Negative Ebay Experience

[aaron_johnston]

Just wanted to share a negative experience I just had.

 

A seller claiming to be based in St. Louis with the username 'jeleeteresa' sells "brand new condition" Konica

50mm f/1.2 m-mount Hexanon lenses on the site. After selling my M8, I had a little money to play with so I went

for it. Well, turns out the guy is based in Korea and sells used lenses marketed as new. Mine arrived today with

a dirty rear element, missing accessories and a a display case with stains on it.

 

He and I had been discussing the deal all week (I had been wondering why it was taking over a week to deliver a

$2000+ lens from St. Louis to New York without tracking and found out today when it arrived from Korea.) He

proved to be a pretty stubborn guy refusing to admit any wrongdoing whatsoever. After the lens arrived I decided

I would give him "neutral" feedback as a warning which he replied to with more indignation. He also claimed the

lens he was selling to me was his last copy and then posted another ad for another copy a few days later which

was also apparently his "last." This ad had an identical description and also featured 3 of the same pictures he

claimed were photos of the lens that he sold me!

 

In our final exchange, I suggested he stop describing used product as being in "brand new condition" and he

responded to this by editing the ad for his current 50 1.2 and putting the word "new" in all caps.

 

I'm not a very vindictive person but this was a truly shady deal and simply want to share my experience with

others. Make what you will of my side of the story.

[mike_earussi1]

Have you tried reporting this to Ebay yet?

[aaron_johnston]

I didn't bother. The lens works and the rear element turned out okay with a little cleaning. I'm mainly steamed about this guy's misleading sales appraoch. I doubt they would do much anyway but it was a bad enough experience that I figured it was worth sounding an alarm.

[paul_de_ley]

Hi Aaron,

 

What I've done with such situations is to explain the case to my credit card company and ask them to reverse my paypal payment (make sure to include printouts of all your emails to/from the seller). Never had to do it for $2000+ though!

[brucecahn]

I have a camera store both on and off Ebay. I have also bought a lot of equipment on Ebay. Most sellers are honest, but sometimes something like this happens. You have to kick up a ruckus. If you do not give a seller a negative rating when he deserves one, as this person seems to, you cannot complain about the selling practices on Ebay. Ebay should be told that the guy is not where he claims and that he is selling used as new. They do try to keep things honest on their site, and frequently make changes in their system to improve the buyers experience. You should let them know about the problem. If you paid with a credit card you can ask for a refund and send the lens back, if that is what you want. If by Paypal you should contact both them and Ebay. Both sites have email addresses you may use to reach them. For those who want to avoid the problem of dealing with foreign sellers, email and ask for a phone number so you may discuss the purchase. Anyone who refuses to talk to you by phone about a large purchase should be avoided. Honest sellers welcome your phone calls.

[david_zheng1]

I agree with Paul. You have to teach this kind of guy a lesson that they will pay price if they try to cheat people. I don't let

him get away so

easily.

[bluphoto]

To me "brand new condition" doesn't mean the same as "brand new", it means the same as "as new" or "like new". Obviously there are other issues as well such as location or the "last one left" thing, but unless he stated the item actually IS new (and not just brand new condition) I think youd be hard pushed to go down the "selling used as new" route.

[oskar_ojala]

The question is, do you want to cancel the deal, do you want a reduction in price because of the fraudulent description or do you just want to alert others about his practices?

 

In any case, I think that this is what the negative is for. Many people try to slightly exaggerate the condition of the lens but do not resort to straight out lying. If, however, the item has obvious issues not mentioned in the description then that's a case for the negative.

[elmroc]

I agree with Guy.

 

You said it was like in Brand new "Condition". THis leaves something open to interpretation as to what New Condition was/is.

 

I recently sold a D200on ebay, I too said it was in like new condition, but i did not indicatethat the 10 pin remote and Sync cover were missing. I did have pictures on the auction and showed them missing.

 

The buyer held me to these (did i have to.? i dont' think so) so i purchased new ons from Nikon and sent him to him.

 

Point being, everyone's idea of like new condition is different

[charles_stobbs3]

I don't think Konica has been making lenses for some time so I think maybe "unused" would be about the best you could hope for (if true).

[bruce_margolis]

If the facts are as you report, giving a 'Neutral' rating sounds pretty generous to me. He says the location is St Louis but ships it from Korea? There are missing accessories but not told about it? Says it is the last one and then tries to sell another one?

 

I would contact eBay/PayPal and if you used a credit card, contact them also IF it is your desire to reverse this transaction. If you want to keep the lens, just chalk it up to a not so nice experience and certainly don't buy from this seller again.

 

As for condition of the lens, I often see items described as being 'like new' or more common, 'mint' condition. That is so subjective. But to me, if they say "brand new condition," at the very least everything should be included. Negative feedback certainly seems warranted here.

[SCL]

Once you've contacted the other party, unless he/she provides reasonable instant satisfaction, you should immediately contact Ebay and register a dispute, Paypal if you paid via that means. I speak as both a buyer and seller on that auction site. Honest sellers want dishonest ones put out of business, and honest buyers deserve honest sellers.

[joseph_martines]

I have watched FleaBay since its inception.

 

I work very hard for my money and am in a business which could take advantage of FleaBays offerings every day.

 

I do not participate at all.

 

Though FleaBAy would like to provide the world with an open market they have too many problems trying to control the

FleaBags of the world.

 

I would have no compunction about turning in a bad report on a FleaBag seller.

 

However, I don't have to worry because I will not participate.

 

In the event that you don't know about it already : Nigeria = Scam !

 

Caveat emptor!

[SCL]

Ebay has mostly honest buyers and sellers, however there are a few who tend to spoil it for others. As both a buyer and seller for a number of years, my advice to you or any other buyer or seller is: if something seems fishy, contact the counterparty in your transaction...if you don't get immediate satisfaction, open a dispute thru Ebay, or Paypal, if that is how the payment was made. Sellers want other sellers to be honest so buyers can trust them; buyers deserve honest sellers and vice versa. Don't wait around and just rant on various forums...get into gear now!

[aaron_johnston]

I agree with Guy about the semantics of "like new" vs. "brand new" but this lens is not even "like new" and even when I privately encouraged the seller to use terms such as "mint condition" or "used but like new" he replied by further amplifying the "newness" of his product by editing his current ad and placing the word "new" in all-caps. Never mind the fact that he recycled the same photos to represent different lenses. While there is validity to semantics, there are far more obvious concerns associated with how this seller chooses to represent his products.

 

Considering the fact that he told me the lens would be arriving from his "secretary" in Los Angeles (also not in the state of Missouri), I worry that attempting to return the lens would result in it possibly going missing and then I'd be out the lens and my money. As Joseph said: caveat emptor. Consumers have more power in sharing their stories/experiences through 3rd party forums than they do trying to jump through hoops set up by the corporate middlemen whose profit motive make them poor "partners" to begin with.

[joemikel1]

I´ve bought, last year, all my equipment on ebay (about 8000$) and no problem so far . Reading the forums here, maybe I was extremely lucky..... I will think twice in the future.

[frans_waterlander]

Aaron,

 

Your attitude of not reporting this to ebay AND getting your money back further encourages this kind of shady behavior. If you don't take action, who will? Rather than spell this out on this forum, you would have been way more effective to work through ebay.

[milton-chris]

It would be exceptionally tempting to cancel the credit card transaction, just to teach the person a lesson. Who cares if he eventually gets to keep the $$; just make him miserable.

[benjamin_baker]

I would report it, everyone will not come out fine like you did. I know I have ended up on the bad end of a transaction.

[starvy]

we tend to hear only about the negative experiences, however, there are an awful lot of those. it is best not to buy

anything too expensive from ebay. if the price is too good to be true, i am afraid it is simply not the truth. nigeria is

indeed best avoided. certain parts of the far east is to be avoided as well. i have had good dealings with sellers based

in hong kong, singapore and south korea. however, the rest is to be avoided. chinese made good are cheap and

shoddy. there are very few exceptions to this. if you do wish to buy from abroad it is best to buy from sellers who are

in the developed world. do avoid eastern european sellers as well unless the ratings are sufficiently high.

 

ebay itself had been known to leave the buyer and seller to resolve their own dispute. that is their business premise.

it is exceptionally difficult to get a useful response from ebay. if you have used paypal and paid with a credit card, do

note that you can get your money back within a given period of time. paypal is very much designed to side with the

buyer rather than the seller. this is why many sellers do not accept paypal anymore.

 

one last note. china is taking over the world with cheap goods. a lot of local businesses have simply had to stop

trading in ebay because they could no longer afford to compete. so i make it my policy to shop locally as much as i

can. i did buy a few cheap filters from hong kong based sellers a few years ago. however, i now avoid buying from

china. i would much rather pay a little more and keep a local seller in business rather than increase the trade deficit.

[oskar_ojala]

<i>chinese made good are cheap and shoddy</i>

 

<p>I have some rather high quality items from China, as well as cheaper ones. Of course people are going to try to peddle cheap wares on eBay; caveat emptor.

 

<p>I've had good epxeriences on eBay, but I do advise you to at least leave a negative remark clearly stating your situation. That way, you can warn others of the sellers behavior and potentially damage his business.

[berg_na]

<tt>"This ad had an identical description and also featured 3 of the same pictures he claimed were photos of the lens

that he sold me! "</tt><p>

I looked at the current auction and the last one completed with this seller and the images depict different lenses from

their serial numbers. The descriptions also indicate that the lenses he sells have been mounted 'once or twice'. <p>

I think that you can find decent buys on eBay but you just have to be extremely careful and exert due diligence in the

transaction.<p>

<b>On the left is the lens from the last auction and at right is the one in the current auction. The serial #s are

different.</b>

<img src="http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/919/konicalenszi4.jpg">

[aaron_johnston]

Yes, Berg, he uses four photos in each auction and three of them are identical in both auctions -- the image showing the rear element, the side of the lens barrel and the lens capped with the accessories around it. As it turns out, mine had a dirty rear element. I never claimed he was trying to sell the same lens over again or that he recycled ALL of his photos. Thus your "findings" here are moot as they don't contradict any of the statements I made in my initial post.