Buying off Ebay

[Terence Lynock]

If you buy off Ebay remember that Paypal has a 45 day rule that if something isnt right or hasnt arrived you must open a dispute within the 45 days,they wont listen if it is after that time.

DONT be presuaded by far eastern sellers that 'its in the post' or 'post office is having problems', 'I will definitely refund or replace if it doesnt arrive' or any other excuse, some of them play for the 45 day rule hoping that you wont open a dispute so they wont have to refund or replace.

You can always close a dispute if the item arrives or the seller refunds, but dont close the dispute until you have either refund or item, if you buy from Hobbyking pay the extra $ and select Royal Mail, it is much faster (8 - 10 days) and is trackable, thing isif the parcel goes missing you deal with Royal Mail rather than Hong Kong post office.

[Chris Bott - Moderator]

Yep Terry I've been caught by this some time ago. Seller said he'd sent it, a couple of weeks later he said he'd sent it to the wrong buyer but it was being sent back, then I think he went on holiday, then he said he'd sent it to me but it must have got lost... it went on and on until day 45 after which I never had a reply from him again. He knew exactly what he was doing.

[Simon B]

I think there are ways of getting these people after the 45 day limit, but not 100% sure.

[Grasshopper]

Slightly off this track but I ordered a glider from HK in October last year and when it had not been shipped after 4 months, I cancelled and was told I would get a refund.

I am still waiting for the money in spite of many emaila via their system.

As several folk have said, the PayPal 45 day rule means I cannot make a claim.

I will just have to sit and wait I suppose.Fortunately it is only £60 or so.

I will of course NEVER order from HK again,

Peter

[Paul Marsh]

And neither will we! Only at the end will they realize.

[Hamish]

In two instances I had a delay in delivery from the far east and in both cases received an instant refund with no questions asked. The items turned up and I notified the suppliers who subsequently invoiced me. It appeared to me that these suppliers were concerned about their feedback rating and reacted accordingly. I thought it was excellent service but I suppose one bad apple can upset the apple cart.

[Paul Marsh]

I bought something else, non-modelling related off ebay, a while back. It never arrived, and on emailing the HK Vendor, stating non-delivery. After a while, they refunded ok, but it was past 45 days. However, three months after that, the items arrived! I let the vendor know I need an invoice to send payment. They said it's ok, as the transaction closed, and I left them positive feedback, anyway, even though not received before then.

[Terence Lynock]

I ordered a load of hinges and other bits end of January, notice that Hobbyking do not put a date on your orer if you look at them closely,the only way to tell when your order was shipped is by looking at the Customs invoice which they have to allw you access to.

My C.I was dated 8th Feb, a month later I told them it had not arrived, beware of time lines with Hobbyking, your 45 days stats with payment not dispatch date, so as I had ordered in late January my 45 days was up.

Anyways, the stuff finally arrived this morning nearly seven weeks later! it wasnt in the usual box but in a Jiffy bag and had somehow ended up in the German post office system looking at the stickers on the package, I am just happy that it finally arrived because the alternative of arguing it out with Hobbyking was not a happy thought.

[Grasshopper]

Yes Terence you are right - and also a lucky man!

My order was placed on 3rd October last year but never delivered: cancelled with refund offered but never received. So al in all I have waited getting on for 6 months now. Scandelous.

The only way one has to penetrate their system is by logging a 'Ticket' which allocates a number and then waiting for an email which basically in my case says 'oh dear, sorry but it IS with accounts who will pay in due course'.

I have voted with my feet and will never order from them again and I am spreading my story as wide as I can in the hope that others will follow suit.

Cheap they may be but this type of business activity is totally unacceptable.

Peter

[Steve W-O]

You have effectively 64 days before you need to get paypal involved.

Before the 45 days is up, open a dispute, you then have 20 days to escalate it to a claim, at which point the problem is handed over to paypal.

If they didn't like it, Hobbyking could react in a number of ways, they could stop accepting paypal, they could stop absorbing the fees in an attempt to discourage its use, both of which would harm their business, or they could stop you buying, which would lose them a few customers, but it is obvious they take the view that it is cheaper to lose a few than it is to ensure good service, an attitude certainly not unique to them.

Their customer services is a joke, I think they have a random number generator that determines what anser you get !

But, overall, I would recommend them, they are better than most eastern companies, and in my experience, better than many local companies in fact.

As for not seeing much info on your order, annoying I agree, but seems to be becoming the norm, anyone with Virgin media will know thet they now give no details on your statement, so you can't see if the price of any individual service has been sneeked up. (I'm surprised they have got away with it in the UK)

So remember the timescales, and make the sellers play by the rules, after all they are not going to send something you have not paid for are they?

[Aaron Stevens]

i am a ebay seller and i post the day after if posible but i have bought loads from hk and have had a few close shaves i luanch cases 25 days after the date of postage now on everything and tell the seller case will be closed on refund or replace and please check there delivery date percent chart i have done a few of these sellers trying to rip me off some of them say anything after 35 days you get a refund what they dont tell you that it is postage only but when you go to paypal you get a full refund and then they seem to get angry at you for using there promise, and DONT BUY FUTABA S3003 servos from hk they are all fake this is what i got back from a seller in a message after asking for a refund

you are a fraud,,,,,i do not hope you help us revise the feedback,,,,

so bad person like you will get your deserved retribution,,,,,

you will nerver anything from us,,,,

best regards

- demonerrr

they didnt want to give refund for fakes so i went to paypal and got it back i dont spend months building planes from plans to kill them with fake servos so i gave bad feedback to warn orther buyers!

[Terence Lynock]

How an order from HK to UK can end up mixed into the German postal system I dont know unless it is something to do with their German 'warehouse which is probably a back room of some shop in Hamburg, if their German distribution premises is a warehouse my room and cupboards is a positive emporium......

[001]

I have used ebay 'quite a lot' for 8 years now, and had very few problems. But.

What I didn't realise what happens if somebody (in this instance a private seller) sends you something that is described wrongly, is just junk, damaged and dirty. Unless they state that they will be responsible for your return postage you take the risk that they won't pay you for it.

You can get help from ebay to get the payment you made for the item and the postage to you returned, but unless the seller agrees, you cannot get the return postage off him/her. and ebay are not interested.

In this case I have been very polite and patient asking for the return of my costs but he won't reply.

Purchases from a business, the rules may be different,

[Bearair]

Worth noting that buying " buy it now" gives you more rights than buying under an auction.

[001]

Having just been caught again by a seller who has described an item as being 'perfect in every way' - then you find that further down the page his conditions of sale protect him in any way from mentioning its faults. I do study all the words and inspect photos as closely as possible.

Ebay's buyer protection is very weak. I am aware of the term 'caveat emptor' but in this case the item description was in a form that contradicted his warning in the conditions.

Fortunately the sum of money involved is very small, but the threats and abuse have been quite startling. Dealt with, apparently by ebay, but they will not tell me what they have done.

Some years ago I had an item taken off the site, only because I had used the innocent words 'as new'. They also insisted that the word muffler be used because the model engine 'silencer' word was supposed to be a threat in case it was firearm related!

Ebay seem to be unable or unwilling to deal with habitual rogue sellers who are trying to dispose of complete trash. Their policy of not insisting that sellers of rubbish, wrongly described, pay for return postage is baffling. They should also not allow the term 'No Returns'

What they really need is some valid competition because they have a sinister monopoly.

[Terence Lynock]

One of those rogue sellers is Abeyerr who sells quite a few r/c items, his postal system is 'it gets there eventually' so beware this one,right now he is siting on 98% feedback and is frightened to death it will drop into the 97's because it affects his standing on the American market.

[David Tweddle]

With regards orders from HK, I placed a few orders with one company, no problems until no tail rotor arrived in a combined head and tail set, messaged them and they asked for the shipped weight of the main rotor I thought Oh no.

They then said sorry and now in the post to you...

1 week later and... it arrived , so I will use them again .

Edited By Pete B - Moderator on 02/05/2013 14:41:30

[001]

I recently bought an item from a seller in Bristol, described as 'Working'. When it arrived it didn't.

After sending several emails to the seller, with no reply, I reported the transaction to ebay, they sent me a message stating that if I return the item to the seller he will repay the cost of the item and the postage I paid, if I send it back by a tracked service. Here we go again.

So I took a chance of sending it back in the cheapest possible manner, which cost me £2.50, which I knew I wouldn't get back. After about a week I contacted the seller to find out if it had arrived. No reply. Then another email, then another.

So I have heard absolutely nothing from this seller. Then I reported the transaction to ebay and almost immediately they, not the seller, paid the original sum of money back into PayPal.

What this says about ebay is that they are very inconsistent. Perhaps it depends on the individual on duty at the time. I haven't asked what action they have taken aganst the seller because I know they won't tell me!