Online auctions

Although I do find a lot of great deals online, I got duped recently on a dildo that was advertised as new but has obviously been used. Any suggestions on how I can get my money back??

I've lost several hundreds of dollars to UPS because of their terrible handling of auction merchandise. UPS gladly accepts your money and your packages, but will continuosly deny any claims on insurance for which they also gladly took your $$$.

:mad:

http://www.ihateups.net/

http://www.epinions.com/content_29933342340/show_~allcom

:mad:

I've had the same thing happen (though many more happy experiences than bad). I would suggest you contact the seller and politely explain the unhappiness and ask for a refund, take it further if they don't respond appropriately. See what the rules are on the selling forum -- ebay has a great system for noting dissatisfaction and mediating disputes. Always in the future check the feedback on the seller before buying.

At the time the seller had 297 (all positive) feedbacks which lent a false sense of security. Ebay arbitrator (lloyd's ?) left me with a $220 loss with no useful explanation. I can email you the correspondence if you like. I want to help others avoid ebay seller ripoffs. Imagine how many good deals you would have to get to make up for a single loss of $200 or $300. It's similar to paying a $300 fee to join a warehouse club such as costco.....Not a good deal. All it takes is ONE BAD SALE to ruin months or years of minimal benefits. It may be fun buying on ebay, or any auction environment, but not for long. Eventually you get BIT.

I can see that happening to ferkix. Auction companies do have their hands tied in many cases. You have to prove to them that you have been duped. I think that this is one reason why some items are more conducive to buying online than others. Books are fairly cut and dry. If you ordered East of Eden and you got the Color Purple you should definitely get a refund. It becomes a grayer issue when you buy a book that is more frayed then you requested. But even if the auction company does not side with you, you probably don't stand to lose much money.

Things such as designer handbags and electronics pose larger problems because there is more money involved. For example, I bought a Louis Vuitton bagette from Yahoo! Auctions last year. There was a picture of the bag and from what I could see the markings, the trademark and the leather looked perfect. Once I received it, however, I notice that the "Louis Vuitton Paris, made in France" trademark on the strap actually said "Louis Vuitton Paris, made in Frahce." I could not see that the "n" was actually an "h" in the photos. I called Yahoo! to complain but I was told that the seller did not actually say that it was guaranteed authentic so I had no recourse especially considering that the markings were very consistent with Vuitton. If they had sent me a bag with the wrong markings, I may have had recourse because I would have been able to argue that the bag was different from the bag in the picture. The worst part is that for a mere a $30 more, I could have bought the real thing at the Louis Vuitton store in my town.

The item I purchased was a photo enlarger...very heavy and very delicate. The seller took my money for insurance and some extra money to package it "well". UPS gladly accepted it and ran it through their automated package sorting system, I suppose. It was badly crushed and delivered by a driver who dropped the broken and poorly repaired box in a heap on my porch. UPS says it was poorly package, the seller disagrees, I lose. True...the seller was unprofessional in not refunding my loss, but for an organization, such as UPS to accept a package along with your insurance payment and not pay a claim is the ultimate fraud. The Postal Service has never damaged my packages, but if they do, at least their window clerks are "empowered" to handle claims themselves without dragging you through some processing delay.

I cannot stand UPS.

First of all, why would someone pay $20 to ship something UPS across the country taking a week, while they could pay the Post Office $10 and get it there in 2-3 days??!!

Secondly, I cannot stand when the UPS guy will not leave the package at my door??!! Of course they come during business hours when the rest of the world is at work, and leave you a little yellow note saying that you can go to their location and pick it up after hours!!??

I bought some speakers on e-Bay with no problems, but I've also bid on several other things only to lose out to a higher bidder.

I've bought several things (books and CDs) with no problems from half.com, where, instead of bidding and then waiting to see if you won, you see several prices from several different dealers and then buy it right then.

If you are going to buy stuff on e-Bay, I recommend asking the seller a few questions first. I think you can get a good idea of someone's candor, intelligence and courtesy by interacting with him/her this way. If they can't make a complete sentence or take forever to respond, buy from someone else.

Furthermore, I'd be especially cautious about bidding on commonly counterfeited items.

As for shipping, I always have things shipped to my office.

I've been selling and buying off of ebay for years. The greatest benefit has been using PayPal for all of my transactions. About 2 years ago I purchased a cd burner for my Macintosh that worked for about a week. I discovered that the software update no longer supported that brand of burner. Since I had used my credit card, I filed a complaint with them and they refunded my monies. The seller did send me back my money upon receipt of the item.

Also, pay the additional money for insurance on any item over $50. Also uses the Post office, not UPS. Priority mail is pretty affordable.

As for selling, do what the Carpenter said "treat others as you would like to be treated" I have refunded money on more than one occasion.

Happy ebaying!

Sean

Although I do find a lot of great deals online, I got duped recently on a dildo that was advertised as new but has obviously been used. Any suggestions on how I can get my money back??

how did you pay? if you used your credit card you can dispute with them...they always give you your money back!

Most online auctions, like Yahoo and Ebay for example, have guidelines and rules for settling disputes between buyers and sellers. Part of the problem is in showing that you were in fact duped. If the seller's ad actually said it was "new," or you received an email from the seller saying it was new, and you can show it clearly wasn't, then you might prevail. But if the ad didn't say it was new, there's no message saying it was being sold as new, then you might have a tough time at it.

I would definitely suggest you post a negative rating comment on that seller's profile. Most auction sites have monitors who periodically check out the sellers to weed-out ones with very negative ratings. At the very least, you'll possibly stop the next person from making the same mistake with that seller that you did.

Nochecks is a good resource to use for online purchases which you might make.

Ok...when it comes to that thing you bought why would you buy that online?

Get some cash and go to a store well out of your neighborhood. Even on ebay you never know what kind of mailing lists you'll get on.

What was the sellers feedback?

If they have less than 20 if it's not 100% I would NEVER do business with them.