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BEWARE EBAY SELLER member446885...


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I bought a lightmeter from him listed as "IN THIS LOT I OFFER AN ITEM IN EXC

CONDITION .THIS IS A WORKING ITEM .THIS IS IN EXC COSMETIC CONDITION " and

he sent me a lightmeter that is not working and with a broken glass . The item was

wrapped with a thick roll of bubble wrap probably he thought for me to think that

it's been damaged while in transit. The thing is, he forgot to wrap the pieces of

broken glass with the lightmeter and the box was not deformed at all. WHAT A

SCAM!!!

 

He called me a liar while in fact he is the liar. He doesn't have a good reputation in

ebay world so I guess I should not be surprised. It's sad 'coz I bought a lot of stuff

from the guy and everything was fine then suddenly he sent me this useless item.

I emailed him but never replied so I filed a dispute in Paypal. Paypal wants me to

return the item through an online trackable shipping that would cost me US$59 just

to return a useless item that cost me $28. So I gave the man a negative and of

course he retaliated and called me a liar.

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I have bought a few items in the past from him with no problems at all. However, the last thing I bought was advertised as a Mamiya C330 waist level finder. It was actually from a Kiev 66.

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I emailed him and he politely replied along the lines of "I'm so very sorry, please return for a full refund".

<BR><BR>

I returned it but did not receive a refund or an answer to about a dozen e-mails over about a year.

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This seller has been reported earlier on PN, possibly, several times. Jessica, this seller takes umbrage under the ebay rules that say you can call someone an idiot, liar etc., but may not use any four letter words! I have had similar experience on ebay! Ebay also makes a lot of money out of such "Power Sellers" and so has little control over them. Anyway think of ebay as any open market place or Bazaar. It could happen to us in New York or in Istanbul or Kabul. It is no better or no worse than the real world!
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How could anyone not trust a seller whose every lens is =OPT PERFECT= ?

 

;-)

 

The funny thing is, just last night I redid some of my saved searches to exclude him from the results because I got tired of seeing all his dubious listings cluttering up my screen week after week.

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Pay Pal's guarantees work well when the item does not reach you at all. I have had a couple of occasions when overseas purchases did not arrive. When I complained to Pay Pal within the stipulated time they arranged for a full refund promptly. But when the thing arrives in Bad shape and the mailing charges are way too high for overseas shipping then we have a problem. I once got an Exakta VXIIB in excellent cosmetic condition from a reputed seller. Very happily I gave a positive feed back. When I started using it I found the Shutter curtain torn and hanging loose! I had to fix the entire shutter thingee anew at home! Since then whatever I buy overseas I buy within my "write off as loss" limit. More than that I don't bid at all.
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Hi Jessica,<br>

I have had dealings with this guy and it does seem to be rather pot luck. Most of the stuff I have had has been fine but I have had a couple of duff items and after the last one I just decided never to buy anything from him again. I think part of the problem is that he lists large quantities of stuff with a standard description. I do not think he checks particularly carefully before listing and has a problem managing his after-sales effectively, especially complaints.<br> My advice is steer clear in future and write this one off to experience. It is a downside to Ebay unfortunately that you will occasionally get stung. I think you have to accept this as the nature of the beast or avoid Ebay and use a known dealer and accept the likeliehood of a higher price.<br> Best of luck either way but do not expect too much from EBAY or PAYPAL complaints processing.

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My Ebabe transactions now are limited to what I can afford to lose, based on a recent experience. PayPaw is a joke. The business plan for the scammers (Ebabe, Paypaw and Power Sellers) is maximum profit with no regard for the Buyer. You might be surprised if you knew the origin of many items for sale (stolen??).

 

Don't be afraid to give negative feedback, Sellers hate it and will sometimes "deal" to have you remove it. Don't, let them eat their words and warn others of the Sellers who are "Crooked". Oh well, live and learn. Regards.

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I have used this seller, twice. On each occasion, I had a problem, the first relatively minor, though resolved at my expense. I put the first down to bad luck. The second was a mis-description, a set of wide/tele lenses sold as for the Yashica GSN. They didn't fit. He argued with me that the Yashica GSN must have changed size, since he'd tested them on a GSN before selling them. This was balderdash ; Yashica is what I collect and I couldn't fit these accessories on any of my GSNs, GX, MG1 or similar. They were TLR accessories. He took them back, but with considerable bad grace, and no postage refund was ever received. His custom on receiving negative or neutral feedback is generally something along the lines of 'Idiot. See my other Ebay feedback for accuracy.' If I'd had the sense to check more thoroughly, using Toolhaus.org, his feedback would alerted me to the likely problems in buying from him.

 

All my Ebay stored searches are set to specifically exclude his Ebay name. I would never deal with 'Rocky' again, under any circumstances. I am not surprised to see, from this thread, that others have had similarly disagreeable experiences with this seller.

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Jessica - I bought an Agfa folder with Solinar from him also listed with this opt perfect describtion. The camera had bent strust and would not fold properly and to repair it at home. This guys uses something called a Turbo Lister which only gives a non specifict describtion of the item. If you decide to buy from him , make sure you have convinced yourself that the item will be in "AS IS" condition at best.
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Robert, it's a real Ebay id, member446885.

 

Readers of the thread may be interested in this extract from his Ebay 'me' page:

 

"it is my policy to ban ALL neutral and negative feedback leavers from all of my auctions"

 

Verify for yourself if you don't believe it!

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I've done business with this person lots of times in the past. Mind you, I've never done anything that involved big money. Mostly filters or small negligible accessories with no problems to be had. The most I've spent was around $5.00 for a Praktica. The meter was off, but the camera worked. I still use it. I couldn't bitch about the price... Buyer beware.
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Yikes...that just sucks. I've had mostly good luck on eBay. I've bought probably hundreds of things on eBay, and there were only 2 times where I feel like I was ripped off. Well, actually only one time because the other time the seller made an arrangement with me and made things right.

 

I have a collection of old 8mm movie cameras. I got most of them on eBay, and they all work fine. But, one time I bought a camera where the description was full of outright lies. The seller claimed that he was experienced with all sorts of cameras, had used 16mm and 8mm, and made it seem like he was knowledgeable about them. So when he said this camera was in great condition, I believed him. And cosmetically, it did look in good condition. The lens looked fine, and everything else that I could see in the pictures looked fine. When I got the camera, there were problems that anyone who actually knew anything about a camera would have noticed right away. The pressure plate was completely worn out and didn't work anymore. The aperture was jammed and wouldn't go to f16. And a bunch of other smaller problems. But the point is, the camera was unsuable and anyone who actually had any experience with them would have noticed right away. This guy outright lied. I wish I could remember his screen name. I left negative feedback and wrote to him, but it never really went anywhere. I was ripped off.

 

The other time, I bought an Argus C4. When it arrived, there was a pretty bad scratch on the lens (or maybe even a tiny chip) that I was sure would show up if I tried to take pictures with it. But I wrote to the seller, and he apologized and sent me another C4 (for free) that didn't work, but had a good lens. I just replaced the lens on mine and the camera works great. I think in that case, the seller just made an honest mistake...and at least he made things right. So I left positive feedback.

 

If I buy a camera where they say they didn't test it, or if it seems like the person really doesn't know anything about cameras, then it's a gamble and I just make sure I am willing to lose that money. A good guide is how specific the description is. If the seller actually says things like the shutter is smooth, the lens looks clear with no scratches or fungus, film advance works, etc...in other words, if it seems like they at least know a few things about a camera, then there is a better chance that it will arrive in good condition. I bid on a Zeis Ikon Nettar (the first folding camera I've ever bought) recently because the description was more specific and detailed. He mentioned everything, including the condition of the bellows.

 

If all they say is something like "an old camera in great condition" then it's a big gamble.

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Chris's remark that he left positive feedback after an honest mistake was rectified makes a noteworthy point. It is easy to leave positive feedback when nothing went wrong. Anyone can make an honest mistake, or unintentionally and unmischievously overlook a problem before sending out an item. What matters with a seller is how he dealt with the problem ; that usually tells your more about his reliability than any amount of positive feedback saying "no problem". This is my own approach. When one seller made a full refund for a non-working camera, I mentioned to him I intended to leave positive feedback, and asked if he'd any caveats on the form. All he asked was that I don't mention the full refund in case it encouraged mischievous returns from change-of-heart buyers, so I went with that.

 

I've had my share of mendacious sellers. I bought a folder from one seller (not the subject of this thread), which had a particular lens I wanted mounted in the shutter I wanted. When it never arrived, after some weeks, I contacted him to ask if he'd posted it. He replied he had, but that if it didn't arrive in the next day or two, he'd refund me. No arrival. When I asked about a refund, he replied that he just happened to have a second model, having brought back a pair from an outing to Germany. Would that do? I agreed, and a few days later a camera arrived. I never believed the duplicate story, and a judicious examination of the auction photo showed that the lens serial number, just visible, was the same as that on the camera received. The shutter, "tested", didn't work. The lens, "excellent", was so thickly encrusted with white deposits it couldn't pass light. The lens was also jammed solid. So much for him having tested it with film. The camera arrived uninsured, though insurance was paid for. On querying it, he said he "self-insured".

 

Clearly there have been people who've dealt with member446885 and had no significant problem. It's only when something goes wrong that the aggrieved buyer is going to experience what others have reported here and, as I can recall, elsewhere too. I'm sure there will be people who will continue to deal with him, and of course, the most I could say here is echo the old caution, caveat emptor. In the present case, it's a caution I observe myself most scrupulously.

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Jessica I have that meter in perfect shape except it doesn't work. There is a guy that fixes them and I'll let you have it for free if you want. They are very nice looking in that brushed aluminum. I was going to get it fixed but never did.
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I've already bought him some stuff and the only thing that came broken was a Fujica lens cap - I solve the problem with some glue and didn't leave feedback for the item. The rest (about 10 items) was OK...but maybe I was lucky.

 

Anyway, eBay could be a safer place to buy if buyers could leave feedback without vindication risks - I got all my negative feedback after leaving negative or even neutral feedback for the sellers.

 

As from time to time, everyone has to sell something, unhappy buyers usually avoid leaving negative feedback.

 

If someone related to eBay is reading these lines, my suggestion is the following: every feedback left for a buyer after he left for the seller (with payment confirmation), simply shouldn't count on his feedback rating (but shouldn't also be erased). The main buyer's obligation is PAYING and not writing favorable words or turning the other cheek to someone who just sold him "crap"...

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