eBay ~Bad Seller~ alerts...

Hey

I just thought I'd start a little forum around sellers you'd recommend others avoid on eBay. I just had my first terrible experience in 5 years and it's really got me flamed. So, I'll share my story in hopes no one else gets ripped by this company.

The seller is = susuco_us

First off let me say that, if the seller's rating is less than 98% or they have less than 50 seller reviews, I'm very very cautious about buying from them. Most times I wont even take the chance. In this case, because of quantity, the seller had a 98.4% pos rating so I thought nothing of it.

Anyway, I won the auction on a buy-it-now, paid immediately with paypal, and then waited. I received all the emails from ebay, paypal, and the seller's system, confirming the sale and receipt of payment. A few days later, I received an email saying my order had shipped. I replied, requesting a tracking number of some kind, they sent back an email, that said 'your tracking number is: ' and it was blank. So, tried again, got the same reply 3 times. Finally they responded saying that the item I had ordered was out of stock and that I would receive a full refund. Then they asked for my paypal ID and I gave it to them.

After about a week, I had not received a refund, or any sort of communication from the seller. I emailed and asked again, and included my paypal id. Another week went by, still no communication. So, frustrated, I said if I didnt get the refund in the next 5 days, I'd leave negative feedback and file a dispute with paypal. Needless to say, the 5 days passed and again no communication. So, I kept my word, left the feedback, and filed the dispute.

Suddenly they're aware I exist. Could be that blaring angry all caps feedback...?

Anyway, they say my emails got lost on their system, please give them my paypal id and they'd give the refund. Soooo, yeah, gave it to them again. And...another week. Once again, I set down some terms, give the refund in 5 days or I'll escalate this to a claim with paypal. When you do this, paypal gives the seller 10 days to respong and/or provide proof of shipment or they reverse the charge. Again, no response, so I escalated it.

With 2 days remaining, the seller contacted me saying if I'd withdraw the negative, they'd give me a refund. I just laughed, and got my money back 2 days later because they didnt respond to paypal.

Heres the kicker. The day paypal reversed the charge, the seller issued an Unpaid Item Claim with eBay!!!

Took a week for that to pass, in which I got a strike against me because the seller refused to withdraw. I then appealed the strike with a wealth of emails proving I had paid, and got it withdrawn by eBay.

Anyway, thats my rant for the day. Looking through their feedback, they average 30 negatives per month, many of which claim to have had the same experience I did. But, because of quantity sales, they still look fine on the surface. So, just a heads up to any ebayers, I'd recommend avoiding susuco_us at all costs. 30 a month = 1 a day = could be your turn next!

/* steps off soapbox

cheers.
t.

When I first started out on ebay in the late nineties, I helped my dad purchase a Dell Inspiron laptop (it even included a bluetooth card... we didn't know what that was at the time!). Because this was when buyer protection policies were almost nonexistent, the guy ran off with our $1400

Needless to say after that we were very cautious with buying expensive items.

I buy and sell on E-Bay quite a bit. One of the things I've learned was to look at the actual written feedback as well as the feedback ratings. This has saved me grief several times.

Agreed Demon, I use it quit a bit also, if your serious about bidding, read the feed back and even search for negative ones. Also have to say, make sure you double check the shipping. I bid on one w/o doing the calculate thing, it came back at $140 from AZ on a 10lb item, I emailed the seller, he said he could ship it another way but thankfully I lost the bid.

Probably why I have never used Ebay and most likely never will. I don't trust buying from a private party, especially when you can't actually talk to them. It is way too easy to just cut and run in that situation.

Chameleon wrote:

Probably why I have never used Ebay and most likely never will. I don't trust buying from a private party, especially when you can't actually talk to them. It is way too easy to just cut and run in that situation.

Not everyone on ebay is a private party. I've bought computers from ebay stores that have actual physical locations, I picked the computers up instead of shipping them. So far that Dell laptop was my only bad experience.

Yeah, as I said, I've used eBay a lot, love it. But this experience was just so radically whacked that it got me miffed. I'm a short guy. It feels good to step up on a soapbox for a few minutes and, from a slightly higher vantage point, share my woes with the world.

I still whole heartedly support eBay though, especially now that there are means to get your funds back if things go sour, and I've proven them!

Anyway, hopefully it'll never happen again!

t.

I will not buy an expensive item from ebay unless the seller has a very high posisitve feedback rating and is with paypal protection. I hate to say it, I have heard too many horror stories about Ebay to be turned off by these guys. I would rather stick with the guys like Tech Depot, Newegg, or Tigeridrect. It may cost me more money, but it will save me a lot of heartache in the long run.

Newegg is totally awesome. I LOVED buying my computer from them. eBay, however is still all right. I doubt I'd buy anything over $30 from that site (my current high bid). I got a cool Depeche Mode poster once. Like the rest of you, I check how many items have been sold, read the majority of the negative feedback and won't bid on anything from anyone with less than 97% positive. Unfortunately, Wombat got the bad luck of the draw. Just gotta be careful out there.

B_B

In any case, I just wanted to start a little Warning zone. So if you have a bad experience, please post the seller in here. As an avid eBayer, I'd appreciate it!

t.