I Hate Ebay

[oldredbeard]

Theres been a lot of good advice here, and I hope it all works out for you. But don't hate ebay, it was just a mistake by the seller. I have been an ebay member for for about 14 years now and like has been said, it's better now than ever. Sorry you had a bad experience but it is the seller not ebay.

 

[deleon]

Contact Ebay.com talk to customer service and open a "ticket" and explain to them what happened. If the seller doesn't honor the sale within 3 or 5 days ebay.com will flag his or her account.

 

[jwp159]

I make my living selling on Ebay. Sometimes mistakes do happen. A good seller will make it right. My advice is to first contact the seller. If it was my mistake I would tell you to keep the pipe you got and I would send you the right one at no charge or refund you your price + shipping and say keep the pipe as a gift. If you don't get a good quick fix from the seller then open a case through ebay. They will make sure you get your purchase price and original shipping back, but they will say to send it back and won't make the seller pay the return shipping. A good seller will fix the mistake with out it costing you more. I'm sorry you had this trouble but don't let it sour you on ebay as a whole. Don't leave feedback until it's all over with, if the seller goes out of their way to make it right then don't be to hard on them. If they don't then let them have it.

 

[nsfisher]

I like the one you recieved better than the one you paid for. But I know it is still wrong. Contact seller and politely inform him of the error. I am sure he will make it right mate.

 

[shaintiques]

Most sellers will make it right. And there are lots of very reputable pipe sellers. I have bought many pipes on ebay.

 

[john218]

I've bought five pipes on Ebay over the last two months so my experience is limited, compared to others here. One pipe came from overseas and sat over a week in a post office in New York, but I had no problems otherwise. A lot of people here gave you good advise. I would go through the procedures outlined here and give the seller a chance to rectify the situation. Some people don't like Ebay, but there are so many pipes available on it that would be hard to find elsewhere.

 

[photoman13]

another place that auctions pipes occasionally is shopgoodwill.com

 

[sparroa]

I hate eBay because other bidders drive up my costs! Other than that it is a good friend of mine... It's a Caveat Emptor thing - you have to be careful who you are doing business with, but even in the best of times you will occasionally get burned. eBay is generally very good with buyers, IMO, so you should get some satisfaction in the end... That rarely happens in the used marketplace in the real world - stuff is cut and dry, take it or leave it, as is.

 

[hawk60ce]

Be patient. It can be worked out through eBay. They seem to be very good at working out issues, just give them time. OF the 100+ things I've purchased on ebay ive only left negative feedback one time. The seller grossly mis-guided the buyer (ultimately me) in the description so i made it know. He got mad, maybe he wont do it again. I try not to buy something from a seller unless there rating is 99.5% or higher. just MHO

 

[sparroa]

I left neutral feedback once because a seller kept me on the hook after he'd already sold the item; he had my money tied up for two weeks before he even let me know there was a problem, let alone before he gave me a refund... I was expecting it in the mail any day at all when he said it wasn't going to come... Needless to say I wasn't impressed, but it worked out for me anyway.

 

[kennerth]

Give the seller a chance to remedy it. They should refund your shipping for the return AND if they are a good seller, refund your original shipping for being so late. Sound like they may be expanding ahead of their capabilities. A flawed business model that they will want to correct to be successful on Ebay. If they don't remedy to your satisfaction, then go through the process and negative feedback.

 

[zanthal]

I like eBay ... this kind of stuff doesn't happen very often at all with sellers with good feedback ratings.
Yeah you've got two options ... give the seller a chance to correct the mistake, or go straight to eBay's buyer protection.

 

[cigrmaster]

I have used Ebay since 1999 and never had a problem. A couple of months ago I bought a pipe and the tenon was so small the stem would spin. I contacted the seller, he apologized, refunded my money and told me to keep the pipe for my inconvenience. Cost me 20 bucks to have it fixed and now I own a Lane Era Charatan for 20.00.

 

[kcghost]

Remember you didn't buy this from eBay but from a third party using eBay as a conduit. Always give the seller time to make things right. Most of them will. Be sure to communicate civilly and accurately. Name calling solves nothing.
Do not give negative feedback until you have exhausted all reasonable means to get the problem taken care of. About the only time I will consider doing that is if I have to go to the trouble of filing an PayPal claim to get my money back.

 

[galeon]

So the seller contacted me today, refunded my money, and told me to keep the pipe. I guess they might just be growing past their means. Very professional responses. Thanks for keeping me level-headed and professional, guys. I guess I should have been upset at the seller and not Ebay especially considering that all my other transactions went over perfectly.

 

[whimsyt]

I'm really glad it worked out for you. I've had 3 bad transactions recently myself, so I'm getting really good at figuring out what questions to ask. But, for the most part, most sellers are willing to do the right thing.

 

[numbersix]

Always nice to hear a happy ending (and that pipe you got is really nice) Congrats!

 

[cigrmaster]

Very cool, not the pipe you wanted but still a free pipe, can't ask much more than that.

 

[galeon]

On top of it looking good, it also smokes well and feels good in the hand. However, I don't like seeing the condensation collect in the stem. It makes me feel like I HAVE to run a pipe cleaner through it every minute or two.

 

[tgwilt]

Well, I just got lucky. I've been looking for a "birth year" Dunhill for some time and found what looks to be a real nice looking one! Check it out:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DUNHILL-PATENT-417574-34-From-1953-EK-Shell-BriarEstate-Pipe-b42-/261089128544?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cca1ff060#ht_3838wt_1398
The seller has a 100% positive feedback rating. I've only had one issue in all the years I've bought stuff here, and it was resolved (bad seller). I always keep email records of transactions and that helped immensely.
I'm happy your story had a HEA ending!