Ebay...seems like fun until you get got...


W

wongsing

Member
I JUST finally received my new P2K B&O GP30 (with the cool sunburst logo on the nose) after no less than 2 months! Although that is not the fault of the seller, when I finally received the loco that was described as "Nice-runs great!" by the seller, I was saddened by the condition of it. EVERY handrail and grabiron is either, broke, broken off, or just plain missing! The windows are busted out, and some appear to have been glued back in! The front pilot stairs have sustained a SERIOUS impact on both ends. On the engineer side, the stairs are completely gone! The horn is in too many pieces to even be pieced together! There is paint missing from parts of the cab as if this once beautiful locomotive sat at the bottom of some kid's toy box rather proudly on someone's layout or display case. What a waste! Also, the loco has 3 of 4 axles cracked and they have been that way for some time...I can tell! There is simply no way this loco was smashed up to this condition while being shipped as the outside box has suffered very little wear and tear! I even wrote the seller throughout those two months and he claimed to be unaware of any damage...He actually seemed pretty friendly at that. I did get it for a decent price I suppose...36.00 flat so at least I scored a rolling motorized chassis. I wonder if the seller will respond to my email. I guess I'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, all of you that get good deals on ebay, be careful! Of all the goodtimes I have had on there finding great deals and hard to find trains and cars, I will be more weary now. I suggest you all do the same!:(

-Rich
 
Dont feel bad, I got a SD60 with an extra shell in the mail a couple of days ago and it was in bad shape also. The guy put the loco in an Athearn box with a little paper around it, closed the box, put the extra shell in a athearn box lid and taped it to the other box, then wrapped the whole thing with wrapping paper. I opened what was left of the box, and the whole front pilot was destroyed, steps and all. The rear coupler was broken off, and the driveline was disconnected in the front. I took the shell off and replaced it with the extra shell, which was in great shape amazingly, reconnected the driveline and she runs great. But the problem is I need the extra shell. I contacted the seller and told him of the damage. He replied that he will send another shell to replace that one. They are both Conrail units, and I'm gonna patch them to NS. I'm gonna use the other shell on a SBD unit, and put that shell away.
 
Sure hope my issue gets resolved like that in more pleasant way...Oh well! I'll take this as a lesson learned!

-Rich
 
Was any of the damage evident in the auction photos? If the photos weren't good enough to see the damage then they may have been made that way to hide the faults. I would demand my money back from the seller. Remember you can now leave negative feedback on sellers, and they cannot post retaliatory ones on your ID.

Good luck!
 
Railphotog said:
Was any of the damage evident in the auction photos? If the photos weren't good enough to see the damage then they may have been made that way to hide the faults. I would demand my money back from the seller. Remember you can now leave negative feedback on sellers, and they cannot post retaliatory ones on your ID.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, the pic was kinda small and no, the damage was not OBVIOUS, per say, but close inspection after I had purchased it raised a red flag when I noticed the front step looked bent backwards. I asked the seller if it was damaged then, and he said there was no damage that he could see! :eek: I should post some pics of this thing to show you what I got! I was pretty upset, but kinda expected it all along. Not to mention, the thought of someone doing this to such a pretty locomotive...It almost looks like it was purposely destroyed and then put in the box....Makes me wonder! Even if I got all 36 bucks back, I wouldn't be able to get another loco for that price...Especially after the shipping whittles down the return profit down to the last penny! Anyone have a shell to a GP30 they want to sell / let go of? I don't even care about the road name! All I would need are the detail parts from the shell and the lower sill....Anyone....anyone....

-Rich
 
Some sellers seem to have different definitions of "runs great" or "like new". I had a passenger car deal once that should have been like a new car out of the box according to the description but had been repainted very poorly, parts beat up and missing, same old story. He was friendly too, but easily hid behind a very poor photo and the usual "I don't know nuttin bout trains" disclaimer at the end. (This "noob" of course has been selling hundreds of trains over the years.) Thankfully it was only 10 bucks or so after shipping.

The lesson I learned from that one is to ask for more pics. Looking at the pic afterwards you could actually see the poor paintwork, but it also looked like JPG noise from a poorly reduced image.

Do you plan to take further action on the seller? Buyers are in better shape these days to be honest in their feedback.

Mark
 
Sorry for your perdicament Rich . There are always the sellers on Ebay that have no scruples ! just makes it bad for the honest people .
 
I ordered a GP30 on ebay ...same scenerio for description and even came with decoder. So I put it on the track well the CVs were all set high for starting voltage etc. You nudge the accelerator controls for either direction just a tad and it took off like a bat outta hell. i though oh easy fix just reset the CVs....well the Cvs were at 100 and I was like wow. So I reset to normal...and then ran the loco...guess what it wouldnt move at a slow start. As I increased the throttle....click click click the damn gears were all cracked!

I have ordered new gears but that made me unhappy. Oh well. it happens...I usually check the sellers rating before bidding and their feedback.
 
I've been very lucky with the locomotives I've gotten from e-bay. I even got the same P2K GP-30 with DCC for $40 including shipping. It was described as NIB and it was brand new. Even the used locomotives I've gotten have all been exactly as described. I've bought about 15 locomotives from e-bay so I may not have purchased enough to have run into a bad seller but I usually purchase from one or two sellers who have always delivered what they promised.

The worst problem I had was a lousy set of street lights, where the seller had not described them properly and sent the wrong ones on top of it. It was a huge fight and I finally got my money back through paypal. The seller was booted but guess what? Another seller with the same street address was back a week later selling street lights. Probably just a coincidence since I'm sure e-bay checks all this out so carefully. :)
 
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In my humble opinion, most of the ebay seller's are good people with good products. I've been at it since 2001 on there with over 1,142 total feedback and 794 rated ones. I've done both, bought and sold and I can only really remember 1 bad transaction in all of that time. PayPal refunded my money, so no worries there. My advice would be to pay very close attention to the pictures of the listing, and also the description. If something looks a bit funny, ask for more pictures or a better description before bidding on it. That's just my 2 cents worth.
 
wheeler1963 said:
In my humble opinion, most of the ebay seller's are good people with good products. I've been at it since 2001 on there with over 1,142 total feedback and 794 rated ones. I've done both, bought and sold and I can only really remember 1 bad transaction in all of that time. PayPal refunded my money, so no worries there. My advice would be to pay very close attention to the pictures of the listing, and also the description. If something looks a bit funny, ask for more pictures or a better description before bidding on it. That's just my 2 cents worth.
Click to expand...

Amen to that... A lot of people bash eBay because of bad experiences they've had, but in reality eBay itself had nothing to do with it. Usually it's a simple case of unscrupulous individuals who just happen to be using eBay. There's an old saying, "caveat emptor" or "let the buyer beware." I usually only try to get stuff on eBay that's listed as "NIB" or "new in the box," because that's pretty much exactly what you end up getting. If I bid on something that's used, I understand there's a risk that I'll end up getting a pile of crap, but I choose to take that risk. Knowing that going in, I don't feel like I've been burned yet.

Like someone else mentioned, you can always leave negative feedback for the seller - any regular seller on eBay will nearly fight to the death to protect their rating. However, I suggest clearly documenting your case in an e-mail to him first. Stay professional, no name-calling, and include photos to make your points. If he clearly indicated to you there was no damage (read: only superficial damage, not blatantly obvious), and you can show him there was obvious excessive damage that most likely didn't happen during shipping, you can make a strong case for yourself. And if he doesn't resolve the issue to your satisfaction, then go ahead and leave the negative feedback.

Good luck
 
I've only had one bad experience with ebay, on a passenger car that never showed up. I reported it to ebay and they said the amount (like $12) was too small for them to do anything, but they took the report. About 6 months later I got a call from a detective back east....apparently they caught up with the guy and were making him pay everything back...so in the end it it wasn't even all that bad....just annoying. On the flip side, I just bought 5 brand new SD60M's for $30 each...only flaw was a gummy spot on the cases where the old price tag had been. I was a little worried going in because no pictures, and the seller was in Iowa where there's been a lot of flooding, but there was a money back gaurantee so I took a chance.
 
Well, great advice guys! Under no circumstances would I lose my cool with this guy over a loco I paid way under list price for anyway. On the other hand, I will NOT hesitate to file a claim against him and or leave negative feedback (this is why I waited) if need be. I did write him professionally and in a VERY civil manner as a warning shot, and let him know that I do infact have pictures of the loco as is. I would like to keep the loco as the chassis just has cracked gears (ok...too easy to replace) but I will ask him for a partial refund or the replacement of the shell. If he denies any assistance to the matter, then I will take further action. Becasue I am in Korea (US Army) adn it took me 2 months for it to get here in the first place, sending the loco back for a whole 36 dollar refund (if that was possible) would not be smart. Especially if it got lost or he took the loco money and then runs. Not to mention, although I've scored Atlas locos for that cheap NIB, I really wanted this GP30 in the same color scheme. I don't mind fixing the gears, but not even I can fix the body. Normally I always buy new in box, and never buy from anyone with less than 3 good pics. This time I broke my own rule by bidding on it, but I figured I'd be outbid at 36 dollars! Guess not! Thats when I noticed the step in the pic, the loco was 'LIKE NEW' and although the seller had clearly lots of sells under his belt and an excellent rating, something was alittle odd. In all, it is unfortunate, but I screwed up ultimately and although I don't blame Ebay, it sucks that some of the members are so dishonest. I knew they were out there...Just never thought this would happen to me! :(

-Rich
 
Yeah, the refunds are nice in theory but after shipping they aren't as great as they seem.

Good luck with the replacement shell idea - that seems like a good option.

Mark
 
for the most part i've not had many problems on ebay. One time I bought a spectrum F-40PH, and jsut gave it a quick look over, then packed it up to move. Looked at it closer months later and noticed a bunch of front-end damage... oops, bit to late to contact the seller now...
 
I've only had one time where I didn't get what I won after I paid; I did the "I didn't get my Stuff" report, and got my money back. A couple times, the seller disappeared off of eBay after I paid, but I did get my stuff; one came back on later.

Couple times, I didn't note the auction description very well, so I didn't quite get what I thought I was going to get. And, of course, the damaged in shipping issues where the seller should have known better. I fixed those with Tenax or CA.

I usually don't leave feedback until I had a chance to run the loco on the test track. To make sure the motor isn't frozen, or the decoder isn't blown....

:D

Kennedy
 
Ya I have gotten burned only a few times. I normaly go to the ebay stores where they are selling only hobby items. I have bought a few from Good honost sellers and for the most part I have found really good deals. I did however buy a few RG units that I have to say were less then steller but I started to pay attention to the details better and have done well.
Of couse I would recommend that you only buy from those who have pictures and good detail pictures at that. Lots of pictures is a plus.
 
-sigh- too late to take action....

:( Well guys, not only did the locomotive take almost 60 days to get to me, but the "grace period" I gave this guy to at least write back for an explanation and/or some sort of compromise pushed me over the edge of time to leave any feedback or report the item as being damaged. There will be no sort of refund and although I wrote the seller twice...well, now three times, I am sure there will never be another response. Ebay seems a pretty cut-throat buisness sometimes. I wish I could say that I didn't realize people could be so sh***y, but I suppose I knew that all along. I guess I'm stuck with a loco that is only half there and a seriously skeptical mindset on doing any more shopping from ebay. If the dishonest seller was reading this, or anyone else that knowingly rips someone off, I'd like them to know that "sure, take me for the hard earned money I make..It is a shame! Of course the only real shame is that I may not be present to watch the same thing happen to you! I'll now have to invest almost the locos actual price in the end restoring it to the way I thought it was when I bid, and so consequently, you can go to h*ll! Thanks for absolutely nothing!":)


Now, I feel a whole lot better!
-Rich
 
Rich,
An important lesson learned here. Give the seller 10 days to respond. If he doesn't respond and offer complete satisfaction, post a negative and start action through paypal and your credit card company, if you paid with a credit card. Most sellers DEMAND payment within 5 or 10 days so it's our right to DEMAND satisfaction within the same time period for damaged or mislabeled goods. Sorry you got took on this one but don't let the fish get away next time - nail him before he has a chance to take your bait. :(
 
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