During these days of soaring energy prices that drive up the cost of most everything else, many of us turn to eBay to locate bargains.  I have saved well over a thousand dollars since I joined.  However, there are dealers on eBay who will not honor your local retailers return policy and some of these eBay dealer disappear.  This guide is a primer on what steps you should take to prevent a problem from occuring and also know what you can do after the problem occurs and the seller is not cooperating.

COMMON SENSE

• Never assume the worse of a seller and many will go out of their way to correct the problem. Many as myself wish to have a positive relationship with our customers for return business and recommendations to their friends.  Always communicate with the seller what exact method they will ship by.  Different shipping vendors have different policies on leaving items at the door. (See my Shipping Guide).

• Always save your e-mails from the seller as they are considered legal agreements.  eBay takes many precautions that the person registering is who they say they are.  For example, a paid Internet Service Provider provided e-mail service which is secured.  Free internet e-mail service is unsecured and there is no proof of the person's identity.

• Use sellers offering PayPal or their own merchant account.  Western Union will charge you a fee and their spin off service BidPay makes the buyer pay the transaction fees.

 CAUTION

• Pay attention to all feedback, not just negative. Some eBayer will post + feedback and leave negative comments which high volume sellers do not read.  Looted items may have "box had water damage" for example.

• No picture of item????????   Other sellers use eBay's template service which is a professional photograph used by many sellers.  Be sure you ask the seller to put it in writting the exact model, size, color, new or used and overall condition of the item such as refurb. 

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS

• There are no such things as, "All Sales Are Final", "No Returns", or "No Refunds", as your State or City jurisdiction regulates sellers' responsibilities.  Also, eBay's current CEO has made great strives to hold sellers to same standards of merchant in an attempt to attract new customers with greater disposable incomes. Any misrepresentation of the item in Title, Description, or photo which includes color, size, old vs. new does entitled you to a full refund.  This includes impulsive buying decisions with the BUY IT NOW in fear of someone else buys it.

• However, sellers may warn buyers to read the description carefully before bidding or buying especially with collectable cars. In this case, the seller has not misrepresented themselves. They should also be available to answer questions.

• Many times there can be negotiations with the seller after the problem develops.  Many sellers are armatures and not aware of junk mail setting and auto delete.

• Under condition of buyer to seller or vise versa, eBay allows either to find contact information from when we registered.  Go to Advanced Search found at to the right of the large SEARCH button near the center of My eBay.  On the left side are links and select Member's Contact Information.  You will need 1.  The Username and 2. The Item Number (which I tend to copy and paste).

• Both parties will recieve e-mails that contain each others registered name, city and state, and phone number. Area codes may change so consult with the internet searches.  This also reports how long each person has been a member.

Take Them to Court

You should try all the above steps first,

• By using PayPal, you have an automatic dispute channel.  Their are two different services and the one they advertise has a fee that is fairly high and unless your buying $100+ items, it exceeds the cost of the original price.  The one I use has No Fee, and I file my version of the complaint and the seller has X days to respond.  Often they do not respond and I automatically win.  This results in a refund from their PayPal account or opens the door to my bank credit card dispute department.

• Credit card companies want to know you have done everything you could and the above method satisfy this concern. Your merchant may also have a business relationship with your bank card and pay high transaction fee. Again, I only have problems with armature sellers. The bank will freeze the transaction and send you an application. You need to have send back the item, and if using USPS either have insurance on it (comes with an internal tracking number which Postal Inspector can use) or the Tracking Service which only logs in that you dropped it off and time in which was delivered.  One seller sent me the item even through I told him I would sent in right back without opening it and he had paid for the Tracking Number. It also tracks backward and one time this was also required to prove that I returned it.

• Beware that each major credit card company has it own policies which also change from time to time. I have run into a dozen or more problems, but most were in a time when Buyer Beware was practiced. The new CEO has reversed this and wants to attract more buyers especially for high ticket items.  Ebay reamins a leader in an interactive website with many powerful tools. If you like window shopping or a game hunter, eBay is a mix of both.