6 Nov
2003
6 Nov
'03
2:07 p.m.
On Thu, 6 Nov 2003, Teo Zenios wrote:
I have bid and won maybe 50+ ebay auctions in the last
2-3 years ranging
from a cheap game or batteries for my mac to whole computers and I only had
problems with 2 people. One because he changed payment method from what was
advertised in his auction (told him no thanks and that ended that, neither
of us sent feedback to ebay), and another last month or so when somebody
packed a tandy 1000hx + cm5 monitor poorly and the monitor was broke (after
a few emails ended up getting the vender to refund my money after he got
fedex to pay him).
For a while I rarely used eBay (which should've been obvious from all the
bad things I had to say about it). Recently I've been using it a lot,
because I figure the economy was in such a slump that good deals could
finally be had as all the nerds had lost their stock options and their
jobs and couldn't bid outrageous sums against me. For the most part it
worked, and I got some cool stuff at decent prices. However, that
increase in volume has really opened me up to more shitty deals. Worse,
when you complain to eBay, if you can find the link to complain at all (I
think they have exactly one contact link buried deep within their "help"
pages) they do nothing.
I am sure I havnt made anywhere near the purchases on
EBAy you must have
made, and most likely you probably had higher ticket items then me (I think
$150 was highest price for any 1 item I purchased). But still for the volume
I did I have no major complaints with ebay or the sellers I dealt with. I am
I haven't had many more transactions than you have since I really started
buying up stuff on eBay, and the highest amount I paid for anything was
$277 (for a new in the box Tiger Learning Computer, worth it :) And to be
fair, there have only been less than half a dozen truly bad experiences.
But that, compounded with trying in vain to get eBay to do anything about
it, and the wholly ineffective feedback system where any complaints about
sellers can be rebutted with assinine comments back from the seller
(actual feedback: "ALL LOOK OUT WHATS TO NAME HIS OWN SHIPPING PRICE A
LOOSER ALL BEWARE BAD E BAYE") even when the seller was completely in the
wrong and in total violation of eBay's "rules", makes it overall a sour
experience. So most of the reason for the Vintage Computer Marketplace
was to develop a site BY and FOR computer collectors to build a community
where that kind of crap won't be tolerated. Like Patrick stated
previously, when you e-mail the sysops, you get BOTH Patrick and I.
Either one or both of us will respond, and promptly (well, except for the
"I forgot my password...can you please reset it?" request which I just
delete now since I'm sick of pointing out that there is a way for you to
do that yourself if you would just RTFM! ;) So that's one very important
thing that eBay cannot provide. And since we're a smaller, tighter, and
more defined community, the feedback rating system we have is a lot more
relevant and effective.
sure if I was buying high ticket items that cost $500
or more and are
tightly graded (like stamps, coins, hummels, etc) then the dishonest people
trying to scam you selling inferior goods or nothing at all might start
coming out of the woodwork, but that will happen anywhere and at any time.
I guarantee that if this does somehow get carried out on the VCM, we will
know who did it and we will know how to find them and we will help to
prosecute.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]