgy skirt I bought for myself - but that was MY grave fashion error :blink: )

I have bought genuine Von Dutch and Dolce and Gabbana jeans for my step daughter, and Lambretta and Diesel jeans and fleeces for my step son...... yesterday I bought Mr Q a Russian Military watch...... I have also bought non designer stuff - a great long denim skirt, which was "last seasons" and from Long Tall Sally - a reet bargain at 15.00 quid :)

I always check the sellers details, and I tend to go with Power Sellers or those that have an eBay shop on there - just remember to always check the feedback left by other sellers, and if you have any doubts dont buy!

I am a very prominent E-Bayer and have never had a problem during literally hundreds of transactions. However I won't use people with a feedback rating of less than 25 and under 99%.

PS. You also need to check listings thoroughly as often these things you describe are either hidden away or the wording used is misleading such as "Dolce & Gabbana jeans....these jeans are just like the real thing and a bargain".

PS. You also need to check listings thoroughly as often these things you describe are either hidden away or the wording used is misleading such as "Dolce & Gabbana jeans....these jeans are just like the real thing and a bargain".

It IS about reading it all thoroughly isnt it Ceri........

I also wanted to add - I did ALL of my Xmas pressie shopping on eBay, Amazon, M&S online and House of Fraser online - It was fannytastic having a vodka and tonic while doing it - in previous years I have abandoned the shopping to go to the pub :drinking: ....I also did the majority of the food shop online too :blush:

Ive bought a few things on Ebay and ive always been dissapointed. I bought two bracelets which were TINY about would of fit a barby doll. They came from Japan so i should of guessed really. I didnt think i had to read the 'length'. I gave them to my neice who is 5 years old, and they were tight for her :wacko:

Mr.B bought a remote control car on there. It was about £70. It was 'made up', whereas he normally likes to build them himself, but he thought he would get the car as it was one he had always wanted and it was relatively cheap. It arrived working perfectly, but the 'finish' was rubbish. The stickers / paintwork was sloppily done. We kept it, but i could tell he was dissapointed.

The other thing i bought was a pair of trainer. They were a size 7, and 2nd hand. The owner bought them, wore them once and they pinched as they were too small. Because im a size 6 i thought they would be perfect, but they hurt me too. When i left my last job i chucked them in the bin as they had been wallowing under my desk for about 6 months !!!

I havent bothered since.

I've bought a few things from e-bay, and have had good experiences.

Like Isis, I tend to go for the power sellers or people that have been there a while.
I'm wary of people who have only had a few transactions. I know we all have to start somewhere but I'm sending them my money so I want to be sure.

I bought two brand new bikes for the kids last year and they were fab.

I've been using ebay regularly over the last several months to purchase stuff for my wedding and have found that I've cut the cost in several areas (most fab purchase being invites to wedding and reception that I got for 21 quid that would have set me back over 100 if I'd bought them from the shops :) ).

But funnily enough this morning I recieved favour boxes that I'd purchased Friday and 50 (there is 100) of them are in a different style to the ones I purchased. I don't know what to do. Do I keep them or email the seller? They the same colour but are ribbed where the others are patterned. Mr CC to be say6s keep them as then people will have a choice whereas I'm not to sure :unsure:

Glad you put this thread up Maria maybe someone can help me decide too.

If you bought the item at Auction you have no rights, if you used Buy It Now the situation is a little clearer where the seller is a business, so it depends.

Nothing to harm in asking them to replace the items though...if they don't you can always file a complaint with E-Bay (look at the Help screens on the site for how to do this). They may be able to get all or some of your money back.

If you bought the item at Auction you have no rights,

Ceri, I'm interested in what you say here.
If the product you receive is different to the one advertised, surely you have some comeback on false advertising.

My other half is a Trading Standards Officer and he tells me that things like the Sale of Goods Act, etc, don't apply to auctions as they are not technically a "sale".

Apparently. :ninja:

Ooh thanks Ceri, thats interesting.

PS He deals with complaints about E-Bay regularly....there are things like the Distance Selling Regs that apply to mail order stuff (you can send it back within 28 days) but none of it applies to private sellers selling on E-Bay at auction...there are no controls over private individuals selling stuff anyway, per se. All you can do is leave neg feedback.

I've bought shedloads of stuff from Ebay, nearly all baby stuff though, cos I figured that people selling baby things would more than likely be genuine.

Everything I've bought has been exactly as described, or better, all the clothes have been freshly washed and ironed, and the other baby bits were all clean and safe and virtually brand new (cos of the short amount of time that babies use stuff, I suppose).

I guess it's about what you buy. I mean, if I saw a genuine Renoir going for under a tenner, I'd probably think there was summat up :unsure:

I've bought and sold on e-bay and have mostly been satisfied and have always got good feedback so presume the buyers were. Mr C buys a lot of Radio Control stuff and he always seems satisfied with it. E-bay sellers are always anxious to protect their feedback and most of them will be very obliging to avoid getting negative feedback.

I slipped up with some toys - found them at the same price in the local shop so I could have saved the P & P but that was my fault for not checking out the shops.

Biggest gamble, I suppose, was paying out £800 for a new leather 3-piece suite. I usually go on the theory that if you can't afford to lose the money you shouldn't really buy it, but I took a chance with the suite and it was well worth it. I did check feedback thoroughly before parting with that sort of money though.

bit half and half for me. my bf handles most of my ebay stuff coz i cant be arsed setting up an account and for paypal too. most of the stuff has been alright. except this one time i bought a belt and it look fab in the pic but when i got it it was horrid and made of plastic. fair enough i shouldve asked if it was leather AND to add insult to injury i found the exact same belt in primark going for £3!!!! luckily i only spent £6 on it and not the £15 some folks were paying for that belt!!

Mr F is a power seller - and all his stuff is as it is described. We bought some eggs from a seller on ebay - not one of them hatched despite most of the others hatching, so Mr F contacted him and he sent another half a doz f.o.c.

If a person is ever unhappy about what they have bought, Mr F always refunds the money and takes the item back, and re-sells it successfully.

He gets loads of freebies nowadays - he buys lots of motorbike bits and as he buys a lot of them, the distributors often send him freebies ... I have never ever ventured onto ebay - but I put a shopping list up now and again, just to see what I can get.

What does Mr F sell? Anything interesting? :unsure:

I have just spent the weekend taking photos of baby clothes......Floopy, get bidding!!!! They are now on the auction site. I am horrified at how much baby clothes we actually have. Once Abbie is toilet-trained, I will be putting the nappies on E-bay as I have heard you do get a good return. Also next month once I have had my party for my jewellery I will be putting all my wares on E-bay. Bonny, if you want I could do you a nice braclet, I could email you some picks of the beads etc that I have and easily put one together for you. How are my selling skills doing so far............. :w00t: You must all visit it once it is up and running! :)

I buy my beads from E-bay from a lovely lady in the states, her beads are gorgeous and the service is A1. We just bought a new PC last week from e-bay, again no problems. I have also bought some extra train track for the girls as it is so expensive in the shops. I did have a bit of se-to with one person who wanted to charge me more for postage as she had made a mistake when she posted it on, but that was not my fault. She wanted to charge me an extra £3!!! She wasn't too happy when I gave her negative feedback.

I have just had my first bid on one of my items!!!! :w00t:

Mr Rothera and I have had a bit of a clearout in the last few months and have sold lots of our unwanted odds and ends on eBay. I have had no bad experiences with buyers so far, but I have had a few items which haven't sold. Always annoying because you have to pay to list them.

What amazes me is some things you think will sell really well go for pennies, but other stuff that you hate and think is rubbish sells for heaps of cash. C'est la vie I suppose.

What does Mr F sell? Anything interesting? :unsure:

Mainly shoes/boots and motorbike bits, although he has sold tractors, JCB diggers and gardeny stuff.

What amazes me is some things you think will sell really well go for pennies, but other stuff that you hate and think is rubbish sells for heaps of cash. C'est la vie I suppose.

Ditto Rothera - is always amazes me too!! Mr F recently sold an old [I suppose vintage] American baseball jacket for a fortune - yet a D & G wool top went for pennies.

If you want to see some seriously weird stuff go to;

www.disturbingauctions.com - you'll have to type it cos I can't be bothered to do the link - lol. It's not so much the stuff but the comments by the side of each weird item. A bit "Terry Wogan" - lol

Edit: Oh the link works automatically - duh

I've bought loads of ebay - mostly good, a lovey light fitting was delivered to my door by a rather dashing man in a posh car, which was nice.

I find it good especially for books. The biggest thing I bought was an old pub sign 4' x 3' for £20 (inc pp!) it needed some work but looks brilliant, the most expensive was a £60 Super King Size Duvet cover ex Harrods.

Edit: Oh the link works automatically - duh

This has given me the best laugh today - thanks Critique!!:laugh:

my first experience with ebay was horrible. I had been looking for some champagne glasses for a friends 40th but not the flutes, the shallow round kind. I couldn't find them anywhere until I thought of ebay & found them.

I bid, won & paid for them but never received them. I tried to contact the seller but she never switched her phone on or responded to any messages & even the dispute resolution thing ebay do didn't work.

Have just put it down to experience & all subsequent ebay forays have met with success. I did leave blistering negative feedback though :boxing:

Anyone see that prog about Ebay approx a month ago. I can't remember exactly where it stood in the world rankings, but it's huge. There was some talk about tax avoidance - I imagine there's a lot and it's partly what makes Ebay so attractive to buyers and sellers alike.

I've bought the odd item off Ebay and never had a problem. I was surprised to see that Ceri wrote you have 'no rights' if you buy something on Ebay. I'm sure there is a procedure to go through to try and get your money back if the seller is fraudulent, isn't there?

What happened with the bike Flip - did Mr F ever get reimbursed?

Am I the only person that has never sold or bought anything off Ebay?

Am I the only person that has never sold or bought anything off Ebay?

No....... I am an ebay virgin!

No....... I am an ebay virgin!

Oh I'm glad I'm not the only one.

This has given me the best laugh today - thanks Critique!!:laugh:

:blush: I don't know why I thought it wouldn't on this Group. Probably to do with all the html codes that you can see and have to put in to show pics, etc. I expected to have to do something complicated on here - lmao

No, ILS we were at a kid's party yesterday and we got round to talking about e-bay. One of the mums helps out with the guides and buys a lot of crafts and other things on e-bay, but some of the mums didn't even know what or who e-bay was!

You must give it a try though, go on have a look, anything you fancy I am sure it will be there! :)

Well, just sold my first lot of baby goods, there is a part of me will be sorry to see them go, but I couldn't hang onto them forever. Haven't made a fortune but I am just happy to see them go. I still have a few items left, so if anyone fancies any baby clothes, please feel free to bid!!! :)

btw, ILS I had a wee look but e-bay seems to right out of life-sized Donny Osmonds at the moment, but I would keep looking! ;) :cool2:

I love Ebay, I have never been ripped off and have got some real bargains, mostly from sellers in the USA.I do note feedback from sellers before I bid tho... mostly I buy clothes and bits and bobs. You can get some great deals from artisans selling their handmade one off jewellery, I am also amazed at how many talented artists are selling their original work for absolute pittances....there are some amazing artists on Ebay. If you want an original piece of artwork Ebay is the way to go.

M

www.theebayer.net

It has tips for free and is not trying to sell you some dreadful e-book. It may even make you smile if caught off-guard. The chap you runs it is a very nice young man indeed. :laugh:

I love ebay.

I'm strictly a buyer, but the thing I love about ebay is that it is perfect for those things that are just not easy to get anywhere else. i.e. recently, there have been re-runs of an old Power Rangers series on TV from a couple of years ago. Since seeing them, my nephew has been desperate for these toys called "Zords" which feature in the programme, but because Zords are from an old series, none of the shops are stocking those toys. My sister-in-law looked everywhere! Ebay was literally the only place to get them. Guess who is favourite Auntie now???? It was the same when they started to show Thunderbirds on TV. Harry wanted Tracey Island. Could you get it anyway? No.....except Aunty Karen managed to get it on ebay. :D

Its just a great place to get things which are seemingly impossible to get elsewhere. Its also a great place to get expensive items at a reasonable price. I got my Dad an electric scooter for £450. It was only 18 months old and retailed (new) at £2,500. Can't say fairer than that!

Yes when I`m trying to find something Mr SB always says have you tried ebay and it`s always there. As you say - It`s a good place

Ive gone right off ebay. I know too many people who have had problems. Whether they are, paying for something that never returns - and the buyer takes the money and then closes their account. Or the items not being what you are led to believe they are etc ...

Also - the last time i tried to buy something, i was told i couldnt buy it via paypal as i normally would, and it had to be with a paypal credit card thingie and they wanted all my account details - so i ran fast.

All in all, i dont trust it anymore.

Im still an avid "ebayer" but I do tend to stick to ebay shops and powersellers when im buying.......

recently got some fab flip floppy glittery sandles, the Primark maxi sundress from last year (couldnt get one here as we dont have a Primark) and a few other bits and bobs of clothing that I needed (as IF I needed them!!!!)

I think you just have to watch who you are buying off........

I still have a look at ebay but havent bought anything for ages. I did bid on a M&S top that was "new without tags" which probably means its a second bought from a factory shop. I was outbid and the bids ended at £22 and with the £4 postage made it £26, when you can go to M&S and buy the top for £28, its hardly worth it!!! :blink:

I'm desparate to bid for The Sopranos series III but I know I can't really justify spending the money - so I try to keep off e-bay for the time being!