Clueless, or dishonest, eBay sellers?

[-=Rudy=-]

Is it just me, or are some sellers clueless, or downright dishonest, in some of their eBay listings? This is just a generalized question, of course, but this morning I found a specific example:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3012093438&category=14993

Polk Monitor 7's. A couple of contradictions. First of all, wasn't 1977 one of the first years they were made? If so, that was about the same time I shopped for my speakers. When I was speaker shopping, my two finalists were the Grafyx speakers, and the Polk 7's. I wanted the Polk 10's but they were just a little out of my reach. The Grafyx were $280/pair. The 7's, IIRC, were about $260...they were definitely less than the Grafyx pair by a few dollars.

This seller claims the list price was $440.

This listing also says they're a 7C model. This would date them a few years later than the original 7's from 1977.

Check out the shipping charge. For that much, they'd better come wrapped in a hyperbaric chamber, and kissed goodbye by the UPS driver! ;)

Remember Hafler's original line of amps? Smallest one was like a DH120 or something...? Anyhow, a seller listed it as being a 480 watt amp. This one I mark up as clueless. The amp actually was rated 60wpc. Where did he get 480 watts from?? Yep...on the back panel, next to the power cord, "480 watts." Duuuuuh.

Clueless #2: Carver amps. One seller said the letter "T" in the model number meant they added a power switch to the amp. :rolleyes: "T" actually means Transfer Function Modification.

It makes me wonder if some sellers are deliberately dishonest, exaggerting, or just clueless.

Sheesh. :D

[Ken_McAlinden]

I received a wrong item from an ebay/half.com seller. I was reimbursed with a little extra for postage upon the receipt of the item I mailed back by the seller, and later was asked to provide feedback. I figured by definition the feedback would have to be "neutral" since I never received the listed item. I then browsed through the seller's feedback and saw at least a half a dozen instances of people in the same situation who listed the feedback as "positive". At that point, I decided that this was a strange community of people who's customs and practices would always be foreign to me. :)

Regards,

[mcow1]

Originally posted by Ken_McAlinden
I received a wrong item from an ebay/half.com seller. I was reimbursed with a little extra for postage upon the receipt of the item I mailed back by the seller, and later was asked to provide feedback. I figured by definition the feedback would have to be "neutral" since I never received the listed item. I then browsed through the seller's feedback and saw at least a half a dozen instances of people in the same situation who listed the feedback as "positive". At that point, I decided that this was a strange community of people who's customs and practices would always be foreign to me. :)

Regards,
At least you got the money back. But I've learned to NEVER leave feedback until the refund check clears. Reimbursement checks from sellers for bad items can have payment stopped.:realmad:

[-=Rudy=-]

Good reason I stick to Paypal...at least there is a *little* added protection.

I have had good luck with feedback, though. I was going to order from a seller who had 8000+ feedback selling cellular accessories....until you go see his score and notice that there is an inordinately high number of negatives. Crap merchandise, non- or late-shipping, no replies to e-mails.

[lv70smusic]

There are definitely a lot of clueless sellers on half.com. It's amazing that they will link their standard cd issue to the DCC gold listing and then want more than the standard cd sells for new. Then there are the incredible bargains -- under $10 for a hard to find gold disc. Some people cannot even answer a simple question like, "Is this the gold disc issued by the DCC label?" I've had a number of sellers respond saying they didn't know how they could tell whether they had a DCC gold disc. That certainly makes me believe it isn't. Others respond saying "No, but I didn't know how else to list it." Hmmmm...

Originally posted by Ken_McAlinden
I received a wrong item from an ebay/half.com seller. I was reimbursed with a little extra for postage upon the receipt of the item I mailed back by the seller, and later was asked to provide feedback. I figured by definition the feedback would have to be "neutral" since I never received the listed item. I then browsed through the seller's feedback and saw at least a half a dozen instances of people in the same situation who listed the feedback as "positive". At that point, I decided that this was a strange community of people who's customs and practices would always be foreign to me. :)

Regards,

[sgraham]

There was a clueless seller listing the Hey Jude album as a Beatles 78. Why? She knew what a 45 was, and figured this bigger record must go with the bigger number. But she changed the listing when I pointed out the error, so no complaints.

(Hey Rudy, I had a pair of Graphyx that served me very well for many years. Great buy.)

[-=Rudy=-]

Steve--which Grafyx did you have? I have two SP10 pairs right now, but was hoping to find a set of SP8's. I did once see a pair of smaller Grafyx speakers on eBay, but I could immediately tell from the photo that the woofers were replaced with junk. Another Absolute Sound customer? ;)

That's another thing about buying equipment on eBay, especially speakers: if there is any way you can verify the speaker has the original drivers, or the manufacturer's original replacements, do it. Because I'm familiar with some of the speakers (right now, mainly Grafyx, Boston and Polk), I can visually see when a driver has been replaced improperly...finding something to fit the hole in the cabinet is not the way to replace a speaker!

[Steve Hoffman]

I used to think PayPal was the safe bet when dealing with Ebay, but Karla pointed out that it really isn't. Getting a refund from PayPal is sometimes harder than the seller.

[Gary]

Not to mention that your C-Card is out there in cyberspace!

[Shakey]

I have had poor luck buying vinyl on Ebay and have given up.
Either the sellers I dealt with do not know how to grade vinyl or they are just capitalizing on the market. When I got bad stuff it didn't make sense to return, too much hassle for too little money.
PayPal with the credit card gives some security as you can use your credit card company's right to protest under the terms of not as advertised. I've used this and it has motivated the seller to cooperate.
Concerning speakers this is a very scary area. Got a nice pair of Dynaco A-25's on Ebay, but had a bad experience on Audiogon (later cleared up by using the tools to dispute) but what a hassle.
Also got a real deal on a re-built Benz on Audiogon.
It pays to communicate first with the seller, if they seem off the wall, I just take a pass.

[-=Rudy=-]

A lot of sellers are just using eBay to peddle anything they can get their hands on. They'll find stuff at garage sales or thrift shops, some of it junk, not having a clue about the item or, like LPs, how to grade them, and just imitate what other listings on eBay happen to say that day. I'm learning to spot these a mile away...there is usually something in the listing that gives them away. My Hafler example was a typical clueless profiteer--"Oh look, it says 480 watts, that means it's a 480 watt amplifier." Which makes them seem about as bright as a three-watt lightbulb in an empty warehouse.

[Tullman]

Originally posted by Steve Hoffman
I used to think PayPal was the safe bet when dealing with Ebay, but Karla pointed out that it really isn't. Getting a refund from PayPal is sometimes harder than the seller.

I Had to collect a refund through paypal once and it took forever. Paypal never responded to my emails, but I did get the refund. If I had sent a money order I would have been cheated out of my money.:realmad:

Paypal ain't great but it is better than nothing.