Shopping safely on Ebay
Ebay is by far the largest online marketplace. It is a place where you can get fantastic bargains, buy items that cannot be found elsewhere, find the perfect gifts and have great fun while you are at it. Ebay is also a place where an unwary buyer (or seller) may be ripped off.
Now, most Ebayers are decent, honest people. But when you take 100 million people from all corners of the globe - there are going to be a few scam artists. Fortunately, with a few precautions most problems can be avoided.
There are some steps you can take to make your Ebay experience a safe and fun experience:
Chosing your seller - it's not just a numbers game
Knowing your market - know if the price is right
Avoiding "too good to be true" pitfalls - get the real thing
Reading and understanding the description - get what you expect
Shipping and insurance - don't lose your purchase
Avoiding overspending - know your limits
Additional precautions - escrow and COD
If there is a problem - resolving issues with the seller
Scams, hijacks and other catastrophies - and how to avoid them
Chosing your seller- it's not just a numbers game
As with other online shopping, the best way to avoid problems is to deal with a seller you can trust. On Ebay there are thousands of sellers, so how do you pick the trustworthy ones?
The first step is always to look at seller's feedback. This is the little number near the seller's name (usually with a star next to it). Each positive feedback will give an ebayer +1 feedback point and each negative feedback will result in a -1 feedback point. The feedback rating also tells you the percentage of positive feedbacks a seller has.
A seller with a very high feedback (tens or even hundreds of thousands) is not necessarily more trustworthy than a seller with a few hundred positive feedbacks. Some sellers with very high feedbacks also have many negative feedbacks and their percentage of positives may not be great.
Take a look at the comments left for the seller - a few negatives or neutrals are ok, there are always customers who will be unhappy no matter what. But if there is a consistent reputation of failure to deliver items, rudeness, selling fakes, selling poor quality items and similar serious matters, it may be best to avoid the seller. A high proportion of negative feedbacks is also an indication that you may want to look elsewhere.
Particular care should be taken when dealing with sellers who are new to Ebay, have low feedback or who have few feedbacks from buyers (rather than sellers). There are many fabulous new sellers, but because there is no prior selling history to rely on, you should take extra precautions.
Look at the seller's listings for indications of honesty or dishonesty. Is the seller trying to charge very high postage for his/her items (for example trying to charge $50 to mail a small and cheap item)? Is the seller using fine-print to hide relevant information (for example that the item is a replica)? Is the seller using hard to understand abbreviations (for example GP for gold-plated)? Is the seller's listing misleading (for example advertising "gemstone jewelry" and hiding the fact that its really cubic zirconia in the post-script)? If the seller is trying to cheat in such matters, they probably cannot be trusted.
Knowing your market - know if the price is right
Ebay is a great place for bargains, but there are some ebay sellers who think their customers are stupid and try to set sky-high prices, hoping for a quick profit. Fortunately, the more audacious ones are quickly weeded out, but it always pays to know the real retail price for whatever you are buying.
If the ebay price (including postage) is close to the retail price, you should probably look for a better bargain, unless of course the item can't be found elsewhere. Sometimes the convenience of buying on Ebay, paying online and having the item delivered to your door may justify paying close to retail price, but remember that Ebay is a very big marketplace and compare prices to avoid disappointment.
Avoiding "too good to be true" pitfalls - get the real thing
On the flip-side, if the price is too low, it may indicate that the item is not genuine. Unfortunately Ebay is a popular place for sellers of fakes, replicas and low quality items to peddle their wares. One of the ways of identifying these is to apply the "too good to be true" test - if it is too good to be true, it probably isn't.
Do bear in mind that it is not uncommon for items on Ebay to be sold at less than half their retail price, but be wary of insane discounts. For example, we purchase our jewelry from manufacturers and so can offer it at wholesale prices or below, but no one is going to sell you a $20,000 ring for $1,000. If someone is claiming to do so - be on the lookout for fakes, misrepresentations about the actual price or even outright scams.
Reading and understanding the description - get what you expect
When buying on Ebay you can't touch the product, look at it closely, kick the tyres... . So to make sure you are buying what you expect, it is especially important to very carefully read the description - the full description not just the title. It may seem self-evident, but you'd be surprised how many ebayers don't read past the first line.
If you can't get all the information you need from the description, it is a good idea to email the seller and ask further questions. Not only will this ensure that you don't make incorrect assumptions and be disappointed, contacting the seller has the additional advantage of letting you see how well the seller responds.
Not reading the description and not asking questions is one of the most common and most easily avoidable causes of disappointing Ebay transactions.
Shipping and insurance - don't lose your purchase
If you buy an item that is not exceptionally cheap, it is always a good idea to request shipping with insurance. For the cost of a few dollars you are protected if your parcel is lost in the mail. Although this does not happen very often (at least for airmail), it is usually not worth the risk.
Some sellers will only post items with insurance. For example, we will not send items uninsured, to guarantee that our customers don't lose their purchase and their money. Be wary of sellers who refuse to offer insurance or who want to charge excessive amounts for insuring an item. But do bear in mind that some countries will not accept insured international mail (Canada and Germany are two examples) and also that international insurance is more expensive than domestic one.
It is also worth remembering that, although airmail is more expensive, if you are located far from the seller (and here in Australia we are far from most international ebayers), ground post can take a very long time and is much more likely to get lost. We recommend requesting airmail shipping in all instances.
Avoiding overspending - know your limits
This is not really a safety issue - but blowing your budget can turn an enjoyable Ebay experience into a very stressful one. Because Ebay auctions can be very addictive, it helps to know what your spending limit is and sticking to it (yep, that's the hard part!).
Sometimes advice is given to avoid spending more on Ebay than you could afford to lose if the transaction went sour. That is really too negative an approach - if you take sensible precautions, you should not lose out in a transaction. Further, Ebay and some payment services such as Paypal, provide a certain level of buyer protection. But there are Ebayers who overspend and then don't go through with the transactions they committed to - that is a fast way to bad feedback, suspension from Ebay and a generally negative ebaying experience.
Additional precautions - Escrow and COD
When purchasing quite expensive items or dealing with a new seller, it may sometimes be a good idea to take additional precautions such as using an escrow or requestion COD (cash on delivery) shipping. Both of these ensure that money is only paid to the seller when you receive your item - minimising the chances of fraud.
Please note that some sellers will not accept COD or escrow as both of these methods involve some administrative inconvenience and can also cause problems for the seller (for example if the buyer does not pick up a COD item). The fact that a seller does not accept these methods does not mean that he/she is unreliable, but a new seller of high-value items who refuses to accept either is probably best avoided.
If you do use escrow, make sure that what you use is a real escrow company. The best known one is www.escrow.com. You should not use another escrow company unless you are completely sure that the alternative is a genuine escrow company.
If there is a problem - resolving issues with the seller
If you frequently shop on Ebay, chances are that, just like when shopping in regular stores, you will at some stage encounter an issue with the seller. These may be relatively minor - such as slower than expected postage or they may be more serious, such as misdescribed item or your purchase not arriving.
Fortunately, you will find that most problems can be resolved by emailing the seller with your concerns. Sellers with good reputation on Ebay will as a rule do their best to keep the customer satisfied and will strive to resolve your issue. Many issues can be resolved simply by the seller providing advice about the product or addressing a mis-understanding on part of the buyer.
If there is a more serious problem - such as if the item was mis-described, is fake or was not received, you may be well within your rights to ask for a refund. Most reputable sellers will give a refund and the issue can end there.
If the seller is not responding to your concerns or if you suspect unfair dealing, you can lodge a complaint with Ebay or, if you suspect fraud, with the payment gateway or credit card provider. These avenues should normally be reserved for situations of serious and unresolved wrongdoing by the seller.
When communicating with the seller, it is worth bearing in mind that the seller is not always responsible for a problem. For example, slow delivery time is usually due to post office delays and are outside the seller's control. Similarly, items lost in the post are not the seller's fault, but if you purchased insurance for your item, you should be able to get your money back. Sometimes the problems arise because buyers have not read the description or made assumptions about the item that they did not verify by emailing the seller.
Scams, hijacks and other catastrophies - and how to avoid them
If you follow the precautions above, you are unlikely to fall victim to a scam. Because most attempted scams involve high-value items, they can be avoided by not purchasing high-value items from sellers with a feedback of less than a few hundred. For additional security, you should not purchase high-value items (particularly electronics and computers) from sellers in Asia, unless they have a solid feedback of at least a few hundred. (This is not to say that Asian sellers are unreliable, just that attempts at fraud are particularly common by no-feedback or low feedback sellers who are registered in an Asian country).
When purchasing high-value items, it is worth bearing in mind the possibility of account hijack. This is a rare occurrence, but there have been instances of a reputable seller's account being hijacked by a dishonest third party who then uses it to list items, using the real seller's reputation.
Account hijacks usually have some of the following characteristics - a large number of high-value items are listed at significantly less than their real value, the items are listed as 1 day auctions, the items are out of character with the seller's usual merchandise, the seller is asking for very quick payment by methods that are untraceable or cannot be reversed (such as Western Union money transfer), the seller cannot provide coherent or informative answers about the items for sale or appears to be ignorant about the merchandise, the seller will not accept escrow or is proposing a fake escrow company. Another indication is that an item which looks like a very good deal does not have any bids on it.
An average Ebay user is unlikely to encounter a hijacked account, unless commonly shopping for high-value items.
Fine and Fashion Jewelry
at wholesale prices