eBay problems, resolutions, shenanigans, questions and info (not bike finds)

By recorded I take it you mean ‘Signed For’ and it’s a ref number and only has proof of delivery not full tracking.

Yeah I'm aware. I have also posted things.

ah fuck that
2nd class signed for was the best postage of all time

Hive mind, I've had an item arrive broken. Seller says it was done in transit. Says he will try for insurance refund. But says I need to send the item back at my cost. Do I? What's the pitfalls? It was an av reciever with a broken speaker connector. Photos were sent the moment I found out including evidence of bad packaging which Could have lead to the damage in transit.

I'm worried its a scam. I send it back, he claims he can't do anything. Keeps my money, but now has the item to attempt scam again.

How do I increase my chance of getting a refund while ridding myself of the damaged item?

Really appreciate the help

Doesn't PayPal offer free returns

But says I need to send the item back at my cost. Do I?

Nah. The seller just starts a claim with the courier. You've already supplied evidence. I would immediately start an 'item broken or damaged' claim and let the seller get on with it. If the seller wants it back, they can pay for the shipping and your time schlepping the junk to the post office.

@Howard beat me to it. Sound advice.

Don't send the item back.

If its a claim with Royal Mail, there are several months to claim and there is plenty of evidence in the way of photos you have sent for him to make the claim without having the goods. In the claim t's and c's there is a provision that you have to have the item available for inspection. That's way down the line.

Open up paypal dispute. He can then claim afterwards.

Wonderful! I started that through ebays 'received damaged goods'. Which he can try dispute so I've also requested his ID of the sent item so I can match it to the damaged item received. If he wants it, he's welcome to it as long as I get the matching verification marks.

Bought a supersix off ebay a couple of weeks ago, built it up and have ridden it approximately once as I've had the flu for the last 2 weeks. Upon cleaning it this evening, I discovered this around the bottom bracket. I've emailed the seller to say as such, and what does he want to do, but am I fucked as I built and rode it?

Crucially, you can just about make it out in the original listing photos - second photo below - so it was there beforehand (at least to some degree), fuck knows how I didn't see it when I put the BB in. It may just be paint but I'd rather not take the risk, especially on a £500 frameset.

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Is there supposed to be a picture?

There was, and is now.

Ah yea.

Is it silent when you ride it?

I didn't notice any sound from it at all. I've done the 'tap test' and the sound does seem to change between the two points, but it may just be because the carbon is meant to be different underneath. I suspect what's happened is the BB30 adapter cups have crushed the paint on the right, but that chip/crack on the left was there already (at least to some degree).

It was sold as 'no returns' but the eBay money back guarantee overrides that - I don't know a) whether it needs to be returned and b) whether I have a leg to stand on. I've asked for some hi-res pictures (i.e. not sized down by ebay) of that area from him to see. If it was my fault that's fine, I'll be annoyed, but I don't want to screw anyone. I suspect he just didn't notice it, as I didn't.

I would have thought that if the adapter widgets had pressed in to the frame you’d have a different pattern to that - more like a circular burn mark, assuming it was then ridden.

I’d have thought that if it is actually cracked it would be very noisy when putting the power down.

I've pushed and pulled hard on the cranks and there's no give, so part of me thinks it's probably fine. Another £500 shaped part of me thinks I should send it back.

I'll wait and see if he comes through with the original photos, as that will clear up whether it's my ham fisted installation of the bearings that's done it, though I did use a proper tool so it oughtn't be. If it was clearly like that before then it's going back, if eBay will accept it when it's been built up and ridden.

Spoke to seller, he says he's zoomed into his photos and can't see anything. I don't think he's being dishonest but the left hand crack is visible in the eBay photos (or at least the top of it is). I'll take it to the LBS and see what they think.

I'll take it to the LBS and see what they think.

Huh. They'll (should) just say they don't know or it's fucked. Their insurance won't let them say anything else.

If you think it's boned just return it. £500 for a used SuperSix frame is too much anyway.

Yeah, that's what I figure they'll say, but at least I'll have some comeback for eBay. I'm thinking I'll have to send it back, and within my rights to, but it does feel like I'm screwing the guy somehow. Maybe I'm just being too British about it. £500 is reasonable for a hi mod (in eBay terms).

Problem is: I trust the guy didn't sell it with those cracks on the right, so maybe that was my installation's doing, but the crack on the left was there. Would I have bought it with the crack on the left there? No.

I bought this Holdsworth frame on ebay. Listed as spares or repairs as it's got a stuck post a crack/tear in the seattube from trying to remove this and I bought it fully aware that the seattube needs work but the listing does say,

"Apart from the seatpost issue the frame is in good shape, straight and no dents."

Which is just not true, the backend is squashed in to 115mm (I reckon it should be 130mm), and the driveside dropout is bent.

The dropout could be bent from transit but I don't know that the spacing is messed up from that, I suspect the previous owner bent the rear end trying to free up the post.

Thing is, it only cost me £15 plus postage so I can't really complain and I was going to replace the dropouts anyway but it annoys me that the seller has claimed it's fine other than the post when it is not.

Should I complain or not? Maybe message the seller first?

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Sod it, paypal dispute started with a request for 50% refund of purchase price.

Edit: Got up this morning and seller has accepted and refunded me. No discussion, no arguments. They knew it was fucked.

The one time I don’t take a photo of a postal receipt the buyer claims his item hasn’t arrived. Didn’t wait until it could actually be considered lost by Royal Mail and just complains to eBay and gets a full refund. My fault but fml

I just keep all the actual receipts with what the item was and where it sold (ie here, ebay etc) for about a year now.

No better feeling when someone claims they haven't received something and you look up the tracking and tell them they signed for it 3 days ago.

Is there any benefit to using sniping websites rather than just bidding normally? Are the free ones reliable, any that are recommended? Cheers

I use baytomat and would recommend. You get a number of free bid credits before you have to pay, (they bribed me with 12 free credits if I left a good review, I didn't have a problem with this as I like the app) but after that they come in at about 1 euro per credit - cheaper if you buy lots of credits and cheaper still if paying with bitcoin. (if your bid is over £50, I think, it charges you two credits.)

Probably best for 'bigger' (over £15-£20) purchases as you're effectively adding ~1 euro to your purchase price, the plusses are that you can just set up the bid then forget about it, it's never failed to bid and I have won a few auctions at significantly less than I was prepared to pay (35%+). The app interface is slightly clunky and takes a little getting used to, but pretty sound once you've used it a bit. I think Ebay did think I'd been hacked early on with it and I had to call someone and reauthorize my account, but I forget the details of what exactly happened.

Useful for not getting carried away, or indeed forgetting to bid at all. Have used myibidder for years. Free and reliable.