So, I won the bid on an Ebay Auction for a Tamiya Dragon Wagon. I’ve always wanted to build one, and was very excited. I finally get the model, and open it up…Guess what…it’s 90% put together, and painted. So I send an e-mail to the seller, and ask them that I would like a refund, because she didn’t send me what was listed on the auction (it stated model was in plastic).
She replys. “I sent you an unopened model, how do I know you didn’t start putting it together, and realize you don’t want it”…
Sorry to here about that Abastyr. If you have not done so yet, leave negative feedback.
I won a matel vacume form machine back in October and have not received it yet. All I got was a bunch of excuses.
mark956
The Seller has 28 negative feedbacks and 804 positive, NOT a good ratio.
Seller also sounds snotty if someone left negative feedback.
Personally, I would try to stay away from buyers with high ratings, most of them sell to be in it for the money and as a business. Thus they want everything done their way and will fight tooth and nail to keep their rating up.
The few possible bucks you can save on E-Bay aren’t really worth the hassles and if you add all the fees and charges up you realise that your good deals weren’t all the great.
Very hard to take any corrective action too, especially if both parties are separated by long distances.
Check the exact add for the auction item to verify exactly what was claimed and offered.
List your disatisfaction with the seller as a review on Ebay.
How did you pay? If by Credit card, I presume you have recourse for a refund like we do in Australia. If not pursue your options via the site.
Hire ‘Rocko and Guido’ to go ask for your money back.
Great advice after the fact I know, but if you want to buy off e-bay firstly ask if the kit is unopened and why they are selling it. Often ‘in plastic’ does not mean unopened. Many second hand shops re-shrink wrap kits and the like to prevent theft. I have come accros a girl on Australian e-bay that was selling her ex-boyfriends kits because he hadn’t paid his share of the rent for 6 weeks. Sure enough, she grabbed a few partially built kits as well as a few unopened, and the ones I wanted had been started.
If the kit is not advertised as shrink wrapped, sometimes you can ask the seller to open it and send you a picture of the box contents with something else in the picture to prove it is actually what they have (ie, with a specific music cd, two crossed forks and a knife, etc in the shot). If they think it will result in a higher price they may agree.
Unfortunately, you have encountered one of the many risks associated with ‘Evil Bay’
Every official eBay transaction is covered, at no additional cost, by the eBay Fraud Protection Program.
If you paid for an item and never received it (or if you received the item, but it’s less than what was described), eBay will reimburse buyers up to $200, minus $25 to cover processing costs.
A dispute resolution service will work with buyers and sellers to help resolve disputes that may arise.
SquareTrade helps eBay users resolve disputes quickly and fairly. http://www.squaretrade.com/cnt/jsp/index.jsp
I have purchased a number of items on Ebay. One thing that I always check is the sellers feedback. I will passover someone who has more that about a 1% negative rating. Just a percentage I use as a guide. So far, so good. But as that greek saying says “buyer beware” or “caveat emptor”. That is greek isn’t it?
Ebay kicks ass. I make sure to read a persons terms before buying from them, and if any question I peruse the feedback. I sell on ebay as well and have never had a problem. I am picky about my 100% feedback because I go out of my way to make things nice. The same people that are mean and nasty on ebay are also mean and nasty in real life. Most of us that know them do not visit their shops, etc.
Sorry to ramble on, anyway… dont give up on ebay, just follow up within the rules and keep your eyes open on seller’s feedback also [2c]
Sorry to hear about your bad experience Abastyr. I’ve only been shopping on e-bay since December and i love it so far. I hope I don’t encounter a similar problem. It is the very thing I fear. Luckily or should I say unluckily most auctions have the shipping so high it defeats the purpose of bidding on it. So most of my purchases are limited to the $10 to $20 range including shipping.
1st off, did you use PayPal to pay for the transaction? You can usually contact them and request a refund for payment due to an mis-represented description.
Contact eBay and let them know that the seller’s listing and description was misleading.
Feedback can be a bit of a problem. If you slam the Seller with a Neg, they will just come right back at you with a Neg in return. Again, contact eBay at let them know what is going on.
I looked at the link and it makes no mention that the kit has been started. With it being partially built, there is no way to tell that it is indeed “Complete”.
You can also check out the eBay Community forums. Lots of great help there. People will give you the needed links and steps in a blink of an eye.
My opinion is that you got taken, but I doubt that the seller knew she had cheated you. She probably thought it was a complete, unstarted kit. That being said, obviously she isn’t too careful since her feedback percentage is so low.
For those of you who use eBay with any regularity, anyone who has hundreds of feedback replies and is below 98%, probably has too many questionable transactions. Many people do not leave feedback when a transaction has been less than perfect. Sort of a silent vote.
As far as those of you who refer to eBay as “Evil Bay”, well it is your loss. I’ve had hundreds of transactions (600+) as both a buyer (mainly) and a few as a seller. The few times I’ve had a problem, it has been sorted out between myself and the seller.
Just remember to ask questions when in doubt, check the users’ feedback (check for lukewarm positives as well as neutrals), and make sure you do a quick search for like items to insure that you are bidding what the item is worth. If a deal looks to be too good to be true, it probably is. Especially the $9.99 DML kits from the Far East that cost $15-20 to ship to the USA. No real savings there.
I have purchased a number of model kits thru eBay and thus far, have not gotten burned. My last purchase was the Trumpeter Spitfire- normally goes for over 100 dollars at my LHS…my eBay bid got it for me for $70…I won a bid on the Tamiya Zero for a friend’s XMas git and got it for a great price as well.
So I’ve gotten some expensive and cheap kits there… and have saved some serious cash on some of them.
I pay very close attention to the seller’s feedback…although I know that’s not totally foolproof.
BTW, I looked at your purchase; by the way it reads, I would have expected an unstarted kit. I might have emailed the seller and asked if it had been started or if the box was opened…but personally, I think this seller is lying, totally misrepresented what she was selling, and you should definitely follow the recourse actions that people have already posted here. Sellers like this definitely give eBay a black eye.
It was 90% complete, and it fit in the box? If so, was it just rattling around in there?
Actually, it says:
This model kit is part of the Military Miniature series, No. 230. It is complete with parts in sealed bags and instructions. Buyer pays actual shipping cost.
Now, to us modelers, sealed bags suggests that the kits sprues are still in the factory bags. But the seller is an antiques dealer.
Were the completed components you received in sealed bags? If so, technically, you got what you bought.
How long ago did you get it? If you just got it, make it clear in your complaints that you would never have had time to do this, and that modelers buy kits to build them, not to have someone else build them, unless the auction specifically says that the kit is built.
Others have told you to check the feedback. Unlike others, I do not automatically discount a seller with a lower than 99-98% rating. But I read the negatives, every single one.
This person doesn’t have any negative feedback as a seller that I saw (I didn’t go through all the feedback). But when it somes to being a buyer, the seller seems to behave on occasion like a serial killer recently escaped from an institution for the criminally insane. As a result, I would be leery of dealing with such a seller. I wouldn’t expect the seller to say, “oh ok, just send it back.” And if the seller did do so, I would not believe it.
Complain to eBay using the route described on the site. If that doesn’t work, contact your paying agent and register a complaint. Frankly, though, the description of the kit does not say it is unassembled. Misleading? Perhaps, but as the old saying goes, caveat emptor.
I have had both good luck and bad luck on ebay the problem is simple A seller can rip you off many times but you get 3 bad feed backs and you are out of there. no matter how many good feed backs you have. I have bought a lot of modles from there the problem is if you leave bad feed back you can bet your but they will do the same just for spite. Sorry you had a problem. it is just the chance you take They will get what is comming to them in the end.
I agree with petbat on recourse : Only skip to step 4 imediatly and hire the guido brothers to schedule , shall we say , a little accident for the seller ![;)]
we’ve had a few problems with ebay, but we’ve managed to resolve them and keep up our 100% rating. I have bought seeral models over ebay, and have been satisfied every time. the latest ones, a Tamiya clear me-262, I saved about 20 bucks off of the LHS’ price, and a tamiya gloster meteor, i saved about 25 to 30 $ off of the LHS’ price.
Sad experience to be sure. I’ve never dealt with anyone with that much negative feedback… did by a nice Portuguese Cavalry helmet from a dealer with a -1 out of 1 feedback… she just plain messed up her first try on ebay. Anyhoo, do the dispute thing as Alex and such have outlined and probably don’t deal with folks who have that much (-) feedback. I’ve never had a problem on ebay and have gotten some very cool stuff.