Reply With QuoteGood to know, thanks for sharing.
Just thought I would post this here to help save someone some of their money.
So I took a chance on an all gold Rolex from a seller on eBay in Italy. The seller had good feedback, 100% score of 100+ transactions and all seemed ok.
Now the price of the watch I thought was a couple thousand too cheap and I did think in the back of my head that this is too good to be true, but I made the transaction as I could rest easy knowing that eBay’s buyer protection program is excellent!
Anyway, the watch never showed and the seller went silent so I started the process of raising a dispute (I wasn’t worried, just annoyed about having to go through the motions).
So after a few days or so I had the “refund in full” from eBay’s dispute team, HOWEVER as the original transaction was made from my £ account to sellers € account and the exchange rate had dropped since I made the purchase I was fully refunded but lost out on £450 due to the exchange rate! :-(
I phoned eBay who said there is nothing they can do.
Lesson learned.
Although eBay is a safe platform for buyers please be wary about buying something in different currencies or you could lose out like I did. (I suppose if the exchange rate had gone in my favour I would have ended up MAKING money, but unfortunately not.)
Hope this helps someone.
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Good to know, thanks for sharing.
Originally Posted by Stonewood
This 100%
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
As soon as you said So I took a chance on an all gold Rolex from a seller on eBay in Italy i knew that was a huge error
Frustrating. I've always bought in confidence on eBay for the same reason but never thought about the FX rate messing things up.
Obviously don't know price of watch but £450 seem a lot - is it just currency fluctuation or the spread working against OP?
Don't give up hope OP. I had a parcel turn up three weeks late, after Ebay had already refunded me. It had been addressed (by hand!) incorrectly, so it went to a neighbour 10 doors away, and it had taken the neighbour two weeks to walk the 50 yards to my house.
Exactly what I was thinking. A £450 loss due to exchange rate fluctuation makes me think it was a large purchase price!
His scenario is different
Italy! Nooooo....under no circumstances.
Blimey. But what was the purchase price?
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
Basically I just took a punt, kind of knowing it was going to be a fraud seller - I had the attitude that If it wasn’t then great, if it was then I’m covered.
I was safe in the knowledge eBay would protect me, and they did, but the exchange rate was not something I considered. A £450 lesson learned. Glad to see I have informed some people on the forum so that they don’t make the same mistake I did.
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i guess you went in eyes widen open-ish. How much was the purchase price for you to take a £450 hit?
Purchase price was £15k.
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I think eBay should have took the hit on the exchange rate as they act as brokers on both sides and it have been an internal conversion, particularly with a non supply.
Totally agree with this . You did everything correctly and the Ebay seller/Ebay let you down . You have a loss which you can fight for if your strong enough .....
I did try. I spoke with the regular eBay agents first. Then, as I wasn’t getting anywhere, I asked to escalate it to a senior manager and had a lady from Ireland call me. She said that there is nothing they can do as the exchange rate is set by my bank. Naturally I felt this was unfair, and so did the eBay agents and manager. It seemed like a bit of a “computer says no” situation.
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To the tune of £15k? Sorry bud, but you deserve everything you get, and then some.
Why would you encourage fraudulent sellers by acting like a tit? Whether eBay protects you or not, is the seller now laughing with an extra £15k in his pocket? FFS!
I would think eBay would pull that money from the seller. I’m not convinced they would be in business very long if every fraudster got away with the cash and they had to pay up.
OP: thanks for heads up, I don’t think I’d have the courage to do that sort of transaction knowing the high probability of the outcome but good to consider another dimension too.
I would’ve worded it a bit more tactfully but that’s pretty much my take on it. If the deal had been above board the 20% import tax would've wiped out the savings; if it was still underpriced taking account if this it was so far underpriced that it had to be wrong.
I like a bargain as much as the next guy, but I’m wise enough to prioritise properly; if my aim is to get a gold Rolex for approx £15k my priority is to get a good example, NOT to save a couple if grand.
Did the OP really want the watch or was it the prospect of a bargain that was too much to resist? In the early days of ebay I made risky purchases from overseas when buyer protection was almost non- existent, but that involved a few hundred pounds not thousands and I accepted the risk that I could lose my money.
If this watch had turned up there’s every chance it could be a fake, high quality 18ct gold fake Rolex models have been produced in Italy over the years, I’ve seen a couple and they were v. convincing.
That’s a bit harsh isn’t it? The seller had 100% eBay score, over 100 positive transactions, conversed well prior to the sale and been an eBay member for 6 years. Not sure what else I could have done/checked for my reassurance. (It’s not like he was a 2021 member with 0 score and 67% feedback!)
Yes the price was around £2k cheaper than the market rate but with the fluctuations in Rolex pricing it could have been easily overlooked by the seller, hence why I took my chance/punt on buying it.
I don’t believe I have acted ‘like a tit’ and certainly don’t believe that I ‘deserved everything I get, and then some’ - your abrupt and rude comments say more about you and your personality than me.
PS. Happy Christmas to you too.
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Regardless of the amount, the OP is cautioning us all that, should we require eBay buyer protection from an overseas purchase, currency fluctuations may mean that we are not necessarily going to get all of our money back.
Thanks for the heads up.
Buyer makes an error, and pays for that……..
Holds his hands up and warns others……………
And still gets it lumped into him.
You said you knew it was likely to be a fraud seller so why bother risking it?
And surely any £15k purchase for a gold Rolex on ebay is madness, but you also chose an Italian seller. Alarm bells right there. Italy is notorious for its dodgy postal system and scam sellers.
You might as well have given your bank details to a Nigerian prince promising a share of his inheritance.
But you're right, it was a bit harsh so Happy Christmas to you too
Yup! Besides this, he only made an error in hindsight. All he did was make a reasoned risk decision based on the potential opportunity. What he didn't know about was the exchange rate risk when coming to his decision...something he was kindly warning others about.Buyer makes an error, and pays for that……..
Holds his hands up and warns others……………
And still gets it lumped into him.
Watch for sale + Italy = recipe for disaster (sorry) I’ve often seen (pre brexit) Seiko bits from Italy but never had the balls to purchase their postal system is renown for being terrible at the best of times
I think we will leave it there now guys.
My thread was literally only started to warn/help others regarding foreign currency purchases on eBay should you need a refund. That’s all.
Thank you to those for acknowledging my thread as help/useful knowledge. I am glad I may have helped some people in the future (purpose of my thread).
[mention]Onelasttime [/mention]I have got to go now, I’m on the phone to someone saying that a long lost relative has left me £1 million pounds and I must transfer him £100,000 as his commission ;-)
Merry Christmas to all. Stay safe and here’s to a better 2022!
I`m guessing that part of the loss is due to the fees charged for converting £ to Euros and back. When buying from overseas it's easy to overlook factors like this, but it becomes more significant when a refund is involved.Regardless of the amount, the OP is cautioning us all that, should we require eBay buyer protection from an overseas purchase, currency fluctuations may mean that we are not necessarily going to get all of our money back.
Thanks for the heads up.
I see the buyer protection/refund policy as a safety net to protect against total loss and on that basis I think the currency charges/adverse currency consequences are reasonable in this context.
No-one likes losing money but I think the OP was unwise for doing the deal in the first place. Buying a gold Rolex at this price point is fraught with risk, I think he's placed undue trust in eBay's buyer protection and to say he's braver than me is putting it kindly! I guess his gamble has been vindicated as ebay have compensated, he's only lost a few quid versus losing the lot!
My advice to anyone buying a gold Rolex is simple: Talk to Haywood Milton and be prepared to pay strong money for a good 'un. Do you want a great watch or a bargain?.......usually the 2 are mutually exclusive!
I've been on the other side of this issue with ecommerce. It's tricky, because ebay probably holds GBP and euro, so from their point they just reverse the transaction. In general the merchant probably won't even see that it was charged in a different currency.
On the other hand, if the exchange rate had moved the other way, you probably would have made money on the refund.
I guess if you are taking a risk to save a few grand then you have to accept it when you end up out of pocket. Good on the poster to warn others that may not have given the exchange rate a thought. I would say in this instance he got away lightly, it could have panned out worse.
What is it with Italy? I see some flatly refuse to sell or buy to Italians? Are they that bad?
Sums it up for me.Buyer makes an error, and pays for that……..
Holds his hands up and warns others……………
And still gets it lumped into him.
cheers for sharing the info.
Seems unfair imo but thats life.
Unreliable postal service, unscrupulous types have taken advantage of it by pulling postal scams. Exacerbated by the now well-worn Covid excuses, an easy one-size-fits-all justification for slopey shoulders and buck passing.
On the few times I have purchased a watch from Italy never had a problem.
Post was slow but always arrived when seller said it would .
sorry to hear. I try to make every effort to keep it in the UK, maybe NL and Germany at a stretch
Setting aside thoughts on the deal, if the exchange rate had altered the other way, would you have ‘scored’ a profit?
Jim
Yes. This happened to me on a hire car - someone damaged the car, they took 800 Euros, claim was sorted as not my fault, insurance got the car fixed, 860 Euro refund.
It's worth noting, Paypal exchange rates are bloody awful. Always set your Paypal account to pay using a Credit Card for foreign transactions (or use a Credit Card to pay). That way your credit card exchange rate is used.
Got plenty of stuff from Italy, it was the UK postal system that nicked one of my parcels not Italian.
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