How has your online buying/selling experience been? A poll

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mc_vancouver

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You've sold stuff on RFF. You've sold on eBay. You've bought. If you have paid by PayPal, I'd like to find out how you rate your experience. Any cautions, any bad experiences?

The reason I'm doing this poll is I have (touch wood) never had problems buying and selling over the internet as far as the financial part goes. Of course I've had problems with gear arriving that wasn't as advertised, with refunds (both to me and from me) and so on, but I'm trying to get some idea if the commonly held belief among many people is that it is unsafe to use the internet for transactions is still held or if it is a thing of the past.
 
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I use paypal for all rangefinderforum purchases. I do not like to buy from ebay and so far have not done any buying on the bay. Only here at the RFF.
 
Over the course of about 7 years of buying/selling online, the number of problems I've had could be counted on 1 hand. And the only time I got totally shafted, my CC took care of it. That's eBay, and a handful of different forums.
 
Never had any problems. However, I am very careful about choosing who to do business with - if I have any doubt about the seller or the item, I don't bid. The old adage - if it looks to good to be true then it probably is - applies.
 
For the most part my paypal and ebay experience has been good.
I once won an auction and paid through paypal but the seller would not ship since as he said it did not sell for what he wanted.
I am currently having a problem with an ebay (Russian) seller who claims I did not pay and won't ship even though I have forwarded a copy of the paypal transaction to him.
Even Protek his US go between has told him I have paid.

Overall I will continue to use both ebay and paypal..
 
Even though I must admit I was reluctant to use Paypal when it first appeared, I have been a Paypal user for more than 4 years now without issues. I sell mostly CDs on eBay, and have never had a Paypal-related issue despite more than 1500 eBay transactions. Several of those have been paid with Paypal.

I mostly use what I make to buy photo-related stuff. You know - use one hobby to feed another. As others say though, it is all about awareness. As a frequent seller, I try to be responsive to bidders questions. I know what goes into being a seller. If I don't get the kind of service I expect when a buyer, I don't bid. It's not worth it.
 
All the problems I have had yet buying online were due to the Post Office (opened envelope, gutted parcel, misplaced parcel found only after a written inquiry) or courier (couldn't find the caretaker so I had to drive 60 km to collect the goods). No problem selling (yet, touch wood).

Sure, I exercise due care when choosing the object and trading parter, whether here (hi, Brett! hi, Ron!), on pnet or on evilbay. Never had a payment problem with Paypal of otherwise. Always had good surprises (eg seller insisting on reimbursing me after the envelope mishap in which he had no more responsability than myself).

And the local Post Office is famed for housing the most famous postman in France, a regular Trotskyite presidential candidate. But there can be no relation, can it?
 
Last week I was the victim of an ebay/paypal scam. I received a paypal payment and then shipped the lens to an address in Lithuania. Within a few hours the payment was reversed by paypal because they suspected the transaction had been unauthorised. On closer inspection I found out that the ebay account had been hijacked and probably the paypal account aswell. the ebay account was based in the USA and the paypal account in Italy. I've now lost my money and bascically neither Ebay nor Paypal gives a damn. Ebay hasn't even closed down the hijacked account.

The moral of the story is pay close attention and check that account locations and delivery addresses match up. The Ebay account in question had good feedback which meant that I dropped my guard! I will continue to use Ebay and Paypal but will be much more cautious.
 
Paypal saved my ass once. I'd purchased a computer from an online vendor, a commercial business, that only accepted paypal for payment (big red flag). This was several years ago when Paypal was relatively new, not associated with ebay, and was trying to drum up support by giving five bucks to anyone who'd refer someone to open a new account. So perhaps they were more responsive to their account holders back then. Anyway, more than two months went by after I'd transferred funds via Paypal for this computer, the company had run out of excuses as to why they hadn't shipped it yet, refused to return my money, would not answer emails, or answer the phone when I called. $1600. Finally, I went ballistic, spread their bad name everywhere on the internet, notified federal and state authorities, contacted Paypal, etc, etc. Paypal was the one who applied pressure on the company (I think they threatened to close their account) and my money was returned within two days. Huge sigh of relief and much gratitude to Paypal for intervening. After that experience, I never do business with a company without checking their online approval rating first.
 
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Two words: verified account. If the seller has an account that they have verified through the official PayPal channels (usually through their banking information) I have never had a problem. If someone wants you to send money to them and you can't search their history with the given email address I would stay away.

Two more words: shipping address. Each PayPal user has an default shipping address which is usually tied to the official billing address for a credit card. With rare exception I have refused to send to any other address. On the few occasions that I have, other means of verification were used such as calling someone at work.
 
I don't buy from ebay anymore. Too much suffering. I sell to clear my photo junk box and don't really care what I get for the stuff.
 
With all this account verifying and double-checking addresses to avoid hijacked accounts etc. it sounds like you have to be an investigative reporter or a skip tracer to ensure you're not getting scammed!
I once bought a door handle for my van from ebay and paid with pay pal. I considered $30 an acceptable risk and there was no fragile inner workings to worry about. That transaction was fine.
I bought a camera from a amember here and it was not exactly as described but I think it was slightly dammaged in shipping as the member seems to be a stand-up guy. Not a big deal but it was enough to prevent me from buying anything with moving parts online again. I will support my local businesses who give me the opportunity to inspect items beforehand, although it may cost a little more money.
I undersand that especially with camera equipment, not everyone has access to such businesses and have little choice but to buy online. I think that's a sad commentary on where the world is going and I wish you people had the same great selection of camera shops as we do in the B.C./northern Washington area.
 
photogdave said:
....I will support my local businesses who give me the opportunity to inspect items beforehand, although it may cost a little more money...
I wish you people had the same great selection of camera shops as we do in the B.C./northern Washington area.
Click to expand...

Dave, I agree that we have some very good camera stores in the PNW, but at the same time I do appreciate the ease of finding items on RFF and of buying from a community of photographers. I've had great buying and selling experiences with RFF users, except once, and I haven't seen him around here in a long while, and I heard from another user that this guy had given him problems too. Anyway, with camera stores there is the tactile advantage and, of course, one can take something back easily if it isn't working,etc. But think of the gas and transit usage I save by shopping online! While it means I am not supporting my local store, I am supporting a fellow enthusiast who has no need of an item, or who is looking for an item.
 
I agree qwith you 100 per cent but I'll just add that since I ride my bike around Vancouver almost exclusively, I don't spend any money on gas or on shipping costs for online purchases.
I would also like to clarify that my transaction with the RFF member wasn't bad, but the item was likely damaged in shipping. I would certainly buy from or sell to RFF members again if it was something I couldn't find locally.
 
Been dealing on ebay and other sites for about 5 years and never had a problem buying or selling. I check feedback and never buy off anyone with a poor rating (who would?). I try to be scrupilously honest when selling and get great feedback. Only problems I've had (just two) have been with Postal Services. One parcel lost and one destroyed. Insurance paid up so all was well.
 
I've had a few problems with eBay sellers, but not enough to make me swear off eBay. (Lately I've been buying stuff from RFF folks -- it's great to dela with people who are inherently trustworthy.) I do not use PayPal. Even if my spouse were OK with my using a service that just makes it easier to buy and sell photo gear, I have to say that I've gone more than once to the PayPal site to try and find out exactly how it works, and have never come away with a satisfactory understanding. So, rather than establishing an account and putting that information out there, I'll keep sending money orders to people.
 
gregg said:
Two words: verified account. If the seller has an account that they have verified through the official PayPal channels (usually through their banking information) I have never had a problem. If someone wants you to send money to them and you can't search their history with the given email address I would stay away.

Two more words: shipping address. Each PayPal user has an default shipping address which is usually tied to the official billing address for a credit card. With rare exception I have refused to send to any other address. On the few occasions that I have, other means of verification were used such as calling someone at work.
Click to expand...

A Big Second to both of these. I've never had a problem. But, I HAVE had crooks try. Once I checked them out (before doing business) I did not do business and thus avoided a scam.
 
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