Reply With QuotePaying by PayPal offers quite a lot of protection. I have had to claim a few times and never had any difficulty getting my money back.
Is it safe to buy off ebay when the seller has no history? it's considerable sum, seller in the US, probably pay by paypal.
Does the absence of feedback/history for the seller mean I should not buy?
Any tips?
Thanks
Ben
p.s. sorry if this is in the wrong forum - it's not quite watch talk although it is talking about buying a watch
Paying by PayPal offers quite a lot of protection. I have had to claim a few times and never had any difficulty getting my money back.
I (personally) would be very wary. All might be fine - or it might not. Paypal offer certain protection, but it can be difficult and time consuming to get your money back.
Ebay seems (at the moment) to be rather a turgid cess-pit of fakes and dodgy characters.
I'm nervous too. When it comes to online buying I believe in 'the wisdom of crowds' and don't buy from sellers, especially trade, who don't have lots of positive, recent feedback.
I've never had a major problem with ebay. I've had to claim a couple of times due to dodgy sellers and have got my money back from paypal both times. You do have to return tracked and fully insured so could be a small cost involved there as most sellers won't refund return shipping. In general I would avoid new sellers listing expensive items but everyone starts somewhere and it doesn't hurt to ask some questions to try and get a feel for the seller. Buy the seller as always.
Personally i would only be comfortable buying from a seller with a good record of selling similar priced items who had provided me with some high-res pics identifiable as his own. I suppose everyone has got to start somewhere with their feedback and if you are receiving good comms from a seller then only you can calculate the risk perhaps based on how much of a bargain something is, but 'buy the seller' and 'if something is too good to be true...' are generally good maxims for ebay :wink:
As per one of my posts about papers, buy the seller. Ideally have a chat with them on the phone and ask the usual questions about how long they've had it, where they bought it from, ask them to send lots of good quality photos.
I would always be more weary buying something of that value through ebay, particularly if I can't do a f2f. Unless it's a bargain (in which case if it's too good to be true it probably is) I'd be cautious...
That said i sold my Pilot's Chrono through ebay and it was a pleasant transaction, but there were lots of phone calls, exchanging of emails, he even foudn me on linkedin and asked questions about my job!
Trust your instincts if it looks and feels wrong just avoid look for one closer to home
I know everyone has to start somewhere but I'd always be wary buying of a no-history seller especially for a large amount.
Would steer clear for me
Steer well clear mate ...
Unless it's local enough to pick up personally
Paypal can put a hold on the transaction only if the money is there in the 1st place ..
Steer clear, personaly i would only buy if they had good feedback.
Well, despite all the good advice on this thread, having won the auction I threw caution to the wind and went ahead and paid for the goods, putting blind faith on the seller and ebay's disputes protection.
Sad to say, predictably perhaps, I had to rely on ebay's dispute mechanism. The seller failed to respond to any communication after payment was made. Thankfully for me eBay dealt with it promptly and when the prescribed period of trying to work it out with the seller expired eBay promptly awarded me a refund.
A sorry tale and a lesson to me. Take the advice above - don't buy from a seller with no feedback.
On a brighter note, elsewhere I found the perfect mini sub and a face to face deal with a charming Tudor collector. That's how a deal should be done.
Ben
I recently bought some trainers from a seller with very good feedback that turned out to be different sizes. This is despite the seller claiming he'd owned them for over 10 years (unworn). I've sent him photographic proof twice but he's yet to respond, so now I have to wait until eBay decide I can escalate to a dispute - which gives him plenty of time to clear his Paypal account.(He also sells watches on there, so I may be revealing details later).
In the same week I bought some software which is illegal/fake and the seller has now been banned - despite this eBay still expects me to wait a week for the seller to respond before they will act; like that's going to happen. So I'm about Ģ120 at the moment.
Glad you learned a valuable lesson :) Would love to see pics on the watch!Originally Posted by benshep
I think there is some risk, even use PayPal. But if it is just you look forward, you can try.
Were you able to get your payment in full? I've been reading up so much on paypal and ebay, since I'm having a hard time finding a watch locally I may have to resort to international buying. With my readings, I think ebay is the safest way to go (I believe ebay.com, not the local ebay sites, has a fair amount of protection especially for buyers). Your thoughts?
Paypal and ebay offer a lot of protection for buyers. It is so difficult to lose your money, basically you need to be daft, in which case you will lose your money even easier elsewhere.
For sellers however, it is a dangerous minefield with little or no protection at all. No matter how careful you are as a seller, you can still lose.
^True. Read a lot of horror stories from sellers not being paid because of "disputes." We really need to "buy" the seller/buyer whenever we transact online. Hopefully sometime in the future, ebay and paypal would offer sellers a good amount of protection as well.
Couple of times I have bought an item, which was never sent and the seller did not even claim to have sent it - those cases are easy but time consuming as you have to wait for quite a long time before you can open a dispute, and the seller then has again time to answer it. But in the end you are bound to get your money if you have paid by paypal. Last time it took maybe half a minute after the dispute was closed to have the refund on my paypal account.
I do not have experience in any case where the seller would have sent an incorrect item or the shipment would have got lost. I guess it helps the seller much when he has the tracking number to prove the item has been delivered, I do not know if when the return is agreed upon what else you have to prove to get refund, than that you have just shipped something back with tracking?
However I do not think it matters much if the seller is domestic or international as for what it is worth he could be sitting in internet cafe anywhere in the world anyways..
Yes, paid by PayPal and their dispute procedure is the same as ebay's I think, because I lodged one with eBay then tried to lodge one on PayPal and it recognised that the case had already been opened through eBay. So I think it's the same process. So I recovered in full.
Further, I pay PayPal through MasterCard so they would have refunded me had I not recovered otherwise.
So the protection is there, but I certainly won't buy anything valuable from a nil feedback seller on eBay again!
I've never had a problem with eBay, however I wouldn't buy from a zero feedback seller.
On the odd occasion when I have had problems, ebay / paypal have been pretty good at getting my money back (although it can take a little time).
Donīt do it.
not bad that 22 post slag off ebay that's really thrown the cat among the pigeon's.
what a question to ask here.
buy off SC a least you'll get ripped off by another watch lover :D
You still here fool?
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
I recently sold an item on ebay allbeit my feedback around 200 ebay score.
I got communication to the effect after winning,"would I mind if waiting until he got paid at end of the week", of course not, so 3 weeks later, several messages later, raised an dispute and whilest all this is going on, the person was still purchasing/winning other ebay items...Twat.
He too had zero feedback........so as other learned forumers have stated.........not worth the probable hassle, stick to checkable background and always Paypal.........just in my opinion.
It's sad how eBay has been exploited over recent years. A great tool at one time
Exactly. It was great but is really detoriating. As a seller there are too many ways you can be screwed...
I've recently bought some trainers that were different sizes and software that was fake. In both cases they gave my money back, but I had to wait nearly two weeks as the first seller wouldn't cooperate and the second was already banned.
I clearly put in the ad paypal +3%. Some stupid yank refuses to pay this. Ebay wil tell you to f..k off if you complain about it.
Ha ha, I would buy from you mate!
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