Ebay Buyer Protection Is A Joke !!

Thanks for the tip for my ebay NO DEAL list;Gary

This is where you come into some areas that ebay, sellers and buyers do not like to tread. As a buyer you expect to get the item you paid for. As a seller you expect the buyer to tell you when they receive the item (there are a lot of dishonest buyers as well as sellers. I for one have been jammed buy one or two dishonest buyers). ebay on the other hand do not want to fork out cash.

Here is the problem...most sellers offer registered post as an option. On low value items most buyers do not want to pay for registered post because of cost of postage vs cost of item. If the seller made registered post compulsory bids decrease. The only way a seller knows the item is received is a registered post signature. How does the seller know the buyer definately did not get the item and is not after a replacement for what they have already received?

I see all the time that buyers want buyer protection. Surely there comes a point where the seller is entitled to some sort of protection as well and the buyer must take some sort of responsbility for what they are doing by ensuring the item is sent registered. In the same token sellers have a duty to do what they have been paid to do ie send the item.

If ebay made registered post complusory you solve the problem.

For the record I am not taking sides here. I am both a buyer and seller and am just looking at both sides of the fence.

i dont think so. I am in the same situation I sent money orders out on mon and they should have gottin to the seller today possably yesterday and I still have not recived a email or any message on weather or not he has got the MO or not but it is still to early to jump to conclusions about it but on the other hand I have tried to contact the seller 2 times with no response.

Your only and last hope here is that the seller cares about his reputation on ebay........continue sending emails reguarding coin and the fact you havent received it......I would not post a negative feedback yet as this is your only ace in the hole at this point...I have had similar situations and had them resolved before I had to post negatively........if all else fails and you have conceded the money and chalked it up to experience and a lesson learned......then proceed with the negative response.......I am thinking of adding a page at my website as well to list sellers who are ripoff artists....if I do I will let you know and you can post it there too......even if the seller does not care about this transaction, too many negatives will get him/her a bad reputation.......which will cost more than any single transaction ever would!! Good Luck!

Rick, I'm trying to put myself in your shoes and asking myself what I would do. Frankly, at this point after all you've done and given ebay's refusal to do anything about it, I don't know if anything more can be done. If there were more money at stake, I'd probably go a few steps further. One thing I might do is contact the Madeira, CA Police Dept and ask them if they could or would at least talk to the guy. Otherwise, this might have to be chalked off as a learning experience.

I tend to buy more expensive items, primarily coins, so I usually have contacted the seller requesting certain shipping criteria before I bid, particularly insurance and, at the least, Delivery Confirmation (at least where I live, DC is entered into the USPS electronic system upon submission to the post office so I have a record that it has been sent; I have no way of knowing if the seller's PO does or does not do this). Registered Mail in the US is expensive, starting at $7.90 and going up from there depending upon the value of the item. However, there are less expensive alternatives: a Certificate of Mailing costs 95 cents (provides proof of mailing) or, even better Certified Mail which costs $2.40 (provides proof of mailing and proof of delivery, but no signature required; includes online confirmation) and protects both sender and receiver up to a point.

As a seller, I've been using Delivery Confirmation, but when my selling season starts again this fall, I am thinking about upgrading to a more protective mail service, perhaps even including Signature Confirmation ($1.90). My thinking on this is that both fraudulent ebay sellers and buyers are becoming more sophisticated in their methods for ripping off people through the Postal Service and that we eBayers have to develop improved techniques for protecting ourselves.

All this postal stuff is coming out of a neat little US Postal Service booklet entitled "A Customer's Guide to Mailing" which came out in January at the same time as the postal rate hike. I'm finding it a lot more useful than asking postal clerks with IQs hovering around the idiot level (50).

The problem you have here as I see it is that ultimately for sellers to provide proof of postage then ultimately the buyer pays for this by an increase in costs by higher postage prices. I insist on registered post when buyers want to use paypal. The biggest complaint I have with this is many buyers do not want to pay for this extra cost...particularly on low value items.

Buyers generally want it both ways...they do not want to pay for a service that ensures an item is sent but if the parcel goes missing they want their money back!!!!

I am all for stopping fraudulant sellers. To me ebay has gone to far with buyer protection that people are become so relaxed they fail to protect themselves. With all internet deals (including ebay) there has to be some sort of buyer responsibilty. The buyer should not rely on some third party sorting out the mess. Keep in mind as a buyer you have paid no consideration to ebay (consideration is a fundamental element to any contract) so ebay are not contractually obligated to do anything for you.

I do not want to come off as disrespectful here as that is not my intention. The way I see it is although I feel sorry for you Metalman that you did get "ripped off" you failed to read the warning signs and you still paid they guy. You stated you emailed the seller for shipping costs and he did not offer registered post. If he did offer registered post would you have opted for it? If you did want registered post and it was not offered why did you pay him?

I think the experience of Metalman will teach us all something...BUYER BEWARE!!!

Here is a link to the auction

I would appreciate any comments about red flags on it !!

http://cm.ebay.com/cm/ck/1065-29392...m=8391377384

Thanks
Rick

Return policy was no concern, I emailed for shipping costs before bidding, and received an answer.

Paypal is unimportant to me, I Have not used it since my credit info got taken from them, and I had to deal with all the junk to straigten that out .

99.7 is not a bad rating,, what is your concern there ?

Mine is lower at 99.2 for an undeserved negative very early in my buying experiance,,

The only thing this guy is doing is letting me hang with the total loss,, That is my big problem with him.

Its not the ten bucks, thats equivalent to 1/2 an hour on the job,, no big deal !!

Rick