Buying On eBay

Originally posted by "rippinrol"
Hey brush whats escrow service some type of paypal?

Did I ride with you at the last CATRA DRN ride? :think:
You got the blue van?

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Yes I have the rusty blue van. Didn't you get hung up on a certain steep uphill ;)

An escrow service is a company that acts as a neutral third party. You send the money to them. The seller sends the bike to you and once you are satisfied that the bike is as promised, they release the funds to the seller.  If you decide to send the bike back (at your cost), the escrow service holds onto your cash until the seller verifys that the bike is in the same condition that they sent it to you. That way it protects both the buyer and the seller. Naturally they charge a fee for all that. For items less that $100, I'll take my chances after looking at feedback, but if I was going to fork over $4000 to a total stranger for a bike, I'd want the extra security.

Yup, that was me :silly: . I went back to make sure dirtybiker didn't get lost from the pack needless to say I got us both lost. That section was really steep and tight. I was the first one you seen, I was so exhausted then you brought us into some more tight stuff.. You ride well..
So that's an escrow service, I would do it for $4,000 or more it may be worth it..

toalco: I'm dealing with MXUSA right now. They sent me some graphics that were printed wrong. I took pics and sent them too Dvae and he's sending me a replacement. I don't have them yet and I had to call him to get it done but I don't think he's gonna screw me.

I think it's Billpoint you have to strangle.

By and large(for the million ++ items) ebay is a good place. Like all business' not everyone is honest.
One other thing - prices are not always reasonable either - beware.

What did you buy and how much were the duty/tax/etc fee's? I want to buy some Sobe graphics from motoworldracing.com, but I don't want to spend $50 in additional fee's..

USPS or UPS - why?

Dan

I have been using eBay since 4/98 and I have NEVER been "taken".

My biggest transaction was over $16,200 and I even bought my 1999 RM 250 with no problems.

You will learn fast what to look for. Many dealers like Dennis Kirk even sell thousands of items there.

Lots of people run businesses right through ebay.

I think it is BETTER than most websites or magazine dealers because I can ask previous customers questions and see how the seller is rated.

Just remember to check out what you are bidding on. One person mentioned a YZ that was older than listed. I looked at a "97" CR250 I found in the paper and it had a steel frame so was actually a 96 or older. Stupid people are everywhere.

I bought a 89 cr 250 off ebay and got half screwed, the bike had revalved suspension that the guy didnt know about as well as some other stuff like reeds, but it also had blown main bearings, the guy had like no oil in the tranny so it didnt smoke extra and I thought it still ran good, it started first kick cold so. Also it had a new top end but it was the wrong size for the bore you could move it around inside by hand and if you pushed it all the way over you could fit something the width of a penney between the bore and the piston, and the cylender plating is chipped near the intake port . I only paid 850 for the bike so i would say it was ok cause I can do the work on it myself once I find some money.

I think common sense is your best defense in buying on eBay and in life.

When buying an expensive item you are better off buying from a business or dealer and checking on their policy if you are not satisfied.

When I bought my bike on eBay I wanted to go as stock as possible and as new as possible to try to decrease the possibility of problems. I also called in advance and talked to the dealer and got a full run down on the bike.

The other thing that you need to concider is how much are you saving? I saved about $3,800 on my car vs. local dealers and I saved about $800 on my bike vs. local prices.

There would have to be something seriously wrong with them to make it a "bad" deal.

Check out www.ebayersthat suck.com it is an interesting site that lists Ebay users that are deadbeats or worse. It also has some good info about Paypal and credit cards. For instance, if you use Discover, they will not cover you if the item is not delivered or is not as described. Visa is better but I was reading the fine print for my card and it said that I'm not covered if the item was purchased out of state or 100 miles away. So far they havn't said i wouldn't be covered but it worries me to know that should they decide otherwise they are within their rights to do so.

With my experience I have found that their are a lot of misconceptions and information about Ebay. People are always quick to say Ebay offers fraud protection as does Paypal. People need to read the fine print. Both outfits only cover up to around $200 on your purchase. You also have to wait 30 days before you can file a claim with Ebay, then it is another 30 days for the claim to be argued by both the buyer and seller. After that, if Ebay determines that you have a valid claim, only then can you file for reimbursement. And that is for nickels on the dollar.

All I can say is good for you to all the people who proclaim Ebay is so great and how to be careful. In my deal the buyer had perfect feedback, nothing in the pics or discription showed anything amiss. It wasn't until I received the bike frame that I could tell that I was taken. I have spent 30 some hours documenting my purchase with digital photos, measuring the frame to prove it was the wrong size, emailing and arguing with the seller, filing fraud claims with both Ebay, Paypal and Fraud.org, taking the frame to the local bike shop for 3rd party verification, putting together a paper trail for my credit card company so can dispute the charges, and repackaging the bike frame and mailing it back to the seller (who had so far refused it). Trust me, I have far better things to do with my time! Never again will I deal with Ebay. It will be interesting to see what happens since I have followed all the rules to a tee and the seller has done nothing but deny my claims and produced no proof.

Then you watch as the seller continues to sell items on Ebay while the whole dispute goes on and on. It is very frustrating and my wife is sick of me complaining about it. I'm just one of those guys who when wronged, will stop at nothing to make things right. But, had the purchase been less than $325, maybe $100 or so I don't think I would have spent so much time on it and wrote it off as a lesson learned.

Since I can't edit.... I meant to type that Discover will not refund your cost if you use Paypal because they consider Paypal to be a middle man and that if the deals goes bad that Paypal is responsible.

I have bought 3 bikes on ebay and have gotten great deals on all. Even after shipping to the West Coast it was worth it. Prices in California are borderline ridiculous on used bikes. I have dealt with people that are honest and straight-forward. I have only been burned once and consider it worth the gamble if you are careful and ask alot of questions.

Originally posted by Petzl
Check out www.ebayersthat suck.com it is an interesting site that lists Ebay users that are deadbeats or worse. It also has some good info about Paypal and credit cards. For instance, if you use Discover, they will not cover you if the item is not delivered or is not as described. Visa is better but I was reading the fine print for my card and it said that I'm not covered if the item was purchased out of state or 100 miles away. So far they havn't said i wouldn't be covered but it worries me to know that should they decide otherwise they are within their rights to do so.

With my experience I have found that their are a lot of misconceptions and information about Ebay. People are always quick to say Ebay offers fraud protection as does Paypal. People need to read the fine print. Both outfits only cover up to around $200 on your purchase. You also have to wait 30 days before you can file a claim with Ebay, then it is another 30 days for the claim to be argued by both the buyer and seller. After that, if Ebay determines that you have a valid claim, only then can you file for reimbursement. And that is for nickels on the dollar.

All I can say is good for you to all the people who proclaim Ebay is so great and how to be careful. In my deal the buyer had perfect feedback, nothing in the pics or discription showed anything amiss. It wasn't until I received the bike frame that I could tell that I was taken. I have spent 30 some hours documenting my purchase with digital photos, measuring the frame to prove it was the wrong size, emailing and arguing with the seller, filing fraud claims with both Ebay, Paypal and Fraud.org, taking the frame to the local bike shop for 3rd party verification, putting together a paper trail for my credit card company so can dispute the charges, and repackaging the bike frame and mailing it back to the seller (who had so far refused it). Trust me, I have far better things to do with my time! Never again will I deal with Ebay. It will be interesting to see what happens since I have followed all the rules to a tee and the seller has done nothing but deny my claims and produced no proof.

Then you watch as the seller continues to sell items on Ebay while the whole dispute goes on and on. It is very frustrating and my wife is sick of me complaining about it. I'm just one of those guys who when wronged, will stop at nothing to make things right. But, had the purchase been less than $325, maybe $100 or so I don't think I would have spent so much time on it and wrote it off as a lesson learned.

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That sucks but I think you are way off in your view of what you refer to as "eBay".

You are generalizing. Saying I will never buy from eBay again is like saying I will never buy anything from Florida because I got some bad oranges once, or a store that begins with the letter S because some bad paint I bought at Sears, or from anyone named Bob after you bought a dog that ended up having a bad temperment.

There are bad dealers, bad individuals, bad corporations etc. etc. etc.

You were wronged by ONE PERSON, not ebay, not the internet, one person.

It has been my experience that ebay is better than most other methods of buying goods. Say I find a bike in the paper I don't know anything about him, the bike, anything.

I had a good friend buy a bike many years ago and it looked mint. Everything passed the tests we threw at it. The original owner had no problems. On the FIRST DAY he road it the bike seized.

I hope you don't write off eBay because of one person.

.02$

I understand what you are saying but you are off in your analogies. When you buy something from ebay you are on your own in trying to get your money back. You are also at the disadvantage of not being able to view the item first hand until after you spent your money. Had it been a real auction I could have inspected the item and passed it up, or known that it was not in excellent condition and well taken care of like the seller discribed and bid accordingly. Additionally, asking questions before bidding is a good way to get a feel for the seller. However, I got in on the auction in the last few hours which limited the time for coorespondence with the seller. the price was good and I needed to bid since I knew that I would be able to access my computer later in the afternoon. Finally, I didn't see anything to ask a question about as the pictures and description didn't cause me any concerns that the item wasn't all that it was supposed to be. The sellers feedback was great. Honestly, no red flags popped up to make me question the auction.

I recommend to anyone to read through the fraud protection plan that Ebay and PayPal offer. They both leave a lot to be desired. Also, check out the time frames for filing an actual fraud complaint for reimbursement, it is 60 days. Did you know that anything purchased from Ebay motors is not elegiable for fraud protection? The very nature of ebay makes it simple for people to take advantage of the system. My seller out and out lied about the size and condition of his item and now the burden of proof falls on me to dispute the charge on my credit card and make a case to ebay's fraud protection dept. It takes a lot of time and causes me a lot of aggravation.

I'm done with ebay as I don't ever want to go through something like this again. I'll go as far as saying ebay is a great place to buy beanie babies but not for anything mechanical. It is buyer beware with a twist. You don't have any building you can visit or any person you can talk to in person. hell, ebay doesn't even have a phone number or direct email address. I can't express how frustrating it is to deal with the seller via email and have them be completely uncooperative while living thousands of miles away. You quickly learn how limited your options are.

Well there are a few things that you can do in the future.

Try shopping for items in the local area.

A very good friend of mine found a great 2002 CR 125 on ebay that was local. We drove there, rode it and "kicked the tires" if you will. Then he bought the bike.

I was looking at a convertable on eBay that was also local and I drove down and took a look and decided not to bid.

Also if you are in the same state I'm sure you could go after someone in court.

As for my buddy whose bike seized it was no picnic for him either, he had to take time off, go to court etc. etc.

I would suggest shopping local and sticking to dealers next time and ask about return policies.

As the days go by my anger subsides more and more. Plus, it greatly helps my mood by knowing that my credit card company is backing me up. If not, AGHHHHH! I'd be extremely pissed.

I should add along with buying local, you should only buy something for a price that won't bother you if it is a complete POS and that you just threw your money away. I hope more people realize that ebay is no where close to perfect and that you take on risk by bidding. You are also working with the honor system and that doesn't work well in business transations.