Auction sites & their rip off's

[Specialist]

A friend asked me to pick up & check out some stuff he'd bought via an online auction. Only 3 items all in original boxes, so I stupidly picked them up today

1) A set of jump leads all nicely packed: Open them up to find no Croc clips attached to the wires, 1 of the Black clips missing & the ends of the wires melted.

2) A 12v car tyre pump, supposedly new: This came out of the box all battered & scraped & No clips or Cigarette lighter plug on the wire, so I fitted some crocks & connected to a battery. Sparks from Neg terminal as connected but nothing else, turns out the motor is knackered.

3) 6/12v 8a battery charger, box looked nice & I thought maybe third time lucky.
Not a bloody chance, took it out of the box & it rattled. Front looked OK but when I turned it round all the back was split open & you could stick your fingers straight on the live terminals inside.

What a total rip off, apparently 3 different sellers as well. Have told him to contact them all and the auction site & make sure he gets full refunds.
There seem to be more & more rip off merchants on these sites.

 

[telectrix]

strange. i've bought loads of stuff off ebay and never had any problems. i buy all my LED lamps off 1 particular seller. not had 1 fail yet. ( and the price is way below wholesalers)

 

[Specialist]

Buy a lot of stuff through eBay myself, on the whole the sellers are good but I've had people try to rip me off a few times.
Normally a few gentle words about paying them a little visit works wonders but not always.

 

[Joshua]

I sold a fluke multi tester on eBay last year.
It was in good condition with new test leads and crocodile clips.
within a week of the seller receiving it he messaged me telling me he plugged in the plug attachment and it fell apart in his hands. (Strange as I had used the testers less than 2 weeks before and all was ok)
so I thought maybe it was damaged in transit so I bought him a few plug lead.
2 weeks later I had a message from eBay saying I basically had to partly refund the guy because my item wasn't as described.

long story short EBay didn't believe I had bought him a new lead so I had to refund him £50, I only sold the testers for £190 so he pocketed a Fluke Multi tester, new plug in test lead and £50 on top for the trouble.

 

[Specialist]

Yep makes you sick mate doesn't it ?

About 2 years ago I sold a Vintage Radio on there, thing was beautiful & fully working. 10 Days after he had it & after leaving 100 % positive feedback, I get a message from the buyer telling me that the item arrived smashed & he wanted a refund & then eBay got involved. Had nightmares with eBay, they took the money from my Paypal without a word & it took me 3 months to get it back.

 

[drzsta]

I've had some decent stuff on ebay. New zsu stripper for 99p and quality 2 1/2" presto conduit diestocks.

 

[Specialist]

No denying you can get some decent stuff at good prices, other side of the coin being that a lot is overpriced. Nowadays though there seem to be more & more rip off merchants on there.

 

[D00DY_T00DY]

I try steer clear of ebay. Only go for the merchants because I know how shady people can be.

Amazon for me thanking you

 

[Rpa07]

(Rip off merchants) on both sides as you've been discussing - seems you can't trust anyone these days. You takes your chances I guess. A lot of fake stuff on there but they refund quick so they don't get in trouble. Weird stuff that is faked - tooth brush heads! why bother to fake them when you've made them, just call them something else then they are not fake (if you get my drift)

 

[Specialist]

Last moron on there that tried to rip me off, it took eBay 28 days to sort out.
Having said that, with one eBay took less than 2 hours to refund my money so it's not consistent with them.