E-Bay - Is it safe?

[Nifelhein]

A friend just tried to buy a notebook and seems he lost his money, the guy is from Bulgaria and he is a lot unhappy, since I have to get my books from the internet and many people here have a great experience with internet transitions, I ask:

IS it safe to buy on e-bay? And what about those sites around the net? What can one make to ensure he is not gonna loose his money?

If anyone knows how I can help that friend too, be welcome. I just hope a mdoerator do not think this is too off topic...

Cheers,

Nifelhein.

 

[diaglo]

i have used it many, many times. both buying and selling. (hundreds and hundreds of transactions)

only had one bad experience.

 

[NeuroZombie]

First off, as far as ebay goes, look at the sellers Feedback. If they have sold a lot of items and have no negative feedbacks, then you can probably feel good about buying from them. If they have sold a bunch of things and have one or two negative feedbacks, I tend to trust the as well. You can;t please all of the people all of the time.

As for other online stores, I generally look for a verisign logo or some other from of internet security service's logo. Typically you can click on the logo and get details about the store, which most legitimate (and web savvy) stores will have done.

 

[TiQuinn]

Should probably shift this over to the Software/Computer forum. What exactly happened? I've bought on EBay before with no problems but a couple of things I consider is

1) Buying from folks who have a high positive feedback rating.

2) If it's an expensive purchase, using an online escrow service. Last time I checked, Ebay has Escrow.com. I've never used it personally, but know folks who have, and it's worth the peace of mind.

 

[Nifelhein]

Well, he seem to have been a little careless, what happened with your bad experience diaglo?

Also, thanks for your answers guys.

 

[diaglo]

i bought a product. got a fast response from the seller. sent a check. and then....nothing. for a week. so i tried email. no answer. sent a letter. no answer. another email. etc...for 3 weeks. i'm pretty patient.

finally since you have like 30 days to give a feedback i sent a negative feedback on day 29.

two days later i got the product in the mail from the seller's sister.

he had died.

i felt like such a heel.

edit: she sent a note of explanation. she knew her brother had sold the item, but did not know to whom.

 

[PatrickLawinger]

A friend just tried to buy a notebook and seems he lost his money, the guy is from Bulgaria and he is a lot unhappy, since I have to get my books from the internet and many people here have a great experience with internet transitions, I ask:

IS it safe to buy on e-bay? And what about those sites around the net? What can one make to ensure he is not gonna loose his money?

If anyone knows how I can help that friend too, be welcome. I just hope a mdoerator do not think this is too off topic...

Cheers,

Nifelhein.

Do you mean a notebook computer?

Did he actually purchase it through ebay, or did he do one of these wonderful skip ebay bits? If he skipped ebay he is probably simply out his money. If not, ebay should be very helpful about it. In either case, he should contact Ebay about it. If nothing else, Ebay should be able to identify and lock out this individual.

It is generally safe to buy on Ebay if you check the seller's feedback and use a secure means of exchanging funds. A lot of people use ebay as an advertisement, specially for higher ticket items. They'll put a low "buy it now" price and then say that the auction is limited to approved buyers. This makes you send an email to the seller, the seller then tries to use a method that by-passes ebay. With Europe, it is usually something dealing with Western Union.

Not all of these are scams, but I avoid them. I don't personally know anyone screwed in something like this, but I have heard stories.

In all honesty, Ebay doesn't really always have the best deals. What it does provide is access to special items, collector items, etc. that are interesting only to small subsets of people.

 

[diaglo]

In all honesty, Ebay doesn't really always have the best deals. What it does provide is access to special items, collector items, etc. that are interesting only to small subsets of people.

as a collector i totally agree.

 

[Nifelhein]

I see.. yes, it was a notebook pc, he mailed me and was pretty upset, i don't know exactly what he did and did not.

I have been wodering because I plan on buying rpg stuff on e-bay when I get some more money, I want to buy old edition items and that is the best place I can get those, unless I am mistaken.

Thanks for the help guys, I love this place you know, where else could I get this helping posts? Nowhere, I might say, and that is why we were completely lost in what to do, i will keep you updated.

Cheers,

Nifelhein.

 

[Mystery Man]

Stay away from auctions by the seller K.I.M.E.R.A.

21 Red marks, one of them is from me.