Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Ellis]

I have. Twice.

The first time was on a door latch for my mother's Nissan Micra. Despite asking a pre purchase question to the seller about whether he was selling the exact new part to suit the car, he sent a latch for the side I did not request. There was no phone number for contact and he ignored Ebay messages.
The hassle of complaining was not worth the £10 I paid.

The second time was for a pair of sidesteps for my TD5 Discovery. The photos showed mudflaps on both steps but when they arrived they had both disappeared. "Contact the courier direct" was the seller's first reply. I replied that the package had not been tampered with. More platitudes later I was promised replacement 'flaps.
I'm still waiting.......

The vast majority of Ebay sellers are honest and reliable, it's a pity I chanced on two that were not.
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Starting Handle Expert

1964 Jaguar Mark 2 3.4 litre
1962 Land Rover Series 2a 88"
2002 BMW M3 E46 Cabriolet

[clan chieftain]

I once paid for a propshaft centre bearing for a marina.....Years later and after many messages I am still waiting on it.
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The Clan Chieftain

[Bitumen Boy]

Only once, and not too badly, which is surprising considering how much stuff I've had off there. I bought - so I thought - an unpowered/passive (forget the right term for it now) USB hub from one of the pro traders on there, sells all kinds of stuff like batteries and blank CD's, lots of bright colours and dodgy spelling on his listings but had some blank discs from him before with no bother. Anyhoo, when this package arrived what I actually got was a powered USB hub, which I didn't need and had nowhere to plug it into, not that it would have helped if I had as it had a 2 pin Euro type plug. So of course I complained, send it back for a refund they said. I sent it back and eventually got repaid the original price and postage - but my return postage cost? Never, despite many complaints to fleabay. OK it was only a couple of quid but it's still very annoying the way fleabay don't seem to give a hang about it.

I did once buy a pair of army boots which took a fair while to arrive and when I got the box open I found the soles had been slashed - quite deliberately, with a very sharp, very heavy blade with a deal of pressure behind it, no way could you have done it with, say, an ordinary Stanley knife. It couldn't have happened in the post and there's no way the seller could have packaged them up and not noticed that, but when I kicked up a fuss with him he did come up with a prompt refund, without prevaricating about returns. They went in our bin in the end and the way he didn't quibble at all - didn't even want to see a photo, which I would have sent - proves to me that he was trying it on all along.

As Ellis says, most sellers are honest and reliable - but if laying out more than a fiver it's a good idea to have a thorough nosy through their feedback scores

[colwyn500]

The main way we seem to get done is when things such as clothing are lighter quality than you expect and new, bargain items are cheaper less well made than you expect. Photos can be very deceptive.

On the whole I love it. Eg. Wipers £29 at the garage, £11 off EBay...perfect.

[Riley Blue]

Never though I did once have to wait six weeks for something from New Zealand.

[47Jag]

A year or so ago I 'won' a bonnet for my Jag. I had a starting bid of £9.99 and I was the only bidder. The guy then refused to sell it to me saying he had put in the wrong starting price. He meant £99.99 and I could have it for that if I wanted. I got no response at all from Ebay and gave up.

Art

[colwyn500]

[geonot]

I was done by an American seller of Cortina parts- won auction for part (around $250). I asked the seller if they had any more New Old Stock parts- they advised they did, but they were at their barn away from their home- he would look out the parts and send pictures. This dragged on for ages, but I wasn't in a hurry for the part I had won. Anyway as soon as the deadline for reporting the item as not received had expired as per E bay rules I did not get any further communication from the seller, or the part I won.

[Bitumen Boy]

[buzzy bee]

Twice, very recently, both times I found the item location to be in the uUK, untill you buy it and you are then told it may take months to arrive, you are told this from someone speaking Chinese English, and they are a member in China, but they are positive it is coming from the UK...

Idiots!

Unfortunately they fail to tell you this untill you have bought the item, and they drop you a message, I left feedback to say such, giving a poor star rating recently, and they had the nerve to ask me to change it to positive feedback, even though the item had never arrived, even after waiting the month they said.

Can you tell I was annoyed... lol

[rjt10/4]

got caught out once brought a vauxhall cavalier for 10 quid as brake pads needing replacment arrived and seller had to tow start car driving home i had at most 1/4 inch of brake pedal needless to say needed a complete brake replacement throughout scraped next day on the otherside won a 93 saab9000 been off road 2 years for £19.43 seller repaired a leak in rad and refused to accept payment drove home to test center for mot and passed first try sold it on 13,300 miles later

[pogo]

Several times ive been done.

A camera, with the description listing all the extras, and turning up with none, even charger. They wouldnt pay the post to send some of the missing items to me . Ebay and Paypal, dont care about the case.

Bought an MP5 player, from China, it went wrong, they said send it back, at my expense, and never heard from them again.

Bought an android tablet from the uk, it turned up at my parents address in the uk rather than here in france, they got a £15 import duty to pay because the item was sent from China, not the uk, then it went wrong, and the seller had de registered because his feedback was getting rather tarnished.

Never again buying anything expensive from ebay.

On the plus side, I have bought loads of items without problems.
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http://www.centralfrancestorage.com/index.html

[ukdave2002]

I have bought the thick end of 1000 items on ebay since 1999 , had one problem; a brake rivet tool that never turned up from an Australian seller...contacted paypal and got a refund...4 months later the thing turned up it had got lost somewhere in the shipping, I contacted the seller to re-send him the funds, he asked me to send it to a charity...restored my faith in human nature

I mainly buy classic car bits, and most of the sellers are enthusiasts themselves, and honest, I have walked away with more than I paid for a number of times,in these cases I adopt the same stance as my Australian seller; if you wont accept the money let me know your preferred charity, it always gets a response and everyone is happy

Dave

[john-saab]

I bought a professional brake flaring tool..top of the range item with a "only used twice" pipe cutter. When it arrived the cutter was scrap..blunt and seized. I mentioned it to the seller and a week later a brand new cutter arrived and he also sent a different set of flaring dies..worth about £20.

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Rust Junky & oil addict.