Chinese buyers on ebay - beware

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On my experience, the few times I've sell stuff to China, had nothing but great experience by the seller part. On the other hand, I think shipping services (specially FedEx), treats parcels like crap. Two of the Chinese people I sold my items to let me know (they didn't made a refund request, put a comply or anything) told me the package was slightly damage outside (that's why the signed off) but item inside had some slight damage (even though item was well packaged). One of a set of Leica R lens I sold him lose the red dot and one of the clear plastic cases of one lens shattered.

So, pack well and don't be cheap with shipping service :)

Regards

Marcelo
 
Well I was wrong again. However, I only accept returns. People complain, sometimes because I think they changed their mind, or sometimes they want to run a scam, or sometimes I made a mistake. But when the returned package shows delivered to me - then EBay issues the refund.

Doing anything else only opens you up to scammers.
 
I've had two incidents -
Sold a IIIf to China - guy shows me a picture of a heavily brassed IIIC saying it happened in transit demanding a partial refund

Sold a IIIg to China - First Class - untracked - claimed he never got it, and I can't do anything about it (really needed the $ too)

Listed a collapsible summicron - got bid up way higher than I expected the price to be - looked at the top 2 bidders - ~50 feedback, all from buying $0.01 to $5 random items from chinese knick knack sellers - cancelled that auction, relisted a month later, and same BS...

I'm sticking to selling Leica gear here
 
benjkim said:
I've had only fantastic experiences using eBay's Global Shipping Program. Instead of shipping directly to foreign buyers, I select the option to use the Global Shipping Program and eBay forwards my package to the buyer from a Kentucky warehouse that I send the package to. I save on shipping costs and I'm supposedly insulated from a range of common problems:



In fact, I don't think I've ever heard anything back from any of the GSP buyers.
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+1

I completely agree too. Once they had this option available, I've only done internationally shipping this way. Alleviates most headaches from the seller's end. Yes, it takes longer to ship but if something is lost or damage along the way, then GSP takes care of it.... I just make sure it ships to KY location ASAP.

Some things to consider:
Returning back to the states from working in China for 2 years, I can say that their way of doing business selling secondhand gear is vastly different than the western ways. I've had numerous miscommunication of things which I've assumed was correct or proper. Even still, I've had issues even when a local was translating things for me. I can share many stories but I won't get into details... Words and Phrases can easily be misinterpreted ...

For eBay, usually, I downplay my gear description, making sure everything is listed. eBay for me is just notorious for nickel-and-diming everything that isn't listed in the description... As a seller, you just want to avoid as much as possible. "Dumb" it down and spell everything out...

All in All, take it as a learning experience. It will happen again (not that I'm hoping it would)...
 
With expensive items like this, i wouldn't bother selling via eBay. For anything above £150, i use Ffordes who keeps a commission. Never had a problem with them, had plenty of problems with eBay.
 
be happy that he didnt open a case and accepted to return both cameras sending you a box with two bricks inside.
then you would have lost both, cameras and money.
eBay is full of scammers from all around the world. Every time I sell something there its like watching a horror movie, you know the buyer could open a case on ebay or paypal at any time.
 
I haven't sold on that site for a while. I had similar experience with an individual of the same nationality living in the US. Wanting refund, even though, there was nothing but buyer remorse in their minds. The best solution for that is to have them return the item (completely) for full refund. If they are cheating, they will not do it. It is a good idea to video tape the packing of the item before sending it out. They may return it changed or broken on purpose. Ebay rules are weighted on favor of the buyer (that is why I buy only there). They assume the seller can afford to have some small loses that he account for. If I need to sell something, I will do it through the forum to people who has been here for a while, and with full return warranty. I have noticed on the Ebay that some people sell stuff that they purchased earlier and still shows in their history. You can read the description in the first sell that shows what is wrong with the item, they omit that in their own description. Not nice.

Prejudices are not good for social behavior, not all individuals are the same. However, for business purposes, you have to keep in mind that, and I appreciate the OP's advice. For example, I used to buy from Japanese sellers and trusted them a lot because they were very honest in their description. But lately, I have two cases that were not like that. In those cases, I sent a video of the box opening and testing showing the lens not working (He said, it was perfectly OK). Then, he realized that he was caught and offered partial refund. Now, I trust no one, and do not buy anything on eBay that I could not be ready to lose.

Amazon is becoming that way too. They are allowing third party sellers like eBay to send rocks in brand new boxes of expensive items. Go figure!! I am missing my Sammy store in my home town. They closed 3 years ago.
 
DKimg said:
Some things to consider:
Returning back to the states from working in China for 2 years, I can say that their way of doing business selling secondhand gear is vastly different than the western ways. I've had numerous miscommunication of things which I've assumed was correct or proper. Even still, I've had issues even when a local was translating things for me. I can share many stories but I won't get into details... Words and Phrases can easily be misinterpreted ...
.
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That's an interesting phenomenon.
I absolutely hate how Taobao sellers describe things. Nothing is clear, everything is greasy and slick.
I think the "misinterpreting" has a lot to do with traders having double-standard on description when buying/selling things. And then they use less engineer-ish language to have people tricked.
 
pepeguitarra said:
True, that is why we got a deluge once! Maybe time for another one? :angel:
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I think it's already started...

pano1.jpg


This is how it peaked last time and the flooding was about a third the way across the road this afternoon. Note the underwater traffic lights in about 2ft of water...

Regards, David
 
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nickthetasmaniac said:
I don’t quite follow your point. You had a bad eBay experience with a single Chinese buyer and therefore people should beware of all Chinese buyers?

Right.

Come to think of it, I had a weird experience with a US buyer once - Beware selling to the US!
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I sold a bunch of Nikon equipment on ebay, one bad experience. Had a reasonable offer from a guy I suspected was a dealer. He claimed a rub on the rear element. I had the choice of offering him a $100 discount or pay for return shipping and relist the lens.

I gave him the discount to avoid the hassle as I’m sure he counted on and has probably done to many other sellers.

Now I avoid Seattle.
 
I've never sold on ebay, just bought; but only from Australian sellers and never paying by "Paypal".

By allowing for servicing in the price offered/paid and not buying if I got a "bad vibration" from a description or later reply to a question, I've been lucky in always getting the camera/lens I thought I was buying.

It's amazing how cameras have an ability to breed!!
 
Ebay loves to sing and dance about their "buyer protection" policies and safeguards. They apparently don't give a second thought to throwing sellers under the bus when a transaction goes sideways, though.


That's why I'm done with Ebay.
 
I just had Chinese bidders on my ebay items, even though I have EXCLUDED china. I just got off the phone with ebay. They say it's a bug/feature and there is no workaround. They will "forward the problem to leadership, we are getting other complaints like yours." Um, leadership? Sounds like it's planned, otherwise they'd have a technical solution.

Here is what happened. Sunday I listed two lenses, and I didn't want to sell them to China. I did all the machinations to disallow China, including the "Shipping Exclusion list" with that country on it. I checked the settings that I "won't allow bids from countries I don't ship to." I hit save on the listing, and instantaneously get a bidder in China bidding on both my lenses. How? Who knows, all settings are to not allow it.

I delete the bid. Then today another. Guess what will happen 3 seconds before the auction ends? You guessed it, all the Chinese bidders with their sniper programs will win my auction. AND THERE IS NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT IT (eBay phone reps words). She checked all my settings and said I did everything right. But "with our new sellers changes, China is not considered part of Asia in our system. You've blocked Asia, and China underneath that setting...but that's not really blocking them.....sorry...we will forward your problem up to leadership...." She was finished with the call, with a hearty "have a nice day."

So I go to at least update the text on my auction: "Warning - I will remove any bids from China..." But guess what the other new change is? YOU CANNOT UPDATE YOUR LISTING IF YOU HAVE ONE BID. So how do you like that? List an item with China excluded. Get a bid within seconds FROM CHINA, you cannot stop them, and you cannot update your listing. They have just blocked you, the seller, from any control of your sale!

She gave me a complaint number....It's been disabled and the recording says to click the numbers on the ebay web site. ENJOY selling to CHINA!
 
goamules said:
I just had Chinese bidders on my ebay items, even though I have EXCLUDED china. I just got off the phone with ebay. They say it's a bug/feature and there is no workaround. They will "forward the problem to leadership, we are getting other complaints like yours." Um, leadership? Sounds like it's planned, otherwise they'd have a technical solution.

Here is what happened. Sunday I listed two lenses, and I didn't want to sell them to China. I did all the machinations to disallow China, including the "Shipping Exclusion list" with that country on it. I checked the settings that I "won't allow bids from countries I don't ship to." I hit save on the listing, and instantaneously get a bidder in China bidding on both my lenses. How? Who knows, all settings are to not allow it.

I delete the bid. Then today another. Guess what will happen 3 seconds before the auction ends? You guessed it, all the Chinese bidders with their sniper programs will win my auction. AND THERE IS NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT IT (eBay phone reps words). She checked all my settings and said I did everything right. But "with our new sellers changes, China is not considered part of Asia in our system. You've blocked Asia, and China underneath that setting...but that's not really blocking them.....sorry...we will forward your problem up to leadership...." She was finished with the call, with a hearty "have a nice day."

So I go to at least update the text on my auction: "Warning - I will remove any bids from China..." But guess what the other new change is? YOU CANNOT UPDATE YOUR LISTING IF YOU HAVE ONE BID. So how do you like that? List an item with China excluded. Get a bid within seconds FROM CHINA, you cannot stop them, and you cannot update your listing. They have just blocked you, the seller, from any control of your sale!

She gave me a complaint number....It's been disabled and the recording says to click the numbers on the ebay web site. ENJOY selling to CHINA!
Click to expand...

You know what, Chinese bidders can also travel to foreign countries and bid on things, or ask someone located in a foreign country to do so. So it's basically unstoppable.
 
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