Hi everyone, this guide is to help deter anyone else from my past experience here at eBay. I am usually more of a seller than buyer here and must say that the following is a very accurate and true account of what happened. (For whatever that statement is worth.)

I won 100 Wedding Placecard Bells in February.

I bid up to the same amount as if I had bought them from Oriental Trading Co. myself (where they are originally from), figuring I'll either save money or not. I had noticed her Feedback was quite harsh on anyone who had left her any criticism, even on neutral and positive ratings. But, I took the risk and jumped in - my first mistake, I suppose.

I paid $15 for shipping and the bells arrived via USPS Priority - 18 days after I bid and paid via PayPal. They were stuffed into a flat-rate envelope ($4.05) without any packaging to protect the contents.

The excessive and delayed shipping was quite disappointing, but then I opened up the bells and found most of them were defective - rusted, broken, etc. I contacted the seller with several options on what I would be willing to do: return the items for a refund or exchange. I also did not want to be responsible for paying to ship the items back when I had given her $15 already - she would still have made a profit even after shipping the items three times.

Well, the only response from her to my messages was "OK." 22 days after her OK, I had not received a refund, any items, or contact. So, I opened a dispute through eBay. This was a very tough "discussion" and I still have the transcripts from it, but suffice it to say, she was not pleasant, sorry, or complacent on anything - except for me to send all of the items back on my own dime and wait for an exchange.

My next mistake - I sent the items back and paid more than $4.05 to do so. (I couldn't get them to fit back into a flat-rate envelope.) On April 5th, after notifying the seller of her tracked delivery, she said she will send me "more tommrow or sat day thanks" and that was the last of that.

I haven't received a single penny or item from her. I couldn't file a dispute with PayPal because the process with her and eBay had apparently surpassed their "time period". My bank denied my claim because I "agreed to the charge" and so the seller basically stole $52 from me and I can do nothing about it.

I just checked the seller's account today and her store is no longer selling items. Hopefully I have something to do with that as I reported several of her items to eBay as having "excessive shipping." You can still see how much negative feedback she has now, even though she has resorted to keeping it private.

As a more frequent seller than buyer on eBay, I'm horribly upset and disappointed at such an outrageous seller's actions (or no action). And quite frankly, I have come across more than one seller that doesn't live up to their description (purchased Sailor Moon DVDs, one season did not work at all and I shipped it back for exchange. Didn't receive a thing and the seller is now "gone" from eBay.)

So, this guide is here to give some of you a taste of what can go wrong. I've risen my standards of who I buy from and am going through feedback like no one I know. I do much research on what I'm buying and who is selling and I suggest the same to all of you.

And to sellers out there who are dishonest? I hope I never come across you again.