It sure is convenient to buy stuff on ebay, its so easy to scroll and click. I have bought several items from ebay with no transaction problems whatsoever. Although I have had a couple drums with holes in the heads but that’s about it. But anymore you almost have to have the attitude that you could be getting ripped off because those people do exist. But its pretty hard to go down to Wal-Mart and buy a 67 Acro.

Have you tried using a reliable source such as Guitar Center or Music go round, they seem to get in a fair share of vintage drums.

I had my identity stolen a year ago and still battle problems to this day. So needles to say I am done with ebay and paypal for a while.

Its funny, when I first became a member here I thought you would have to be crazy to buy drums from guys you don’t know. But after two years on VDF I have come to trust the regular guys and would have no problem buying from them. I think VDF has a good group of guys and an excellent feed back thread. So with that said, I still look at ebay just for kicks but if I want to actually buy something, I’m coming here first.

But anyway, good luck to you, hope you get your money back.

Jeff C

The ebay experience is one of the truly strange things about the internet because it really sets up a situation where any cheap crook can make a fast buck, sometimes many times and not in any way get admonished let alone get punished but they sometimes do get hoofed. I've been taken around 6 times now but I still continue to use it , mainly because it really is about the only place where you can be guaranteed to nail an obscure part or find something that is truly ellusive, without spending thousands of hours on the phone or thousands of miles and a lake full of gas driving around. Ebay brings, a lot of unusual stashes of all kinds of stuff, from almost anywhere in the world and puts them right there , in front of you, as though they were on a table at a flea market , right across the street. There are rules of engagement, clearly spelled out and if you follow those, it is hard to get completely devoured but depending on your level of activity , you will get nipped a little, for sure. It's a hard thing to swallow; I've been there and unfortunately the wheels grind slowly at ebay----I've had lots of conversations over their inadequacies, with them and those in higher places admit it but always defaulting to specific reasons , why they exist or sometimes disputing their existence.

Ebay is loath to admit that there is a healthy percentage of poachers, trolling their pages. They invest millions of dollars, and print countless meaningless phrases , in order to convince you, the buyer ,that it is a safe marketplace, that most ebayers are good and honest and that you will be protected , in the event that something goes wrong. The site is replete with fatuous and hollow , community minded blabber and a goody two shoes mentality , as though Norman Rockwell himself was the president. They would like you to believe, that they believe, that if you appeal to the better nature of your "trading partner" and give them the benefit of the doubt, that everything will work out, when a deal goes sour. Right there is where the mistake is made. Every time ,I have been skewered on ebay, it was because I gave the seller too much time to sort things out, indulged in frivolous emailing and attempted to get them to see my position more clearly. You might as well try to put a hungry alligator off, by telling it ,it will be bad for his teeth. I now go for the jugular. I email once and if the reply( or no reply) isn't satisfactory I file a case. If the reasoning for the case, fits their rules( in your case--- non-shipment) , they should issue a refund. Unfortunately, the rules ,as flakey as they are, are the rules. Insufficient funds, in your case, ,must imply, that the seller does not have enough of a paypal balance to refund you? Ebay really sucks, when it comes to , real buyer protection and that isn't the only thing it sucks at . Phoning ebay and climbing the ladder of responsibility, might help you but not likely---at least you can vent your spleen at them. Enough voiced displeasure , will perhaps effect change.

Losing money on an ebay purchase, is going to happen( I'm out about 400.00, over about 10 years but that covers about 1000 transactions), but that also happens with insurance, buying cars, cell phone contracts, mediocre fruit, small print warranties and crappy restaurants. In the case of ebay though, it seemed that the harm was deliberate each time and it was more directly linked to individual action, so I sometimes took/take individual action.

Here is a couple of things I have done. Once, I bought some wrap from a guy named Bill Kelley in York Pa. He stiffed me. Ebay did nothing. So, I phoned the York Pa. police dept. and explained the situation. Mr. Kelley turned out to be known to them and was greeted by a 7:00 A.M. wake up call. He admitted to the fraud, and said he would pay me back. He didn't like my style. He got kicked out of ebay but now has a new username----bills bargains.He is in York Pa. He is a scumbag. I never got the money but I got satisfaction.

A guy in Austria stiffed me recently for 108.00E. A lot of Europeans don't use paypal because interaccount banking there, is easy. I use that too( through XE Trade----there are no fees). He also blocked my username from bidding, in future. I did get negative feedback in on him though, and twice for a complicated reason. I then bid on another of his items, from another of my accounts( I have 3) and filed a case with ebay( he already had 108 of my Euros), so I had already paid ,correct? He was p'd off! He then got negative feedback, again. His feedback percentage is now 78. Before he shafted me it was 97.5. Hardly anyone bids on his instruments, now and the prices he is getting now are about 1/4 of what they should be( violins). His username is Lawota; Karl Rosenberg.He lives near Vienna( Gerasdorf Bei Wien). I will do that again,from another account, further driving down his feedback percentage and he will get kicked out, eventually.I also obtained the email and contact info. for his local police detachment from interpol. Ebay is on to him now but they do have a policy, that the first few misdemeanours could be due to inexperience. His time is drawing near.

Now, all of this might seem a bit excessive and time consuming but it took less time than driving to a yard sale. I also let ebay know, what I am doing and implore them to see the folly of their ways and why they are not protecting buyers. They do listen a little.

Thats a new one on me.First post the names of the sellers on as many sites to let fellow drummers that "this seller is a rip-off"I have never heard of Pay-pal not helping a buyer that way.Ebay removed the "live help" option ,or I sure cant find it.I believe the "help" is located off shore some where anyways.I hope it works out some how.Good luck,Vati

I would contact paypal again. paypal and ebay are real concerned with keeping the buyers happy these days.

mike

A lot of small sellers, don't run much of a paypal balance. Most large sellers do, simply because of the large flow of sales. I think ebay, scrapes buyer protection out of the sellers account. If the money isn't there, ebay isn't going to cough it up.

I've been denied buyer protection several times, for purely technical reasons. I've even been told that I am covered ,only to have ebay change it's mind.

Another problem is the 45 day time limit, ebay imposes. It is impossible to get them to do anything after 45 days( used to be 60).

Another problem is that ebay washes it's hands of responsibility , once it is a paypal transaction and therefore a buyer protection issue. It's either refund or no refund and that's it but getting as high up the chain of supervisors as you can , might cause an intervention.

Getting to ebay live. Once you have filed a case and you go to the resolution centre, don't put in the truth about your case. Ebay will just redirect you to paypal, or your filed case and force online communication. If you put in something like , fraud, or reporting a listing violation or a bunch of other things, then they want to talk to you and it will throw up a phone # and code.

It's the same minions answering the phone for all issues; there is no directing the call to the appropriate service reps. etc.----that's B.S. The person answering the phone won't have a clue about what you are phoning about , until she/he gets your username and then will give you a stat line, regarding your filed case. What you need then to do, is get by the phone rep. by overstepping her/his authority, confusing them , or just forcing the issue to talk to a supervisor. Then there are 3 scenarios. 1) you get cut off----the phone goes to a busy signal. This happens all the time and it is a deliberate tactic to put you off. They don't want you talking to a supervisor. You phone back and tell them not to bother cutting you off, this time and then you go to either 2 or 3. Sometimes you get put through.

2) The supervisor isn't available. They take your # and the supervisor will call you within 24 hours. They don't call. You call back and lay out the scenario and finally get to a supervisor.

3) You get to a supervisor, maybe even a supervisor's supervisor. Sometimes they can interject on your behalf and make beneficial changes. Sometimes they need to talk to paypal and will get back to you.

Your assertion Mike, that ebay is real concerned about keeping buyers happy these days is true. They are concerned, I think in part, by an increasing # of cases being filed and telephone grievances but I'm not sure, that concern, is being translated into action as well as it might be. I don't see much real change unless you claw and scratch for it. Just like Curley Stooge----" they know all the woids"

I know that there are some unscrupulous sellers on eBay, but as someone who used to make his entire living by selling on eBay, let me tell you that there are a LOT MORE unscrupulous buyers than sellers, and the eBay waters are far more treacherous for sellers than buyers.

I just had one last week, for sure one of the worst I've ever had. I had mistakenly sent him the wrong item. Before even attempting to contact me he left negative feedback. Then he called me at my office, first I had even heard there was an issue. Demanded that I send him the correct item immediately and promised to remove the feedback once he received it. I said sure, of course I will, just return the item I sent you and I'll send out your replacement right away. Pretty much standard practice. The item I sent him was worth about four times what he paid for the other item.

He categorically refused to return the item, until I sent a replacement. So I filed a case with eBay, in fact I filed it not once, not twice, but three times. What does eBay do with my case? Absolutely nothing whatsoever. Finally the guy files a case against me, the very next day eBay "resolves" his case by telling him what I had told him at least 6 times already, return the original item so I can process his refund. Next thing I know, the guy starts calling me at midnight to harass me. I keep telling him, just return the original item so I can resolve your issue. He says, "you are going to get nothing from me".

Ebay has frozen the funds. Meanwhile I'm out over $400 on a $150 transaction. Yeah I slipped up by sending him the wrong item, but sheesh, I've done nothing but try to resolve the problem. They guy wants his cake and eat it too and is willing to trash my reputation in the process. Ebay for their part did absolutely squat for me as a seller, even after three requests, but the second the buyer files a dispute they make a judgement. The only part of this that doesn't totally stink is that they won't release the funds to the buyer until he ships the item back with tracking and they can check to see if it's been delivered. The guy gave the a tracking number, but it was bogus and in one of his irate midnight calls he admitted that he has not shipped out the item. So at least I know he'll never see his funds, but I'm still screwed despite trying like hell to solve the problem and make this guy happy.

That's eBay for you. Full of unscrupulous jerks who try to game the system when they think they can profit from it.

Again... ebay and Paypal are a rip-off! I opted out of that system two years ago, and it hasn't affected my sales one bit. Once they have your money, you are screwed and completely at their mercy. The last time I had to wait a month to get paid (and after they deducted their money immediately!) was the last straw for me. Honest, I don't know why you guys put up with them and their insane policies that only favors the House, not the cients.

Opt out. It's simple. You don't have to put up with this kind of crap from them.

John

I've had a few bumps in the road on ebay fortunately nothing major, As already mentioned they are more and more unsavory charters now showing up on the bay, But I have had some not so great deals on this Forum here with some unsavory charters also. So no one or place is immune to such behavior.

so glad i stopped selling on ebay a long time ago and started selling on my own. as much as i love ebay, i'm glad i never had to put up with all the problems i keep reading about on forums and business complaint sites.

i believe there is still a site dedicated to ebay complaints, but i haven't checked it out in a long time. what i read above is small fries compared to what i've read on that site. wow!