Sellers on The Bay do the darndest things

[mfleming]

Has this happened to you?

I missed out on an auction of an early model Classic, so I put a similar Buy It Now item on my saved list. I often save an item I'm interested in if the price is close to what I'm willing to pay, and occasionally the seller will offer a discount. If it's around what I think is fair, then I accept the offer and buy the item.

The price was a bit higher than I was willing to pay for this Classic, but the seller also accepted offers. Before I had a chance to consider what I would offer, sure enough, the seller offered a $35 discount, after raising the price by $35! This is the second time this has happened, both times within the last month or so. Is this an interesting new "trend" (scam) on the part of sellers, or just an unlucky coincidence for me?

Any other stories of weird seller behavior out there?
~Mark

[BillBee]

I have seen sellers lower an item price by $10 but the shipping/handling then increases by $10.

All in all though I have met great sellers.

My favorite screwing was when I purchased a unloaded 2x12 guitar combo cabinet. It weighed at least 40 lbs+ and the seller offered free shipping. This was the only empty cab for the make/model I needed that I had seen in 4-5 years (a pearl of great price indeed). He underpaid the postage by $30 and I had to pay the post office. I couldn't bear waiting for years to find another.

Love the 'Bay, Wife hates the 'Bay.
Bill

[Craig Bladow]

This was a few years ago. I, and several others, bid on a vintage computer/calculator item and the seller must have thought the bidding was not going high enough as the item was removed and I was banned, by the seller, (I don't know about the others) from bidding on any of the sellers future items. I contacted the seller to ask why and never received a reply.

[Don Shepherd]

One of my favorite Ebay transactions was a Victor MEC 2 calculator from around 1970. The seller was selling it "as is or for parts" because when she did the calculation 3+4= it didn't say 7. I knew from experience that this model only used the = key for multiplication and division and if she had done 3+4+ she would have got 7 and realized that it worked just fine. So I got it at a bargain price.

Sometimes you get a gem, sometimes not.

[rprosperi]

To blatantly steal from Battlestar Galactica....

"All this has happened before, and will happen again..."

This scummy technique is not new, though I've personally only had it happen twice in many years of buying on eBay. These sellers think buyers are stupid and will fall for the 'get this discount NOW' sales line. And no doubt some buyers do, otherwise they wouldn't keep using this technique.

I've also seen, far more often, the game Bill mentioned where they discount by the same amount they increase the shipping, again assuming we're stupid. Once, when I asked a seller why (s)he did this, (s)he actually replied "most people don't notice". Strictly speaking, this isn't breaking any rules, so it will continue...

FYI - In your 'Watch list' you can add a comment to each item; I almost always type in the listing and shipping price when I add an important or expensive item to my watch list, so I have a record of what I saw and watched. You would be surprised how often sellers quietly adjust the selling and shipping prices, probably thinking the adjustments somehow make it more attractive and that no one will notice.

The most annoying tactic of all is when a seller creates a listing with a very low starting price, and then for various reasons there is very little bidding and so ending at a lower price than the seller is happy with, the seller cancels the sale after you win at a great price, and then relists again later (at a higher price). I've had this happen 4-5 times, always with a lame excuse, and basically eBay will not do anything about it, your only option is to leave biting negative feedback to try to warn others.

Adding insult to injury, twice, these sellers were able to get this negative feedback removed by eBay, because they are volume sellers and eBay won't let them be punished unless they commit truly grievous acts. I've even had one case escalated to their 'advisory board' (which may be fictitious) whcih seems to always side with the sellers, who are obviously the ones making the most money for eBay.

[Dave Britten]

(02-23-2021 10:19 PM)Don Shepherd Wrote:  One of my favorite Ebay transactions was a Victor MEC 2 calculator from around 1970. The seller was selling it "as is or for parts" because when she did the calculation 3+4= it didn't say 7. I knew from experience that this model only used the = key for multiplication and division and if she had done 3+4+ she would have got 7 and realized that it worked just fine. So I got it at a bargain price.

Sometimes you get a gem, sometimes not.

Ha, that's great! I've had pretty good luck with untested/as-is listings. My 19BII and both of my 82143A printers were acquired that way. And I think both of my TI-58Cs might have been the same.

[ThomasF]

Also just had a good experience (not on EB but local variant). A broken HP67 complete with manuals etc except for the box. I knew it wasn't the chip, since the display showed "Error" (not random segments). Got it for a really low price and when I got it I found a stuck card in the reader ... !
Works perfect, except for the reader which need a new driver wheel ...

[vassilisprevelakis]

(02-23-2021 10:26 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  The most annoying tactic of all is when a seller creates a listing with a very low starting price, and then for various reasons there is very little bidding and so ending at a lower price than the seller is happy with, the seller cancels the sale after you win at a great price, and then relists again later (at a higher price).

This has happened to me as well.

But another trick is for the seller to wait till the auction ends (in case somebody bids at the last time) and if the final price is not right, simply report the item posted, but send nothing. Once the buyer complains that the item did not arrive, the seller gives a full refund saying that the item was "lost in the mail". eBay thinks all is OK, and you cannot even post negative feedback for the seller as the transaction did not complete, but was cancelled with refund.

**vp

http://www.series80.org

[Bill (Smithville NJ)]

A number of years ago I bid on a non-working OB-600 laptop that was questionable on whether it worked or not (no battery, no ac adapter). But it had the 32mb memory card in it which was very rare. I bid up to $50 on it just so I could get the memory card for my OB-600. The seller had set a reserve price on it that was higher than $50 so he ended up re-listing it without a reserve and a starting price of one cent.

I bid my maximum of $50 and ended up winning it for the one cent minimum price. Apparently he was not a very happy seller. But he did ship it to me. It looked like he had tossed it onto a concrete floor several time - screen busted, corners cracked, etc. I guess he thought he was getting his revenge. I pulled the memory card out and put it in my OB-600. Worked great. I was very happy.


Bill
Smithville, NJ

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

The lastest thing (I already had it twice this year) is that sellers cancel the deal after everything is set and done. Even after I received the item and left positive feedback. This way they don't have to pay their eBay fees. What I don't like about that is that they kind of make me an accomplice to their cheatiing on eBay without even asking if it is OK for me.

Regards
Max

NB: Last year I was ripped off for the first time in 20+ years on eBay and something like 5000 transactions. I bought a camera for astrophotography from a highjacked seller's account. There is no way of detecting that kind of fraud. eBay sent me a warning about a "possible hack" to the seller's account, but that was two weeks after I had sent the money via bank transfer. No way to get that back...
So be very careful when you log in to your eBay (and other) accounts on any computer that is not yours - in a hotel lobby, at work, flight crew lounge, whatever. Make sure you log out every time. Otherwise someone may take over your account and rip off other people in your name.

[rprosperi]

(02-25-2021 02:42 PM)vassilisprevelakis Wrote:  But another trick is for the seller to wait till the auction ends (in case somebody bids at the last time) and if the final price is not right, simply report the item posted, but send nothing. Once the buyer complains that the item did not arrive, the seller gives a full refund saying that the item was "lost in the mail". eBay thinks all is OK, and you cannot even post negative feedback for the seller as the transaction did not complete, but was cancelled with refund.

That happened to me as well; it was a long time ago, but this event is one of the reasons I started saving details about all transactions.

I've got some good news for you about leaving feedback!!

Once a sale is cancelled, it disappears from your 'Purchase History" page so there is no "Leave Feedback" button. But, if you do the following, you can access every recent transaction you have made, regardless of the outcome:

Starting on the Purchase History page (but also available from most "My eBay" pages):

Just below the "My eBay" on the upper left of the page, you'll see "Activity Messages(nnn) Account" links right above a horizontal line

A. Click on "Account"
B. Under the "Personal Info" group at the upper left, click on "Feedback"

=> You will now see a list of all your recent transactions, including any that were cancelled, refunded, etc.

Now, just click on "Leave Feedback" in the Action column on the far right, and let the world know how that seller behaved.

Enjoy this useful tip!!

[David Hayden]

This tactic is as old as retail itself. Mark up the item and then offer a "discount." It happens in real estate too. When I sold my previous house, the agent recommended listing it at a higher price and immediately lower it. That way all the sites show it as "price reduced!"

[mfleming]

Well, I think I may have just experienced something very interesting. I bought a Casio fx-8000G at a very reasonable price compared to all other offerings. Tracking showed the parcel handed over to the Post Office, then departing Columbus, Ohio. No update for two weeks so I filed a missing package research case. The case was closed the next day with a canned "Sorry about that" response. Then today a label shows up from the Post Office (two, actually) saying they found a label or empty parcel, and would I like to submit another missing item request?

Did these two labels fall off the parcel? Is the parcel in postal hands, waiting to be identified? Was there anything in the parcel? Curious, very curious. Something very similar is occurring right now regarding another package from Bangor, Maine. I wonder if I should change the title of this thread to "Postal Systems do the darndest things."

Edit: Now both the Post Office tracking page and The Bay tell me the package was "Delivered, In/At Mailbox" Sheesh.

[[kby]]

Hard to tell right now. It should be better now but for about a month usps tracking and movement was slow and erratic, depending on route, due to the weather. I had a package that sat for a week in “usps waiting for item” and seller told me she’d made a special trip to PO to mail it. She also said another package she mailed at the same time was moving (correctly) through Pennsylvania. The origin was Chicago at the tail end of the cold snap. At 6-7 days it finally shows suddenly at the usual regional distribution center for my part of the Los Angeles area and is delivered the next day. It wasn’t technically late but longer than usual and the tracking missed several of the usual scans. At the same time a different FedEx package from New York experienced significant delays stuck in Chicago.

[John Keith]

Mail delivery in Chicago is notoriously shambolic. Add in bad weather, the pandemic and the political shenanigans of the past year and I'm pleasantly surprised every time I receive mail!

[berndpr]

I bought some SD card with minimal bet (1 EUR) and the seller want the money for a parcel (like 2,50 EUR.)

But he send it in a simple paper envelope for letters for 55 cent. This was really a big risk, because this envelopes get holes at the edges, if SD card or RFID card are inside.

So in my case too. But the cards were still inside. Lucky.

So the seller got nearly 3 EUR with this wrong shipping declarations.
But the SD cards were still inexpensive.

Berndpr