Well, I’ve done three transactions on eBay, two of which left very poor tastes in my mouth. The first of these two was a PDA keyboard I had ordered; it came in DoA (Dead on Arrival). Though three of the keys on the wireless keyboard worked, none of the others did. Replacing the battery was to no avail. I finally confirmed that the unit was disfunctional with an infrared sensor which registered that the broken keys did not send any signal out at all. Fortunately, I was able to get an identical [functioning] replacement through alternate sources.
The second case has to do with someone I was pretty sure was attempting to defraud me. The setup: I just sold my old PDA to this individual over eBay. Here are the strings of emails and events:
February 2nd
The Clie PEG-T415 PDA goes for sale on eBay.
February 7th
The PDA is sold to someone who I shall only refer to as Herschel P.
I set up the transaction via Paypal, and he pays up. I then send him the following email:
From: Julien
To: Herschel P.Hey mate,
Thanks for purchasing the Sony Clie, and for the rapid payment.
I’ll be shipping it to you first thing tomorrow morning, and will email
you the tracking # and more details.
Thank you so very much again, feel free to email me if you have any
questions.-Julien
February 8th
I go to the post office and ship the item. I then follow up with this email.
From: Julien
To: Herschel P.Hey mate,
I sent the package this morning. The post office informed me it should take 9 days.
To track it, go to the following website:
https://obc.canadapost.ca/emo/basicPin.do?language=en
If that link doesn’t work, go to www.canadapost.ca, choose “English”, and then click “Track a Package”.Once on that page, enter “CX [removed] CA” as the Item Number (the first field of the three that are there), and click the submit button. It may take a day for the Item to be registered by the system. If the number still does not work, try removing the CX and/or the CA (ie. Item Number: [removed]).
Thanks again,
-Julien
I also leave him the following feedback:
+ Fast Payment. Smooth Transaction. A+ Seller [removed] ( 2 ) 08-Feb-05 11:39
February 15th
The post office registers him receiving the package according to the tracking site:
February 17th
He gives me positive feedback on eBay for the item he received.
+ Item as described great ebayer Buyer [removed] ( 54Feedback score is 50 to 99) 17-Feb-05 06:34
Well when someone says “Item as Described” it pretty much solidifies the fact that he received it. That and the fact that the package was confirmed as delivered to his address as per his eBay identity by the postal office.
February 24th
I get an email via eBay which goes as follows. Unfortunately I cannot seem to find the original text itself, eBay doesn’t seem to store mail sent/received via its internal messaging system. Therefore the following is an approximation of what he said:
From: Herschel P.
To: JulienI can’t seem to get the backlight to work [on the PDA]. Can you tell me how to get it to work?
Okay, so he had gotten the unit, but he couldn’t figure out the backlight. I can’t blame him: it took me three months to figure out the PDA even had a backlight. So I sent him back another email, again through the same wonky eBay messaging system, informing him that you have to press down the power button for 5 seconds while the unit is in operation to turn on the backlight. I also told him that he could turn it on via reconfiguring the buttons in the PalmOS Preference menu.
Then, it all gets weird.
February 26th
From: Herschel P.
To: JulienI have not received the tracking number or the item. Please let me know if you
sent it out.
Thanks
Herschel
What? He hadn’t received the tracking number, nor the item? Being defrauded once on eBay and sensing another such con coming on, I decided to tread carefully. I suspect that had I lost the tracking number, he would of tried to convince me that he had never received the unit, and therefore force me to refund him the money. For eBay/Paypal it would be another case of someone selling an item, but not delivering on it once the seller received the payments. The “backlight” message proving that he had indeed received the PDA could not be retrieved, thanks to eBay’s horrid messaging system. The only proof of my innocence left would be the feedback he had left on me stating that the item was “as described.” But feedbacks can always be removed as well.
I decided to refresh his memory:
From: Julien
To: Herschel P.Below is a copy of the message I had sent with respect to the package number.
-JulienPS. With regards to the backlight (as per your last email), did you figure it out?
———————————————————————————-
[Contents of original email containing tracking number…]
With the records from the post office that he received the item, there was nothing for him to do. Nothing to do, that is, but retract his statements.
February 27th
From: Herschel P.
To: JulienI got the item, thanks great transaction and item.
Thanks
Herschel
In truth, it could be that he just got me confused with someone else with which he was dealing with. But to be honest, being already conned once, and given the likelihood of him mistaking an email adress that begins with “j”, I suspect it was an attempt at fraud. With 2 of my 3 transactions being as such, I now have a much different take on eBay. My advice: track all your shipments to eBay-ers. Even if the tracking is worth more than the cost of the item.