[RotoRooterGuy]

Had a bad experience when buying parts on eBay? Or selling?

Came across this story on eBay fraud. These guys have a good site. Check it out.

Be careful out there.

http://www.ebayersthatsuck.com/main/

Steve Klink was a longtime eBay enthusiast, buying and selling items as varied as a used car and basement furniture imported from Thailand over the popular Internet auction site.

But his view of eBay changed in 2003 after "the speaker incident," when a supposedly new speaker arrived looking as if it had been used as a chew toy for an animal.
When he contacted eBay, "they didn't want to hear anything about it," Klink said. They told him the seller claimed it was brand new when sent and an animal must have gotten into the package.

Not satisfied with the response — as a Paramus, N.J., police officer, Klink has heard more than his share of lame excuses — he set up a Web site to post his complaint. Almost immediately, the seller offered to refund the money if Klink would remove the complaint.

He did, but he kept the Web site with the provocative name, ebayersthatsuck.com, to help other victims deal with fraud and misrepresentation on eBay.

"I figured that if it worked with him, it would work for others," Klink said.
Since then, the site has grown into what Klink calls "the largest community of users dedicated to wiping out auction fraud," and spawned "Dawn of the eBay Deadbeats" (Mooncusser Media, $12.95), a book Klink published with his brother Edward, a business Web site editor and part-time adventure writer.
The self-published book with the subtitle "True Tales of Treachery, Lies, and Fraud from the Dark Recesses of the World's Largest Online Auction Marketplace," is a collection of some of the more than 800 tales of eBay rip-offs that have been posted on the Web site.

As explained in the introduction, these are "stories told by those who have been suckered, snookered, pinched and robbed while buying and selling on eBay.

"You might shake your head ruefully and think them to be saps who deserved to be screwed, but you'd be wrong, because some of them are just like you."
The 136-page book is available through the Web site, various online sites and some book stores.

The two Bergen County, N.J., residents discussed the book recently.

Q. Why did you pick a name for your Web site that might offend some people?

Steve Klink: We did that on purpose. We needed a shocking name, something that is in your face. On our site, people can rant and rave.

Q. What are some of the worst stories you heard?

Edward Klink: One guy bought a car that had been stolen. When the police showed up, he had to explain what happened.

Another man won a bid for early edition Spider-Man comics and wired $16,000 to the seller. When the package arrived, there were no comics, just a stack of worthless computer paper.

He contacted the seller, who insisted he sent the comics. He said, "Someone must have plucked it out and replaced it with paper of the same weight."

Q. It seems as if a lot of the problems result from consumers being careless. Why is that?

EK: Many people think eBay is 100 percent safe, but it's not. People act differently on the computer. We sometimes let our guard down.

SK: As a police officer, I'm aware of lots of scams and cons. I couldn't believe people could fall for it.

Q. Doesn't eBay help customers who were cheated get their money back?

SK: EBay encourages you to settle it yourself. If you report someone to eBay, he'll report you to eBay. They have mediation, but it costs $20. They should be making it easier to report problems. If I find a site that I know to be fraudulent, it takes 20 minutes to report.

EK: EBay has the only business model that is free of responsibility.

Q. Have you gotten any feedback from eBay about your book?

SK: We're selling it on eBay (as well as Amazon.com). There's a listing fee of $2 per book, and they (eBay) get a cut from PayPal.

EK: They can't complain. They're making money off it. It's a matter of freedom of speech. Our point isn't to battle eBay. We're just two guys looking to tell stories.

Q. Can I assume you've sworn off eBay?

SK: No, I'm still on it all the time. I just redid my entire basement and got a bar from Thailand.

It was an old ox cart of solid teak. (The seller) wanted $1,200; I gave her $900.

 

[kaos]

i,ve bought a showa mono shock (with less than 1 k)for 60 bucks,the new vented belt covers for 20.and a dainesse 749 armoured jacket (new) for under a hun msrp was 400.2 exhausts for 50 each,and could of got the tin coated 999 forks for 300.had everything quick with no problems

 

[harleyjohn45]

i've been pretty lucky, but i recently bought a turbo setup that was advertised to be ready to go, actually it was ready to be rebuilt. decided against it, relisted and told the truth and almost got my money back. life is sweet.

 

[harleyjohn45]

rotor:
did you sign up for this site? i did and it was a mistake, i think he may be a scam, you cannot unsubscribe. i just deleted all my information from my profile and left. anyone going into the ETS site and registering--beware. my 2c

 

[MikeM]

Interesting you should say that. I got one of those feelings, too and never bothered signing up. Some of the complaintants sure could use a course in remedial composition.

harleyjohn, did you go to "The Big Race" LOL this year? I called it the "Daytona 20" because I skimmed through it in about 20 minutes with the TIVO.

 

[harleyjohn45]

yes i went to the daytona 20 by honda. ha that was on a saturday, but on friday they had daytona ducati day and i went there also. it was fun to see so many ducati's in one place. i will go to the ducati day again next year. i made about 6 trips to daytona to see various races. they have a lot of flat track and i enjoy that. i only live 60 miles away so it only takes an hour to get there. just makes for a nice ride.

 

[RotoRooterGuy]

rotor:
did you sign up for this site? i did and it was a mistake, i think he may be a scam, you cannot unsubscribe. i just deleted all my information from my profile and left. anyone going into the ETS site and registering--beware. my 2c

I did not get that from his site.

He is a police officer and the news story was from an AP interview.

Do a google on his name and site. Even Court TV mentions it.

http://www.courttv.com/news/cow/052103_eposse_ctv.html

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2006-10,GGLG:en&q=steve+klink+Paramus+police

What gives you the idea he is a scam? Tell me so I can contact him and let him know the impression he is giving. I am sure he will want to know that his site scares some people.

Personally, since he is a police officer, has published a book and his site has been mentioned in every major paper known to man, if he is scamming, it's one hell of a good one.

I find it weird that he would be fooling the press, being in law enforcement and all with a scam on scammers.

And I could only hope that my site someday would get thousands of hits when searching google.

 

[RotoRooterGuy]

Interesting you should say that. I got one of those feelings, too and never bothered signing up. Some of the complaintants sure could use a course in remedial composition.

harleyjohn, did you go to "The Big Race" LOL this year? I called it the "Daytona 20" because I skimmed through it in about 20 minutes with the TIVO.

Since his occupation is in law enforcement, I do not think he has time to check complaintants [sic] composition. He probably just reviews the post for content and if it looks fine, he posts the stories.

Can you imagine if Scott reviewed each of our posts for proper grammar and spelling, in addition to moderating content? Some of the stuff I see on this site is horrible, but we discussed that in an old Duc-MS thread.

I also suspect that he leaves the complainants [which technically is a plaintiff in a lawsuit] posts "as is" so readers can see that they are genuine. Plus he may not want to offend those who post.

I have a "What our readers say" page on my old website site and I never edited grammar nor spelling, partly out of concern that I may offend the person kind enough to send me a few nice words.

http://www.employlaw.com/kudos.htm

 

[Bodhi]

I bought a new seat that was a good transaction. I felt since the seller responded quickly to my email queries that I'd take a chance. A few things I've learned along the way from other people: never deal with a seller that insists you prequalify for bidding with credit card info - you're just asking to see bogus charges show up; similarly - only use paypal; and don't deal with a user who won't respond to your emails; and be wary of bidding on an '05 Hayabusa with a buy-it-now price of $2,000 from a seller that appears to be a little old lady who has mostly been selling mostly things like beanie babies and collectible knick knacks (account may have been hijacked). Especially be wary when the bike photo appears to be a professionally done one (copied from the internet). I personally only deal with sellers in the USA or UK. Call me mister discrimination, but I shy away from sellers in eastern Europe, Russia and China. It seems like a lot of scams originate from there. You have to use common sense.

 

[Lost_In_Spice]

always e-mail 1st with some questions...

Duck related material bought on ebay:

New seat
CF rear hugger
PC USB 111
Clutch & brake levers
Used Termi system
Touch-up paint
Indicators
*other stuff I cannot recall*
-hope to get adjustable rear-sets soon-

Always used PayPal- never had any problems

 

[dmcghostrider]

Know your seller

Have had great luck on EBay (knock on wood) but you have to know your seller. I will check all feed back, even the feedback of the buyers to make sure the seller doesn't work with them (have seen this many times so seller can jack up the price). It also depends on my contact with the seller, most times I will call them just to get a feel for who they are, if they blow you off then forget bidding, look at the pictures, make sure their not using someone else's scans and ask for more scans with the present date on them. I am a watch collector and every day I see stated 100% authentic statements on down right fake watches, I turn these people in constantly. So in conclusion, Know your seller, If it seems to be to good of a deal (IT IS) and if for some reason something feels wrong, IT IS!

 

[DUC_54]

It also depends on my contact with the seller, most times I will call them just to get a feel for who they are, if they blow you off then forget bidding, look at the pictures, make sure their not using someone else's scans and ask for more scans with the present date on them.

I agree....I ask the seller to take additional pic and put an object ie hat in the picture so you know it is real time photo and email the pic of the item with the hat in the pic that way you know it is the accurate item. I bought a 67 corvette and asked the seller to do that.....the car was all he said it was and more.

Allen

 

[RotoRooterGuy]

RoadRacerX had a cute article on buying on eBay.


http://roadracerx.com/Backmarker_092905_eBay.html


Backmarker
Why eBay Means the World’s Going to Hell
By Mark Gardiner
Photos by CJ

A friend told me that he went to a swap meet a few months ago, where he saw a tach for his ‘60s-era Ducati AHRMA racer. He offered the seller a fair price, but was told “No way, one of these went for $900 on eBay last month.” And that, in a nutshell, is proof the world’s going to hell.

People used to buy and sell stuff face-to-face. Without delving into even freshman-level microeconomics, the value of any piece of stuff was what someone nearby was willing to pay for it. That kept prices low, but limited those searching for obscure stuff—like ‘60s-era mechanical tachometers—to their immediate vicinity.

In principle, eBay created a worldwide marketplace for stuff, so that a guy looking for that tach—or a whole Ducati single to mount it on, for that matter—no longer had to wait for one to show up at his regional swap meet. That would have been good. Except.

Except, the price for a piece of stuff on eBay is one dollar more than the amount the second-craziest eBayot anywhere on earth is willing to bid. Hence, “One of these went for $900 on eBay last month.” A pricing strategy that prompted my friend to retort, “Why don’t we hold an auction right here, right now, which would be the surest way of determining its value here?” (And eBayots aren’t just trading in vintage stuff; I have another friend who has rebuilt several crashed street bikes as track hacks. He gets lots of deals on eBay but warns, “You’d be amazed how much stuff is bid up to prices higher than retail.”)

But the fact is, when stuff “goes” for an inflated price on eBay, it often never actually went at all. First, there’s the whole “phantom bidder” phenomenon. At a real auction, you can be reasonably sure that you’re not bidding against the seller in disguise. And you’re probably not bidding against one of his friends who has no intention of actually buying whatever bit of stuff you fancy. That happens all the time on eBay, when phantom bidders miscalculate and actually “win”, lurking eBayots everywhere assume that bogus transaction has set the new standard for stuff pricing.

Then, there’s the fact that many times when someone overbids for a piece of stuff on eBay, they realize their irrational exuberance the next morning and simply ignore a series of increasingly frustrated emails from would be part-out millionaires. Another landmark transaction never actually takes place.

Oh, that’s not all that’s wrong with it, either. The fact is, a few digital photos and a loving description—even descriptions written with no intent to deceive—are often very deceptive. After scanning eBay offerings, you’d think that a mid-‘70s Honda XL250 was “worth” about $2,000. Some have “gone” for three. Now, a showroom version of one of those bikes—a true zero-miler—probably is worth three grand to some fanatic. But values plummet with even low miles. Sellers of legit low-milers—say, 100 miles per year or less—think, “No XL 250 is nicer than mine,” but they’re wrong. At the upper end of the price range for stuff, condition is everything. Condition that only an independent expert can be expected to ascertain. This is what real auctions are good for, and eBay sucks at.

The net effect of all this as that at swap meets everywhere, guys who would have turned over their inventory are now sitting on it, waiting to physically encounter the kind of eBayot who’ll fork over $900 for their particular piece of stuff because “that’s what one went for on eBay.” Sellers would’ve left with (admittedly less) cash in their pockets; buyers would have left with the last piece of stuff needed to put their pet project on the track… instead both leave frustrated.

“That Luddite,” you’re thinking now. “eBay is a godsend.” After all, without eBay, what would we do at work? There’s only so much time you can spend on myspace, match.com, or even roadracerx.com. You think I’m slamming eBay without ever having tried it. But I have tried it. In fact, thanks to eBay, I bought a motorcycle by accident.

You see, while I was forming my why-eBay-means-the-world’s-going-to-hell theory I knew that in the interests of journalistic integrity, I had to try it. I searched eBay for bikes within 200 miles of my house and placed a bid on a nice-looking, funky, complete (claimed), running (claimed) 1973 Suzuki TC125. A perfect pit bike or latte-getter. Five hours to go, and $500 top bid. Reserve met.

Playing amateur psychologist/riverboat gambler, I put in a bid of $802.

The next morning, I had a “You’re the lucky wiener” email from eBay, as well as a note from some guy saying, “You beat me by $2. If you don’t want it, please contact me.”

I didn’t think I’d actually win the auction. I didn’t have $802. What I did have was a rush of buyer’s remorse. Did they even have a title for it? I went back and looked at the photos again. It looked complete, but I’m mechanically inept; I wouldn’t know what to look for in the metal, to say nothing of pixels.

I had an immediate vision of backing out of the purchase, then being slandered on the internet for years, badmouthed in chat rooms I didn’t even know existed. I seriously thought about giving the seller the second bidder’s email address and two bucks to make up the difference.

Instead, I screwed up my courage and went to look at the bike. Riding up alone, I foresaw hulking, tattooed hillbillies. With my mind’s leg, I felt a kickstarter swishing through empty cases. Clem and Cletus, I knew, would follow me to the ATM, then beat me senseless if I couldn’t fork over the full eight C, plus deuce. Rape was a given.

The seller was, in fact, the spitting image of the comic book guy on The Simpsons (but without the attitude). He lived with his mom. In fact, the title was in her name. The bike was pretty much as advertised and though it wouldn’t fire when I kicked it, I could hear that it wanted to start. I left him with my last $250 and a promise to return with a truck and a credit card advance in a coupla’ weeks. He was cool with that.

I’ve since picked it up—and with a can of Gumout and a shove, got it to fire. Riding it made me feel like I was in high school again. It’s not perfect. The chain is knackered and it’s missing its air filter. I called my friend (the guy who had the argument about the Ducati speedo) to tell him it was working but that the throttle was sticking—at least partly because the throttle cable needed replacement.

“No problem,” he said. “You’ll easily find one on eBay.”

 

[harleyjohn45]

rotor:
my feeling on him is this, the stories on his site really don't have much information. i subscribed to the site and got a user id. once i used the site a while and decided it didn't have much content, i decided to unsubscribe. i could not do that. i hit unsubscribe at least 5 times and it always threw me into paypal. i just went back to my profile and deleted all the information i had in my profile. i don't know how that will play out, but i will see.

 

[RotoRooterGuy]

rotor:
my feeling on him is this, the stories on his site really don't have much information. i subscribed to the site and got a user id. once i used the site a while and decided it didn't have much content, i decided to unsubscribe. i could not do that. i hit unsubscribe at least 5 times and it always threw me into paypal. i just went back to my profile and deleted all the information i had in my profile. i don't know how that will play out, but i will see.

I went to the site and I see what you mean, it looks like he made an error in putting in the hyperlink to the "unsuscribe" button. An innocent error, especially when one is doing all the web page work in addition to content. To his defense, I don't see any benefit or scam to this error.

I will contact him and inform him so he can fix it.

As to content, he is just starting the site, so I don't think there will be a lot there, at least not yet. He may not survive anyway, as the Court TV article said that many of similar sites have come and gone. He is concerned about liability issues, being sued for putting something on the page.

So in the end, the site may close down, despite his good intentions. We all will have to simply rely on eBay's crappy way of dealing with fraud, which means don't bother looking to eBay for any help.

 

[racerboy]

If you make purchases on eBay, and use your credit card (even for PayPal payments) as opposed to simply transferring cash from your bank account, your creditor may offer additional protection against fraud. You'd have to check with your card company.

This happened to me. I sold a fellow an engine block that I had no knowledge of its history. I never had the block magnafluxed, or anything. I knew that there was significant damage to one cylinder wall that would require a sleeve (this was a Pontiac RA IV block, and many of those engine blew when drivers tried spinning them above 6500 RPM). Anyway, I sold him an entire engine (no carb) for about $7500 (the RA IV heads/intake are the most valuable parts). He got the parts, had the block magnafluxed, and then found a crack in another cylinder wall that was deemed irreparable. . We tried to work out a deal, but he basically wanted me to refund him $5000 (in effect, he would get the heads and intake, which were really the most valuable parts, for $2500, well below market value). Anyway, when we couldn’t come to a deal, he notified his credit card company of ‘fraud’ and they went in and pulled something like $4500 out of my PayPal account (the money wasn’t there, so I wound up with a negative balance). Anyway, it took several months to get everything straightened out, but that’s when I learned of this additional protection offered by the credit card companies.

 

[Blubberducky]

Lost in Spice,
Shift Tech has some of the most beautiful rearsets I've ever seen...Check'em out!

 

[JasperST4]

Lost in Spice,
Shift Tech has some of the most beautiful rearsets I've ever seen...Check'em out!

His post was a year and a half old though.